Chapter 22: Paranoia

Fabrication laboratory, Celestial Being Underwater Base near the Chinese coast-

Giotto was busy modeling a new system of quantum computers. 

These computers would be set at a geostationary orbit, but they won't be housing VEDA. Instead they will be holding a different AI.

The knowledge Giotto obtained from Aeolia made him realize that he can't completely rely on VEDA. Especially since even Aeolia did not completely trust his own version of VEDA.

There were a lot of safety nets put in place in order to ensure that should VEDA be compromised, there would still be a way to defeat it or wrestle control over the system.

Using the knowledge Giotto had from Aeolia, he formulated a different kind of AI architecture that would act as a fail-safe should VEDA go rogue for whatever reason. 

"Project Elea… first I need to isolate it from VEDA… to do that I need to disconnect it from the internet, having its own information network, system and-"

Giotto worked on a computer he had constructed in the fabrication lab. He spent three hours building it. He removed any connection to the internet or the base data system. Even the OS was a barebones system used to program the AI directly.

During this time Giotto forgot about Jessica Drew who was sneaking peeks at him from time to time. 

Soon, robots bringing a plethora of materials entered the huge laboratory. After leaving the materials in the lab they left.

Jessica took this time to enter the lab, walking towards Giotto she let out a silent breath before she asked.

"So, what are you doing now?"

There were many thoughts swimming in Jessica's mind at this time. She was contemplating the actions that Giotto made as well as the sudden shock of seeing Giotto's appearance. After all, she was a HYDRA agent before.

Her previous occupation made it so that she needed to know a lot about the people in the world with influence.

'Giotto Giovanni…'

Jessica recalled the information on the young man who suddenly appeared out of thin air and made HUGE actions that sent waves all over the world.

She would never forget his appearance as he was quite the interesting character. Much like Fury and many others, Jessica also had the same thoughts as she read through the files HYDRA had on Giotto.

The information detailed what could only be described to be the perfect background used by agents doing undercover operations.

Also, the fact that Giotto was a young man close to her age was actually the biggest reason why she reacted the way she did.

She was expecting Giotto to be someone in the age range of Tony Stark and many other powerful individuals. A middle aged to old aged man, that was the expectation Jessica had for the real identity of the man who brought her to this secret base.

Few people in the world could support the creation of such weapons secretly along with a whole base and various infrastructures to support such actions.

In fact, she had thought that the man behind the mask was actually Tony Stark as the most recent report she got was the information that Tony Stark escaped captivity using a suit made of scrap iron.

Who would have thought that the person behind the armor was actually a young man the same age as her.

This caused Jessica to react the way she did, it also did not help that Giotto did not show any reaction to her which gave her a different feeling.

But, after taking some time to think, Jessica was able to calm her mind as she got dressed and looked all around for Giotto. 

She found him in a lab working on something, she watched the young man build a computer from scrap and start working there.

Then she was surprised when she found robots hauling various materials to the room where Giotto was. 

Jessica used the opportunity to walk into the room, walking towards Giotto she proceeded to try and start a conversation with him but her efforts proved useless when all he replied with was-

"Jessica Drew? Well, for now you could watch me work but if you get bored you could ask VEDA for things you could do to pass the time. Of course, leaving the base is not possible."

The young man's response annoyed her but when she thought of punching him, her sixth sense told her that doing so was dangerous. 

Jessica had spent countless years doing dangerous missions, especially after HYDRA learned of her powers. In these various missions, Jessica found that her sixth sense was quite accurate. It helped her avoid a LOT of dangerous situations.

But only now did she feel her senses go into overdrive, using her experience over the years, her sixth sense was basically telling her that if she tried anything stupid, she could die.

Because of this she held back her anger as she left the laboratory but it didn't take long for her to come back holding a sandwich.

Giotto ignored the actions of Jessica as he focused more on programming the new AI.

"So, what are you really doing?"

But, despite his actions ignoring her, Jessica did not show any sign of giving up as she still tried to strike up a conversation with him.

"I'll answer you if you agree to my offer"

Without looking back, Giotto answered Jessica with an apathetic tone of voice to which she answered asking-

"What is your offer?"

The way she responded made it obvious that she was going to ignore what happened earlier. With that in mind, Giotto gave her the offer he wanted to talk about hours ago. Though he still did not stop programming.

"I need someone to take the lead in a certain organization, its cover would be a global private investigation agency. You will be managing various individuals who have skills in tracking, espionage and other skills necessary of undercover operations"

Hearing Giotto's explanation, Jessica raised her brows, a hint of interest flashing in her eyes as she asked-

"So, what's the true function of this organization?"

To her question Giotto answered in a "matter of fact" tone saying-

"My company Celestial Enterprises is just a front for my secret organization Celestial Being, I am also in the process of building another separate organization called the Vongola. Now, since you heard all this…"

Giotto stopped talking, he did not turn back to Jessica but the experienced agent knew what Giotto meant with his words.

"Well, I have a lot of things to comment on, maybe, "For what reason do you need to have so many secret organizations?" or maybe- "Where are you getting all the resources to support all these organizations and cover operations?" but for now, I guess the most important thing I need to say is- fine, I'll take your job offer, so answer all my questions!"

There were many reasons why Jessica had no other option at this point. In fact, her life and death was already in the hands of Giotto ever since he took her to this base.

Not to mention, from what Jessica could tell, Giotto should have influence and power equal to or greater than HYDRA.

Few people could do what Giotto was doing and his actions right now proved it to her.

That was not even considering the things she saw all over the base.

Robots that managed everything, the weird abundance of resources for whatever Giotto needed. There were many reasons why choosing to reject Giotto was a stupid idea. 

But that didn't mean that she doesn't want to know what kind of shit she was getting herself into.

Giotto still did not face Jessica as he answered her-

"You'll know how I got my resources later, on the matter of why I built so many organizations… well I just felt the need to I guess? Anyway, since you accepted my offer then let me formally give you a run-down on what you will be doing."

This time Giotto stopped working on the computer as he walked towards another workstation leading Jessica there.

When Jessica saw the computer she stopped her steps as she said-

"Let me tell you now, I'm not really good at programming and that kind of stuff. I could hack and destroy systems but if you want me to create…"

Hearing her words, Giotto turned to her as he explained.

"The computer has the documents that you need to go through. Your job and responsibilities are all detailed in the document. So are the plans I have for the organization you will be leading. I already made a list of individuals you need to keep an eye on… for now the tools and systems for the organization is still being built but in a month or two you will be able to start your operations"

Giotto said as he pulled the chair back for Jessica who took the seat as she gave Giotto confused glances before sitting down and staring at the screen.

"In the time that I will handle all the preparations for your organization, I hope you can familiarize yourself with the technology you will be using. Also, it would be wise for you to avoid talking about the plan as the walls have eyes and ears."

Jessica felt a bit confused hearing Giotto's words but she shook off her confusion as she started to read the document.

Giotto walked back to his own station and continued to work on the program.

The two stayed silent, Giotto was continuously tapping on his keyboard, his expression not changing a bit the whole time. On the other hand, Jessica's face had gone through many different expressions.

From time to time she would shoot a glance towards Giotto, at times it was a look of astonishment, other times it was a look of utter disbelief or confusion. 

The emotions she was going through were obvious as she would constantly look between the document on the screen and Giotto. At times she would even pause for long periods of time wondering how the man emotionlessly tapping away could write up the plan she was going through.

There were many instances where Jessica just wanted to come up to Giotto and ask him about something but she held back. After all, her question was in no way related to confusion about the job but instead about Giotto.

Time passed and Jessica had already gone through many points in the document yet she was still scratching her head in confusion. Not because she could not understand her job. In fact she found that what she was supposed to do was quite- easy.

But what she was really scratching her head for was not how easy the job was.

It was about her employer, the man who looked like an ice king who was busy making the AI necessary for the organization that was going to be established in a month.

In fact, Jessica stood up a few times and looked over the various materials that the robots brought in from time to time. She may not understand the purpose of the materials but she could take a guess on what they were for.

Soon, when a good 12 hours had passed, Giotto finally stood up, he seemed to have finished coding the AI as he walked towards the pile of materials in the laboratory.

Taking this chance, Jessica also stood up as she headed for Giotto. She did not call out to him and just walked alongside him for a bit before she stopped in front of him and spoke-

"Uhm…"

But when she was finally face to face with Giotto's apathetic gaze, she felt a bit of hesitation build up in her heart. She was like a teen who found it hard to confess to their crush but her situation was in no way as romantic as that.

Her hesitation came from the fact that her senses were screaming for her to move away but she controlled herself as she asked.

"Are you… paranoid?"

But the question she asked was not what she truly wanted to say. In a way her question was more lengthy and specific with proper background and context. But facing what could only be described as death in her eyes, Jessica's mind was unable to formulate her words properly resulting in her asking such a simple and- broad question.

This question resulted in both Giotto and Jessica herself suddenly answering in each other with-

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

A moment of silence came between the two, which was broken but Giotto who let out a sigh as he answered.

"Some call it paranoid, I call it being prepared"

Without expanding any more, Giotto answered with those words to which Jessica followed up with another question asking-

"Well, isn't it too much to make a failsafe for a failsafe? I mean, you already placed enough fail-safes in Celestial Being, why make another organization?"

Recalling the information on the document, Jessica made sure to limit her question with words that did not fully reveal the plans Giotto had. Especially to the "eyes and ears" that were in the room.

To her question, Giotto answered in a matter of fact tone once more saying-

"You can't always be sure"

Though to his words, Jessica retorted asking-

"What if your fail-safe gets compromised first?"

And to this Giotto responded saying-

"Isn't that why I hired you?"

Hearing his words Jessica was left speechless, but it didn't last long as she then continued asking-

"Hey! I can't do it! Give me a position or task with a lower position! This plan is so crazy and would probably be useless!"

Hearing her words Giotto finally smiled as he responded with-

"If it is useless then wouldn't that make your task easier?"

But Jessica was not amused as she retorted again, her voice going up a bit this time as she exclaimed.

"You want me to go around acting like that one eyed baldy in SHIELD? Why not just take him in then? He would make a good leader of this new organization"

Jessica's words were actually a good idea but Giotto shook his head as he gave her an answer which she already expected.

"You know that said baldy would turn my organization against me if he can right?"

Jessica clicked her tongue in response, the task she was given was quite stressful. No matter what the situation was she had to always keep her vigilance up. Her experience in HYDRA as an undercover agent made her understand the lengths some people would go to just to infiltrate an organization.

Moreover, in her years of work as an agent, Jessica had seen her own fair share of betrayals. Humans were just that kind of people. When given an opportunity they would not hesitate to turn enemies into friend and friend to foe's.

Jessica wanted to retort more but Giotto had already ignored her as he started to build the core system for the organization.

'I really can't believe I'm working under a guy who can't even trust himself'

In the end Jessica could only sigh as she walked back to her seat and continued to read through the plans Giotto had drawn up.

'Though, I also want to see what kind of troubles I have to deal with… hopefully I won't be forced to do anything big. Oh how I wish I could just spend my days placating my paranoid boss~'

Jessica thought as she read the document while sneaking glances at Giotto who was seriously building a satellite quantum supercomputer terminal by hand.

'Well, I guess even being a genius has its own troubles'

She sighed as she focused on the document ignoring the noises Giotto was making as he built the terminals.