Paolo Soto

About

Paolo was a 32-year-old software developer and former associate of Kendra Godfrey, with whom he attended the University of Southern California. She introduces Paolo to Rabbit Wilson when he comes to her to start Peared. From 12 until he left for the University of Southern California at 17, he had been a wannabe Lost Boy who'd wear leather, sunglasses, and a shitty attitude.

Paolo's interests outside of work included climbing and psychology, and he often found himself drawn to the challenge of conquering difficult routes on the rock faces near his home. He also enjoyed exploring the depths of his own mind, and he spent many hours lost in thought, trying to understand the mysteries of the human psyche.

Paolo knew many people had ethical problems with his approach to specific strategies, but he didn't care. He believed that all of humanity was some form of manipulation. The strongest hunter manipulated the tribe. Whoever claimed to speak for God manipulated the nation. Now manipulation was digital. The methods had changed, but the relationship had not. People needed to be led.

Paolo could capture people’s attention because he could think deeply about systems. He understood machines, he understood people, and he had an intimate understanding of the relationship between people and their machines. Most importantly, Paolo was an obsessive thinker. His self-worth was tied to the difficulty of the problem that he was working on. Money mattered, and power did too, but he needed to feed his brain with something so demanding that it consumed the entirety of him. If he didn’t have that, the doubts and boredom of everyday life ate him from the inside out.

Through NAM, Paolo managed and operated the Peared service. In addition, he programmed the missions for users to engage in.

Family

Paolo Soto was born in a small fishing village in Chile to his parents Maria and Jose. Maria and Jose were poor, but they loved their son fiercely and did everything they could to provide for him. Maria worked as a seamstress, sewing beautiful clothes and linens that she sold at the local market. Jose was a fisherman, spending long days out at sea in order to provide for his family.

Despite their hard work, Paolo's family struggled to make ends meet, and they lived in a small, ramshackle house on the outskirts of the village. Paolo was a dreamy, aloof child, and he spent most of his time lost in his own thoughts, tinkering with old radios and computers that he found in the junkyard.

Maria and Jose were worried about their son's lack of interest in the world around him, but they knew that he was smart and talented. They encouraged him to pursue his passions and to follow his dreams, even if it meant leaving the village and their family behind.

Blackmail

At one point, Paolo and Kendra Godfrey had discussed the idea of a "Centaurs" business opportunity where they could coordinate large groups of people using Peared's technology. Use cases would've been coordinating protests and spying. While it was just an idea, Kendra had other plans. She wanted to operationalize it and start running jobs for people. To get Paolo to act on this plan, she drugs him and records him during sexual acts they partake in along with Malcolm Dubour.

CentOps

After Kendra Godfrey gets Paolo involved, he starts running with Centaur Operations and assists with multiple jobs based in Lagos, LA, and Pakistan.

Death

After their last mission in Pakistan goes awry, leading to the death of a politician, Malcolm Dubour, a collaborator of Paolo Soto on the Centaur Operations drugs and kills Paolo Soto and his girlfriend, Monica.