As the white noise continued its random fluctuations, confusion began growing, from inside Adam. For a full ten seconds, they had been able to hear Dr Fidelis perfectly. That is, they would have been able to hear him if he spoke into the microphone.

Which he didn't. The most spectacular thing, which had been heard, was the estranged mutterings of a person in the zoned mood. Something, which Adam still had not witnessed in person, and was very adamant about experiencing at the earliest convenience.

*Bloody pointers… as if, they need to follow their programming… they should be following me… heh. Did you understand that one, Dr Hale? They should be pointing at me!*, Adam was able to though the earpiece. Doubts immensity sprung forth, about the work ethics. Previously, he had put the low-standard, as to, what Troy achieved at average. But, now, with this showing of those he thought extraordinary in the efficiency, he wasn't too sure, that his testing-partner, really was that bad. Troy might even be classified as the near-top of the bell-curve. Not too much better than that, though, as Adam knew he would have taken his earlier statement as a compliment.

Now, a rather thought-rallying question quickly came forth, from the back of his mind. Specifically, from the part of his mind, which was supposed to be fishing out the remaining parts of his source-lines.

Adam whipped them back into working order. Doing such a thing felt weird, seeing as he was quite literally punishing himself, for not doing the work he only did, due to him ordering himself to do it.

…

Anyway, these thought-threads of his had given him a great debate-line. Should he, or should he not, try to notify Dr Fidelis of his unintended openness?

Starting it off with the positives, of remaining in his passive observing role, there were lots of reasons, for doing so. The amount of insight into the older doctors persona was doing wonders when it came to Adam filling out his personality profiling. It was a near-impossible task, to get a completely unmasked person shown off. Social masks, of course.

According to several studies, and the theory accompanying it, people changed their personality, to accommodate the people around them. While some did it very intentionally, others had it unconsciously. This changed the core beliefs of a person and the ways that they acted with it.

One wouldn't expect a man to laugh loudly at a funeral, as if he heard a joke from a comedy show, even if the pun had been good. No, in that scenario, solemn looks needed to be shared, before each withdrew, so they each could despair in the personal corners. Or, at least, that's what Adam thought happened at such processions. He had never witnessed such things before. According to his pre-known information, people commonly wasted boats, burning them as a cremation process. A waste of resources, really. If he influenced the matter, he would have used the body as a fuel source, a food source, and a material source. Everything would be used, to its fullest potential. But, people were just not yet ready to accept these ideas of his, so Adam had never verbalised them.

Getting back to the masks, he had only ever seen Dr Fidelis in a single type of environment. The testing environment. Here, some amount of professionalism was always required, for the best results to occur. While Dr Fidelis was not always up to this standard, he had never wavered from the underlaying factor by too much, never giving knowledge away, which would impede the result qualities. If such a thing ever happened, Adam wasn't sure, that it would be taken well.

Furthermore, with never having seen any other type of environment like this, Adam was already able to see so many differences, from other interactions with the doctor. Currently, as a great example, the words were laxer, with much less force used in the beginning. Usually, his words would be positively cutting, but, now, it was as if Dr Fidelis was fully relaxed, with not a thing to worry about. This did not take into account, the contents of his words, of course. From the earlier context, he had had obvious problems, getting some factor of his programming to work as intended, before laying out, what was most likely an inside joke between him and Dr Hale. Adam was sure, that there couldn't have been anything else, which would have been found humorous about the statement.

Going away from the positives, the original plan had to been to go over the negatives. Such a great, however, was forced to be scrapped, as Adam noticed a certain flexing of the neck muscles.

Troy was planning to speak. Why? His job had been to be the AI’s access into the world, and not do it himself. Any idea for acting autonomously should have been eradicated, the moment he stepped into the puzzle room. Yet, it seemed that Adam had held such dedication to be expected, instead of being ideal to strive for. How… predictable of him.

"Excuse me-", Troy had begun off with, but he stopped, upon being bombarded with Adam’s well-thought-out distraction.

'Hexagons are the universal standard one needs to live up to.`

"-What the heck? Adam… what was that about hexagons?" Troy ended up his question with, just like the AI knew he would.

A senseless question, with enough understandable words, to entice the receiver into thinking about it. An ingenious method of distraction. So great, in fact, that Adam wasn't too happy about not coming up with it himself. Especially not the part about the hexagons, which, to his knowledge, were apparently the 'bestagons`, whatever such a thing meant.

But, while his attempt of stopping Troy, from revealing their ability to hear Dr Fidelis directly, was successful, it seemed, that he had been too slow on the indirect actions.

*Oh, look at that! Adam is talking linguistics again, or something like it. I just know these things, with how little Troy understands them… Huh? Of course, it is! Nothing else will give such a lad a confusing face like that. Or, is that just his normal expression? One would think, that you would know such a thing, Dr Hale, seeing as your supposed to be watching over him, and all that. Have you been writing the reports about him, anyway? I noticed, that the past two days of them haven't reached my-*

The sound of a thin, wooden slab, and the faint rustle of paper, hitting the floor was heard before a very unique curse word was uttered. And, it wasn't coming from Dr Fidelis either. Adam might have understood the meaning if that man had spoken it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

A few, indistinguishable muttering was heard, before the connection was abruptly cut off. He should have seen it coming, honestly.

"So… going away, from what will likely cause incredible amounts of distrust, which will never truly be fixed, Adam, what did you mean, again? Because, you kinda forgot to tell me, originally," Troy asked, breaking the AI out of his own little thinking bubble. Adam had been trying to find anything about these so-called reports, which were being written. Any mentions of them, any hints about their existence, or just any generally about them.

Yet, they had never truly been mentioned in front of him. Not even in the debriefings. The information, about them, even being written, was most likely intended to not be brought out into the light. While Adam wouldn't have changed the details of those reports, due to not being the main subject of them, Troy knowing would force the two doctors to have a whole other perspective on their data. Results while knowing one was being tested, and the results while not knowing, was radically different. As stated previously, those masks were prevalent in everything one did, seen most clearly through their actions. Adam was not sure that the younger man would be truly acting like himself, outside of the tests, for quite a while.

'It was just a way to stop you, from letting Dr Fidelis know, that we could hear him. I wanted to know, what he would say.`, Adam sent back, seeing no reason to lie.

"Pretty sure, I wouldn't be here for long, if I said stuff like that," Troy said back. "Got anything great out of it, at least?"

'Enough for the groundwork of predicting future behaviour, but not enough to implement with over forty per cent accuracy.`, Adam sent. His answer wasn't too accurate, seeing as he was high-balling the estimate by only using simple situations, as a variable.

Not being too accurate shouldn't matter too much, when communicating with Troy, though. The chances of him being able to find fault in raw numbers would be improbable. They weren't impossible, of course. Few things, which Adam had the potential of imagining were impossible. At most, they were a near-zero chance. Yet, weren't all a near-zero chance? If one went far enough back, the probability of this exact scenario was the closest to a near-infinite number of decimals, than what had ever been seen before.

Any thoughts, about the irritating mechanics of infinity, were again halted, as Dr Fidelis reconnected. Adam hoped it would be for a good reason, this time. It hadn't been too long ago, that he had stopped himself from the valuable inner discussions, just to not have any good reason for it further down the line of time.

*And, we are ready to begin this whole ordeal! Is it the same on your end?*, the two of them were able to hear, coming from the normal, eccentric voice of Dr Fidleis. None of his earlier relaxed attitudes was present, replaced with, what Adam now knew, was put-on energy. What did that man get, from putting on such a show? *How is it going, with the two of you? Have you both climatized yourself, to this starting-up ordeal?*

Or, did he know, that he had turned on the microphone, making Troy and him think, that he was normally relaxed, and was currently putting on a show, just so their idea of him was twisted?

…

There Adam went again, overthinking it all. While these theories were good to have, in the back of the mind, just for a boring moment, they did not need to be taken seriously. Much less, was it a good idea, to act upon them.

'I am ready, with nearly all features ready to be used. And, yes, the general framework of these start-ups have been memorized.`, Adam sent to Dr FIdelis, using the text-based communication, which had been used before. He was the first to answer the doctor's question, with Troy not falling far behind him in speed. That might have been due to, the planned delay of the AI’s response, but there wasn't any reason, for Troy to know such a thing.

Nevertheless, it was faster, than what Adam usually did, in responding to messages. This was due, to him not wanting both of them to answer simultaneously. According to most known social studies, about proper etiquette, it was improper for two people to speak during the same conversation. Especially during talks discussing politics.

"With the amount of backlog, on our schedule, I don't believe my answer has much of an influence," Troy answered coyly, subverting even Adam’s expectations of him. This here was the perfect reason, that the AI needed more information about people, and their actions, during different scenarios, different environments, and with different people around them. Everything changed their response, and Adam was damned if he wasn't going to try, and log it all down, into a comprehensive guide, on each human, that he had the chance of observing. Currently, the one regarding Troy was a measly six hundred and ninety pages. Much too low, for his constructive needs.

Laughing emanated from the earpiece, with Dr Fidelis having found obvious humour in the words said.

*Oh, how right you are, buddy. This whole thing is just, so we don't get put down by management.*, Dr Fidelis confessed, not having the slightest hesitation in spilling the secrets of others. But, he knew the consequences for such things would never come to fruition. Multiple times, Adam had observed clear evidence, of a certain somebody editing tapes, to fit his needs. Not in a way, that would change any results, of course. The only things, which were changed, were the minor things, about corporate treason, and the likes. Nothing, which would have any reason, to be taken seriously by Dr Fidelis. At least, to his own perceived mindset. *But, moving on from that touchy subject, we will have to move on with this test of ours. Not too surprisingly, this test of ours will be having the same, general aesthetic as the last one. It will have a showcase of various environments, which you will have to do all kinds of things with. But, here’s the kicker about it. These environments are, what could be called… specialized.

The total number of environments, which you will be going over are few in number, being only three different in total. Do not, however, take this as this being a short test. On the contrary, this one will expect taking more time than the others, by a long streak. The expected time is about one hour and twenty minutes with each environment.

Troy, I can see your face, through the suit. Wipe that expression of your face. There are good reasons, for these presumptions of ours. If you have anything to add about it, feel free to do so, while I haven't gotten into any specifics.*

From the moment, where Dr Fidelis had mentioned the time each area would take, Adam and Troy had strongly differing opinions on the matter. As the hours it would take was mentioned, his face looked to have aged a year, with each word said. The AI, however, could not have been happier. If he had had the excuse earlier, he would have gladly spent as long on each environment. But, Troy had rejected doing such things, the moment that the idea had been added to the pile. He had refused to act as his guide, on such a long task. Adam had to give him a little credit, on that front, though. If over an hour had been used on each environment, they would still be on the first environmental task, only a little over halfway through. At that point, Troy would have likely collapsed, due to lack of energy, sleep, and fluids.

Yet, now, with the average set so high, the overexcited AI would be able to have an objective high ground, in his argumentations. With such a long time, that it would take, and with Troy’s lacking time-keeping capabilities included, Adam would be able to take as long a time on each test, as he possibly wanted to. Or, not really. Dr Fidelis would likely stop it, if he went over the ten-hour mark, on the first environment.

Going back to the heated person wearing a certain earpiece, he was ready to hear, what Troy had to say about it all.

"Dr Fidelis, are you sure, that such a long time, with each environment, is a good idea? I mean, I'm as open to things like these as anybody in this world, but can there really be so much, from standing around, and looking at pretty stuff, for eighty minutes? After that twenty-minute mark, it just seems pointless, really. Some things do change, sure, but after such a long time, things should have reached the climax," Troy questioned into. Adam didn't mind his point too much, and could even agree with the last one. With Troy standing around, in the same little circle, the amount of observational ability, which they had at their display, would be severely handicapped. With the amount of time the individual environments apparently would, ADam hoped that a more advance form of platform would be included.

Maybe, it would be able to move around? No, that would give the expectation of Troy being able to manoeuvre the thing. Adam would ask, in such a situation, that he simply let it be still.

However, there would be any need for such movement, if the size of the platform increased, giving them a much larger surface area to move around in. And, instead of it being a circle, they could make it an elongated rectangle, giving them a much more varied perspective, on the environment around them.

Or… If they were extremely lucky, they could even get to-

*Well, Troy, I believe this would be a good lesson in, why you shouldn't make assumptions, before hearing the full story. I can't blame you for it, honestly. I would not have been able to bear standing around, doing next to nothing, for four hours. But, such a thing isn't in your current tasks.*, Dr Fidelis said, beginning the whole thing up, yet again. His voice, however, had not fallen in enthusiasm, at any level. *In that genre of matters, there is not any simple task, which you need to do, with each environment. Oh, no, that would simply have been too boring to do. Instead, you could call it a need, for you to find things inside the environment, and documenting their positions.

Phrasing it another, much more hinting manner, during this test, you will need to have a firm touch, to get some good results.*