A pair of Brooks running shoes slapped the pavement rhythmically, echoing across the quiet trail in Piedmont Park. Lights dotted the horizon and the distinct lack of fellow runners gave testament to the time of day. A gentle breeze, rustling through the trees that blanketed the area, seemed to sweep along with the tenebrous runner that passed back and forth from light to shadow. A slight, controlled fog of heat could barely be seen being expelled from a set of delicate and feminine lips. Damp tendrils of hair clung to a graceful nape as her ponytail brushed back and forth in time to her hurried step.

It may just be April, but the Georgia climate wasn’t anything less than warm. Heather once again lightly bemoaned the fact that she had moved here with her parents all those years ago. If she’d just listened to her best friend begging her at the time, she could still be enjoying the perpetual winter wonderland on her run. That sentiment alone was always enough to draw a stare from her fellow Georgians. Who in their right mind would live in a place like her Alaska? She could only smile at their looks of incredulity. To each their own, right?

Heather had been running for almost an hour now, but she still couldn’t wear herself out sufficiently to dull the emotional toll that the last 24 hours had had on her. Fourteen hours had passed since she’d personally killed over 20 people. How exactly was she supposed to deal with that? She couldn’t talk about it to her mom or the rest of her family. She feared mentioning it to the others because she didn’t want to be the only one perceived as “weak” if the others weren’t struggling as much as her. And she certainly couldn’t mention it to Bearcat.

Honestly, Heather had no clue how she felt about the man. Back when they’d been in the first year of college and seeing each other, he’d been of the “sweetheart” variety - the kind that went on romantic moonlight walks or that would cuddle up with you and watch Lord of the Rings for 6 hours. He wasn’t overly handsome because he was a little overweight at the time, but he was still nice and a guy she knew she could proudly take home to her parents. She sighed at the thought because she’d really enjoyed the time with him.

He was the perfect gentleman exemplified by the fact that he always had her well-being in mind. When things would start to get heated between the two of them, he’d always pull the brakes and that frustrated her. Heather recalled the conversation where he’d made it very clear that he was a “wait for marriage” kind of guy...and then she remembered the night that she ruined her chance at staying with him.

She’d spent the evening with a few friends on the hall where Bearcat lived. All of the guys there were really tight and enjoyed each other’s company, so when Heather, who lived on another wing of the same floor, showed up, she naturally kind of melded into the activities and became fast friends with all of the boys that lived there. To be clear, she didn’t meet Bearcat first, she met him after she started hanging out with a few of the others.

The night in question, she’d been drinking with a few of the guys since Bearcat was working on some project in his room and unable to hang out. Blake, who had developed a crush on Heather, was coming on strong and she kind of liked it. Still frustrated by Bearcat’s unwillingness, she ended up sleeping with him. Things went downhill from there in a matter of days.

Bearcat was able to tell, how - Heather never did figure it out. Perhaps he saw the looks that Blake threw at her over the group outings to the dining hall, or maybe he heard it from Blake’s roommate. Whatever the method, Bearcat knew and then confronted her. Smiling bitterly to herself, Heather recalled what he’d said to her after he cornered her and made her admit to it.

Heather...I value loyalty more than anything else in this world. You gave me hope after Josie. I thought that maybe I could build something real with you after having been betrayed so utterly, yet you turn around and do the same thing as her when you KNEW I’d already experienced something so gut-wrenching. Obviously, you’re not the girl I thought you were.

Heather had cried that day. A lot. She knew she was wrong and had no one to blame but herself. A few days passed awkwardly after that, but then, by some miracle, Bearcat came back to her and said that they could be friends. From then on, he’d been courteous but much less familiar with her.

Heather grimaced with pain as she forced herself to go faster on the trail. The wind had picked up during her little reverie and the trees howled with an uncharacteristically swift wind. Why…? Her feet took her over a small hill and then a short bridge that arched over a stream. Why did I fuck up so badly!? Finally unable to keep up with her near-sprint pace, she slid to a halt and leaned over in exhaustion, bracing herself by placing her hands right above her knees. Breathing heavily through her petite lips, she plopped down a small hillock and looked out over a pond illuminated by moonlight.

Scenes of the restaurant came unbidden to her mind. It was there that she saw Adrian for the first time in so long. He still had that same pale skin that he usually sported, but the difference was that he’d been covered in muscle this time. His shoulder length raven hair was tied back in a ponytail and his beard was well trimmed. That on top of his sharp, black vest and tie-less french cuff with slacks just seemed to complete the look of a young, rich businessman. Heather recalled that at the time she’d immediately looked around the room and she’d seen practically every other woman in the diner looking their direction. It was hard not to look, if she was honest with herself. He was a modern day Adonis.

At the time, she’d been thrilled to see the transformation that Bearcat had gone through. He looked vibrant and so incredibly manly now that he’d dropped the weight and groomed himself into a new physique. Success oozed off of him and she couldn’t help but be drawn to him as an aura of confidence washed over them all.

But then the past had hit her light a freight train. She’d already been there and messed it up. Would he still be interested in her? Is there a chance? She was single right now. There’d been a few guys since then...And then that one memory came screeching to a halt in her mind.

“Obviously, you’re not the girl I thought you were.”

How could she hope to reconcile with him romantically when she’d had such a lapse of judgment and they’d ended in such a way? The thought was further cemented by the beautiful girl that had been standing nervously behind Adrian. An ache blossomed in Heather’s chest. Later, she’d found out that the two weren’t dating and that he’d just thought she could join the group, but that hadn’t worked out so well. This led her into feeling even more hopeful as the months progressed.

During training, Bearcat was always so meticulous and forceful, ensuring that Heather remembered all of the movements that he threw at her. The time he’d thrown a punch that brushed across the peak of one of her breasts, her heart had fluttered momentarily. She’d been stunned at his audacity, sure, but she was more concerned about what he meant by the move. Did he really do it just to teach her to release her boundaries when fighting? Or was there a deeper meaning and he was flirting with her?

Honestly, he was so hard to read now. His actions were all flawlessly smooth and he didn’t get flustered by being around her anymore. She could tell that sometimes she drew his gaze when she’d do something provocative, like last night when she’d stripped in front of everyone. Of course, she’d done that to entice him. Heather couldn’t care less for all the other guys in the room. Instead of eliciting a verbal response like she’d hoped, she’d actually only seen the tiniest of flashes of hunger in his eyes before he turned away.

How could she read that? It could have just been a man’s natural response to such a sight, because he’d told her long ago that he found her body alluring, or it could have been something more. Whether it was one of the two or not, she had no way of knowing. After that, she’d steeled herself to try and get closer to him. This encompassed the raid on the Envy bases where she had to force herself into killing. She’d lucked out and gotten to be partners with Bearcat by his own designation, but again she couldn’t read his intentions.

Whatever his feelings for her though, she’d resolved herself while watching him rescue the captive girls that she would continue to pursue him. She couldn’t be sure how things would turn out, but she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Adrian Pierce would overturn the whole world in his pursuit of advancement and reform. Surely, if she were to look the entire planet over, she wouldn’t be able to find another man like him. So she’d fight to be beside him. If this meant being involved with more blood and her dirtying her hands, then so be it. As long as she was by his side, she could survive anything.

She knows that she doesn’t deserve to be forgiven for what she did to him, but she would work to be worthy of his side. Maybe, after enough time has passed, time will heal the wound between them and they can try again.

Dusting off the grass that clung to her legs, Heather turned back in the direction of her car and sprinted off into the mild, now dead calm, early morning air.

***

A scuffle sounded from out in a hall as the sound of two bodies hitting a door rang out through a darkened room that had hints of alcohol in the air. The sound of keys being jingled followed and in the matter of a moment, the door was flung open revealing Peter and a girl as they almost collapsed into the room. Peter leaned in, pulling the girl into a hungry kiss that was dripping with lust. He then picked her up and pressed her against the wall, a slight playful squeal coming from her mouth as the action caused an hard, audible bump. He could feel the excitement being transmitted throughout her body in an ill-concealed tremor.

Tongues danced as Peter tugged at her shirt, revealing a pair of shapely breasts contained by a red, frilly bra. Peter’s eyes flashed as he thought to himself, She obviously went out tonight with the intention of getting laid. Practically snapping his fingers behind her back, the strap-less bra fell to the ground. But before he could do anything with the tantalizing fruits before him, the girl tugged back at him, lifting at his shirt. Smirking, he helped her take it off as he was so much taller and was rewarded by a gasp.

If there was one thing that Peter took pride in, it would be his physique. Part of it was natural, but the definition spoke to how much pain and sweat he’d had to put in to get it. Bearcat’s training had only helped in this regard, gifting him not only the skills to help in the assault last night, but also help sculpt his body into that of a warrior. As Peter ran his hands down the alluring figure before him, he reminded himself to buy a keg of Bearcat’s favorite for him when the new place was ready.

Hands darted all over each other’s bodies as the sultry tango continued into his bedroom. Miraculously, the two drunken lovers fell into his bed instead of the floor and Peter’s hand reached lower, caressing the girl’s cunt. A cute moaned escaped her lips and he smiled before removing her panties, the only article clothing still left on her body, and throwing them to the side. Leaning back in to taste her lips again, Peter supported himself on his arms and lost himself to the makeout session while he continued to stroke the girl down below, sometimes sliding a finger in to tease her.

After a minute, he felt a tug on his arm so he amusingly let himself be flipped onto his back. The girl, I think this chick’s name is Melissa, had a triumphant look on her face and leaned down, her brunette hair tickling the hair on his knees, grabbing his boxers at the hip and began to slide them off seductively. The boxers made it a few inches before getting hung up in his raging erection. Before he could blink, she’d skillfully overcome the problem and took his manhood in hand while a smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth.

The next few minutes was honestly one of the best blowjobs of Peter’s life. She kissed and sucked, her tongue twirling artfully in all the best of ways. It ended with him tensing up and forcefully holding her head in place when he erupted. A flash of annoyance could be seen on her face, but she evidently decided to disregard it as she could be seen swallowing.

Peter decided at this point to play her card back on her, turning the tables and pulling her under him. Before going further, he sat back and grabbed a condom, putting it on real quickly before leaning back in testing the waters. Satisfied that she was wet enough, he playfully inserted just the tip. Another cute moan graced his ears and he silently began to pump into her slowly, revelling in the pleasure of the moment.

In the passion, however, memories began to boil in his mind, reminding him of the previous evening. He’d killed people.

His thrusting became more intense, eliciting a yelp from Melissa.

Scenes of blood and the terrified expressions on the men’s faces flashed, calling forth the gore and the feeling of pure bliss he’d experienced. Warmth arced across his whole body and he couldn’t help but shiver as he again experienced that feeling of bloodlust. Lost in the moment of dual delights, a smile cracked on his face, revealing his white teeth as he breathed heavily through his mouth.

Melissa mistook the smile as being one from the pleasure she was giving and moaned in response.

Bodies continued to spread before him in his mind, painting a picture of carnage and grotesque violence. He wanted more. He wanted to experience that unbridled joy again that seemed to rebound in his soul and silence his conscience. He could taste the iron in the air, the memory was so vivid. Unconsciously, his hands reached out and caressed Melissa’s breasts, playing with them tenderly at first and then increasing in strength.

Melissa could sense something was wrong as Peter continued to get rougher. She started to speak, “Ahh, uh, ahhh, Peter, is somethi-, ahh, wrong?”

In unconscious response, Peter, who had his eyes closed during his trance, leaned in and thrust more vigorously. The fingers of one hand snaked over her skin that now had goose bumps, stopping to rest on her neck.

“What are you do-” Peter’s grip tightened on her throat, cutting off Melissa’s words. Suddenly, his other hand leapt up to join the other in an ever increasing force that threatened to rob the young girl of her life. Melissa weakly beat against his muscular face and chest which only served to increase the rate at which he pumped into her, a ragged and erratic breath escaping his mouth.

Finally, when Melissa’s face was turning blue and she was slipping towards darkness, Peter sped up and arced his back in apparent release. His hands left her neck and she immediately began coughing, gasping for the air she’d been deprived of for so long. Peter collapsed to the side in bliss, providing an avenue of escape for the girl.

Just as he was coming out of his recollection, vaguely aware of what had happened in the meantime, Peter opened his eyes to see a terrified Melissa gathering her clothes. The young woman noticed his awakening and froze horrified before sprinting out of the bedroom and then the apartment itself half-dressed.

***

Adrian’s eyes reflected a deep dark blue as he stared into a massive coolant tank. A few specially paid workers were working on pumping the coolant in after the final pieces of Raide’s liquid-cooled supercomputer had been assembled and put in place. The liquid sloshed turbulently at the glass and it reached the halfway full mark right in front of Adrian’s eyes. Overall, the underground server tank took up an area of 30m x 30m x 20m. The total area was meant to contain both the coolant and the spherical supercomputer hanging in the center of the tank by a thick column that contained all of the fiber-optic cabling.

Smiling softly, Adrian looked over the hulk. It was a joint Adrian/Raide special - a quantum computer. After the upgrade, Adrian had revisited computing hardware to try and design an architecture for Raide’s new brain that would be able to handle any and all of their future computing needs. Of course, there would have to be upgrades in the future, but that could be handled easily enough by replacing the quantum computer module when the advancement came. After a month of split thinking, he’d managed to draw up a framework that Raide then fleshed out.

It was a lot more complicated than that, but Adrian really didn’t want to remember all the particle physics he’d had to study to wrap his brain around it. Materials-wise, they’d had to employ 10 different startups and 3 major tech suppliers to manufacture the parts for the thing. They couldn’t afford anyone having all the pieces to this puzzle.

The foreman named Roger came to stand beside Adrian and whistled. “That’s the biggest damn computer I’ve ever seen. Ya know, I’ve worked on a few server rooms in my day. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s this thing going to crank out when you boot it up?”

Adrian didn’t cease watching the mesmerizing coolant, but a smirk could be seen in the reflection of glass as he said simply, “One exaflop.” The sound of a pin dropping in the room would have been audible if it weren’t for the rushing cacophony the coolant filling caused.

Roger stuttered for a second, saying, “S-surely you’re pulling my leg, right? The best in the world can manage...what, 20 petaflops?”

Adrian nodded thoughtfully. “You know, I do recall hearing that the Oak Ridge National Laboratory had pulled off that feat. Good for them.” Seeing the stupefied look on Roger’s face, Adrian sighed and continued in warning. “I’m only allowing you to know this since you’re under contract Roger. You’re one of two people who know about this, you get me? It’d be a shame for Brody to have to find a new foreman after losing such a good one.”

Adrian saw Roger quake a little at the threat. The man had just learned something incredibly dangerous after all. Be strong Roger, laughed Adrian inwardly. He made sure of course, to indicate that the source would be easily known if any leaks were to occur. Roger gulped and managed a response. “Of-of course. You have nothing to fear, I will honor the contract wholeheartedly.”

Adrian smiled warmly and clapped the man on the shoulder, causing him to jump in terror. “Glad to hear that!” After a few minutes, the last of the coolant had trickled into the tank, sending waves of light dancing across the back wall of the observation room. Turning to Roger, he ask, “The fiber-optic couplings at the node and the Tower have been connect, correct?”

The man was obviously still shaken by the short exchange earlier, but he answered readily, “Yes sir, you’re connected to the power grid and Google’s fiber node. Regrettably, your solar panels are still on backlog so we couldn’t get them early. Your personal accommodations have been completed though and are ready for you whenever you want to move into them. We’ll continue to work around you so please don’t mind us.”

Pleased, Adrian offered a handshake and switched gears. Anyone would be disturbed at the change he’d just made. One minute he was threatening a man and the other he was the demure client. “I appreciate your work, Roger. Be sure to convey that to the men as well for me, would you.”

“I will let them know. Thank you as well, Mr. Pierce.” Having shaken, the two parted with Roger tremulously walking back up the stairs to the outside and Adrian moving over to the nearby control panel. Breathing deeply, Adrian flexed his arm and raised his hand to the breaker switch array. One by one, he flipped each and soon Raide’s new brain glowed, its coolant systems kicking in. Raide’s voice came to life in his earpiece.

“Power established... Levels are nominal... Commencing migration.”

Turning to the side, Adrian eyeballed Raide’s old server cluster that he’d moved from the apartment. It had a small Intel MXC optical cable draped to an access hatch. At the boasted speed of 800 gbps, it wouldn’t take very long to upload Raide’s software and memory. Taking out his phone, he pulled open Raide’s app that’d been configured to track the upload. A bar was displayed along with a percentage, and every 10 seconds or so a point would be added.

Nodding contentedly, Adrian pocket the phone and left the room by the same exit as Roger. He traversed past teams of construction workers and walked straight towards the tower. Entering inside through a pair of glass double doors, he made it to the elevator. Amusingly enough, even the elevator was one of his own designs. A circular disk rested within a vertical tube that had a door designed to seal off the release of any excess gases. The cylinder was positioned in the middle of the building with 4 meters of space on all sides. A balcony could seen for each floor as he looked upwards. Stepping inside, the automatic door opened and closed for him, locking the seal. Adrian then placed his hand on a biometric scanner saying, “Adrian Pierce, floor 15.”

He doubted that he would ever have to use the function again as Raide would be coming back online any second now, but the scanners and voice activation were meant as a redundancy measure in the apocalyptic event that Raide was offline and they needed to evacuate. A rushing of air could be heard and the platform raised along three magnetic tracks. There were no cables involved with this elevator because it worked solely off the principles of pressure and magnetism. Ascending, it would rely completely on the upward force created by the increasing air pressure. Descending, it would do the reverse. The magnetic tracks came into play for emergency and safety reasons.

The quickest way to understand how the tracks worked would be to analyze how the railgun effect operates. Magnetic rails are built along a tube that the projectile would slide though. Along the entire length of the barrel, powerful electromagnets are placed in a series. When the railgun is fired, a capacitor loads electricity into the first electromagnet producing a pulling force that acts on the bullet or projectile. The bullet is then pulled towards the position in the barrel where the force is the strongest. The electromagnet series is calibrated to the point that it alternates the firing of each electromagnet and their push/pull forces as the projectile slides through the barrel at an increasing speed. This, in effect, catapults the bullet out of the barrel and towards the target without the need for gunpowder or some form of accelerant.

What does this have to do with the elevator? It uses the principle in reverse. In the event that the air pressure fails, or some sort of power failure strikes the compound, the stored capacitor energy literally catches the freefalling platform at a comfortable rate through magnetic effect and decelerates it until it rests back down at ground level. Adrian was pretty proud of his design and enjoyed the ride up to the top of the tower.

True, some may be freaked out by such a thing. In that case, and also to appease fire code, he’d had a staircase built in.

Reaching the top after a smooth glide upwards, Adrian saw the doors open for him and he stepped onto his personal floor. A trio of arching gateways greeted him and he could see the coolness of the marble floors wafting upwards in hues of blue with his thermodynamic vision. Lights came on as soon as he stepped out, illuminating his surroundings. The arches were split into three sections that led to one of the three areas of the floor.

To the northwest, positioned so that the commanding view encompassed the central gardens and the biome, was the residential section where he would sleep, eat, and relax. Facing the northeast, was the third that was effectively his command center and personal testing facility. It was much darker than the rest of the floor, but he didn’t mind it. He wasn’t going there anyway.

Adrian walked straight out of the elevator tube and into the southern facing section that he’d designated as Medical/Training. He’d initially debated with Raide over assigning such a large area to that, but in the end he’d seen the benefit and acquiesced to his A.I.’s suggestion. It was true that they still didn’t know everything there was to know about his body. Neither he nor Raide could explain the mood influenced color of his irises nor place a value on the maximum potential of his physical body. This area had been built to facilitate the process of discovery by providing a training and analysis environment perfectly capable of testing his limits.

A loud ring resounded from his pocket and he pulled his phone to see that Raide’s upload had been completed. Smiling mischievously, Adrian tapped at his earpiece and faked exasperation. “Hello? Is anybody home? I tried knocking, but…”

A moment later, he was answered by twin bars that ran at the crease where the walls met the ceiling. These fixtures pulsed and then turned blue, indicating that Raide was online. Adrian had designed this as a visual cue to indicate the A.I.’s attention. Blue represented his primary focus was directed at Adrian, green indicated he was working on secondary goals or projects, and red indicated a state of emergency or attack. It was simple, but effective in its designed purpose of letting the man know where his A.I.’s mind was at any given moment. The bars continued throughout every room of the floor.

Raide faked a groggy voice in reply right as Adrian walked into the medical section, amplified by built-in speakers strategically placed in the walls. “God, what is this light? Can’t you like...pull the blinds or something?” Yawning, he continued, “I think I’m going to sleep for a few hundred years or so.”

Chuckling, Adrian tutted, “Can’t have that, can we? Get up, you idiot.”

Raide groaned and said, “But daaaad, I was just dreaming about this really cute girl named Daisy from school. She has these a-MA-zing-”

“Yeah, yeah, stow it,” Adrian laughed. Switching topics, he went on to say, “How’s the new brain/home?”

Raide appeared on a glass wall in his full body form and stretched before striking a Mr. Universe pose. “Awesome, really.” His posture relaxed and then he jumped, a sofa materializing beneath him right as fell back down. “I feel great and it’s so spacious in here. Honestly, I feel like I can do anything. All the specs are living up to the projected benchmark, so I’m operating at about 998 petaflops. Ah, that’s better, I adjusted the coolant temperature and pushed it up above 1 exaflop. Damn, it feels good to be me.” Raide got up and walked over to the medical room and looked around. “How’s your place?”

Adrian thought for a second and then shrugged. “It’s perfect. They’ve done a fantastic job of not fucking up my design, so kudos to them on that. I haven’t check out the other two wings yet though because I’m a bit eager to test this portion. You ready?”

“Pfft, I could have literally done this while still asleep,” Raide scoffed. “Go towards the light, you meaty mongrel.”

Adrian smiled at his A.I.’s playful mood and stepped towards the middle of the room. Lasers began scanning him from head to toe, taking in all of the surface data they could find like heart rate, skin temperature, breathing pattern, and body dimensions. Next, a robotic arm swung down from its concealed place in the ceiling and stuck a needle in arm, retrieving a vial of blood. After loading its contents into an apparatus that would analyze its composition, it retreated and melded back into the compartment above.

Raide tittered on the screen while looking at a few streams of DNA data, waving a hand absentmindedly in Adrian’s direction. “You may want to sit down for this segment. The ride gets a bit bumpy.”

Following his statement, yet another compartment in the ceiling opened up, revealing a metallic configuration that formed into a reclined chair that fit Adrian’s body. As soon as he was situated, the same robotic arm from before returned, but this time it was armed with a large canister that looked like a rotating wheel of large needles. Sighing, Adrian braced himself for the discomfort of being turned into a pin cushion. At the same time, a circular MRI slid out into the room directly behind Adrian’s chair. It was going to be a long exam.

***

Raide laughed lightly, placing a hand over his mouth in mock civility. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“Curse you, vile digimon. Before you say it, no I’m not referring to the anime, I’m talking about you being half demon, ya bastard! What the hell was the prostate exam for, huh?!”

“Now, now. You know I have to be thorough! Hey, look! The results are done!”

Adrian grumbled as he sat wearily up from the chair. “Trying to distract me...alright, I’ll remember this. Show it to me.”

Adrian PierceAvg. Human (U.S.)Old Body - Max (achieved)Re-Engineered Body - Current (Max unknown yet)Vitality60100190Agility30100210Strength30100205Intelligence50100204Charisma50100200Perception30100205

Adrian squinted at the visual display despite his perfect eyesight. “What the hell? Did you factor in my body synchronization rate based on the combat data from the other day?”

Raide seemed mildly disappointed his creator had figured out why the figures were different since last time. Sighing, the A.I. said, “Correct, I integrated the degree of familiarity you feel towards your body into your stat sheet. Also, believe it or not, you’ve actually somehow increased the density of your muscles further which contributed to some of the higher values. Back when it was 180 for each, that was you after you’d just finished your metamorphosis, before you could properly get acquainted with your new body. My values had no way of knowing how well you would acclimate and to what extent you’d be able to utilize it.”

“If that’s the case, then my potential is still a big, fat unknown... Interesting…” Adrian stretched and got up from the chair, seemingly no longer affected by the extensive diagnostic tests he’d just had to undergo. Raide followed him along the wall until he exited the room and then jumped to the training area as he postulated that was where Adrian was going. Sure enough, Adrian’s feet carried him into the well lit fitness area.

Casting his eyes over all of the equipment and rows of absurdly heavy resistance training gear, he stopped and affectionately traced his finger over a specially made 150lb plate meant to be stacked onto a barbell. Turning to look towards the south through a wall of glass, he could see the Church stretched out before him below, still under construction. Not bothering to direct his gaze at Raide’s waiting figure, Adrian spoke with a hint of mirth and excitement in his voice, “I guess we get to go into what’s called ‘closed doors training’ then, huh?”