[b][i]Ashton Andrews-Hyuga[/i][/b]

Ashton was busy preparing cybersecurity for any intrusion by Jinrai, knowing full well that he could not fend off every one of their attempts at entry in both the physical and digital worlds - This meant prioritizing some approaches over others. Weaving a web of protection, of interconnected firewalls and antivirus programs and constant scanning of all files not in a secure archive, Ashton was ready to make the defense as confusing for the enemy as possible when they made any attempt at entering [i]his[/i] demesne. 

Not that he was willing to let them any mole they have inside pre-emptive strikes or sneak in any groundwork before that happened, of course. For Ashton had established seven security programs, the ‘Seven Eyes’, whose goal was to alert him to any sign of dangerous activity among NSF employees and the Jinrai spies outside. These security programs used a parallel network of cameras and drones that operated alongside the NSF’s own closed-circuit network, and logged every action they caught, occasionally ‘tagging’ them as suspicious or dangerous. Note that the ‘Seven Eyes’ could and did return false positives, and so had to be corroborated with surrounding data lest Ashton make the mistake of jumping to conclusions.

And surrounding data was best-acquired through actual people - Computer whiz Ashton might be, but he was no stereotypical tech specialist, withering in the darkness. No, he was not going to let his social skills slip! And so, after making sure that his computers were capable of running semi-autonomously, and that he can always access them from his smartphone/comm-link/omni-tool, the young man then sent an email to Takeda Ochisuta’s office, asking for a personal meeting. Waiting a few minutes for a response, Ashton made the decision to go anyway regardless of whether he received permission or not. If needed, he can always artificially place himself on Takeda’s secretary’s schedule.

He knew he was playing a dangerous game if he did that, but he counted on Takeda’s capability to be impressed through daring, quick, and not necessarily suicidal actions. After all, that was how he got in the NSF in the first place.

Getting up to go out of the computer labs, Ashton walked to Takeda’s office, digitally putting himself on the secretary’s list if he had really not received permission to meet with him. All the while, he was measuring his personal feelings towards the NSF Administrator. An Ex-Jinrai operative who had defected to the NSF while preserving his original beliefs and ideology, Takeda was not to be trusted out of hand - He had still given hesitant yet still existent support to concentration camps for foreigners, concentration camps he could have been put into despite his Japanese blood.

But then again, neither was he - Despite his commitment to 99% of what the NSF believed in (the 1% was merely an allowance for human error), Ashton was enough of a maverick to gain their distrust. After all, he had earned cadet-hood and a relatively high place in the system by showing how their existing cyber-security was weak and vulnerable. So he had more to learn, more to learn from the best and the best was a person he distrusted, somewhat disliked, but respected anyway.

Then it turned out that the Secretary was smarter than he thought she would be, telling the young man, "I'm sorry to say this, but you are barred from an unauthorized meeting with Ochisuta-sama. Even if you [i]did[/i] manage to place yourself on his schedule, considering your personal history and your... Capabilities, it would not be advisable to you in without Ochisuta-sama's personal [i]verbal[/i] permission. In short, you are not allowed in his office until he says so and even then it'd be under the strictest precautions. Do we understand each other?"

Well, this was a surprise. 

"Loud and clear," Ashton said as his disappointment was overridden by caution. "I'll be taking my leave now." 

Then he left, pondering looking for other fish to fry...

((Edited with Conscripts' permission.))

[@Conscripts]