Growth Industry (IC)

[Electra]

"Yeah, probably," Erin nodded. "When I had access to Young Freedom's teleporter I used it sometimes, even though I can get around locally on my own pretty well. Sometimes you just have to get someplace right away, and you can't beat a teleporter for that. And depending on how you power it, maybe you could get green credits or something for keeping some cars off the street at rush hour," she suggested, mostly joking. "My place is out in the North End, so it's not really that far away, but like you said, there's rain and snow to think about. Uh, that reminds me," she said suddenly, "is there going to be a uniform or like a dress code you want me to wear?"

[Fox]

"Not sure," Mara answered, raising an eyebrow and trying (mostly failing) to keep her voice more dry than amused. "Should probably ask my new head of security. Not my area."

"Would prefer it," she continued a little more seriously. "Part of security is intimidation. But wouldn't ask much, and company would provide whatever uniforms you wanted for you and rest of your people. Not going to make you buy special work clothes, and capable of designing - or having someone design - clothes to fit....unique requirements....given time. Rest of employees don't have a dress code, though, as long as it's practical for what they're working on - so really up to you and how you want to run things."

[Electra]

"Security here probably won't call for specially constructed uniforms," Erin decided. "There might be a big fight once in awhile, but mostly it's probably going to be like you said, keeping an eye on things and being a deterrent. Something like a uniform shirt, dark pants, boots, and utility belt for a weapon and phone or whatever. Do you have a logo made up yet? Put that on the shirt and that's probably official enough for people to get the message. How many security people are you thinking about hiring?"

[Fox]

Mara shook her head, frowning. "Not sure. Have been thinking about that. Would only need relatively small team - building will have automated defenses, not expecting THAT much trouble, probably bad for morale to have armed guards by every doorway. But too low is risky - invites cat burglars and thieves along with break-ins. Teams of four, maybe, not including you. Five? Three shifts, weekends...twenty people total, maximum, maybe less. Keep it small, no unfamiliar faces. Not going to get robbed by 'I'm the new guy' ploys. Cliché. Would be very depressing."

[Electra]

Erin cocked her head, doing a little mental arithmetic. It helped that she'd been juggling potential work hours recently for herself, made things easier. "Sixteen would probably be enough," she suggested, "otherwise not everybody's going to get full-time hours in a week. And four shifts of four in rotation means no one shift is stuck doing overnights for too long at a time. I can do twelves pretty easily, I don't need much sleep, but an eight hour shift is probably going to keep a regular guard more alert." She was shamelessly cribbing a lot of this from the setup at ArcheTech, another 24/7 concern, but she figured she might as well get some use out of her short stint there. "And yeah, no strangers on a team that small."

[Fox]

"Mmh." Mara nodded, tapping a finger on the spool as she ran schedules through her head. "Alert is best. Rounded up to twenty for weekends - assumed nobody would want to work weekdays and weekends. Assumption - haven't worked security myself. Not sure what's standard. But flexibility there - advantage of owning the company myself. Nobody else to answer to. Can try things, see if they work, adjust as necessary. Science."

[Electra]

"Everyone will probably want to get a weekend off sometimes," Erin allowed, "but it's a service job, not an office gig. Nobody can expect to have two days off back to back every week, or never work weekends. Anyway, if you're paying by the hour, people generally want more hours. Um, I guess that's something else to ask about," she said, trying to be delicate about it. "Salaries and benefits, things like that. I mean, I know you're just getting started with the company and all that," she added hastily. "And like I said, I haven't got a lot of years of experience or anything."

[Fox]

"Don't care," Mara said, firmly. "Very good at what I do. Hire people very good at what they do. Experience is less important than talent, skill...and my ability to put trust in them. Did research - security group's pay will be above average, with very above average benefits. Probably hourly for most - lets them pick up extra hours when they need to - but salary for you, as their leader. Protects from having to leave for emergencies, anyway. Work won't be without risk, and compensation should reflect that. Also makes bribes less of a problem."

She pulled some hair back behind an ear, frowning. "Company's just starting, but not in immediate danger. Can afford to pay people what they're worth, and intend to. Only fair."

[Electra]

"That sounds like a really good plan," Erin said, with just a trace of surprise in her voice. Salary negotiations never seemed to go quite the way she thought they would. "You should get lots of applications then, and like you said, make the people you hire more loyal. And since it's Freedom City, they're probably at least sort of used to dealing with super-science and giant robots and all that," she added with a trace of humor. "It seems like there's a lot still left to do in three weeks before you open up."

[Fox]

Mara looked around the room, and sighed. Her hair had already escaped her ear, and she pulled it back again. "Yes. Gorgon cost me time. Probably won't have some of upper offices finished in time, but can do enough of the rest...actually already have a lot of it, just needs to be installed. Drones are doing last of structural work and heavy wiring this week while humans do more delicate things - glass, small wiring. Trying to get hiring and paperwork done while that happens. Will be...phrase...'cutting it close'. But will be glad to have it done, finally. Been working on it a long time."

[Electra]

"Why did you decide you wanted your own company, if you don't mind me asking?" Erin looked around at the large but spartan area, still dotted with half-finished construction projects. "I thought that Jill mentioned something about you being associated with that big glass egg out in Hanover?" Erin had only been to The Lab twice, once for a science project and once for a very uncomfortable checkup and shot from Miss Americana, but she remembered the distinctive look of the place very well. It was huge and well-equipped, and seemed to have room for just about any science that needed done.

[Fox]

"No. Yes - sort of," Mara waffled, gesturing vaguely with one hand and grimacing. "Dragonfly is associated with...big glass egg. I'm not. And...charity work, sort of. Refuse to get paid for it. But science is...expensive. Very expensive. Can keep costs down with visits to junkyards, generate my own power, recycle materials...but still have to pay money for things. Have to eat. Some things...not in junkyards. Need income, not willing to work for anybody else. Seemed like a good solution."

"...plus," she added, grimacing again. "Don't like spotlight, but being known has...advantages. Connections, favors. Don't like attention, but does make it harder to do anything to me, if anybody finds out who I am. Too easy to make me disappear if I live alone in a warehouse in Greenbank."

[Electra]

The last reason was enough to have Erin raising both eyebrows. She understood the need for security around superscience projects, but superscientists themselves tended to be in much lower demand. "Do you think that's going to be a particular problem?" she asked. "People trying to disappear you, I mean. If someone is after you, that's probably something I should know about right away, so I can work out ways to protect you and everybody else." Something about the way Mara said it made Erin think it wasn't just a random fear or free-floating paranoia.

[Fox]

Mara was obviously a bit guarded about whatever it was that she might or might not have concerns about, but she at least looked more like someone who was cautiously aware of a calculated threat and less like someone seriously concerned with being whisked away in the middle of the night. She sat there, chewing on that for a moment, and giving things a rather serious, careful consideration.

".....nnnno. Don't think so; not right now, anyway. Will let you know if that changes."

[Electra]

Erin was quiet for a moment, letting a silence stretch that was punctuated only by the insulated tread of robot feet. "If you have somebody after you, that's your business," she began, going to put her hands in her pockets before she remembered that her suit didn't have them. "But if I'm going to work for you, be your head of security, I take that job very seriously. I will gladly step in front of a bullet for you, or whatever needs to happen to keep you safe, but I can't do that as effectively if you don't tell me ahead of time if someone is gunning for you. I can keep a secret with the best of them."

[Fox]

Mara actually squirmed for a moment as her pride in being rational fought tooth and nail with her general dislike of sharing the larger portions of her life story, and the tapping of her finger against the lip of the spool could have been used to check a Swiss clock for accuracy. tell...the important parts?

"......possible risk of attack or kidnapping," she admitted, reluctantly. "Unlikely in near future. Cautious. Won't like me establishing myself. Would probably not happen here anyway - too defended, too many people - and can't predict method. Not that direct. He'd hire somebody, could be anybody."

"Worth noting," the engineer quickly added, pulling the neck of her shirt and jacket aside to expose the heavy steel choker that rested at the base of her neck, "never 'unarmed'. Would probably prefer you didn't take many bullets for me, though. But...thank you."

[Electra]

Erin nodded, filing the information away. "Bullets aren't actually that bad," she admitted offhandedly. "Hurts for a minute, but they're a lot better than fireballs or acid or really strong electrical shocks. Still better to avoid them, though. If this guy is willing to hire his dirty work done, that's something you'll need to be careful of when you're hiring, too. You don't want to bring in a plant to be part of the team from the get-go. At the very least, you need a core of people you can trust." She thought for a minute, pursing her lips. "I do know a guy who might be a good fit for security. He's got kind of a rough background, but he's trustworthy, and he definitely wouldn't sell you out. You mind if I feel him out and see if he's looking for a new job?"

[Fox]

"Mmh. Agree, actually - bullets, I mean. Predictable, too. Straight line, consistent mass. Acid - worst of them all. Takes a very long time to repair acid damage. Eats at plating. Hurts and inconvenient."

It took a moment for her to snap herself out of memory-induced scowling, especially on the heels of being distracted by skirting around the whole father issue, but her brain caught up eventually. "Security - yes. Will want to know more about him before...phrase...'signing off', but probably not a good idea to second-guess ideas of newly-hired head of security. Hired you for a reason - your area, am open to suggestions for personnel."

[Electra]

"You might know him already, I think he spent some time at the Lab awhile ago," Erin told Mara. "He goes by Harrier to most people. He used to be an Omegadrone, but he broke his conditioning and got free, took up hero work. Before I faced off with the Terminus, he helped me get prepped, told me about stuff we might face, things I ought to know. It really helped. He's got some minimum-wage job somewhere in the city, but he's wasted on it. He's got good instincts and he can fight and take orders. And if you or I or both of us have to go out and face something, somebody would still be here minding the shop."

[Fox]

That certainly put the serious back on Mara's face, and she hunkered down a little, mulling that over. "Have...met him, yes," she said, biting her lip. "Assuming there aren't many non-homicidal Omegadrones in the city. Big and intimidating, certainly. Don't know much about his personality, but willing to interview."

She blinked as her brain switched tracks again. "Would probably need to invest in better shielding for sensitive labs. Terminus energy is unpredictable."

[Electra]

"Given the location, shielding against Terminus energy is probably a pretty good idea anyway," Erin pointed out. "Even with Omega gone for now, the Terminus is still a threat. With Harrier on staff, you've got someone used to dealing with that kind of threat, plus a controlled source for Terminus energy if you need to test shields. Seems like it could work out pretty well. And I think when you talk to him, you'll see that the last thing he'd ever do is turn on an ally. He's pretty fanatical about it."

[Fox]

"And a PR risk," Mara pointed out - literally, with a casual finger. "Would have to be careful he didn't...drone...while here, or near here. But true, would be useful to have, should shield for exotic energies regardless - Terminus or not. Shields...maybe. Usually very careful about shields. Too easy to repurpose specially-designed, higher-power ones."

She snapped her fingers. "Mmh. Forgot. Worth noting that this company consults. Doesn't create much from scratch. Won't sell my own original work - refuse to. And no weapon contracts, ever, for any reason; have full permission to take anyone who argues that and throw them into street. Preferably from first-story doors or windows, though. Reputation to maintain."

[Electra]

"He has some kind of holographic thing these days," Erin replied, "it disguises him up as like a knight in shining armor instead of an Omegadrone. It's kind of cool-looking actually, and just to look at him you'd never realize what was under it. I don't think it covers the actual Terminus energy, but average people on the street probably aren't going to be noticing that like they would an armored Omegadrone at the front door."

She thought for a moment about the moratorium on weapons contracts. "I can do that," she decided. "Some people just aren't very good at taking no for an answer. But that just applies to like building new weapons, right? The security staff is going to be able to carry something in the way of weapons, even if it's just like a taser, right? Or my bat?" She hadn't really considered the implications of a pacifist company, but that would make her job a bit harder.

[Fox]

"Ah - yes. Will not work on weapons for customers here, or things we suspect will be weaponized, for any reason. But employees can arm themselves. Security especially - tasers, bats. Guns. Would prefer non-lethal force, of course...could see about designing non-lethal ammunition for company use only. Interesting design requirements. Ideally same dimensions and rough weight as standard bullets, but without--"

She stopped short, quirking an eyebrow. "Bat?"

[Electra]

Erin reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a little black tube, about the length of her hand from fingertip to wrist and entirely unassuming. Holding it in her right hand, she gave it a practiced spin. Instantly the tube extended into a baton five feet long, very businesslike despite its rounded edges. "Bat," she explained with a half-shrug. "I've trained with it for two years. I can fight without it, or with pretty much any other weapon, but it's the one that makes me feel most comfortable. It's designed to channel energy in such a way that it only strikes non-lethally. Also good for public relations," she hazarded with the ghost of a smile.