Amelia rushed into the room.

"Michael! Oh my god! Michael! I'm so sorry! I didn't know that they would do that to you! All that I filed in was a proposal to have you work with us over this mission."

Michael's rising adrenaline deafened him from hearing Amelia's claim. He stomped over and towered over her, "Shut up! Is this what you government do? Lies! More lies! Shut up!"

If it wasn't for the last bit of etiquette and logical mindset that remained in Michael's mind, Michael would have started to attack Amelia. Trust was a very fragile thing in the modern society. The old sayings were that, "Once trust was broken, you could never repair it back to whole". Now it goes, "Once trust was broken, you could never live a life without mortal threats".

"Listen to me Michael!" Amelia shouted out loud for the first time. There was a bit of desperation in her voice, "I am not in control of this. My superiors are. I don't get to determine what they do! Trust me, I understand what you are feeling now. I understand."

For once, Michael appreciated the existence of Nicholas. He turned to face the psychologist. Nicholas nodded his head and confirmed silently that Amelia was telling the truth.

Jay added in too, "Michael. She's right. She's merely a small part of the giant bureaucratic hierarchy."

Jay's words calmed down Michael's fumes. For some unknown reason, Michael held this ineffable reverence for Jay ever since the first time they met. Perhaps it was Jay's special life experience that set him apart from the rest of the team. Michael decided to put some trust in Amelia for now, based on the logical analysis made by Nicholas and out of the respect to Jay.

"So what do you want us to do? Are you just going to throw us straight into that place without any trainings?" Michael finally put himself back together.

"Trainings?" Amelia began talking normally again, "I don't believe training would be necessary for people with your talents. You have probably trained such talents for almost your entire life anyway, so no need. But before you confront the ultimate problem, we need to start off on a few smaller ones just to set a solid foundation, and simultaneously you guys can know the situation better."

"Small problems? Such as what?"

"How well do you know about ArtTech and Hypersphere?"

"I'm sorry, you mean the real government and Hypersphere?" Nicholas immediately mocked.

"Well," Amelia said, "it seems like you know a lot about Art Tech."

"At least I know that ArtTech is working closely with the government," Michael finished off Nicholas' speech, "and that it has been supporting government with a lot of useful technology. In return, the government gave them quite a lot of benefits." Then Michael added, "No offense to you."

"None taken," Amelia responded. "Seems like you understand the situation in the most general terms, but what we need you to understand is the relations among the government, ArtTech, and Hypersphere.

"ArtTech had been cooperating closely with the government for many decades, even before the AI revolution. In fact, it is the government's funding and investment that offered them enough ground to start the research and development of artificial intelligence. However, what people do not know is that we are also funding Hypersphere."

"Isn't Hypersphere a private corporation aimed solely to compete against ArtTech?" Alexandra asked.

"Yes, exactly. And why do you think we are funding Hypersphere? Because we are seeing all the protests arising from the ArtTech monopoly, and we need a force to counter the growing power of ArtTech. This could make sure society will not break into chaos and the gap between poor and rich will not overly widen. Moreover, Hypersphere can provide employment to the poor workers. However, all the fundings we have given to Hypersphere are under the table, and only very few individuals know about this funding."

Michael still felt a bit skeptical over this story, but he was beginning to assimilate some of the information. Amelia got a point that the government was aiming for the unity of the people.

Jay sat in silence throughout most of this conversation, but after Amelia finished that sentence, he had to interrupt, "What about the rest of the government's intentions? Not trying to destroy your gift wrap of political correctness, but it is clear that the government is funding Hypersphere because it is afraid that ArtTech will grow too much in power, and eventually replace the government itself."

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"Yes, and that too." Amelia sighed heavily. "And it is clear that this is already happening, but there's not much we can do about it. ArtTech in itself accounts for 30% of the employment of the entire globe, and still increase. Most of the welfare given to unemployed people are actually funded by ArtTech. There's really nothing we can do when they are handling so much social responsibility."

"Except for the fact that their inventions are the main causes to the current societal crises," Michael muttered.

"Yeah, if you want to know more about this, listen closely to me. We are assigned to a mission that will give us further knowledge on the intentions of ArtTech and Hypersphere. Trust me, this mission will bring fresh knowledge to both you and me, as nobody is aware of these corporations' ultimate goals."

"So explain to us about the mission," said Michael.

After a huge lengthy introduction by Amelia, Michael summarized the mission into the following.

First of all, Marcus Johnson, the CEO of ArtTech, will have a press conference to launch their newest product tomorrow.

Secondly, HyperSphere executive council will be there, along with a group of "Hypersphere security guards" to ensure the "personal security" of the top executive teams.

Thirdly, the leaders of the two major political parties will be there — the left-wing unionists and right-wing technologists.

The involvement of the political parties in a conference like this is what will create a gigantic mess. Nowadays, politics completely revolve around economy, and ArtTech and Hypersphere are undoubtedly the two most prominent figures in the politics. Having two fervent mobs at a conference like this would bring nothing but catastrophe. The weird thing was that Marcus Johnson could easily order security to keep out any individuals, and nobody would see it as unacceptable because of Johnson's prestigious title and the power of ArtTech.

What Michael and the rest of the team needed to do was to be at the conference, observe the situation, and figure out any potential threats. If there was any, it was to be reported immediately.

The following day, Michael and the rest of the team were dressed in expensive attires. Just the tie that Michael was wearing was worth a his entire year's salary.

"Act as if you belong here," that was Amelia's final words before they left.

Amelia was originally planning to arm them with camera contact lenses so that she could get a clearer feed from the government surveillance room, but she soon figured that the security checks were extremely strict at ArtTech conferences. Another impact of this was that they couldn't arm themselves with any weapons against potential chaos.

"Don't worry. I know how to sneak weapons in," Jay volunteered himself to handle the difficult task.

So, with Jay's words of promise, Amelia had trusted them with some of the government's most advanced gadget that could disguise as normal physical attires. There was a small laser knife disguised as a hairpin for Alexandra, and a retractable stun combat knuckle was concealed as Michael's cuff-link. To a naked eye, these objects seemed extremely normal, but to any weaponry scanning device, the object's true function would immediately be revealed. The whole team, even Amelia, could rely on Jay's magician expertise and con artist street smart.

Michael also knew that the fact that the government would be willing to give them such advanced arms meant that this task would not be as easy as the described "observe and locate potential threats".

The attires that Michal was wearing were elegant and classy, but they were nothing comparing to the conference building. The building wasn't like those ordinary tall skyscrapers, but instead, it was five storied, spanning outwards as moving up, with the base lobby being the smallest floor. The shape of the building was composed of a mixed design of cubes and spheres concepts, but they were blended together so perfectly that the organic arcs of the circles strongly complemented the geometric angles of the squares. The outside layer of mixed concrete, glass, and steel decorated and emphasized the unique bevels and bends in the outside shape, polishing it to look like a sculpture masterpiece.

Just by looking in at the lobby, giant holograms about ArtTech information illuminated the grey-toned marble floors and walls. Gigantic decorative statues made of magnetic microbots were constantly reprogramming and rearranging themselves into complex three dimensional polyhedrons. A baroque styled fountain lied in the center of the lobby — a very archaic architectural design — except that the water streams were compressed and warped by the pressure fields around the fountain to form beautiful patterns. At that instant, Michael knew that it was art, not pure technology. He had never seen a better example of the fusion of these two concepts.

The majesty of the exterior and royalty of the interior stunned Michael, and he would have just stood there and stared for thirty minutes if it wasn't Jay who knocked his shoulder lightly to bring him back to reality.

Usually, Michael could only see images and holograms of these buildings over the Airnet on his devices, as he could never have a chance to set foot in the rich communities. His own poor communities only had short, ugly residential blocks. Seeing the one to one ratio real life was definitely thousands of times more astounding. The concrete and steel seemed to carry with themselves a sense of intangible power that expressed the imperial and monumental position that ArtTech held in the society. It destroyed the stereotypes of technology as devouring and lifeless but instead put vigor and spirit in modernization and modernization in art. The building alone would make any bystander immediately turned their heads to offer their highest respect towards ArtTech.

As for a worker who had been battling poverty and unemployment for the first half of his life, Michael found it extremely difficult to act as if he belonged here. 

Michael took a deep breath and walked in with the rest of the team.