Upon making repairs to the car, the car mechanic (whose name was David), asked Rudolph for his payment. Rudolph complied with David's request, and gave him a briefcase of $80,000 in $100 bills. Rudolph then smiled and said "Now go count your money in the other room, me and my friend here have to use your workbench, you wouldn't mind that would you?" David, seeing the large denominations of money in the briefcase, nervously shook his head and left the room with a fat grin on his face.
Aiden walked over to a metal pillar in the center of the room and wrapped his arms around it in a sexual manner. He slowly caressed it with his hands, acting as though he was ready to start making out with it.
This sort of behavior was typical of Aiden; so lost in his obsession with girls that he showed his affection at every opportunity; even when there was no girl to notice it. He did it on purpose; with the attempt of making himself appear as though he was a divine figure: a young, handsome, romantic youth who is always gliding slowly as walked, as if he was in a ballet. It is unknown whether he did this because of his love for girls, or his love for himself.
Rudolph set the painting on David's workbench. Aiden glanced over at Rudolph. Rudolph was grinning, a strange glow seemed to be in his eyes, but what was it for? Aiden could not tell at the moment, he wondered whether Rudolph's glowing eyes were glowing from dollar signs, the feeling for personal success, or from just plain ol madness. Aiden assumed it was probably all of those things.
Rudolph sensed that Aiden was staring at him; he rotated his head slightly to his right and looked at the floor. "Aiden!" He shouted.
Aiden, snapping out of both his thoughts about Rudolph, as well as his trance with wooing the metal pole (which had grown significantly warmer from his body heat), walked quickly over to the table.
Rudolph pointed at the painting "What do you know about the artist Alfred Ramone?"
Aiden shrugged and put out his lower lip in lack of interest, as he answered "I know he made paintings."
Rudolph said "Makes, not made. Also yes... that's what artists do Aiden... they make paintings."
Aiden stopped looking clueless, and he started giving a fake look of intrigue, as he shrugged his shoulders, raised an eyebrow, pushed out his chin slightly, and asked "Really? He's still alive?"
Rudolph nodded, "He's a new age artist."
Aiden smiled "So he sucks?"
Rudolph face palmed his forehead, almost knocking off his amazing top hat, "Shut up... here's the deal..."
Rudolph took a second to fix the position of his hat before continuing his explanation, "Alfred Ramone isn't just an amazing artist, he's also an amazing smuggler for the black market. He draws thousand dollar paintings and uses them to smuggle million dollar goods."
Aiden grinned and waved his hands horizontally in order to direct attention towards the general vicinity of the painting (this was a bad habit of Aiden's, one that he got from seeing Abby do it on the hit television show NCIS) "So... how do we get to the goods?"
Rudolph clenched a fist and said excitedly "We rip the painting open."
Aiden looked confused "But it's a masterpiece... it's got... a man with a donkey face and a smoking hot girl hugging him! Isn't it wrong to just... rip it up?"
Rudolph laughed and said "Don't worry; think of it as fancy wrapping paper on a birthday gift."
Aiden sighed in disappointment and said "Fine..."
Rudolph sank his claws into the painting and ripped it out of its frame; oddly enough the part of the painting he grabbed was the beautiful girl, and not the guy with the donkey head, seeing the girl crumple in Rudolph's hand made Aiden cringe. Upon tearing the painting out, Rudolph revealed a small black box that was taped to the back of the frame.
The box was about the size of a journalists pocket notebook. It had four small plugs on the left side, one white, one yellow, one red, and one purple. Rudolph carefully analyzed it as he slowly freed it from its tape.
Aiden stood quietly, the only thing that stood out to him about the black box was the insignia it had on the front: "CIA". Aiden took a step back, and pondered whether or not he should leave, try to attack Rudolph, or try turning himself in. Aiden had heard much of the dangers that came with stealing from the U.S. government; life in prison, cruel interrogation if suspected as a terrorist, and public humiliation. Aiden knew that if caught, his reputation would be ruined, and he probably would never have another chance of seeing a girl again.
Rudolph glanced at Aiden, who was currently standing behind him. He could tell that Aiden was panicking, so he moved slowly.
"Do you know what this is?" he asked, pointing at the black box.
Aiden was sweating nervously (despite being in a cold garage with nothing but a skin tight T shirt and athletic short shorts) and had a hard time answering so Rudolph took the liberty of telling Aiden anyway.
"This is a technology that will help me make the best video game console on Earth." Rudolph grinned; he knew that the mentioning of the words "video game" would send the young Aiden on a nostalgic trip in his mind, calming his nerves.
Rudolph set the black box on the table, and continued his explanation:
"A while back there were rumors of a government funded arcade game that put players under a state of hypnosis as some sort of FBI experiment. The whole thing is basically an urban legend, and it's probably not even true."
Aiden crossed his shoulders in a sassy stance of confusion "Then what's that?"
"Oh this black box? That's not FBI, that's CIA. The CIA, after hearing the whole urban legend about the FBI experiment, decided they would create a technology under the same concept, and use it for interrogation purposes. In the end, they built a machine that created CGI movies based on the prisoners emotional desires and needs, the prisoners would individually be forced to watch the movies, and would eventually break and respond to interrogation questions, promised they would be able to watch more if they cooperated."
"How does it work though?" Aiden asked as he tapped his food.
"Simple, the human brain has many receptors inside that produce certain chemicals into our brain to give us pleasure and relief. Now, when you play a video game, your pleasure centers respond when you do certain things, giving you the feeling of joy, completion, nostalgia, etc. The problem is that normally, video games follow a single consistent format, and therefore cannot create enough variety to please all of our pleasure centers. This black box is a computer that is designed to constantly evolve through self-programing, in order to adapt itself to please all of one's pleasure centers. This black box was the brain of the interrogation device. This black box is literally artificial life, it doesn't simply know how to think on its own, it knows how to study, and evolve, all by itself."
Aiden sat down on the cold floor, and stroked the floor as though he was luring a girl to come to bed with him. With his eyes closed, Aiden asked "Isn't that impossible though?"
Rudolph smiled "Normally, one would think so, but this is new technology, If I were to put a patent on this, and add it in my companies upcoming new video game console, I will have the greatest video game console in the world; it will never need upgrades, it will upgrade itself, it will always be perfect."
Rudolph walked over to Aiden and rubbed his large pale hand through Aiden's hair. "And you my boy..." he said "You will be the first to play it."
