Oni laid his hands gently on the table and sighed as Anne asked him t report. He was about to just blurt it out when Nikita decided to throw in her sideshow act. With a slow turn of his head from Anne to the obnoxious woman, he answered with a deadpan expression “We only save the tentacle beast for hybrid worm infiltration. If I really have to make BB do that, I would suggest you get out of the general cyberspace we’re in.” He dropped the matter entirely after that and went back to Anne “Major, I have a good idea who our employer is. Please wait one…” he asked, before he stared blankly at the space between his hands.<br/><br/>Oni stood in a black ninja outfit in a room entirely white. He was about to meet Iffie, and thought it best to not give the AI any preconceived notions of identity. The androgynous sentry stood before a white door against the white wall, staring him down as he approached. With a slow, unhurried movement, Oni kneeled a few paces away from the sentry and produced a cylinder from his back. He opened the cylinder to partially reveal the paper within, before he closed it up and set it before the sentry. “I am Oni, your new Sysop. I am most pleased to meet you, Iffie. This cylinder contains the research I’ve performed on the identity of our buyer. Please arrange for it to be given to the Major”. With a shortened bow, Oni moved his hands in a series of gestures before his image faded<br/><br/>Looking back up, he was only out a few seconds. “I have sent you the data in regards to my research so far. I think upon review, you’ll find that our new employer is actually an AI. We’ll call them Epsilon, because that was the name given, but their sole purpose is to help manage the cartel’s backroom, so to speak. The AI was the one that arranged for the funds from each cartel member’s account, and then funneled the money through a larger, more prestigious bank in Venezuela. The cartel itself is like a terrorist organization run entirely on a main idea…meaning they can have a shitload of cartels within this…supercartel if you will, with the AI keeping all the numbers straight. If they lose a major drug dealer, or even a whole cartel, the organization stays alive.”<br/><br/>He refused to hide the concern on his face “Though I’m not accustomed to fucking up, this is one job where we don’t want to take the money, then try to hang them out to dry. In fact, I would have to point out that if there’s an AI running the show, that we not do anything they ask at the times they ask it. That would be a potential death trap. Whatever job they want done, they wouldn’t want anyone being able to point back to them. So if I am looking a little pale…” he turned to Nikita and finished “I would hope the gravity of the situation would convince you to proceed with caution. Can I still do the job? Yes. Will I have to wear an adult diaper for a little…it depends. Right now, I think I’m holding up fairly well”<br/><br/>On that note, he leaned back again. He didn’t know if they understood…really understood the ramifications of a crime syndicate actually using an AI to make themselves better, it was a huge step in thought regarding access to technology, and a very large leap of faith regarding everyone trusting the AI to do its job. Scary, but absolutely fascinating!<br/>