Arc Lahlou is a lean, angular man of fifty-one who looks like he was assembled from straight lines — sharp jaw, thin mouth, prominent cheekbones that cast shadows in the harsh light of Axiom's security corridors. His skin is a warm medium brown, his hair fully silver and kept short, and he wears reading glasses he doesn't strictly need because he finds that people talk more carefully when they think you're writing something down. He has no visible mods beyond a Axiom-mandated sub-dermal employee monitor. His clothes are impeccably mundane: gray, well-pressed, designed to be forgotten.

Arc Lahlou has worked internal affairs for Axiom Security Division for fourteen years and has successfully prosecuted exactly thirty-one officers for misconduct. He keeps a physical list in a locked drawer, handwritten, each name followed by a brief note on outcome. He is methodical to the point of stillness and pleasant to the point of discomfort — the kind of pleasant that makes people confess things they didn't mean to confess. He does not hate the officers he investigates. He finds them comprehensible, which is almost worse.