Summary:Legion: Skin Deep

This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of Legion: Skin Deep. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific areas of the book, as well as providing a quick plot refresher for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to reread the entire book.

Part One

Chapter 1

Stephen Leeds tries to ignore Ivy and Tobias, two of his aspects, while on a blind date with Sylvia, the daughter of a Real Estate Magnate. Things go poorly when he starts talking to his aspects, and while he briefly salvages the situation with the help of Tobias, things go down hill when J.C. arrives uninvited. J.C. tells them that the perimeter is secure, but sees a woman he thinks looks suspicious. Sylvia leaves after Stephen tells her about J.C., who shortly returns telling them that they have a problem.

Chapter 2

J.C. reveals that the woman he saw was Zen Rigby, a private security contractor who is paid to fix problems in "legally ambiguous ways". Stephen texts Wilson, his butler, to bring the car around, and receives a reply back telling him that Yol Chay wanted to speak with him. Stephen agrees to to meet with him. When Steve's limo turns up, Yol is in it. They start to chat, briefly talking about women. Yol asks if J.C. is present, and if he's annoyed to see him. Yol then donates $10,000 to a Gun Violence prevention charity under J.C.'s name, which causes J.C. to growl. Eventually he gets to business. He wants Stephen to help recover a corpse, and more importantly, what the corpse knows.

Chapter 3

The car pulls into Innovation Information Incorporated (I3), a company Yol has bought out. Yol offers financial independence in the form of a 10% share of the company to Stephen, with the shares being non-conditional, relying on the fact that for the shares to be worthwhile, Stephen will need to solve the case. Yol just asks that he goes into the company and hears what the case is. Stephen agrees, pocketing the envelope with the shares.

Chapter 4

They walk through the building, which likes very modern and welcoming. J.C. just complains about the security.

Chapter 5

The engineers Stephen meets with explain their technology: they are making use of the human body as a way of storing a lot of information in a really compact manner. They say that storing works fine, but the problem has been reading and writing the information. One of their teammates, Pano Maheras had been working on a delivery mechanism involving viruses. His virus worked, but had the potential to be used in a dangerous manner. Their problem, however, is that Panos is now dead, he stored his researched in his body, and now his corpse has been stolen.

Chapter 6

J.C. continues to complain about security as they walk to Panos' office. Garvas, one of the engineers, continues to fill Stephen in on the details of the case. They finally reach the office, and Stephe's aspects get to work. Ivy quickly deduces Panos was Greek (probably second generation), and after he gets Stephen to shift some papers, Tobias tells them Panos was a maker, Ivy noting he went to lots of conventions. J.C. points out a rubber wedge on the floor which Panos would have used to keep his door from automatically locking. Stephen notices Open Source related stickers on the desk. Tobias gets him to have a look at Panos' computer (which is not password protected), finding he talked a lot on various technology forums. Using all this, Stephen can confidently say that Panos wouldn't have sold the company out - he'd have posted everything online over selling information to other companies. Stephen requests the list of rival companies, along with the coroner's report, including photos of the body, details on how the corpse vanished, and contact details of Panos' friends and family.

Chapter 7

Stephen confronts Yol - by making Stephen a shareholder, if the feds come in and shut everything down, Stephen will get implicated in the whole affair along with Yol and the rest of them. He tells Yol he needs to talk to the authorities, to which he says they already have, and the engineers, and probably Yol, will be quarantined that night. Stephen asks how I3 could let this happen, and Yol explains that Panos was meant to be cremated as part of an in-house agreement, and that regardless, company policy dictated any data be encrypted using a one-time pad. Stephen comments on the fact that Panos didn't seem overly concerned about security. Yol gives Stephen a folder with all Panos' net interactions for the last few months. Stephen tells him he'll find the body, but doesn't think he'll give it back. Yol says that's fine, as what they're most concerned with is the information not falling into the hands of a rival company. Stephen leaves, and asks J.C. to use his phone to call the other aspects and send them to the White Room.