|
Post by sersi on Mar 24, 2013 10:17:18 GMT -8
From: Seanne Rystaad, CEO To: Public Relations, Legal Cc: Tess Aurbach Subject: Contract Gone Wrong
It seems a prototype from ESI labs has gone missing that another company had paid good money to be developed. We may now be looking at a costly breach of contract suit because of this. Dani, can you or Mal please try to meet with the client and see if a renegotiation of the deadline can be had? Mr. Evertt - in case it can't can the legal team get to work to cover us?
Also Tess - we may have to negotiate aggressively. If you could get some people to do up what dirt you can I'll love you extra. Thanks.
- Seanne <3
|
|
|
Post by sersi on Mar 24, 2013 10:19:45 GMT -8
From: D. Silverman, PR To: Malcom Sigurrdson Subject: Re - Contract
I you could handle this, Mal, that would be delightful. I think I'm going to be swamped scrubbing YouTube of videos of the bosses weekend. Thanks.
- Dani Silverman
|
|
|
Post by kottur on Mar 24, 2013 10:43:29 GMT -8
From: Malcolm Sigurdsson To: D. Silverman, PR Subject: Re: Re - Contract
Will do. Any idea what King drinks?
-Mal
|
|
|
Post by kottur on Mar 24, 2013 10:51:12 GMT -8
From: Malcolm Sigurdsson To: D. Silverman, PR Subject: Re: Re - Contract
Wait, no, he's not the one I need to meet with. Bear with me, I'm still catching up. So, who DO I contact and what do THEY drink?
-Mal
|
|
|
Post by kottur on Mar 24, 2013 11:01:58 GMT -8
From: Malcolm Sigurdsson To: Brad King Subject: Problem Solving
Hello, Mr. King. I'm with PR for AEgir. Unfortunate that we have to meet under these circumstances, but I've been on a bit of an extended vacation.
So if we're going to fix this thing, I need to know who I get in touch with. More importantly, I need to know everything about them. And I mean anything; anything you're willing to share. Once I have that, we'll all be sitting pretty.
Looking forward to hearing from you, Malcolm Sigurdsson, AEgir Communications
|
|
|
Post by tess on Mar 24, 2013 11:03:18 GMT -8
To: Seanne Rystaad, CEO From: Tess Auerbach RE: Contract
I'll see what I can find. What's the company we're negotiating with? And any key personnel I should know about?
~Tess
|
|
|
Post by terlari on Mar 24, 2013 11:48:52 GMT -8
Mean while on a secure level, in a darkened room where the most light comes from Monitors on the walls around the room and from the individual workstations of the drones that do Securities more mundane tasks.
Sylistra looks over the shoulder of one of these drones, watching some footage they were bringing up, the two drones near her had been assigned to go over all footage dating back from when the prototype had gone missing.
|
|
|
Post by effinfitz on Mar 24, 2013 12:00:29 GMT -8
To: Malcolm Sigurdsson From: Brad King Cc: Danielle Silverman, Seanne Rystaad Subject: Contract details Attachment: contract_710000561XML.pdf, SenTaxxcontactinfo.xls
There's not much I can tell you, I'm afraid. We're a weapons development firm, if we audited our clients much we'd never have any business.
I can tell you, from talking to them myself when this whole fiasco went down, that Mr. Screwtape is a delight to talk to. Not talk "with," mind. He'll just sit and stare at you until you're done talking. Our chemist actually came up with a drinking game dependent on getting him to respond.
She went home sober.
If there's anything at all I might be able to help with, don't hesitate to call.
- Brad King, Director, ESI Labs
This is a confidential communication between employees of AEgir Communications. Any unauthorized readers are violating federal law, and will be detained by company security until such time as the proper authorities make a formal charge.
Engineering Solutions and Innovations -- Practical answers to outlandish problems. |
contract_710000561XML.pdf
Oh, jeez. This is like eating an onion: it's painful, you're in tears halfway through, and even if you get all the way through it you can't get anything out of it. Some work with the printer and a highlighter works wonders to bring out the key points, though.
The agreement was for an "adaptive organic interface superprocessor," which is the first time the product's mentioned and easily the most understandable description. Sadly. What's far more recognizable is the price tag SenTaxx put on it: what both Shay and Brad described as a "nice, round number."
My, that's a lot of zeroes. You're not exactly sure, but off the top of your head it's big enough to compete with Micronesia's GDP. You're rather certain that Ægir's cut from ESI's profits on this could have paid to replace all the water fountains in the building with full service wet bars.
Whoever stole this prototype -- they'll pay. Dearly.
Ægir might pay first, though. SenTaxx has several dire warnings sprinkled throughout the contract. "Breach of contract" lawsuits, threats to withdraw Sponsorship, the like. Something about the way the dry legalese describes all the countermeasures to failure is very...graphic. Headache inducing, even.
The rest of the document describes the exact needs for the product. It's utterly incomprehensible. The best you can make out is the word "processor," and by the diagrams SenTaxx already had some kind of idea of what they'd need.
Cripes, that's enough of that. There has to be an easier way to get more information. |
SenTaxxcontactinfo.xls
A form template for keeping track of ESI's contacts. The name given is Christian Screwtape, Director of Acquisitions for SenTaxx Pharmaceuticals. There's an e-mail, a company 800 number, and what looks to be a cell phone number. Area code 850. |
|
|
|
Post by effinfitz on Mar 24, 2013 13:05:41 GMT -8
Composite footage: seccamA6-01thru-14_2013-03-15_s2.avi
Man, ESI Labs looks like a fun place to work.
It looks like a party going on in their firing range -- normally, just a large empty concrete room now filled with cheering engineers and a large, turret-mounted cannon. Catalina is at the helm of the beast, raucously gesturing for Tink to give her another target. Her friend complies, shooting a canister of something from a t-shirt gun made of from scrap metal and cereal boxes. The skeet arcs up, wobbles at its zenith -- then gets walloped by a thunderous report and a supersonic burst of cherry-flavored jell-o. Everyone whoops and cheers.
You can't imagine how much fun they'll have getting all the jell-o off the walls. Let alone the ceiling.
Composite footage: seccamA7-01thru-14_2013-03-15_t2.avi
The bottom level of ESI's facilities are deserted. Everyone's upstairs "working." Until exactly 1532, anyway. Then one of the fire escape doors leading to the rest of the basements clicks open, though no alarm sounds. A figure in baggy, shapeless clothes and a dated, military-surplus gas mask sneaks through. About as obvious as can be -- luckily for them, there was no one around at the time.
Judging by everything else you see, the intruder's about five six, five seven -- maybe add another half-inch for the combat boots. They move quickly and without pause through the war zone of the workshops, never once getting lost or pausing to look around. They ony stop when they reach the massive bank vault door that guards the secure prototypes. It's time-locked: it only opens every eight hours. 0800, 1600, and 2400. Nearly another half hour before the next cycle, and even then it's supposed to require an access code, retinal scan, voice scan and ID badge before opening.
Supposed to.
The intruder pauses only long enough to pull out a smartphone. Taps at it smartly and swiftly, no wasted movements. Ten seconds later and the door hisses, hydraulic piston locks disengaging. A dull siren, like a truck backing up, sounds.
The intruder waits, motionless.
Composite footage: seccamA6-01thru-14_2013-03-15_t2.avi
Business continues. If you mess with the gain on the audio, filter things out...you can just barely hear the siren from the floor below over the shouts of the crowd. But you're actually listening for it...and you haven't been standing next to a live autocannon for the past hour.
Fifteen minutes later and the crowd starts to die down, urging Catalina to bring the thing down to lockup while she still has time. The tester reluctantly agrees, moving the weapon towards a freight elevator on its wheeled tracks.
Composite footage: seccamA7-01thru-14_2013-03-15_t2.avi
It takes ten minutes for the locks to fully disengage. The intruder doesn't show any signs of impatience, but that might just be the general shapelessness of their outfit at work. When the door finally does groan open, they dart inside at lightning speed. This time they need to look around -- but they work fast, and figure out exactly which lockbox they need. It's hard to see how they open it, exactly. First they put a hand on it...then pulse of light, the overheads flicker off and on, and suddenly the box opens up. The intruder grabs the contents -- another box, incredibly, and darts out.
Thirteen minutes since they started opening the vault door, in total.
Composite footage: seccamA6-01thru-14_2013-03-15_t2.avi
Now that the noise has died down, ESI can hear the siren. They all start to order each other about at once, but it's Cat and Tink who dash off down the emergency stairs at top speed.
Composite footage: seccamA7-01thru-14_2013-03-15_t2.avi
The intruder dashes through the stairwell door again. Two minutes later, Cat and Tink emerge from the same and charge to the vault.
Too late, of course. Tink sums it all up quite nicely.
"Ai, crap. Brad's gonna be pissed."
Composite footage: seccamA10-01thru-14_2013-03-15_t2.avi
You're able to catch the intruder one more time, dashing through basement A10. It seems like a backwards way to escape: nothing on that level aside from a parking lot and an entrance to Basement C, that larger empty warren that was never finished before Solveig's death.
They head straight there. Of course. It's not networked -- no cameras.
...well, alright. Now what?
Composite footage: seccamA7-01thru-14_2013-03-15_t2.avi
Security is alerted. A regular officer takes report, agrees to send it up to Jean -- but he even mentions that his supervisor's notoriously hard to reach these days. Eventually, Brad comes, and, well.
ESI Labs doesn't look like such a fun place to work, anymore.
|
|
|
Post by terlari on Mar 24, 2013 13:28:01 GMT -8
Sylistra steps away from the monitor, looking slowly round at the monitors as she ponders her next move. She picks a random drone, her usual shyness a ghost of it's self, personally the drones prefer the shyness.
'You, start background checks on all employees in the basement area and contractors with access.' She moves her attention to another, 'And Derek, get me profiles on people close to Solveig during the development of this building ...that includes Mila Cameron. That individual was familiar with the layout and systems. If I'm needed I'll be down checking out those tunnels with a team.'
She then exits the room, making her way down the corridor, towards the armoury, using her workphone to send an email update. With in thirty minutes she was assembled in the basement area with a squad of five to investigate.
|
|
|
Post by terlari on Mar 24, 2013 13:38:13 GMT -8
From: Sylistra Erzaes To: Gabriel Cartier Cc: Seanne, Jean Martinique, Brad King. Subject: Regarding The Contract.
Security has gone through the security footage, attached is key images from that footage. You'll notice that the individual has knowledge of the layout for the basements, right down to unfinished areas. Security is sending a team down to check it out for breaches and evidence.
Background checks are being started on all personnel in ESI and the basement levels, along with eternal contractors with access to their.
-Sylistra
|
|
|
Post by kottur on Mar 24, 2013 15:07:00 GMT -8
From: Malcolm Sigurdsson To: Sylistra Erzaes Cc: Tess Auerbach Subject: ESI
Hey Syl, want to do your favorite PR man a favor? I'll need access to whatever you can give me to fix this this ESI thing. I'd much appreciate it.
Mal
|
|
|
Post by onlycore on Mar 24, 2013 16:44:35 GMT -8
From: Annabel Winston-Smythe To: Seanne Rystaad, CEO Subject: RE: Contract Gone Wrong
You need anything from us down in tech support just yell
Anna
|
|
|
Post by dthblayde on Mar 25, 2013 7:38:55 GMT -8
Gabe was back in town just long enough to spend a couple hours at a party with security's other resident smoking hot red head before having to jump back onto a jet for another week long baby sitting assignment. It was during this flight that he sat back with his laptop open, reviewing the information. His fingers drummed across the armrest idly before he leaned forward, composing a response. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Tess Auerbach,Sylistra Erzaes Cc: Seanne, Jean Martinique, Subject: Regarding The Contract.
I need not state the obvious that this individual had in depth and extensive knowledge of the layout, security procedures, camera locations etc. (But I just did.) Whoever this is knew the exacts of who, where, when and how.... which leads me to believe this is a complete inside job. An outside "party" would have lacked the efficiency to navigate the layout that quickly, not to mention having all the necessary means to get through the vault security conveniently on their phone...assuming that's all it was.
I recommend reviewing the fire stairwell access again; cameras and locks on all floors. To the pixel if necessary to see if any image "duping" or "ghosting" was done. We may not be able to lock down a specific access code, but perhaps we can find where they came in from or what floor. Maybe IT can salvage some shred of data on who's identity was used on the vault itself, then follow up on the whereabouts of that person.
Additionally, in addition to background checks of current employees, I believe a sweep of all former AEgir employees to see where they may have ended up after their "conflict of interest" period ended. Someone at Sentaxx wants their new toy for free, and I believe Mr Screwtape had "acquired" personnel prior to the writing of that contract to achieve just that.
-G.Cartier
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Mar 25, 2013 9:50:40 GMT -8
The prim and efficient Miss Willmore looked up from her desk in front of my office as I approached.
"Good morning, Mr. Weaver. Have a good date last night?"
I smirked as she handed over a file folder of correspondance. "Quite so, Miss Willmore." I entered my office, and immediately started poring over the files and videos that Miss Willmore had neatly arranged so I could get caught up on the current "problem" as quickly as possible. My focus soon turned to Mr. Screwtape (such an oddball name!) himself.
Hmm..... I began to type up an e-mail.
---- From: Carl Weaver To: Theresa Auerbach, Seanne Rystaad Subject: Screwtape and SenTaxx
Having gone over the case files on the stolen prototype, I'm anxious to find out more about Mr. Screwtape and the SenTaxx Pharmaceuticals. Quite frankly, this all seems like a very "Parent Company"-like plot. We do all the work, "they" then take the finished product away from us for free, and then we're having to pay up for a broken contract. A win-win-win for SenTaxx all around.
I'm going to focus on the Screwtape and SenTaxx angle, try to find out if they have a history of this kind of corporate espionage. The recruiting of insiders within their client companies may be a huge part of their M.O.
Mr. Screwtape's cel phone number has an Area Code in the Flordia Panhandle....may have to pack some sunscreen...
-Carl ----
Before any thoughts of a business trip to Florida though, first things first.
My fingers began dancing about the keyboard, as I began looking up all avaliable information on Christian Screwtape and SenTaxx Pharmaceuticals.
|
|