"I'm here to see Father Abel," said Ivan to the checkpoint guard at St. Ignatius Academy.

The guard nodded, and raised the security boom to allow Ivan's BMW to pass through.

Ivan parked, and walked up the sweeping path to the Gothic main block.

He knocked on the guidance counselor's office door.

"Come in," called Father Abel's voice.

Ivan entered, and Father Abel raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I would like to reconnect with Aaron, Father. Can you help me?" asked Ivan, his voice trembling slightly.

"Yes, I can. But why now?" asked Father Abel.

"It may be too late, but I want him to know that I'm proud of him, and I regret that I wasn't strong enough," said Ivan.

"Very well, I'll set up a meeting," said Father Abel, dialling Aaron's number.

"Hello, Aaron. I have Ivan in my office. He says he wants to reconnect. Are you sure? OK. I'll tell him," said Father Abel hanging up.

He gave Ivan a wide grin.

"He said it was about damn time you wanted to see him, and that you are always welcome at Sirius Software," chuckled Father Abel.

"Really?" asked Ivan incredulously.

"Yes, really. Now, let's go see him," said Father Abel, getting to his feet.

----

Ivan's BMW purred to a stop in front of the Sirius Software skyscraper.

He and Father Abel got out, to find Natasha waiting for them at the entrance.

"Welcome to Sirius Software, Mr. Zakhrov. Master Zakhrov is expecting you," she said, opening the door for them.

"Thank you, ma'am," said Ivan.

"Call me Natasha, Mr. Zakhrov, ma'am coming from you makes me feel way too old," she said blushing slightly.

"All right, Natasha," chuckled Ivan. He looked up at the towering skyscraper, and let out an appreciative whistle, before walking into the lobby.

"This place is amazing," he said as Natasha's heels clicked smartly on the polished black stone floor.

They rode the elevator to the top floor, and walked down a long corridor to Aaron's office.

The massive door opened with a hiss, and Ivan saw Aaron for the first time in six years.

----

Tears welled up in Ivan's eyes.

"My boy," he whispered, as Aaron came around his desk and embraced him.

"It's good to see you, Dad," said Aaron, a tremble in his voice.

"I'm so proud of you, Aaron. You've done so well," said Ivan, pulling back to look at his son.

"Thanks, Dad. It means a lot coming from you," said Aaron.

They sat down, and Ivan looked around the office in amazement.

"The news articles don't do this place justice. It's a like you're a super-villain," he said, shaking his head at the fact that he was 750 meters above the ground.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," chuckled Aaron.

"Well, it kind of suits you," said Ivan.

"How's Annette?" asked Aaron.

"The same, if not more rigid in her views. The only things keeping my sanity in check is Mikaela, and my car and other stuff that I'm forced to hide," sighed Ivan.

"Hmm, I have an idea. I hire you as a part-time employee. That will give you a safe haven to stash your stuff, some serious emergency money, and a way for us to make up for lost time," suggested Aaron.

"Learned that from how we handled Daisy's situation, huh?" chuckled Ivan ruefully.

"It's just an idea," said Aaron.

"I'll take it, I'm done being stretched so thin," said Ivan.

"Excellent! Officially, you're a part-time senior software engineer. You'll be reviewing and optimizing the Sirius Software codebase. So you'll be paid $400,000 a year. That's half of what I pay my full-time senior engineers," said Aaron.

Ivan let out a low whistle. "That's twice what I make at MIT," he said.

"MIT doesn't have you review violent and sexually explicit video games, or optimize nuclear fuel control and safety systems," said Aaron.

Ivan gulped at the mention of nuclear safety control systems, but still nodded.

"OK, I accept," he said extending his hand.

"Employee agreement," said Aaron, handing him a tablet.

"Damn, son. I'm surprised you've got any employees with this next-level NDA and dress-code," chuckled Ivan, as he read through the NDA, and the male employee dress-code of suits and ties, with either Oxford shoes or formal boots.

While not as exhaustive as the female version, it was still extremely rigid.

"A necessary measure to preserve the aesthetic standards that modern society is so eager to tear down," said Aaron.

"As your father. I endorse this view," chuckled Ivan, signing the agreement, and adding his bank account information and biometrics.

----

Ivan drove into his rented garage, and parked the BMW.

He got out, and changed out of his suit, carefully placing it in a suit bag, and throwing on his MIT hoodie.

He stepped out of the garage, closed and locked it, and booked an Uber cab on his phone.

The cab arrived, and he got in, ready to return to Pine Springs.

"Where were you?" asked Annette, as he got out of the Uber.

"Looking for alternative employment. In case you hadn't noticed, we've got a mortgage to pay off on this new house, and the little kerfuffle we had with Sirius Energy has put a dent in our savings for old age," said Ivan.

"You're sounding like my salary doesn't even contribute," said Annette, pouting slightly.

"It does, but not enough to pay all the bills," said Ivan, sinking into a couch.

"You don't have to rub the pay-gap in," grumbled Annette, before stalking off to the dining room to finish cooking dinner.

"Daddy! You're back!" squealed Mikaela, bounding into the living room, and scampering onto his lap.

"Hey there, Princess. How was your day?" asked Ivan.

"It was good! I got a gold star for my spelling homework, and Ms. Dunham taught us how to add and subtract," prattled Mikaela, as she and Ivan sat down at the dining table.

"And she was warned about asking if Denzel Whittaker's Afro haircut was a nest," said Annette, banging down a saucepan of vegan meatballs on the dining table.

"Well, it looked like one," pouted Mikaela defensively.

"Still, it's not very nice to say that. You know birds make nests in trees and not on people's heads," admonished Ivan gently.

"I know. I apologized to him after, I meant it nicely," sighed Mikaela.

"I know, Princess, just be more careful next time," said Ivan, stroking her head.

----

Aaron sat at his desk, frowning at his computer screen.

While he had hammered out the female employee dress-code. Enforcing it was a different matter entirely.

For one thing, the BMI window had some limitations when it came to screening employees.

Another problem was, there was no way to actually monitor compliance with the level of detail required for the automated escalating fines in the case of violations.

While it had sort of worked for his current compliment of hand-picked employees, it wasn't scalable.

The proof was already visible, with Natasha already reporting a "problem recruit" in the 12-woman compliment of security guards.

"There has to be a better way of doing this," he muttered to himself.

An idea suddenly hit him.

He quickly started to research components.

----

Natasha stood outside the door to the "lab" section of Aaron's apartment, worry furrowing her brow.

He had locked himself in there for close to 18 hours.

"First time experiencing this side of him? I'd be more worried about what kind of crazy thing he'll come out with," chuckled Harry.

The door hissed open, and Aaron strode out, looking energized instead of exhausted.

"Harry, get your work crews prepped. We're re-engineering every door in the building," he ordered.

"See what I mean? Him doing that usually means a lot of work and craziness for us," sighed Harry to an increasingly confused Natasha.

----

"Aaron, I think you've crossed the Rubicon man," said James as he looked at the monstrosity Aaron had prototyped in his lab.

It was similar to the security doors already present in the Sirius Software HQ, but now the door was had a large frame extending around it.

The frame was bristling with infrared lasers, sensors and their associated electronics.

The door face itself had also been modified, with an array of high-resolution cameras hidden under the black glass cladding.

Even the old hand-print lock had been upgraded with an infrared laser grid and cameras that could scan the back of the hand while the main sensor read the hand-print itself.

Aaron folded his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Voice your disagreements," he said.

"Are you kidding? This thing has more accuracy than even the 3D body scanners that we use for our games! People aren't game assets!" cried Harry.

"I get that you want presentation standards, but this is way too much Aaron. Heck, even Natasha might just get flagged if she drank an extra glass of water!" pointed out James.

"I considered those possibilities, James. Anything else?" asked Aaron icily.

"Yeah! Just about the whole automatic scanning of my body down to the millimeter every time I walk through a damn door!" snapped James.

"I've already got cameras everywhere," pointed out Aaron.

"Dammit! Can you even hear yourself? You're talking about scanning people every time they walk through a door to enforce an already insane dress-code!" snarled James.

"That's precisely the point James! The dress-code is unenforceable right now because we don't have the infrastructure to do it! This Sirius Software Portal solves that problem without us having to hand-pick employees," shot back Aaron.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"People aren't machines Aaron, this thing may solve a problem, but that doesn't make it a correct solution" he said wearily.

Aaron held up his hands.

"Fine, fine. I'll gauge our fine female employees' reception to it," he said.

Harry and James looked at each other.

"I have a bad feeling that those girls are not going to object," said Harry, thinking of how Margaret would actually react.

"Me too," sighed James, thinking about how receptive Olga was to his guidance in refinement.

----

Harry held his head in his hands as Margaret twirled around in the scanner frame of Aaron's 'Sirius Software Portal' door.

"Wow! It is so accurate! I can use it at my store to get exact tailoring measurements!" she said observing the 3D map of herself on the massive computer screen Aaron had set up on Harry's and James' insistence that the women know exactly what the Portal is supposed to do.

James' eyebrows rose as the system spat out Margaret's Body Volume Index score - an evolution of the old BMI score, along with a message that it, and her black skirt-suit, with ivory blouse, black pantyhose, and her black leather pumps with titanium alloy stiletto heels we in compliance with the Sirius Software dress-code.

"You do realize that this thing is going to be on every damn door, don't you," said Harry.

Margaret gave him a pout.

"My only complaint is you haven't equipped our home dungeon with this, Master Harry," she said impishly.

"I prefer the hands-on experience of personally inspecting you, you little minx!" growled back Harry.

"Stop flirting, you two! Ugh! This was such a bad idea!" sighed James.

"So. This is what is supposed to enforce that dress-code I signed," chuckled Olga.

"Not you too!" lamented James.

"I'm already used to the uniform, so having this thing scan me isn't too big of a deal," said Olga shrugging.

"This actually saves me from conducting uniform inspections," observed Natasha.

"You knew this would happen didn't you Aaron?" growled James.

"Hey, I'm the mad scientist sadist remember? You guys are my loyal minions, but I don't want mindless drones. That's what machines are for," said Aaron, smirking as James facepalmed.

"One small problem, oh mighty evil overlord. This thing will get you sued into oblivion. Not everyone is like Natasha or Olga," said Andre.

"What if we ask for their consent in the dress-code agreement?" asked Aaron.

"That's guaranteed to chase away 99.99% of potential employees," replied Andre.

"That's acceptable. Do it," said Aaron.

"Your funeral," sighed Andre, throwing up his hands.

"All right, let's get to work. I want every door in the building upgraded to the new Portals as soon as possible," said Aaron, rubbing his hands in excitement.