Chapter Eleven: Risky Information

Once I had determined that Amahle was at risk, she didn’t leave my apartment. During that time, she was focused entirely on analyzing the Perma Tech sim card to understand how it functioned. I could provide no help to her in this regard, but I still had a role to play. I was an important figure in the business, and now that we had a set date for the launch of the new flagship phone with integrated Perma Tech, I was busier than ever.

Three days had passed since the heist. I walked into the headquarters of Antler right on time and I was greeted by Will, who now showed a more honest expression on his face. He wasn’t unhappy, but I could tell he was conflicted about interacting with me.

“Mr. Hensley,” he stated, with his bushy beard muffling his words. I thought the chances were high that underneath the gruff demeanor, he had a hint of happiness.

“Will, good morning,” I responded in kind. I was always clean-shaven, so he could see my smile. I couldn’t let myself appear any different than usual. I was Nathaniel Hensley. I was happy, charming, and calm as could be.

I continued on, first to my office on the third floor to pick up some papers, and then back into the elevator. I found a new face already inside.

“I’m going up,” I informed them.

“Ah, me too,” they responded in turn. Their hair was platinum-blonde and waist-length. It was a daring look in the fashion industry, even more so in the bland tech business I found myself in. They had sharp, green eyes and a delicate stance. They were a breath of fresh air.

“I’m Nathaniel Hensley, marketing.”

“Nathaniel Hensley?” They replied in a pleasant hum. I waited for them to continue, but their voice never picked back up. I reached my arm out to press the button for my floor but stopped. Whoever this person was, they were going to see Anders.

“I think you may have the wrong floor. Mr. Askeland is out of the city.”

“He isn’t. He called for me,” they said matter-of-factly. I suppressed my surprise. For Anders to call for someone specifically, either they were in trouble or they were important. From the expression of this person, they weren’t afraid. They had some value, so much so that Anders wished to speak to them.

“I’m sorry. He’s rarely in so I just assumed. What are you here to see him for?”

“It’s regarding Perma Tech. You forgot to press the button.”

“Right,” I stated before slowly pushing for the fifth floor. My mind was racing, attempting desperately to think of a reason they would be here. I kept my expression calm, not that they ever looked at me.

“Do you have a business card?” I asked. “It would be good for me to know one of the engineers, in case I need to contact you.”

“I’m not an engineer,” they stated. Swiftly, they pulled out a card from their pocket and handed it to me. I scanned the piece of paper. My throat went dry.

“I’ve heard quite a bit about you, Hadrian Jade.”

The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and Hadrian finally looked at me.

“Are you going to get out?”

“My mistake, I meant to press twenty,” I explained as coolly as I could. Hadrian raised a groomed eyebrow.

“You meant to go to the infirmary?”

“Yes, I did,” I said with a laugh. I forgot that this building was practically an entire city in itself, with a hospital in the middle for efficiency. “Not for me. I’m fit as a fiddle. I just have to go check on an employee who was feeling under the weather earlier.”

“Well, that’s kind of you.”

“May I ask what the head of AI research is doing here?”

“Can you press your floor first?” Hadrian asked. I obliged. “I’m here for Perma Tech. There’s an issue Anders wants to talk about.”

“Anders? You two must be close.”

“Not that much. I appreciate him. I would say,” Hadrian stopped to consider, “Anders is the best person I’ve ever met.”

“He certainly does more than anyone I know,” I responded. We were rapidly going through the floors, but luckily there were a few stops to pick up other employees. Hadrian kept standing there calmly, as if their presence wasn’t drawing everyone’s attention. After the eleventh floor, we were back to being the only ones in the elevator. I had to risk something to get information back.

“It has to do with integration into organic compounds, doesn’t it?” I asked. Hadrian turned their head and stared at me with an amused expression. I could tell I was onto something. “If I had to guess, the AI has difficulty keeping up with the malleability of a lifeform, even something small like a bacteria.” Hadrian crossed their arms, now facing me head-on. I deduced that if Amahle was working so fervently on the Perma Tech, the issue would have to be threatening to her as well. “Does it stop functioning? Does it cause damage instead of reversing it?” I questioned. The small-framed Hadrian kept their stance for a few seconds, finally laughing. They laughed as freely as a close friend does, not covering their quirks in the slightest.

“That was impressive. I bet you could sound like an expert in any field after reading a summary for ten minutes. By the way, bacteria are incredibly malleable, but still, you sure used those words well. I get why Anders hired you. Very clever,” Hadrian added, continuing to laugh. “If that were an issue, that would be far more interesting. No, this one is much less important. I’m surprised I was called here, actually. Anders must have some reason for thinking I need to solve this so quickly.”

“What’s the problem, then?”

“Ah, right,” said Hadrian with a wave of the hand. “It’s not integration, but rather how good that integration is. Anders informed me that it seems as though Perma Tech might be difficult to remove—from complex systems at least. In phones, it’s as simple as removing the sim card.” I nodded, remembering doing that very thing to the phone. It was strange Hadrian was telling me these things. Either they trusted me or they didn’t value their secrets much. “With organic compounds, with life, the process could be much more complicated.”

“That makes sense,” I responded. Hadrian chuckled again. Truth was, it didn’t make sense to me. I knew that whatever this was, it had to do with Amahle. That must have been why Anders was so keen on seeing his head researcher. However, it seemed like Hadrian had no idea that Amahle existed, or rather, the prototype she had become. That left me with the question of who implanted her with Perma Tech if one of the most important researchers was in the dark. The elevator doors opened to the floor I had chosen, and I had no further excuse to continue our conversation. If I did, they might bring me up to Anders, who would suspect me immediately. Hadrian laughed once more as I left. The doors closed as they went to see Anders. I had to know what was happening.

I waited twenty seconds and then pressed for another elevator. I got in and immediately aimed for the top. There was only one elevator that went directly to Anders’ office, and it was only accessible by him and a few others. Even Hadrian took the normal route, which meant he had to stop by the penultimate floor and speak to Anders’ assistant. That could buy me a bit of time, but not unless I could get by the assistant too. The doors opened, interrupting my trip.

“Emergency. Gotta see the boss as quickly as possible, sorry!” I exclaimed to the confused face of an Antler employee. I repeated this maneuver twice more until I finally reached my destination. I exited, looking around to see if I had arrived at the same time as Hadrian. The coast was clear, which meant they had already passed by. I approached the assistant sitting behind a desk. She wore her hair in a chignon, a style I rarely saw outside of France. We locked eyes.

“Mr. Hensley! What are you doing up here?” She asked, kindly. I pulled out my wallet, along with Hadrian’s card.

“Erin, pleasure to see you,” I greeted, glad to have pristine eyesight. “Have you seen Hadrian Jade? I think they lost their wallet,” I explained while approaching her. I held the business card in front of my wallet to trick Erin into believing they belonged to the same person. I had to hope she didn’t want to open the wallet.

“I just saw them!” said Erin, excitedly. “I can keep it and give it to them when they get back,” she continued while extending her arm.

“Actually Erin, if you don’t mind, I’d feel better giving it to them in person. It’s not that I don’t trust you-”

“I understand completely Mr. Hensley. You can wait until Hadrian gets back,” Erin compromised. I contorted my face into an honest expression of discomfort.

“Ah, but I do need to get back. I have some important work to do regarding Perma Tech. And you know how long Anders’ meetings can go,” I explained. She nodded.

“Hours, sometimes. But I’m sorry Mr. Hensley, I only let people up to see him if they have an appointment or he approves of it over the phone, and he told me not to interrupt him.”

I kept my face serene, but the longer I spoke with her, the more I would miss out on.

“Ah! How about I leave the wallet outside the office?” I asked in a eureka moment. “That way I won’t interrupt their meeting, but since no one else can go up there, the wallet will be safe!” Erin considered the notion, ignoring the parts that made little sense and instead clung to my perceived confidence. A bad idea was easy to sell if you spoke the right way.

“Okay, but make sure to leave it in a spot where Hadrian will spot it.”

“Of course,” I agreed. Erin opened the special elevator and I was soon up to the top floor of Antler for the second time. I heard faint voices coming from down the luxurious hallway. Anders had kept most of the details the same, save for some of the artwork being replaced. I approached in quiet footsteps as their voices grew louder. I could not decipher the muffled sounds from a safe distance, so I had to keep reducing the distance. I eventually stood right next to the doors and still could not easily understand their conversation. I pressed my ear to the gap in the middle and listened.

“There is no such thing as too little risk, Hadrian. It either exists or it does not. I will not have risk exist.”

“Ah, yes. I suppose it is possible. However, you don’t have to remove it to remove the risk.”

“What do you mean?” Anders asked.

“Any issue with the product can be fixed remotely. It’s all connected to our servers.”

“That’s just where the backups are kept.”

“Right now, yes. Securely. But if we want to fix some issue across the board-”

“Do it.”

There was a pause, but I could not see what was happening.

“I respect you immensely, sir, but I don’t know if what I said is strictly a good idea.”

“Hadrian Jade, I respect the work you’ve done for me. Hardly anybody can appreciate what you’ve done, and yet you work so diligently. What do you do it for, Hadrian? It’s not fame nor riches, which you could find elsewhere.”

“I like the work I get to do, Anders.” A pause again. “I want to work with you.”

“And what work we’ve done, Hadrian. When I look at the appreciation of the masses, it pales in comparison to what you and I know. Perma Tech is beautiful. I don’t want it to be sullied by flaws in the system. That defeats the purpose of what we’ve built.”

“Okay, Anders.” I could not see Hadrian’s face, but they sounded conflicted. “I’ll modify the servers as soon as I can.”

“Contact me when you do,” replied Anders. I heard the shuffling of feet. Hadrian was preparing to leave. Still, I did not leave my position. The footsteps approached, and I could hear Hadrian’s hand touch the handle on the other side.

“Anders, how did you figure out this issue?” There was a long silence yet again. Hadrian's hand left the handle. They were facing Anders. “You know a lot about Perma Tech, of course, but nobody knows more than I do.”

“That’s quite right.”

“So how did you figure it out?”

“When Einstein described relativity, he had not done experiments. He did not have observation to rely on. His entire system was based on his own thoughts, theoretical questions and theoretical answers. It took some time for the world to trust every word. It required evidence. Hadrian, what would you prefer, theory or evidence?”

“I work in intelligence, Anders. I prefer evidence.”

“Then that’s what I’ve gathered.”

I stood upright, my eyes wide. I was not an expert, but I understood enough. I ran as softly as I could to the elevator and made my way back down. I saw Erin, who sat with her arms crossed.

“Took a while, huh?” She asked. I hastily plastered a smile onto my face.

“I had to make sure Hadrian would see the wallet.” I continued by and got to the elevator. I could hear her sigh behind me. I didn’t care. All that mattered was that she didn’t tell anyone I was up here. I turned around.

“I heard some yelling while I was up there.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Erin. “I’ll make sure not to bother Hadrian, then. Thank you for telling me.”

“No problem.” I entered the elevator and went back down. I skipped my floor and exited the building entirely. Will looked at me oddly as I strode past him. I didn’t have time to talk to him. I ran home, cursing myself for sweating in one of my nicest suits. I opened the door and saw Amahle at a desk she had set up for her studies. Her head swiveled up at my sound.

“Did you run?”

“Amahle, Hadrian-” I stopped to catch my breath.

“You met Hadrian Jade?” she asked. I nodded. “I only met them a few times. Definitely a genius. What happened?” She waited patiently as I panted and panted. Eventually, I felt good enough to speak.

“Your life is in danger.”