It took Warden and me one week to iron out all the bugs we could find in the VR layer for Envision.

To be fair, the vast majority of that time was needed for the testers to actually find the bugs in question. All in all, I would say I spent roughly a virtual week on this. So not even a single real-time day in total

The rest of the time I mostly went through the gravitics course, improved my music, and had a handful of jobs for Spectre. Nothing noteworthy, just the daily grind for one of the top 10.

And yes, I finally had worked on the SoC-processor line. I naturally kept the instruction set of the Regulon, to make it easier for the software developers to migrate.

And honestly, it would have been way too much effort to reinvent the wheel here. I mean, seriously, the patent on the instruction sets had been long expired. Everybody used them. They worked fine.

To be exact, I started out with the regulon core design and began substituting the now finally obsolete technology step by step. The result was a cute little square with a bit less than a cm in side length and a thickness of only 3mm.

Unlike with the Hyperion, the Chronos, the Chimaera, and absolutely unlike the Grendel, my primary design concern here was power efficiency.

The other processors were usually in an environment with line power, with relatively roomy housings and generous cooling solutions. The new SoC on the other hand would be mostly in a handheld device, or worse, an implanted one, where energy supply and cooling were… a tad limited.

That limited the gain of the new SoC to roughly 800 times its Regulus equivalent. After some research, I decided to name this little piece of graphene Bia, to keep it in the same thematical ballpark as the rest of my processors. Except for the Grendel of course.

During that time, Michael became more and more insistent that we had to start the negotiations with Ralcon pretty dang soon. Not that I did not understand him in this.

The day we would officially open shop was approaching pretty quickly. But it would not serve anybody to give Ralcon a flawed product. Yes, I realize now that I should have started a bit earlier with the project. Heck, I realized it then. That did not change the fact that I hadn’t. To be fair, it only occurred to me that we even needed to do it when Michael brought up the negotiations.

Finally, we were at a status where I was convinced it would work in 99.9% of all cases. The people I had tasked with testing it had not found any new bugs in two days, and a couple of them had fun driving the VR layer beyond what I had programmed it to do. If anybody abused the program to a degree that exceeded that, well, I figured that would be their problem.

But now we had just four days left to negotiate with Ralcon before we opened the doors of our first production facility to normal business.

And two of those days were the weekend. I was skeptical if Michael could manage to get the negotiations going in that time, but to be fair, it would be unlikely that Ralcon would be able to shut us down anytime quickly.

Yes, if they put their mind to it, the chances were not that low that they could buy enough lawmakers to make our endeavor illegal. But with the rather enthusiastic support of nearly every other halfway important corporation, it would take them a few months at least.

But wonder over wonder, Michael managed to get them to come to NYC for the very next day, Friday, July 20th.

I was not quite anticipating these negotiations with elations, and I dreaded the next few hours even more.

For once, Ben was present when we began talking about the upcoming meeting. He had, over the course of the last few weeks, made it abundantly clear that he was less than amused about Michael going into a room with Ralcon people. Yes, he knew that it was necessary, but that did not change the fact that he did not like it.

As if any of us did.

Michael had gotten himself a coffee, and sat at the table, facing Ben and me.

“So, any last suggestions before I walk into the lion's den?” He sounded resigned to a difficult task.

I gathered all my barely existing courage and took a deep breath.

“Yes, one change compared to Enertech. I will come with you.”

Ben’s angry “Absolutely not!” was beautifully accentuated by Michael’s “Are you fucking insane?”

Both men were silent for a moment before Michael gestured for his father to continue. Ben did not waste any more time to bellow: “You will remain right here, in the fortress. We will increase security and keep you safe. Do I make myself clear?”

I just tilted my head, before looking expectantly at Michael. He, of course, took the cue and elaborated on his father's argument.

“I will be damned if I drag you into the fucking line of fire. Even if I were not quite fond of you, do you think I am suicidal enough to let Warden know that I put you into some form of danger?”

Ben had meanwhile calmed down a tiny bit and spoke more naturally: “It is way too dangerous for you. Yes, Enertech was, in theory, as dangerous as Ralcon, but they have no skin in the game. Ralcon will do everything to make you go away. Permanently.

Not to mention that Warden won’t let you go.”

I shook my head slightly while answering:

“It is because of Warden that I have to go.”

Michael furrowed his brows, looking a bit confused.

“Because of Warden? Sorry, did you get enough sleep the last few days? Have you hit your head?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose but refused to look away.

“Yes, because of Warden. For Ralcon, it would be almost a big coup to take out you, as it would if they eliminated me. Face it, you are as essential for Enki as I am, or at least nearly so. That means we have to protect you as well.”

I took a sip of the tea I had made myself, collecting my thoughts for a moment.

“I am no longer anonym. People know that I, as Seraphim, am behind Enki. They know my name. And they pretty dang well know about Warden. If I appear at the negotiations, Ralcon knows that the moment they try to doublecross us, Ralcon ceases to exist, along with much of Philadelphia.

That is the only way I see to keep you safe. If they geek you, Melissa, and Rafael, what do you think the consequences are for Ralcon? Depending on the way they do it, they might get notified that they have acted a bit undignified, and that’s it. And only if they make a big enough splash that the other triple-As can mock them for it.

But if I am there, the consequences of them doing something are… let’s say substantial. They know that.”

Beside me, Ben let out a low growl, while Michael looked as if he slowly counted to ten. Then, Michael, nodded sharply, with closed eyes.

“I hate it. I fucking hate it, but you are right. How the fuck did we get to that?”

I could not help it to have a slight smile.

“We dared to do a business that Ralcon does not like in the US of A. Anywhere else, and we would be more or less welcome. Not here.”

Ben gripped my hand and tugged me to face him.

“Listen to me, and listen carefully. You are right. I hate it, but you are right. But we will place significant security at the hotel. And you will take Ryan and Justin with you. The first sign of it going down into the crapper, and you are out of there. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand. And I planned on that anyway. I wanted the others here except Jacky to be at the ready and take Darren and Kate into the room with us.”

I sighed.

“I know it's dangerous. And I am anything but happy about it. But I see no other way. We have to buy Ralcon off. And we have to get to the point where we can offer them the VR layer. And they have to take us seriously for that. And Warden simply is the only thing we have that they have to take seriously.

And they only will do that if they know for sure that she will react if they try to cheat.”

That more or less ended our discussion that afternoon and for the rest of the day, Ben did not let go of me.

Darren and Kate were understandably not happy about being in the room with the Ralcon goons, but they understood as well and accepted.

And so, the next morning, we boarded the two T-240s, as Ben had loaned his to Michael for this day, and were on the way to the hotel in Brooklyn.

The Ralcon crowd naturally rejected meeting us at the fortress, while we were equally uncooperative in meeting them at their NYC headquarters, and so, a relatively well-known business hotel not far from Ralcon HQ was chosen.

In the meeting room, we had to wait a few minutes for the Ralcon delegation to arrive, not that anyone of us expected anything else. We used the time and ordered some coffee.

When the Ralcon crowd arrived, we all stood up in greeting. The first man through the door was obviously muscle, presumably a bodyguard. Around 190cm tall, and nearly as broad, he had a surprisingly good-fitting dark blue suit, a shaved head, and dark sunglasses.

And here I thought it was against muscle union rules to wear a good suit. Color me astounded.

The second man through made Darren groan quitely. An average-sized blond, with piercing blue eyes. I could not put my finger on it, but somehow I did not like this bloke. Maybe it was the sharkish smile or the long nose.

After him, there was the usual parade of corpo-types, lawyers, and guard dogs. After a very insincere “good morning” from everybody, Darren moved toward ratface.

“Hello Walter. I thought you did not want to play by corpo-rules any longer.”

“Hi Darren. As always on the underdog side, I see. Well, the money was just too good.”

The way he stretched the ‘just’ made me like him even less. Somehow I knew that this was a jerk par excelence.

And it was very clear that Darren was anything but happy about ratface's inclusion. As soon as the Ralcon-yahoos had managed to sit down, the apparent leader of their troupe, a man of roughly 50, with gray hear, a very expensive anthracite-colored suit and a very big, attention-grabbing golden ring with what I assumed were a few diamonds, looked directly at Michael.

“Well, Walker, I did not think it was that kind of meeting. If I had known, I had brought entertainment as well.”

The way he leered over me during that sentence left no doubt about what he meant, and so I chose to answer.

“I fear you have it wrong. My name is Vivian DuClare, but I think you know me better as Seraphim.”

As soon I said that he, as well as most of the muscle, frowned heavily, while one of the suits muttered a short:

“Fuck!”

Mr. Boss quickly caught himself though and addressed me directly now.

“So we have an international criminal here? I shouldn’t have expected more from such a roughshod outfit.”

I shrugged.

“I wouldn’t describe myself as a criminal. I am at best a person of interest. Something you could not say for example of Zion, or Complex Nova, don’t you think?”

Yes, I was aware that mentioning the two Abyss-dwellers that worked almost exclusively for Ralcon had absolutely no bearing. Except for pulling Ralcon down to the same level as us. Seriously, Ralcon might have better PR, but they were as dirty as any other outfit.

But unlike my Seraphim persona, Zion and Complex Nova had substantial bounties on their heads.

“That may be, but none of them let a rogue VI run amok. You deserve to be shot for that. It is just a matter of time before the world leaders will agree to that.”

Oh yes, the VI card.

“I wouldn’t describe my VI as a rogue. A bit trigger happy, yes, but not rogue. It has some clear, and even relatively simple objectives. Just because those objectives are inconvenient for you does not make it rogue.”

“That is your opinion. I believe that you will soon be held accountable for your plunder.”

“You mean your plunder, don’t you?”

Oh yes, that confused him.

“My plunder? I am not the one who created a homicidal VI.”

“You personally? No, I agree, no responsibility here. But I meant Ralcon. And Enertech, Dalgon, Burgmeister, Kawamoto, Panacea, Xiao Ping, ABAS, and Falconer. I had enough time to look deeper into the topic and found out that shortly after the ICSC 2120 every notice that one should be careful about the computer system where one designs a VI-capable processor was replaced with the statement that it takes a physical VI-capable processor for a VI to wake up.”

I waited a few seconds for effect, taking a sip of my coffee.

“You corps placed a trap. Congratulation, I walked into it. Luckily for me, you are the one who has to fear the consequences.”

He scoffed. “A likely story. Whatever, you will get yours soon enough. We are here to see what pitiful offering you have to try to prevent us from taking your little mom-and-pop business out.”

Ah yes, the usual posturing. And so the negotiations had begun.

Only to be interrupted by Walter exclaiming: “What the fuck, why can’t I read you guys?”

I was confused for a moment, but then it dawned on me. I looked at Darren.

“Am I right in the assumption that this… individual is a psionic?”

Darren nodded, grinning slightly.

I sighed dramatically.

“The nerve of the people these days! Don’t you know that it is rude to read the minds of people without asking them? Show some manners!”

I turned back to boss man.

“You have my condolences. Having to work with such unprofessional people. Whelp, I am sure it will get better with time if you just put enough effort into it.”

Of course, I was gloating. The Ralcon team had made a serious faux pas here. And that made me happy that I had given all of my people, everybody who knew about the mind-blocker one.

That would not make Ratface harmless. Far from it, a psionic is a dangerous weapon in nearly every situation, but it took away a serious advantage the Ralcon-clowns almost certainly depended on.

Darren on the other hand was not handicapped in any way. Add in that not a single Ralcon-muscle was a cyber zombie, and all of them were normies… well, let’s say that Kate alone would probably wipe the floor with their security.

That did not tell me what forces they had prepared outside of this room, naturally, but at least initially we would have the advantage.