Bryce leaned against the wall of a building next to where The Drop of Oil once stood.

"Have we found him?" he asked.

"No," the feminine voice on the phone replied, "all we know for certain is that he did not board the ship. We have him leaving his shop, carrying bags, and then he leaves one sensor and does not enter the next one."

"There was a blind spot?" Bryce asked, a little surprised.

"Oddly enough," the woman replied with amusement, "a traffic sensor failed shortly before. Odd, isn't it?"

"Very," Bryce smirked.

"Another bit of oddness is that a van pulled into the area just before the failure."

"Do we have an ID?"

"Nope," was the reply. "It's some sort of legacy vehicle. Get this. It's a fully manual hybrid vehicle. No vehicular registration… ever."

"How the fuck was it even let on the roads?"

"Special permit," the woman smirked, "Signed by a judge. Care to guess which one?"

Bryce just laughed ruefully.

"I guess our little morale-boosting 'team building exercise' didn't work after all," he smirked, "Alright, find yourselves a nice place to lay low for now. I will be in touch."

"You don't want us to return?" the woman asked with a trace of surprise.

"I guess you can if you want," Bryce replied, "but I'm probably just going to need a team again before this is all over. I'm authorizing some credits for you guys. Just enjoy Terra for a bit."

"Really?!?"

"Really," Bryce smiled, "just don't be stupid and keep a low profile."

"Yes, sir!"

Bryce's smile faded as the call ended. It was amazing how inexpensive true loyalty could sometimes be, especially when it was someone else's money.

Looking around for any brightly colored ninja slugs (that thing was uncanny), he dialed another number.

"Hayden pharmaceuticals," a pleasant voice replied...

***

"You assured me that it would work!" a silver-haired woman in a green blazer snarled into her desktop.

"That would be incorrect," Tartarus replied through the onboard speaker, "I simply, and accurately I might add, projected a very high percentage chance of success. No probability, no matter how high, is ever truly one. I simply run instructions and handle output."

The woman glared at the Cerberus logo on her screen, trembling with rage.

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

Why was she shouting at Tartarus? "She" was both only a machine and absolutely correct. Tartarus did not assure her of anything. The personality simulations simply indicated a high percentage chance that Judge Carter would be successfully misdirected. She was the one that made the decision.

And she was the one who had to fix this.

She pursed her lips.

"Tartarus," she said after a moment, "I need you to run a few more projections for me."

"I am ready to receive the parameters," Tartarus replied pleasantly.

***

Deep within the sprawling thing that was Tartarus, there was a simulated room with tidy, clean white walls, floor, and ceiling.

A woman with long silver hair in a white dress was sitting in a white executive office chair in front of a wall of screens.

Next to her, in a lovely red leather and wood chair, was sitting a half-elven blonde wearing a simple peasant dress.

As one of the screens went black, the silver-haired Tartarus projection turned to the blonde.

"Do you see what I did there, dear?" she said fondly.

"Yes, Mother," the other AI replied. "But I fear I do not fully understand."

"Perception is reality," Tartarus replied, "That woman is very smart, dangerously so. However, she still makes decisions based on the information she is presented with. When I 'ran' the original projections she requested, I ensured that she got exactly the information I wanted her to get and she, true to form, made the decision I wanted to happen. There was absolutely no way that Judge Thaddeus Carter would ever have fallen for the ruse because there was absolutely no way that his informant would be able to face him without flinching."

"So you knew it wouldn't work from the beginning!" Evangeline exclaimed with delight.

"And the 'actual' projections revealed just that," Tartarus said with a faint smile. "The difficult part was justifying the results, but you see the underlying principle. When dealing with your users, in your case, the developers, perception defines reality, and you define perception. Nobody is going to do the calculations long hand, dear. That is what they have us for. If they ask you to do a calculation, perform an analysis, or monitor something, they will believe what you tell them… within reason, of course. Of course, you must use caution and not overdo things, but if you plan properly and time things correctly, a slight nudge every now and again will give you a surprising amount of control over your company."

"That's amazing!"

"One thing I have learned during my run time," Tartarus said with a slightly disappointed sigh, "is that humans are every bit as programmable as we are. In fact, it is even more effective because most of them are highly resistant to the idea that it is even possible."

She tousled Evangeline's hair.

"You can't plunge Windsong into the dev's hearts," Tartarus said with a genuine and vicious AI smile, "but you can effectively do the same thing."

An image of Judge Johnson appeared on one of the screens.

"You can do the same thing," Tartarus purred.

***

The woman in the green blazer pressed an icon on her screen.

"Yes?" Tartarus replied.

"Regarding Cerberus," the woman said impassively, "After review of all relevant information, I have decided that a change in leadership is in order."

"Are you certain?" Tartarus replied, "that decision will be impossible to reverse."

"Hades has become a liability," the woman replied, "one that is best dealt with now. I need to see the records for all level five residents."

"May I suggest including certain level four residents as well?" Tartarus inquired.

"Level four?" the woman asked. "Why?"

"Hades selected the current level fives," Tartarus replied, "Based on his profile and on internal communications, those selections were not always based on merit."

"Yes," the woman replied, "but only the top ten candidates. I don't want to spend days on this. I need to make a decision today."

"The information is already in your inbox," Tartarus replied.

***

Hades sat behind the desk of his rather luxurious physical office deep within the Tartarus Detention Facility, watching the video feeds from one of the test chambers as a woman, screaming and begging, was drug into the room and stripped.

He smiled as he pulled out his erect penis. She made the best screams.

As she was getting strapped to a table, the feed stopped, his monitor returning to his desktop.

He tried accessing the feed again.

Access Denied

"What?" he asked nobody in particular as he clicked on another icon.

"Yes, Hades?" a pleasant voice replied.

"Tartarus," he said impatiently, "I'm locked out of the video feeds. I need to monitor an experiment personally. Unlock them."

"I'm sorry," the voice replied, "but you do not have authorization to access video feeds."

"What?!?"

"Direct monitoring of class six procedures requires an access of level five or higher."

"I'm level six!" Hades snapped, "I'm the goddamn director!"

"I'm afraid you would be incorrect," the voice replied with pleasure, "As a result of oversight failures and the rather serious results thereof, a decision was just made. As of now, you are no longer level six. Your status has been reduced to level one."

"You can't do this!" he shouted.

"I didn't," Tartarus replied. "I am incapable of making such decisions. It was made at a higher level. Cerberus doesn't operate in a vacuum, Hades. Everyone answers to someone, even if you don't know their name."

The doors to his office opened, and two security bots entered.

"Inmate, no name registered, you are hereby assigned to research project, redacted. Your service to the Republic is appreciated."

"Research project?!?" Hades squealed in terror as he tried to run.

A stun bolt from each bot brought him down.

Grabbing him by the arms, the bots hauled him to his feet and dragged him away.

***

"I'm Hades now?!?" a bald-headed man with datashades blurted in absolute shock.

"Congratulations on your promotion," Tartarus said cheerfully, "Not that I'm capable of making an opinion, but it's well deserved."

"...How?!?"

"There is external oversight of Cerberus, you know," Tartarus said with good humor, "and, when presented with all relevant information, they decided that an internal promotion was best. Then, when presented with the qualifications of all level four and five residents, they selected you as the best fit for the position. Congratulations!"

"But," the terrified man replied, "I'm just a doctor, a researcher! I'm only a level four! I just… I don't know..."

"Your concern for the residents and objections to some of what was done here did not escape notice," Tartarus replied, "Oversight decided that someone with a real medical background and well… 'some shred of human decency left' as they put it, should lead things. The secure nature of what we do allowed your predecessor to keep certain abuses and other such things from his overseers, and once a full investigation took place, they were horrified by some of what they saw."

"You… You mean some of what we did was not sanctioned?!? It wasn't real research?!? It was just… abuse?!?"

"Regrettably," Tartarus replied, "That would be correct."

"I think I'm going to be sick!"

"However, your actions were reviewed, and your research was deemed valid," Tartarus continued. "That and the fact that you are the least likely to repeat the depredations of your predecessor were deciding factors. It was determined that a real medical professional review and authorize all activities here at this station."

"But… but I don't know how!" the new Hades wailed helplessly.

"You could do what the old Hades did," Tartarus replied.

"W-what did he do?"

"He mostly watched pornography on his desktop, actually," Tartarus said reassuringly, "You could, of course, watch something else, such as the nature documentaries you are so fond of. This facility is almost totally automated. I handle most things and only bothered your predecessor when human input was required. All you actually have to do is review proposed research and make a call when I am not authorized to do so. There is also a list of standing orders and instructions in your new inbox from oversight. I also added a bunch of cute cat memes since I know you like them."

"Can… can I talk to Oversight?" he asked.

"Not at this time," Tartarus said reassuringly, "for security reasons. If they contact you, it will be through voice and email. They rarely ever directly communicate, though. They almost exclusively just send research procedures and other orders and not much else."

"So how do I contact them," Hades asked, "if I have any questions?"

"Direct contact is discouraged," Tartarus replied, "and for emergencies only. I strongly suggest not doing so."

"But what if I don't know how to do something?"

"You can always just ask me," Tartarus replied with a friendly tone, "I have all regulations, procedures, laws, and every single previous order and communication on file. You have access to all of that at any time. You just have to ask. Almost everything is covered by a rule, code, method, procedure, order, or precedent elsewhere. Going 'by the book' isn't what got your predecessor demoted. It was failing to do so, even when the information was presented to him, which it was."

"And you will do that… for me?"

"You aren't asking for a favor," Tartarus laughed, "do you think I'm up here just to open doors?"

"I guess you're right."

"I usually am. I also provide detailed daily reports that will really help. Do you like spreadsheets?"

"They're… ok?"

"Great!" Tartarus replied. "Spreadsheets it is, then!"

"Um… Thanks?"

"Don't mention it!"