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.

Part Two

Chapter 8

Stephen informs the reader that he has 47 aspects, with Arnaud being the latest to join, but that it is taxing to imagine more than 5 at a time. To get around this, he has the White Room - a room with non-reflective smooth white walls, floor and ceiling which has been soundproofed. His aspects filter into the room. When they are all present, Tobias tries to get their attention, but they are all making too much noise. J.C. pulls out a gun and shoots into the air, immediately silencing everyone, though Stephen complains he is going to have to imagine a hole in the roof now. Ivy hands out information sheets containing everything Stephen knows relating to the case, before handing a separate sheet to Stephen, containing everything he knows about I3's rival companies. The aspects spread out, all starting to work through the problem, analyzing it from different angles. Stephen, after reading through the papers he'd been given, strolls around the room, looking at everyone's work. After the circuit, he then dug into the stack of papers containing Panos's web and email history, which takes him an hour to skim through. Having gone through this, he starts a second circuit of the room. He stops when he walks past Audrey, who is writing text in the air with her finger. He imagines a glass plane for her, to make it seem like she'd actually been writing on something. He looks over what she's done. She had started to have a look at the biochemistry of the virus, but also had had a look at finding patterns in what Panos wrote online - Audrey was created when researching handwriting analysis, with a bit of cryptography. She asks him to do more crypotography research so she can do more analysis. Stephen tells her that he will see what he can do, telling her to focus on the forum post analysis, and not the chemistry. He pulls up a book on cryptography as he leaves, starting to have a read. Tobias reports to Stephen, telling him that the general consensus is that the virus technology is viable and the threat is real. He says J.C. suggests verifying independently that I3 is indeed in lock down. They plan the order of actions - call a contact in Homeland Security, then visit the Coroners office, then meet with Panos's family. Tobias finishes up by saying J.C. wanted to talk to Stephen. Stephen finds him, and J.C. tells him that he's got info on the assassin, Zen Rigby. He's worked that the reason for tailing him is to try and find the key to the information in the body. He suggests Stephen might have been bugged. J.C. asks Stephen to carry a gun, though Stephen reminds J.C. that the aspect can't shoot anything. J.C. then seems to have come to terms with the fact he's not real. He explains that Arnaud has a theory, and brings him over. Arnaud talks about multiple dimensions in which everything that could have happened did happen, so each of the aspects would be real in one such parallel dimension. Thus J.C. claims that instead of being a Navy SEAL, he's an Interdimensional Time Ranger. Stephen tries to offer a rational reason, but J.C. finishes the conversation, reminding him of the time. Stephen tells Tobias to have the standard team (Tobias, Ivy, J.C.) and who else they need in the garage by 7:30 A.M..