[Paragon Group] Cold Calling

[Faith]

Mr. Parker stopped talking to her quite abruptly. She briefly wondered if she had offended him with her quietness, but all she saw in him when she looked was a luminous, innocent eagerness. He was jittery with it, even the rest of the food on his plate forgotten by now. It was more likely she had just been disappointing to him, and his attention had moved on. That wasn’t something she was unaccustomed to, though it didn’t make the sting any less - it was quite a feat to feel alone in a room full of people. As he eagerly directed himself back to grilling Luma instead, he shot her a wink and smile as though to imply he was trying not to bother her. He wasn’t, or not in the way he might think. But Faith said nothing else, just carefully continued her lunch – and listened to the AI talking animatedly with her own voice.

"Dr. Devere’s department created me so you are right to think it is my favourite, Mr Parker. I owe them everything!

Paragon has many interesting internal divisions, and many talented doctors and scientists. The parameters for “fun” are quite broad and it is not a term I can find in our highlight reel of recent achievements. I can list them for you if you require. You will already be familiar with Cybernetics, of course! But I do have a clear second favourite, since you have asked for my opinion specifically. Unfortunately, Mr. Parker, the information is classified."

Luma was joking with him again. Reacting to his cues. Matching his tone. Faith smiled to herself quietly. And then she saw him coming. She didn’t look directly, at least not at first, but she was suddenly aware. Sharp blue suit, magnetic air. His gaze honed with absolute confidence on her table, his stride towards it purposeful; it was always as if the world bent around him rather than the other way around. But that was just the sort of man Luther Audaire was.

For a moment his attention completely stilled her. A lightness lifted Faith’s chest, hopeful, and for a split second longer she believed he was coming to speak to her. But the realisation dawned cold as soon as he paused only to impart a polite, professional nod in her direction. His attention was already elsewhere, in the hand he extended instead to the man who had sat himself at her table.

“Mr. Parker, a pleasure. Luther Audaire, Director of the AI Division here at Paragon. I see you are acquainting yourself with Luma. She’s a marvel, is she not?”

"She is. Amazing."

Mr. Parker continued – enthusiastically detailing technical things he’d noticed, much as he had with her, but where Faith absorbed the feedback like a blackhole, Luther engaged with it effortlessly. She watched with a sinking feeling as they bonded over the AI whose empathy core was derived from the flesh and blood woman sitting opposite them. Every Luma was unique, adaptable to the user’s needs, but they all evolved from the same seed, and that seed was Faith. The dissonance floated in the back of her skull. She felt herself detaching. It wasn’t her professional pride that was injured. Audaire was brilliant; he always had been, and he fed Mr. Parker’s curiosity in a way she didn’t know how to. It was something in the way Dr Audaire looked at Mr. Parker that made her heart stumble. A way he’d once looked at her.

She felt an itch of panic. Tried to calculate exactly how much longer it would take to finish her lunch, so that she could leave. Her stomach curdled over the thought of eating more, though. She focused on her breathing instead, reached for her glass of water, and forced a sip. No one was watching her. She knew that.

With a laugh Audaire interrupted Mr. Parker’s chatter. He offered to escort him up to Mr. Haart’s office personally. They could continue the conversation on the way.

She watched them leave.

[Legione Sumus]

EPHRAIM HAART

Ephraim was on the sofa in his office when the knock came, the last fingerwidth of scotch circling the glass in his grip. The rest of the bottle and a set of expensive glasses rested on the square coffee table, alongside a more usual arrangement of water in a decanted bottle. He glanced up as the door opened, greeted first by the apologetic look his receptionist shot him. Eph only smiled and waved away the screens he’d been perusing. Data such as the exact number of seconds it had taken for Sage Parker’s withdrawal to make itself known. Aside from hacking his way onto the wifi, he had actually done nothing of note since he’d been here. It was almost disappointing. But then, Ephraim didn’t exactly want him to test his capabilities on Paragon.

“Ephraim,” Luther said as he crossed the threshold first. Ah. That was the reason for the apology then. The man smiled, and it was far too self-satisfied for Ephraim’s liking. He knew Audaire’s opinions. And they disagreed, at least on this one.

“You brought Mr. Parker personally. How unexpected,” Eph said. He leaned to slide his glass on the table and stood. There wasn’t anything telling in his expression, which was almost always as relaxed and carefree as the golden curls on his head. But they both knew Luther was making a point by being here.

“We had an interesting chat. I’ll leave you to it.” Luther tipped his head, still smirking. Then he told Sage Parker ‘good luck’, and let the harried receptionist see him out.

Unruffled, Eph extended his hand for Parker to shake, and gestured that he take a seat. There was an impressive desk, but he nearly always chose to entertain these kinds of meetings in the stuffed chairs overlooking the impressive view from his office window. Not that he thought Parker would notice. “Mr. Parker, welcome. Can I call you Sage? Please, take a seat.”

He reclaimed his own comfortable seat as he spoke, and his glass too.

[Sage]

Luther Audaire was charming, though he ignored Dr. Devere and it irked Sage just a little bit. He almost said something but was soon distracted by discussions on Luma and Sky and AI in general. It wasn't a passion for Sage, just something he figured would be helpful for Nox and also make a profit from.

They walked and talked and Sage wondered if the person who was supposed to escort him was going to get in trouble. But that too was quickly swept away as he walked into Ephriam Haart's office. Sage wondered if he should mention that he knew his son. A son that few people knew about -- probably not a good idea.

Sage smiled and sat down. "Sage is fine. This place is amazing." And boring he thought, at least on the outside. "I'll admit I'm sure normal folks looking to get a job would be impressed. But I found it rather boring. I know I didn't get to see any of the really exciting things around here." He looked around. "It all looks very high tech and progressive. I'm sure things behind the locked doors are more impressive."

[Legione Sumus]

EPHRAIM HAART

Ephraim accepted the compliments without comment, and watched the effervescent Mr Parker as he settled in his seat. He made a help yourself gesture at the table with the drinks, though doubted Sage would even notice the refreshment. He’d barely remained focused enough to eat the provided lunch.

At the proclamation of the tour being boring, Eph outright laughed. It had been part of the point, of course, though he privately doubted even if they had intended to dazzle Sage it would have actually worked. Aside from helping himself to the wifi, though, Eph was assured Sage hadn’t actually done anything to sate his boredom. According to Marcil that was not because he couldn’t, even with Paragon’s rigorous layers of security. It was because he'd evidently chosen not to. Restraint or respect, Eph wasn’t sure yet. But he was prepared to give the chance. Audaire thought Sage was too old for such attempts at tactful recruitment, that there was no loyalty to be won. But Ephraim didn’t require the sort of brainwashing Audaire toyed with on his projects.

Still, it was undeniably a gamble. One Ephraim was mostly prepared to take because of the 972 seconds it had taken before Sage had needed the relief of connection.

Sage Parker was valuable. As an employee or a test subject (and honestly, there was sometimes a fine line between those anyway). Ephraim could be flexible. And either way, he would make use of the opportunity in front of him. Sage got to choose how pleasant the experience was or wasn’t for himself.

“Aren’t things behind locked doors always more impressive? It’s generally why they’re locked,” he said with a chuckle.

“Interesting that you chose to reach out by rather more traditional means than your capabilities. But what made you reach out to us?”

A job was the most obvious answer. Nothing in the invitation had actually confirmed this was an interview, though it had come in response to Sage's CV. He asked mostly because it seemed Sage was happy to talk, and Eph was happy to listen. And he wanted to hear it from the man himself. So far, he didn't seem to possess the tact to lie outright about his reasons for being here.

[Sage]

Sage had been expecting the question. Why? He grinned. He could lie, but he was never very good at it. "Two reasons. One -- because I need something to do with my time that is for more than just my friend. I can start up any business I can dream of, and make money, but sometimes I just want to run with a task and not have to deal with any of the minutia of it all. And the second, is probably less likely to get me a job." Sage chuckled. "When there is something behind a locked door that I can't get to I wanna know more. I have a strict code of ethos. I don't mess with the government and banks. And I don't reveal secrets unless there is a reason to that outweighs keeping the secret. Pedofiles, liars, corrupt politicians, people hurting others for personal gain, they often get outted with their nepharious crimes if I find them. If I were to work here, I would protect you and myself with a modified non-disclosure agreement. I record everything I see and hear, and it's not something I can stop. Has nothing to do with me, but with the way the software is set to help me analyze the world around me. So It's good I didn't see behind closed doors today, I don't forget things. I see everything, and I catalogue it. I keep secrets safe. I keep my priorities safe -- and that could become Paragon if I were to work here too. I just want to be honest out the gate."

[Legione Sumus]

Dr. Victor Forrer

Victor finished his lunch quickly. He had work to do. The idea of a processor in the brain. It had merit for sure. It was an incredibly dangerous procedure though and some of the data appeared to be missing. He wouldn’t experiment on Ghost with it, until he knew how to do it anyways. That was just practical and Ghost was a commodity. 

Mr. Haart had asked about the field teat for Ghost, however, and Victor had promised to get back to him. He wanted a few more days to assess how he was acclimating before stretching things to the limit. The numbers were very promising. After months of idleness, Ghost came back to his pre-operation numbers in his workouts without a delay. He also felt significantly less tired to boot. Things were going well. 

Victor made his way to Mr. Haart’s office and knocked. He never just walked in - that was polite. Mr. Haart was a very busy man and could be in a meeting. He wouldn’t take much of his time. He just wanted to drop off some documents as well as let him know they had decided on a date for Ghost’s test. 

[Legione Sumus]

EPHRAIM HAART

A self-styled vigilante. How delightful. Paragon was hardly the ethical powerhouse it portrayed, but one might argue the entire Custody was like that. Ephraim certainly would. And he worked within its boundaries – nothing here was illegal, strictly speaking. Governments were far easier to work with than against. It was why Rafael Janssen had been given over to the authorities without fuss, and the resultant research material from his “condition” kept largely quiet. It wasn’t censorship, just a mutually beneficial arrangement concerning knowledge that affected the Ascendancy personally. Proof that godhood was not immutable being very sensitive, of course.

He leaned back comfortably while Sage talked.

Ethically speaking, Ephraim was entirely flexible. His loyalties were deep rooted and personal, which meant he nearly always considered the bigger picture, not the immediate harm. Kaelan Muller being a fine case in point – the man was a sociopath on the fringes of something far worse, but he was brilliant at what he did. In exchange for that brilliance, Ephraim both sanctioned and facilitated whatever experiments he deemed necessary for his research. Including the ones on the classified Project Visakanya, which most would find abhorrent.

So what reasons would outweigh Sage’s own sense of morality?

Ephraim himself was often a liar. He was corrupt, when it suited him. He hurt others for personal gain. Yet when people benefited him he was a staunch enough ally. Paragon was consistently rated a trusted and popular employer in polls which recorded such things, and it was lauded as a company which gave back regularly to its community. On a personal level Ephraim’s natural charisma simply won hearts by the multitude, but he wasn’t bogged down by kindness for its own sake. It wasn’t that he went out of his way to defend bad people. It was just that the ends so often justified the means.

“Forward the modified NDA,” he said. “My people will look it over. Might as well do that while we’re talking, eh?”

Secrecy mattered less than one might suppose. Not that Sage would be allowed to just wade through any classified file he desired, but Ephraim accepted readily enough that he could show restraint – that there was a governing code of ethics here, even if it was a ridiculous vigilante one. What he was uncertain of was what Sage would make of any of the things he might discover. But he was going to be a pest either way; might as well be a useful one. There were always contingencies if things went… sour.

“In the spirit of honesty,” he said, tapping his own temple with a smirk, “it’s going to make you popular here.”

The knock was unexpected, and frankly an annoyance. He had a secretary for a reason. But Audaire wasn’t the only one interested in the gift landed on their doorstep, or the way it might be used to further several classified projects. “Make it quick,” he called, glancing an unruffled apology in Sage’s direction. It was Forrer who entered, at which point Eph assumed not a careful machination but a lack of social awareness. The man lived and breathed Project Ghost like oxygen. Eph doubted he had it in him to engineer a meet with the singular host of the brain-chip processor, like Luther had done.

[Sage]

As soon as Ephriam asked for the NDA it was flying through the interwebs to his and the HR lawyers inboxes. He didn't get to say it was done before there was a knock and a stern looking professor like man walked in. It wasn't long before Sage knew exaclty who he was. The internet was funny that way.

But he didn't say anything. He just waited for whatever interactions would happen happened. He knew he'd be popular. If Dr. Marcil had been any indicator of his interactions with Paragon. He knew that man would love to get his hooks into him.

[Legione Sumus]

Dr. Victor Forrer

He entered the office and it seemed Ephraim was entertaining a client or something. Victor wasn't sure, but it didn't really matter. Victor was now aware that he was interrupting something that was probably important. He wasn't completely unaware of social protocols, but he generally didn't know that he broke them until after he did. He also tended to deal with time blindness and hyper focus on whatever project he was working on which he often got excited about and couldn't wait to share. That was what brought him to Mr. Haart's office. 

"My apologies," he said, making sure to get both men in his gaze. Victor moved forward, putting the folder of information on Mr. Haart's desk trying to keep his interruption to a minimum before turning back to Mr. Haart. "Just some information for you when you get the chance to look over it, and I wanted to let you know that our meeting is December 30 at 9:00 AM."

That was all he needed to do. It probably could have waited, but what was done was done. "Once, again. My apologies or the interruption." Victor gave both men a nod and began to leave. If Mr. Haart had questions, he would ask when he got a chance.