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, and Jared likes intel he can trust.”
“You know Jared well, huh?”
She shrugged. “Yeah.”
Hagan waited. That was the only answer he was going to get without pushing. Once again, he bit his tongue, then changed the subject. “Are you still hungry?”
“Yes.” Both her voice and body language seemed lighter. “How do you feel about a picnic?”
Hagan glanced over. They’d reached the edge of the park, and though it was well lit, he wasn’t sure that plopping on the grass with takeout would score him good-date points. “Is that what you want?”
“Well.” Her lips rolled together. “We could grab something to go, and there’s this place with an amazing view at my building.”
“If that’s what you want.” He grinned when she lit up, nodding. “All right then.” Hagan pulled out his phone and opened a restaurant app. They ordered, and he calculated it would take the same amount of time to walk to the location as the app said was needed to make their meal.
They left the park and reached a street corner. He noted how her gaze swept their surroundings with far more scrutiny than just checking for traffic. “So, your security company.”
“Hm?” They crossed the street.
“Does it offer security personnel?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“Where’d you learn how to nail such a great groin shot?” He chuckled. “And, you know your way around a solid pat down.”
“Oh that.” Her forced laughter seemed to buy her time to think of an answer. “What girl doesn’t take a self-defense class or two?”
“Since when do self-defense classes teach how to frisk someone with a hundred pounds on you?”
They stopped in front of the restaurant, and she focused on its sign, stalling. “I watch a lot of TV shows.”
Hagan snickered and shook his head. “If that’s what you’re gonna go with—”
She playfully elbowed him.
He captured her arm again and leaned close to her ear. “You don’t have to tell me yet.”
“Okay,” she whispered as quietly as he’d spoken, nodding against his lips. “I’m trying. Honestly, I’ve never talked about this before.” She turned in his arms and hesitatingly pressed her hands on his chest. “I got hurt.”
That could’ve meant anything, but Hagan didn’t need to know the specifics for his vision to cloud. He managed, “I’m sorry,” when what he wanted to do was demand to know more.
“It changed everything about me. Who I thought I was, how I dressed—”
“How you dressed doesn’t allow someone to hurt you.”
She pressed her forehead to his sternum. “I was different. Hiding in a way that screamed for people to look at me.”
Hagan cupped the back of her head. The remorse in her voice killed him. “You don’t have to say anything more.”
Amanda took a deep breath and met his eyes.
“Anyway.” She offered a weak smile. “That was the reason I started my company with my best friend, who saw me through a very dark time.” Her smile strengthened.
“All that happened, and somehow it led me to meet you.” Amanda closed her eyes and laughed to herself.
“Sorry—” She pulled away. “This is really too heavy for a first date.”
Hell, this didn’t feel like a first date. It felt like he’d stumbled upon a missing piece of who he wasn’t. That would be too much to say on a first date. Hagan caught her hand and led her inside to pick up their dinner. “Then let’s pretend it’s not.”