JB CXCII: Integration
"And if you want to know more about what we do, once this tour is complete Professor Aino would be pleased to eat lunch with you. I'm sure he'll be more than willing to provide a more technical explanation than I can manage."
Rose looks like she's about to object. Donald oozes in. "I'd be happy to," he says, with all the sliminess of a low-rank Syndic offered a free meal with someone more important with him. "I've got plenty of questions for him. A senior scientist like him such be able to help me in my investigations." He smiles. "I've seen a lot of impressive things here," he says, in a very tit-for-tat manner.
"Very well."
As they head off, looking at more examples of the work here, Rose nudges Donald hard in the ribs. He catches her eyes and he can read her thoughts, that she's annoyed at him and how he's passing up the chance to ask people who won't be as prepared as one of these experienced doctors.
Well. It's nice to see that there's some reason that they keep him around and she's not just better at him than everything. That's still a rather naive form of cleverness. Talking only to the senior staff is the kind of mistake made by someone who's a little too easily awed by science babble and who wants to be seen talking to important people. Who wants to be
networking. Who wants to be
making contacts. Something that's entirely fitting for the mid-level unenlightened man he's pretending to be. Donald Sykes is method-acting,
man.
And he has already done his research on the senior staff. Dr. Aino is one of the people he's been wanting to question, because Donald knows his type all too well. The Syndicate is very used to dealing with cocky scientists who bear a grudge against the people who make sure all their super-expensive equipment actually gets funded. The man's brilliant, looking to be noticed, and as arrogant as... well, Henriette. Amusingly enough, he's actually a distant relative of her. Something like her second cousin three times removed on her mother's side. Sadly, that's not close enough for there to be any family bond that they can use, but before the Union housecleaning after the Second World War and the defection of the Virtual Adepts left them a hollow shell the Ayanami lineage
had been fairly major. Of course he doesn't use the name. Too much stigma attached, especially for someone who was probably born in the fifties. It's the same stigma that makes Henriette a Langley, that led her mother to give her daughter the surname of a first generation hotshot pilot rather than preserve a tainted family heritage.
That's something they might have to be wary of. Most of the Union didn't seem to care about whatever name Henriette's mother had when they were making her an official Hero of the Technocratic Union, but here in Japan they might whisper something about a family that produced three major Nephandi in the Second World War - especially when too many of the family then left with the Virtual Adepts. And some of
those were noted as being executed by the Traditions. He doesn't believe for a moment that Henriette has any dark family secrets that don't involve the evil god-machine from space that wants to torture her forever, but if they try to use her reputation, he doesn't believe for a second that Gregor Leon won't use that checkered past against them.
If, you know, he doesn't just send Progenitor killing machines to fix the problem. Which is always a possibility when dealing with a project like this.
***
His read of Dr. Aino was correct. The man loves to hear himself talk, and what he's saying would probably be meaningless if Donald wasn't looking for exactly what he was talking about. "Working under Dr. Leon," the Progenitor says, "has been a fantastic experience. He cares more about results than procedure, so it's been fantastic. We've been able to implement solutions much more quickly with a higher success rate with only minor changes to protocol. Right now, Kazan is on the absolute cutting edge, and we've been doing well. Lab safety is top-notch, and unlike those unfortunate incidents in Mexico with Professor Allende, our biotech facilities are, in fact, entirely secure."
Donald gestures for him to continue. "I've been impressed so far with what you've been telling me, but tell me more." That's useful information except for the problem that Allende almost certainly holds a grudge against Serafina for that exact same incident. Trying to use it to appeal to him seems rather risky.
"Given the refocusing towards martial ends that Professor Li has encouraged, and of course the tensions with North Korea, we've been heavily focusing on joint projects with Biomechanics. Sadly, Iterators Villaret and Clar-well, both Clarents aren't here so..."
"Both Clarents? Are they related?" Rose asks artlessly. She's playing the role of naive-masses-inducted Syndicate executive well. Donald knows one Clarent, but that was a project surname. He doesn't want to guess whether or not it is.
"Lieutenant Ling Clarent and Major Jane Clarent, Miss Brooks." Aino clarifies. "Ling is providing technical data and assisting Iterator Villaret with hybrid projects, which Kazan is a heavy investor in." He shifts to talking about himself. "Kazan, of course, has a long history of working with BioMechanics and their technologies. We strongly believe that the way forward is in cooperation and harmony, rather than a constant, fruitless competition between our technologies. And the masses agree-look at how they see no difference between Iteration X's prosthetics and artificial organs and conventional medicine. The way together is via synergy."
Rose nods enthusiastically. "I see that you're very forward-looking."
"We believe the big picture is more important than our own petty rivalries." Aino says. "Of course, there are a handful of people who disagree, and believe that we're being overfunded-that the Syndicate is making a bad investment. I don't blame you for listening to them-but Warren Roth's support for our funding is not a risk, it's a guarantee. Although we have reduced the amount of talent we have on directly masses-facing technologies like low-end anagathics, most of the current problems we have with those are ones of clinical trials, licensing, and distribution, components which allow us to move talented researchers into more relevant, military projects. If the North Korean situation blows up, we will need new weapons systems to defeat them. And this is what Kazan is currently working on."
"That's a ludicrous accusation." Donald says. He should be agreeing, given Dr. Aino's 'natural' charisma-no doubt deliberately engineered to give him an edge in the constant academic warfare Progenitors engage in. "So which people are these? I'll make sure to recommend they be audited as well."
"That won't be necessary." Aino says. "Ethical Compliance is already in-town-some sort of high-end team, both for internal affairs and for protection against any... further unpleasantries. Of course, they've already looked at Kazan, if you have to ask. Absolutely no violations whatsoever-we run a tight ship and we make sure to obey every directive of the current leadership." His tone makes him sound like he's not quite convinced of some of them. "But, well..." he gives them a couple of names.
"I could go on with the technical details of what we're working on here, but they'd be difficult to explain to laymen."
"I'd like to hear them anyways. I specialized in biotech valuations while at Goldman Sachs." Donald says.
The look on Aino's face shows that the Progenitor is clearly humoring him, but he nevertheless starts. Donald can understand... a fifth of what he's hearing, maybe less. Something about xenogenetic grafts and nanotech integration and militarized tissue printing and how that's coming along. Multiple constructs working together-Kazan is just where a lot of the technology is being assembled into a coherent whole. But it's enough to get the gist of what they're working on. Something advanced, something incredibly dangerous, and with obvious military applications.
"I see." Donald says when he's finished. "That's some very impressive work."
"It is." Aino says proudly. "I'm proud of everyone who's working on this project, and I hope-well, I hope it'll never get used in anger, but I do hope that everyone here gets the attention they deserve for it."
"What was all of that?" Donald asks Rose, after they've left the lab and have found somewhere private to stay. "I don't really get most of it."
"He's building something like..." she gestures at herself. "Like me. All that technology-a lot of the things they talk about are advances that exist because of Dr. Rosario's help and others like her. It's why I was allowed to stay me, they thought the results from the project were good enough that even the inconvenience of a failure like me-well, if Dr. Rosario wanted me to stay around that wasn't too much of a problem. Except when everything went wrong, but even then they conceded that the developments of EXEMPLAR were more than enough to allow them to humor her."
Donald hugs her, and she hugs back-not as fiercely as before, but still fiercely. "I think," Rose says, "they thought she'd get tired of me and just let them do whatever they wanted after a while. Kind of like a young girl with a pet. I'm lucky she's stuck with me for so long."
"Don't worry." Donald says. "We'll find her. And we'll stop whatever's going on here. That's a promise."
"I recognized some of the names he gave." Rose says. "A few of them were coworkers on EXEMPLAR. They might know my mother. Some of them were... willing to help me, as well. And of course, that Ethical Compliance team. There might be someone there I can talk to."
***
"Hey." John Kessler says, as he picks up the phone and checks its encryption. Secure. "A little busy right now but if it's important I'll do what I can."
"Okay, just call me back when you've killed whatever the hell you're trying to kill."
"Not like that." Kessler sighs. "Worse, because this involves problems that can't be solved while shooting it. I just got an unofficial promotion and shit is going to go down the moment it actually ends up official. Just tryin' to figure out how to make that shit go down in a way which doesn't lead to everything collapsing and catching on fire."
"Congrats." Donald says, and he's actually glad for his overly-muscled half-killer-robot colleague and... yes, friend. Unlike Jamelia Kessler knows the benefit of a good drink, and unlike Serafina they didn't get off on the wrong foot. "Hope it's worth it."
"Not really. But I was running away from a lot of things when I joined up with you guys. Wanted to stay in my niche-just kicking ass and taking names. It's easier when you're not the one responsible. But everyone's gotta grow up at some point." He sighs. "Sorry, just an old cyborg having a midlife crisis. So what's it you wanted?"
"We're all entitled to one of those." Donald says. "John, I need to know what you know about a couple of Iterators. First name, Bernard Villaret."
"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long while." Kessler sighs. "I remember working with him back in the Corps-another combat 'borg like me. Weird, kind of quiet. He was a church-going type, had some weird ideas about the Computer. We ribbed him for that a bit-but he was a nice guy. Donated most of his income to charities, got us feeling bad enough that we started doing a bit of that as well. How did his name come up?"
"You don't want to know." Donald says. And he means it. How to say that an old comrade-in-arms might have turned against you? And it's, in a way, easier if you're just dealing with people you don't like. People whose overall traits lend them to be dismissed. Their noble parts easily dismissed or outright vilified. But maybe that's exactly how you end up like the people who've joined the MUSCOVITEs and Panopticon. Just seeing the world in black and white.
"Always wondered as a kid what people in civil wars must feel like." Kessler sighs, clearly realizing exactly what Donald means. "Guess we're finding out. Next name?"
"Ling Clarent."
"Don't know her. I recall a Clarent from Britain-she was a good soldier. Probably a project name, then. They don't sound related. I can get the data if you don't mind giving me a little time to search."
"I know her!" Henriette interrupts. "She was... she was an emoneut who was trying out for the Autochthonian recontact mission. Back in 2014. She didn't make it, and that made her kind of upset. So a pilot like me, probably just as upgraded as I was. I don't know why she'd be here or why she'd be working with Progenitors. Unless this is all something being done by... those people in Moscow?"
"Maybe." Donald says. "Keep going. Are you getting this?"
"Yeah." Kessler says. "Tell me everything you know about her."
Henriette lists off her augmentations, her history, what she knows. "I didn't like her much 2 years ago." She finishes. An apology to someone who wouldn't understand it, but really an apology to herself. "She was a good pilot, just not as good as I was. She lacked the emotional drive to succeed, I think. Didn't push herself, take the right risks. Very clinical. So what is she doing?"
"Providing technical data." Rose says. "Was she good at anything?"
"Maybe she's doing piloting, she was very good at that. Decent at most of the sciences too, maybe okay in personal combat but not really someone you'd use for templates like that. Creating skill programs. There's also some innovative tech in those bodies that might be useful for whatever joint project is being cooked up in those labs."
"They're trying to make constructs, I think." Rose nods. "She might have useful tech for a new project. And she could be used for skills. Personnel who learned while under emotional inhibition tend to have fewer psychological errors when used to create skill software, which is only necessary when you're doing a personality overlay on that skill base. And the technology Dr. Aino was talking about-all of it was used in my creation-or in the creation of high-grade combat constructs."
"What exactly are the Progenitors doing?" Henriette sighs. "I don't like this."
"Neither do I." Donald says.
New Leads, New Ideas:
So, one piece of the puzzle towards whatever Serafina's here to stop is yours. What next?
[ ] Now that you know Ethical Compliance is here, you might want to go have Rose talk to Cross. This will... probably be a shock for him. And he's still a construct with all that entails. But he might be a useful ally. This kind of internal corruption from EDEs is exactly what he's supposed to be fighting, of course. They just didn't assume EDEs would be involved with Control.
[ ] Jane Clarent is running security for this op which is, on one hand, dangerous because you know what she's like. On the other hand it means she has perfectly legitimate reasons to get you in and out of any of these facilities. She's a heavy cyborg and at least was super-conditioned, but on the other hand Henriette knows her and can probably try to talk her way through this. And if Kessler's got a promotion-you might even be able to get something official-looking to cover for you.
[ ] You can probably talk to some of the names Rose recognizes and see if they're willing to go stick their necks out for you. This might get you some official covers and contacts that are useful. You'll want to give me a name and a general motivation for this.
[ ] The facilities Aino mentioned might give you some more leads. There's a lot of Progenitor and ItX facilities that are feeding tech and materials to this place. And they're low priority enough that they're probably minimally guarded against the infiltration you're doing, which is basically "walking in the front door with legitimate credentials looking like you belong."
[ ] Write-In
