It was actually surreal how little data you could gain from even continuous focus on the doll. Not only was it a unique design, every component custom-built and utterly unmarked, but it was absolutely locked down. Even over a holofeed like this there was data leak; layers of spy and analysis programming baked in at a structural level. Nothing came through. This thing was built as a cypher. Kind of thing in the fairy tales about the Neobility's knights and assassins.

The information it was choosing to give was different. It was leaning forwards, both hands on its knees, grinning. Eyes wide, coruscating orange - feeling unhinged.

"Your objective is not the stabilization of Lhotse," said the orange robot. "It is the collection of the Hecatonchires. The company is disposable so long as the objective is met. You are babying your asset due to - sentiment? Habit? The hope that you will get a gold star if you produce Shareholder Value? And in order to achieve this goal that does not matter, you come begging Mrs. Everest for money?" It clicked its head slowly to the side, folding its long white bare legs up onto the table and slouching into a relaxed posture. "You obviously don't know much about the Neobility. If Mrs. Everest starts investing in this company, right now, then she's [i]playing favourites[/i]. People will want to know why. You will draw a kind of heat you cannot comprehend. Right now you have only one competitor in the race - and that is your [i]only [/i]advantage. And your strategy is to...?"

It - she? - leaned forwards again, eyes sparklings into happy triangles. "But of course you're entitled to make that decision~!" said Orange. "Mrs. Everest trusted you with control of the company!" The eyes flicked into a dark, direct stare. "But I [i]suggest [/i]finding the money elsewhere. And I [i]suggest [/i]coming up with a coherent strategy before you make any more decisions." Like a slide flickering, she was back to a happy expression. "But here's a helping hand! I'm actually mostly convinced that the Polygon has one of the Hecatonchires, so going to war with them isn't a bad idea at all! It's why we hired the Admiral in the first place. But now that you've kicked the hornets nest -"

Her eyes clicked back to that glowing, spiralling orange intensity. "[i]Finish the job[/i]. That's my advice~!"