He went back to the café and asked her to sit with him on the terrace for tea. After a moment of weighing her options she didn't think better of it. She sat across from him underneath the red pavilion, patiently waiting.
"How do you know me?"
"I wasn't completely sure," she starts. "I was at an AI seminar last spring; you were being circled by some pretty important people. Also, you looked the most disinterested." He was under the impression that she was going to blackmail him, and he tells her exactly that. "Not at all. I have job security." She shrugs before sipping her tea.
"People will always need coffee." She offers a small smile to that.
"I know you're tired of hearing this but, your work is incredible." She sits the glass tea cup down. "I have a border collie from your first release. I didn't know Mondrian was artificial until after I adopted him. Everyone loves the canine series." In actuality the young CEO wasn't told how great his work was in person. Most complements came second hand from Sylvia, though he stressed to her time and time again not to read the articles about him in the tabloid. He'd rather be blissfully ignorant than listen the relayed opinions of the masses; especially when they were ill-informed.
"UNM is going global this fall, right? There was a rumor that you were going to give seven thousand AI dog models to countries overseas." He had no idea who she heard that from; however, he indulged because why the hell not?
"4,000," he corrects. "Most of them will be activated as Belgian Malinois or German Shepherds. They will be trained like the police dogs in America." So it was politically charged, the woman in front of him figured as much. Pierce was able to talk a hundred out of becoming services dogs and be given to impoverished neighborhoods. Needing virtually no maintenance but keeping all of the loveable characteristics he felt it would lift spirits.
"That's remarkable." He brushes off her complement with a simple 'well'.
He does ask her about the border collie, Mondrian. She explains that his face is mostly white apart from the black snippets on his ears and on the edge of his left eye. She asks a few questions about the design and option of physical features. He tells her that these features are randomly generated if the dog is going to public consumption. There was no way he was going to grant the public the option of creating their idea of what was perfect. This happened to be what the woman before him thought was the most justice he could give the AIs; it allowed for the most natural state of being, all things considered.
He continues asking her questions about the two-year-old model. She tells him that Mondrian plays extremely well with her flesh and blood white Shar-Pei puppy, Janie. The older dog is able to gauge what's around him, or in his case what will hobble over at full speed and nip at him.
After a few questions from both of them the barista announces she has to get back to work but thanks him for his time. Before they part he offers to send her a copy of the user manual, understanding that the adoption agency didn't have the original. She was extremely thankful for that and read the manual in its entirety within the week she received it.
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