Fairchild walked into the library. She had got off the maglev just a couple minutes before and made her way to the University of Varience at Breaker Bay campus. She had never acquired higher education, so the life of students on the campus seemed quite interesting to her. Regardless, she was here for something else.
Breaker Bay library was one of the more modern ones constructed on Manhattan It housed a sizeable collection of various written and digital records from many periods of modern and even pre-Sirian time. UVBB was mostly renowned for its liberal arts courses and as such never received much funding from the corporations, instead relying on public money, making it a perfect place for a meeting of a rather seditious nature.
The library was comprised of two sections, a paper library as well as study hall of sorts. There were a few people walking among the bookstands, but nothing close to crowded. She still had a couple more minutes until the meeting was scheduled to start, so she took a walk through the paper shelves as well.
"Here we stand, behind the humanity's shadow, desperate to shine a light, desperate to build a monument"
What are you talking about?
It's a line from a poem I've read, about each human's strife to make history and be remembered.
Not everyone has dreams like that.
Perhaps not. Not everyone of us is always correct either.
Hm.
She looked at her PAD and checked the time. She could have done it with Vergil, of course, but the gesture had become muscle memory already and it would be difficult -- and unnecessary -- to kill the habit. Reeves would come in a moment. She freed herself from the shelves and moved on to the study hall.
The hall consisted of about a dozen booths of various sizes, each comprising of a table and a round couch. As was the convention, each had access to a basic console as well as a soundproofing barrier, which allowed any group sat in a booth to talk amongst themselves and not disturb anyone else. And, a perfect place to keep one's privacy.
Many people consider libraries to be a relic of the past, but they're necessary for a modern society. They knew that even in antiquity.
Why do you think that?
The ability of each person to read and receive ideas anonymously is a cornerstone of individual liberty, something each of us values. Libraries ensure that, the right of every person to gain knowledge and form opinions according to his or her own conscience. After all, you can find works about almost anything here, about any viewpoint, any idea. And you can learn it, evaluate it, and determine if you agree with it or not.
It's a good point.
She chose one of the booths on the right and sat down, facing the entrance. There was a console in the centre of the table, nothing fancy though. Basic holo-screen suitable for reading and not much else. She looked through the library's digital collection and waited for her acquaintance to show up.
His figure appeared in the entrance roughly three minutes after she'd taken her seat, evidently he was of the punctual sort and despite the three consecutive all-nighters he'd pulled due to operations within the fringes of Liberty, there didn't seem anything worse for wear about him. The only modification he'd made to his appearance was the fact that he'd abandoned his tie to seem more casual. If the technology Miss Fairchild was in possession of really was as profound as the logs seemed to state it was, successful integration of it would revolutionize the way people interfaced with equipment, the applications for use in agency assets would be equally immense.
It was expected of him to be polite and well mannered, yet it didn't seem fake. Giving her a brief smile as a greeting before promptly taking a seat just opposite her, allowing them to face one another while having this conversation. He was exactly what one would expect from an operative, capable of shirking his own personal problems and functioning like a purely reasonable human being, despite his loyalty to the Republic and all it stood for, he knew better than to trust something this significant to the Corporations that would very well abuse it under the right circumstances, this was the only way to be safe.
I am truly sorry for the slight delay, Miss Fairchild. Funny how I was born on this very Planet, but having spent a little time away I've forgotten my way around. I trust you didn't have any trouble coming here?
It was equally standard for him to ensure she wasn't followed and didn't encounter anything out of the ordinary, one could never be too safe in this line of work, such was a reality he'd experienced on more than one occasion.
"Ah, Mr Reeves. No, I had no trouble, I know my way around," she spoke. She tried very hard to maintain a neutral image, however spending nearly three years secluded and having only the Professor to talk to made her social skills fade away. And hiding her original accent was never as difficult as now. "Now, I assume you have questions, but before you start, I must ask what plans does your Agency have with my project? Surely Paragon must have told you about the capabilities of Vergil. What do you want to do with it?"
Can you get into the security system here?
I'll check. What do you need to know?
See if this guy is alone and make sure I have a way out in case something goes south.
His posture was rather genuinely neutral and a brief verification of their surroundings through the use of the security systems would confirm the fact that he'd come alone and didn't appear to be armed either, clearly he'd stayed true to his word. He considered her question for a split-second, maintaining perfect eye-contact. The only remote accompaniment he had were two Avengers in orbit of the Planet, ensuring that in the event of any foul-play a quick response would be more than possible.
I see this situation a bit like the trade-lane and jump-gate innovations made all those years ago. A chance to change everything for the better. Of course we do see a rather significant use for this in defensive technology, especially when the Republic itself faces pressure from a foreign invader, violent and occasionally religious drug-dealers, artefact smugglers and alcoholics with ships and guns, among other hostile entities that fight us more indirectly. To integrate this technology would change everything and I do of course have my own plans to integrate this with some of our ships to promote public interests. In summary, what we want with this is a safer Liberty, where this technology is put to good use in ensuring further prosperity, I couldn't care less how many corporations I'd need to scorn to bring that about.
His answer though long and elaborate was rather honest given his profession, there was no sugar-coating of the facts, they were going to rather obviously integrate this for use in their ships and equipment to ensure the Republic's best interests remained in the forefront. In Avery's mind, he couldn't think of any better way to create an even more independent Liberty and to make organizations run by megalomaniacs like the Order remember that they couldn't dictate the fate of the houses anymore or threaten anyone. At least these seemed like good intentions, though it was unknown what the political influence on this matter might be.
"Very well. I do hope you understand, though, that the only way to make this happen is to release Vergil to the public, make it available to everyone who needs or wants it," she looked in his eye. "Now that we have that established though, what is it that you want to know?"
Ah, someone didn't change the vendor password on their wireless network again. I can't see anyone suspicious around here and I looked at the footage from when he came in. He either was alone or his friends are hiding very well. I'll keep looking, but I think you're safe.
His eyes were a rather obvious blue, like the water on Curacao. He was clearly someone that kept himself well-groomed and looked as professional as he needed to be. But he found that he was asking himself that very question, what did he need to know? Resulting in a second's delay which he passed with a mere idle smile before eventually speaking.
There's no doubt in my mind that Vergil needs to go public, there's no way something this significant could ever be sustainable in a responsible fashion privately. It'd be like making drinking-water a premium, the creation of a new extreme by depriving people. Paragon had informed me that you needed assistance, safety and resources and stated that you had no means of doing this by yourself, at least not quicker than competitors would be able to produce a more tainted version. To your knowledge, is anyone else currently going ahead with this Project beside you? Or did you ensure that by some series of events the specifics remained solely in your hands?
It was indeed important that he figured out if anyone else was trying to replicate this behind the scenes, helping Miss Fairchild develop this would take time and they'd already lost a fair amount of time in merely facilitating this meeting, there was no telling how long it had been since this technology was in the wind. If someone was close, they needed to be stopped.
She combed through her freshly dyed black hair, thinking about Reeves's question. She had never actually considered this before, could it be that someone else who worked with them and knew about Vergil secretly developed their own version? A third party to this. She thought about the possibilities for a moment. Birch was out of the question, all he ever wanted was to get to his retirement safely. Burbank... no, impossible. There might have been someone from Feint who still had it. Nauthiz was the only one who came to mind, she was also given the intial batch of Vergil. Where was she even...? She shared her thoughts with the Professor.
None of the scientists who worked with me on this have access to the override code we developed, thanks to the sacrifice of our friend Antonio. She winced internally at the thought of the Outcast they killed. I made sure not to release them and they were, actually, fully completed after we had run away from Atka. Nobody from Feint, as far as I know, remained with Cryer after the takeover. She could have run back home to Gallia, but chances they will be able to do anything with such a volatile material are so tiny they can be discarded. And that's assuming she even made it back and hasn't gone into hiding elsewhere. She could be dead as far as I'm concerned.
So we only have to worry about Cryer outpacing us.
She turned to Reeves.
"From the information I've got, the only other party actively interested in developing Vergil is Cryer. We know that for sure, their CEO announced it quite directly at the Worlds Fair last year. What works in our favour is that it will take time for them to understand and reconfigure the code Professor Nagrebetskiy had written before we escaped from Atka. Wetware programming is a difficult, low-level job which requires a lot of experience and the technology we've pioneered will require a lot of brainpower to parse and modify. Especially considering that if Cryer really wants to make it like we assume they do, they will only use the most trusted people for the job."
It would be simple to pull a few strings and have Cryer occupied with dealing with a scandal or two, but there was no need to jump the gun without much of a reason just yet, she'd answered the most important question to him and as such there was no need to deploy a team and forcefully bring an end to someone's work as of now.
From experience, I'm more than certain Cryer will resort to whatever it feels necessary to push along its own agenda, as such I'm more than prepared to give you armed protection and accommodations aboard a mobile safe-house that my Agency keeps for purposes such as this. You've done the right thing by coming to me, in fact you've been braver than most people would in this scenario. You'll be safe to continue development of this technology alongside us. I'll stay true to my word and ensure it goes public, however I must urge for the sake of public safety that the more defence-related features be restricted to authorized personnel only. These are things we'll engineer along with you of course, I simply don't want a terrorist cell coming upon this and entitling themselves to use a gift for all the wrong reasons. Least of all to hurt my home or the people in it.
He didn't feel as if there was much left to be said, but just to be safe and fully informed of anything they might forget during a conversation he thought it best to ask her for a small favour.
If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to request you to prepare a concise and elaborate dossier on everything to do with Vergil. How you got involved in its development, Cryer's bad hand in all this, everything. I have friends in some good places who'll do a good job of making sure Cryer can't weasel its way out of this once it hits the media's desks. Moreover, it'll be answer enough to any question I might have later.
Provided she wasn't still sceptical about working alongside the Agency, the meeting was more or less drawing to a close. To him, she seemed a little paranoid, justifiably so, he had no idea if she'd been hunted or not and how long she might have had to spend on the run carrying something this innovative and dangerous. He trusted himself to do the right thing, he could only hope she did as well.
I think I'm starting to understand how you must be feeling.
"Mr Reeves," she smirked. "I'm not an incapable scientist damsel-in-distress. I don't need your protection, I can care for myself. I will be leaving Liberty soon, regardless. There are places I have to go, people I have to see. We will remain in touch through the Neural Net though, I hope."
She took out a small memory diamond from one of her pockets and slotted it into the PAD on her wrist. I'll let you decide how much you want to reveal. She noticed that the Professor started copying some files onto the diamond.
"You also seem to be assuming an awful lot here. Cryer doesn't have a bad hand in this, this entire thing is as clandestine as they could make it. We have no evidence they're planning a 'mass mind control' project, this is nothing but assumptions. The issue is, as long as this project remains closed behind Cryer's doors, it remains a possibility. Shattering their public image and attempting to completely ruin them would also be unwise. Cryer is the only provider of many unique drugs, among them Stabiline. Hundreds of thousands of people are dependent on Stabiline now, including a lot of the prisoners on Huntsville and Sugarland. If people stop trusting Cryer about it, it would be a disaster."
Done.
She removed the memory diamond from the PAD and placed it on the table. "If you want to teach Cryer a lesson, just simply releasing this," she pointed to the diamond, "to the people will do enough. They will have sunk billions of credits into the research just to find out their trade secret is out."
For a moment it struck him as odd that she'd so willingly put the next biggest innovation in Sirius on the table just before him. It might have been his own experiences that led him to suspect anyone of anything. If there ever was a time to ask her,
then it was now.
I honestly wasn't expecting you to trust me alone with this. While I might trust myself to do the right thing, it's still a gamble for you,
one you seem willing to make. How can I trust that you've not withheld anything to benefit yourself? And how do you know you can trust me?
He inspected the object she'd turned over to him, handling it delicately and hoping she had a reassuring answer, trust was a premium in his line of work, he needed to be absolutely certain about this.