The Survivor - Cristin Harber Page 0,37
that you weren’t ready to tell me.” He snarled at Jared. “Not because of this.”
Too much was going on to fully appreciate what he had just said. If Amanda hadn’t been terrified of growing close to another person, that would have been the moment that she fell in love with Hagan.
On his terms, Hagan stepped from Jared and gave a two-finger salute that might as well have said fuck you, then he pulled her to his side like she was his to keep safe, and they walked away.
Making her legs move forward almost hurt. Amanda waited for Boss Man to yell orders, but they didn’t come. Hagan eased them through the small group that had formed as though he hadn't had a verbal altercation with his boss.
Her panic ebbed, and as adrenaline washed away, she trembled and leaned against Hagan. They moved off the path, under a section of trees in the park, and stopped. His strong arms wrapped around her. Safe and hidden, Amanda burrowed into his chest and breathed him in until she knew that she wouldn't fall apart.
Hagan pressed his lips to the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”
She uncurled from his arms. “Don’t be.” She didn't add that it was all her fault because she didn't have the strength to defend that truth. While they hadn't known each other for that long, it seemed as if they had been through so much together. “What now?”
“No idea,” he admitted. But his eyes lit up, and Hagan held out his hand. “But I want to find out. Do you?”
Amanda beamed. “Absolutely.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
They meandered through the park. Hagan waited for Amanda to reveal another gem. Could she top sharing her name and facing-off with Jared? Hagan wouldn’t be surprised. She just needed the choice to be hers.
“I work in security,” Amanda admitted, as if on cue.
That didn’t surprise Hagan. Dozens of questions came to mind, but gut instinct told him to keep his mouth shut and listen. It was harder than he expected.
“Not the type that Titan Group might do,” she offered. “More of the tech side.”
“Like Parker?”
“Not exactly,” she explained. “I don’t know the first thing about hacking or layering technology in a war room situation. But I can design systems that give him what he needs.”
“Like the LIDAR.”
“Exactly.” She nodded. “LIDAR made self-driving cars a real possibility. When I saw how thousands of laser points could read the difference between the shoulder of a road and another lane, I could envision how they could map variables like people.”
“And feed them into a database?” he asked.
“Sure, but also, when you add in advancements in artificial intelligence, security systems can make decisions based live-streaming data and extrapolate additional threats.” They paused to let a man walk by as he video chatted. She ducked her chin and studied one of her sandals. “Like.” She glanced up. “Temperature and respiration readings.”
“Like lie detectors?”
She nodded. “Yes. But without asking the question.”
“The cameras are taking people’s temperatures?”
“In theory,” she agreed, noncommittally.
“A little intrusive, if you ask me.”
Amanda laughed, that time agreeing. “There’s a fine line between ethics and security.” Her walk stiffened. “Which is one of the reasons why I’d rather stay away from people. Ethically, it seems like the best option.” She scrunched her shoulders. “For everyone involved.”
Protecting herself and others? He bit his lip, trying not to push when he could tell she’d waffled on sharing the last bit.
“Anyway.” She cleared her throat. “AI has a long way to go. Temperature and respiration readings help correct for biases.”
“We updated a heavy-lift drone with temperature readings.” But he didn’t get what that had to do with bias.
She grinned. “Your plant test?”
Hagan chuckled. “Yeah. Glad we tested potted plants first.”
“I saw the remnants of your first attempts on top of Tower Two.” Amanda grinned. “But that’s a different kind of reading than Titan wanted for their security systems. Parker and Jared understand an AI system is only as good as the information programmed at the start. Programmers have implicit biases, like biases they don’t want to make but, because of who they are, they are made.”
Hagan nodded. “Like when it made the news that AI systems were flagging people of color as suspicious.”
“Exactly, more often than anyone wanted to admit, the initial algorithms sourced material that had been influenced by systematic racial disparity.”
“Like arrest and incarceration databases?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Part of my job is to search out the best programming. Temperature and respirations are more reliable than facial recognition. Parker likes good data,