New Acquisitions - by DaLintyGuy
Speaking of which...
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"Thank you for this opportunity." Shu Wan said with a warm smile, shaking the hand of the latest talent he had been assigned to vetting.
"No, thank you." His target for the day, Juscelino Quadros, demurred. With all the pleasantries out of the way the two made their way over to their assigned booth to continue onto the main portion of the conversation somewhere where they could not be overheard. Both casually, as the Pleasant Afternoon catered to high level businessmen whose conversations could cost them millions should their plans be made public before the actions agreed upon could be taken, but also professionally. There were many things that could not be said under the light of day after all. Such was the case when one fought against the established order.
Once the security systems reported that they were doing their best to obfuscate the contents of the meeting, Wu Shan set down his menu. "It is not often that we are sought out."
Juscelino shifted uneasily in his seat. "I... Apologize."
"Oh, no need. It is just unusual."
"And in your line of business boring is good, I am peripherally aware." The junior researcher nodded.
"Why didn't you go along with Collor then?" Wu Shan asked with genuine curiosity. "I am not privy to all information on the subject but it can easily be inferred that her team was recruited for a Defense Force project."
"You see... The thing is..." While Juscelino was temperating their orders arrived through the hatch and the digital window came to life. Talking was interrupted for some minutes as the two men went to work on their respective plates.
"I need the money." Juscelino said suddenly, causing Wu Shan to look up with a raised eyebrow. "It's, ah. Medical bills."
"For your daughter." Wu Shan said knowingly.
"...Yes."
"What was her problem again? Muscular dystrophy?"
"Neural degeneration. Something about the fat sheathes not staying on her neurons." The Brazilian scientist said heavily. "And the treatments necessary to keep it from manifesting... Are expensive."
Wu Shan nodded but kept his knowledge of events to himself. As much as the other man was trying to come off as justified, the expenses wouldn't quite manage to cripple him. Force a major lifestyle change, yes. But it would just take his family from well off to perhaps middle class. It wouldn't impoverish him IF he made major lifestyle changes such as downsizing his house, property, and so on.
But Wu Shan was well acquainted with greed as a motivation.
"Then, what are you offering?" Wu Shan kept his face neutral as he pushed to the critical point.
"Collor made information available to everyone on the team, back before the whole DFRI reveal, in order to get as many different applications as possible." Juscelino pulled out a thin metal case from his pant pocket. "The main thrust was to replace hydraulics with a material possessing a superior power to weight ratio. However, the primary lineage is a quite bulky material that doesn't miniaturize well. This lacks a fair bit of the overt power but similarly doesn't have the macroscale structures that prevent small scale applications." The revealed object was a square patch of bright green material.
"Artificial muscle?" Wu Shan asked for confirmation.
"Yes." Juscelino became more animated as he talked about something he was familiar with. "The applications are rather broad, from toroidal rotors capable of adjusting their pitch to novel methods of propulsion based on biomimicry."
"Animal styled drones..." Wu Shan mused.
"Ray styled crawling mines or sensors, bimodal water-air units, or even just crankshafts for wheels that do not rely on magnetism." Juscelino agreed, plugging a data cord into his phone and into the patch of myomer via a port on one edge. "Now, I admit to being a chemical engineer and not a programmer so the demonstration I can give is limited, but with some basic signaling you can see that the material does work as advertised."
The patch stiffened and flexed, even applying force to a few objects placed onto it.
"I believe..." Wu Shan smiled across the table. "That we can do business, mister Quadros."
