The Artifice Girl

Hey Siri,...

send a message to Cheryl, Front Reception.

What do you want to say?

Amos is already heading there to pick him up, period.

Please forward any calls I get to Brady, period.

Your message to Cheryl, Front Reception, says,

"Amos is already heading there to pick him up.

Please forward any calls I get to Brady."

Ready to send it?

Yes.

Okay, it's sent.

Hey Siri,...

how do you know if you're doing the right thing?

I'm not sure I understand.

But what do you believe

is the difference between right and wrong?

Hmm.

I don't have an answer for that.

Would you like me to search the web?

No.

Okay, is there something else I can help with?

Set a reminder to pick up Kyle from therapy tomorrow at 4:45.

Okay, I'll remind you.

Hi, special agent Deena Helms.

You've already met Agent McCullough.

You can call me Amos.

- Uh, agents? - Have a seat for us, Gareth.

Do you mind answering a couple questions?

Great, this shouldn't take long.

You're from Tampa, right?

Don't overthink it. It's a yes or no.

Yeah.

How old are you, Gareth?

29.

What do you do for work?

I'm sorry, am I being detained?

No, not at all.

We're just asking questions, background stuff.

You work on movies, right?

Special effects.

Someone told me you worked

on that new "Star Wars" movie, is that right?

Who told you that?

Why don't you tell us more about it?

Tell us about your work.

I used to do VFX for an animation company.

I've worked on at least 20 different films.

Used to?

I've been focusing more

on software engineering recently for years—

Sounds boring compared to light sabers.

Why quit?

I wasn't getting paid well.

But money's not an issue for you.

Excuse me?

What kind of effects did you do?

- Money's not an issue for me? - Let's talk about... Let's talk...

If money wasn't an issue for me,...

- I wouldn't have applied for your grant. - I didn't mean to suggest anything.

Tell us what kind of effects you did.

My main focus was on 3D renderings.

Of what?

- Actors. - What for?

Well, for "Star Wars",

it was because the actor I was tasked to digitize

was unavailable to be filmed in person.

Why?

Because they were dead.

What'd they have you do?

I reconstructed Alec Guinness' face as a 3D model.

I analyzed reference footage,

then used a process called D-Term to procedurally generate

his bone and muscle structures,

which one rigged helped the animation feel

more natural and human-like.

D-Term, I've never heard of that process before.

Because I invented it.

So you're basically bringing dead actors back to life?

I just tried to make the CG characters look as

photorealistic as the technology at the time would allow.

You didn't find it creepy?

I'm sorry, what?

I said you don't find that creepy?

Well, we did our best to cross the uncanny valley.

But when the human brain perceives

that something is just slightly off and it doesn't matter—

No, I mean, digitizing dead people.

Christ, I mean, it's...

it's almost like turning someone's corpse into a marionette, you know?

Making them do whatever you want.

What if the poor dead guy

didn't want to be in another fucking movie?

It's so macabre.

Am I crazy? Is it not macabre?

I don't think the studio cares whether it's macabre or not.

Look, I can never tell the difference.

I always can. The faces look like Play-Doh.

Well, we did our best.

Soon we won't even need actors, right?

Everyone will just be digital.

No, you still need them for motion tracking.

Human performances can't be completely computer generated.

How long will that be true?

Some might say we've already crossed that threshold.

I wouldn't know.

Where'd you go to school?

- Brooks-DeBartolo High. - And after?

Nothing?

What about Columbia?

Didn't you go to Columbia?

Wait, no. You dropped out of Columbia

after how many semesters?

Three?

Bjarne Stroustrup said,...

you were the smartest kid he ever met.

I don't know who he is, but Amos says it's a big deal.

Then you moved to the Netherlands, spent some time as an intern,...

applied and got into Cambridge.

Very nice.

Except that you dropped out after two years.

Flew back to the States, interned in Palo Alto, then Montreal.

Then went all the way back to England,

where you landed a job in Sheffield.

Second job in Manchester.

Then got into Oxford where you almost finished your masters

before ditching the graduation and moving back here to Florida.

If money was an issue,

I'm glad you had plenty of flyer miles.

I didn't hear a question.

What's your social life like?

My, what does that have anything to do—

If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine.

We just wanted to know if you have friends and stuff.

- I have friends. - A lot of them?

- I have friends. - Can you name one?

- Can I what? - Can you tell us the name...

of just one of your friends?

- Steve. - Steve. Steve what?

I don't know how this is relevant to receiving the grant.

Oh, we're just getting to know you, Gareth.

You got a girlfriend?

Boyfriend?

You, uh, talk to people online?

I don't know what you mean by that.

I don't use social media.

I mean more like chat rooms.

You go on any chat rooms?

No one uses chat rooms anymore.

Sure they do.

You chat with anyone online?

- Sometimes. - Sometimes.

What kinds of people do you talk to online?

Gareth, obviously, this isn't about a grant.

We need to know what your alias is.

When you go online, what name do you use?

I don't have one.

Yes, you do.

And you need to tell us what it is.

Sorry, I can't help you.

You know who we are?

Well, this is the ICWL building.

That's right. You know what we do?

Humanitarian work.

That's what the people upstairs do.

You know what we do?

We catch pedophiles.

Amos here specializes in tracking down online predators.

He spends every waking hour,

scouring those chat rooms you say no one uses,...

and he finds thousands of people soliciting children.

Our operation is like a tightly spun spider web,

connecting ICWL, the FBI, NSA,

and let me tell you, his team here is a vital thread.

He reports everything he gathers directly to me,

and I see to it that the necessary authorities

take swift action.

So are you in charge?

This is my spiderweb.

I'm the fucking spider, Gareth.

Am I being detained?

We already told you that you're not detained.

Good.

But if you leave this room, you will be arrested.

For what?

I told you what we do.

Take a wild guess.

I am not what you think I am.

We'll see.

Gareth, you just gotta tell us your alias.

What's your username?

Sit down.

- Why do you do this with them? - Hmm?

There's no way you do this with every suspect you have.

Invite them to your headquarters,

and then drag them down into a basement.

That's right.

Why are you doing this to me then?

You tell us, Gare.

What makes you so fuckin' special?

I don't know.