Database: Surveillance Audio, Maeda and Ortiz

-- AUDIO TRANSCRIPT OF CONVERSATION

-- CAPTURE MADE 17:23 BY SURVEILLANCE MIC #1/12

-- SUBJECT CAYETANO ORTIZ EMP. No. 09/324 and JUNKO MAEDA EMP. No. 09/645

-- FLAGGED FOR URGENT SECURITY REVIEW

ORTIZ – Alright, what's so important?

MAEDA – Wait, wait, I need to check... There's mics all over the place...

ORTIZ – They only have those in the labs... Wait, you're worried about security hearing this? What are you getting me into?

MAEDA – Sssh! Sssh! I'm frickin' freaking out here, okay? Don't make it worse!

ORTIZ – Okay, take a breath. One, two. Calm.

MAEDA – (SLOW BREATHS)

ORTIZ – Now what is it you wanted to tell me?

MAEDA – So. Listen. I did an autopsy on some of the recent code. Basically instead of flushing an instance from a silo I disabled it and went looking through the guts.

ORTIZ – Junko, that is a Code Three violation—

MAEDA – (OVERLAP) Code Three, yeah, yeah. Well I'm glad I did a Code Three because I found out what the fuck they're up to and it is not cool, okay?

ORTIZ – I don't even want to know what they—

MAEDA – (OVERLAP) They've been testing her on people. They gave her a slice of the Animus to work with and put users in there with her. The full Abstergo experience, only run by our baby.

ORTIZ – What? Why? Nobody told me about that.

MAEDA – Of course not. Because we thought we were using the Animus to train the AI. Turns out it's the other way round. They're using the AI to train the Animus!

ORTIZ – Come on. That's conspiracy talk, and it's dangerous. Abstergo doesn't operate like that. There are ethical considerations, to start with. Those are people's genetic memories.

MAEDA – I saw the video logs, okay? She's running a version of the Animus in which she gets editorial privilege. They're testing to see if she can get away with tweaking the timelines. There'll be knock-on effects, of course, but she's smart enough to simulate the outcomes. They want to know if she can fool the users, if she can change history in the Animus without triggering a desync.

MAEDA – Cay, it was her idea!

ORTIZ – Junko, stop. Stop now.

MAEDA – What? Stop what?

ORTIZ – Stop this. You cannot talk this way. You cannot talk to me this way. Whatever you think you know, I don't want to hear it. I have a family, and I very much want to see them again. Do you understand?

MAEDA – Cay... what...?

ORTIZ – I should report you for this. I'm supposed to report you. Otherwise it's my ass as well as yours.

MAEDA – Hey. Where you going?

MAEDA – You're not going to say anything, are you?

MAEDA – Cay?

-- TRANSCRIPT ENDS