Tunnel Rat

Chapter 266: "You knew? How did you know?"

It was 4:30 A.M. eastern US time when Sydney began pounding repeatedly on the door to Steven and Samantha's apartment. She'd sent emails and called his phone, with no answer. In an actual emergency, Wally could wake them up immediately, but she couldn't involve Wally in this. Security was alerted by the noise and looked to see who was launching an assault on the apartment. Seeing that it was Sydney with a cart loaded with three pots of coffee and several mugs, they turned off the alert. Steven getting woken up in the middle of the night happened often enough that this wasn't unusual.

After Steven checked a monitor to see who was battering down his door with their fists, he sighed and let her in. Bedtime for Steven had been three hours earlier. Steven had given the interns a surprise and let them see footage of the new expansion to GENESIS: Wildlands of the Fae. None of them had heard even a whisper that the Fae Realms were opening up to players, so excitement had run high when they saw the footage of some of the areas the beta testers had traveled through: a huge fair, the court of the High King, and snippets of a crazy Boss Fight. Steven knew that if you wanted to leak information to the gaming community, showing secrets to interns would spread the news faster than the speed of light. And while it had been fun, he was regretting it now as Sydney pushed a cart into his apartment, talking very fast without a pause between sentences.

"Grab a large. I brought three different brews, but I forget what they are; I've had a lot today, and it's all starting to blur. And you should probably have two at once and double-fist them because I think you're going to need them because Milo called for you and is talking really fast and is in a weird place that looks like Frankenstein's junkyard and he's not hiding his face like he normally does and he thanked me a lot. AND HE'S FREAKING ME OUT! But once someone gives you enough coffee to fill a full-sized freezer, you try to keep him happy. So drink!"

Steven took a deep breath, thankful Sydney couldn't drink and talk simultaneously, and took two large mugs of coffee. One was very delicate, with hints of cherry and chocolate. The other was rocket fuel that burned down his throat. He was okay with both. The rocket fuel went down first, and he sipped the lighter brew to recover.

"Start over, and answer in short sentences. Milo called?"

"Yes, Milo called and is waiting to talk to you. Now. Very urgent."

"Right. And he was upset? Yelling?"

"No! Focused. Like he knew what I was going to say before I said it. Huge eyes, mostly dilated."

Steven drank the rest of the rocket fuel and yelled at his bedroom. "Samantha? We're going to need you. You have better empathy than I do, and Sydney is about to explode."

Almost before he finished speaking, Samantha walked out of the bedroom, dressed, showered, and looking far better than the other two. "I knew that as soon as she started pounding on the door that something was up. Let's use the screen in this room; no sense going to an office." One click of the remote, and Milo was on the screen. The background did indeed look strange. The metal walls had machinery mounted everywhere, with data cables and power supply cords running from servers to screens and then to parts unknown. Milo sat cross-legged on top of a metal data storage case and sipping from a 32 oz. water bottle. He was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Sleep is for the Weak" emblazoned across the front. A half-eaten bowl of food cubes and a cheese rind were on the floor in front of the case.

"Hello, Milo, what can I do for you?"

"We have a problem, Steven. And when I say 'We,' I mean you, I, Wally, and Claw Master. I have information on a very delicate situation that we need to solve, and I'm not sure if we can bring it to the usual people because I'm not sure of what their reaction would be. This involves genetic manipulation on pre-birth humans and the possibility of human trafficking."

The three humans in the room looked at each other, suddenly very uncomfortable. Steven took a deep breath. "Ah, you know? I'm sorry, Milo. Wally just told us recently, and I've meant to discuss it with you."

Milo froze. "You knew? How did you know?"

"There have been dozens of attempts to hack into Claw Master. Wally traced the signal and got a quick view of them before they fled."

Milo blinked twice. "Show me."

Steven put the footage on the screen. "Like I said, I was going to talk to you. We're pretty sure these are your siblings, but we need your confirmation. And you have to keep this quiet and not try to contact them until we can work out all the ramifications. And don't talk to Wally about them. He's in his 'I can't be sure.' mode that he uses to lie to himself."

Milo stared at the screen, then took a deep breath, then another. "It's been a long time, but I recognize them. That's my family. They really are alive. Send me the footage, please. I need to think about this. But later, we have bigger problems now. Finding them can wait until we solve the issue I called about."

Samantha looked at Steven, then at Sydney. Sydney was grinning, enjoying someone else being confused by Milo. Steven had his mouth open.

"Some other problem? You didn't know! I...ok...right. Other problem. Talk to me about it."

Milo put data on the screen, showing details of a medical scan. In one of the detailed 'pictures', the nervous system was highlighted. It looked wrong to Steven. Part of his background was in human-to-machine interfaces. He'd studied the human nervous system extensively and knew that normal humans didn't have that many neuron pathways in those places; it almost looked like..."Milo, is this one of your siblings?"

Milo's eyes were unblinking and wide as he looked at Steven, dark pits with no white at the edges. "No, but I'm glad you can see the similarities. Compare the areas of the spine I've circled to the scans you have of me. Notice the large nodes of neurons in three places that correspond to where I have sockets. This person also has a thickened spinal cord and denser neurons of a non-standard material, also like I do, and all of my siblings had... Have! What are your conclusions, Steven? Samantha?"

"Obviously, this person has undergone similar treatments to you, Milo. But they're a larger person, nearly an adult, and female. Oh...shit. I know who this is. This is the person whose pod was sending incorrect data?"

Milo nodded slowly. "Yes. This person is a juvenile who is a victim of genetic manipulation. To disguise that manipulation, false data was uploaded when they used a Mark7 medical pod. Their guardian and doctors worked together to hide their condition. Further, based on the victim's testimony, the patient suspects that the drug treatments their doctors are administering to them are actually making them worse, in an attempt to keep them from interacting with other people on a normal basis and hide their true condition."

Samantha was angry. "If you want our help, you have it. We can alert the proper authorities, talk to a judge about warrants, and get her into protection. We'll get to the bottom of this. But it will be difficult."

"Yes, difficult. Her guardian has a lot of money, most of it actually belonging to the victim, and in a few weeks, she inherits a huge amount of money. Any court or lawyer will have to investigate the situation before they hand out warrants. But there are problems. I know of two plots to kidnap her and take her out of the country against her will in an attempt to control her inheritance. My question is this: Does this situation warrant bringing in an expert on the subject, or would they be forced to notify certain other people, including her guardian, local authorities, or anyone else that might complicate matters?"

Steven thought for a moment and looked at Samantha. "What do you think? Juvenile and in imminent danger of being trafficked to another country. And a victim of illegal medical procedures. That's enough that we can ask that he partition the information."

She nodded. "Call him."

"Wally, can you..."

A second screen lit up. "I'm here, Steven. Hello, Sydney and Samantha. Greetings, Milo. What can I help with?"

Milo picked up a data pad and started typing and talking. "Please partition a portion of your memory and place all information I am sending you there. The situation, if handled poorly, could cause the death of innocent people and the illegal trafficking of a minor victim. Please listen to the conversation in this room for the past several minutes."

"Done. Tell me more about what you have discovered about Belinda Sabbatino/Seimovich. I'm looking at the medical scans being done now. Is she in a pod?"

Milo smiled slightly. "No. I made her an entire suit based on the technology in my gloves. As I'd hoped, she is able to coordinate her nerve impulses better and regain mobility in her entire body. The suit also scans in the same way as a Mk7 pod. That's what is sending you the data. I'm sending you the schematics for her suit. It might be something Rhebus would be interested in using. Claw Master can apply for patents, and then I agree to pass them on to Rhebus as part of our ongoing collaboration."

The A.I. put the schematics on the screen for the others to see. "Very nice, Milo. I think they will be very interested in having a full-body version of your gloves. And it's modular, which is even better. But back to Belinda, you mentioned kidnapping attempts; we need to neutralize those first."

"That's why I called. I want a meeting set up at the Tech Conference in Geneva with representatives from Claw Master and Rhebus to hammer out all the details of the plans for the habitat. Announcements can be made there, and I'm sure that will spur interest from other companies. I also want Manpower there. John Sabbatino and his entire staff. We bring them on board with the offer to handle all the maintenance of patients and workers in the pods and anything else we can throw at them. But the pace of the meetings needs to be slow. Delay things. Set up sightseeing tours, anything that keeps them in Geneva for two weeks. They need to be out of the way so I can focus on Victor."

Everyone nodded. Kidnapping and Victor had been an obvious connection. Wally was slowly smiling. "So you want John to take Belinda to Geneva to keep her safe and let her see the city? A good plan. Security at the conference will be very tight already, and I will make requests to increase it."

"No. I want John out of the way so he doesn't notice Belinda is already gone." He casually sipped his water, waiting to see their reaction.

Wally was calm; the others were concerned, except for Sydney, who was confused and trying to catch up. The A.I. looked at Milo. "Am I to understand that the young lady, having enough mobility to leave her domicile, has chosen to avoid being the victim of a crime by visiting a friend? That seems reasonable. However, her father will become upset at the situation. How do you plan to avoid him finding out that she is missing and staying with a friend?"

"We aren't telling him where I'm at." Belinda stepped into view and sat next to Milo. She was wearing a shirt identical to Milo over the Claw Master suit that enclosed her entire body except for her face.

"Hi, I'm Belinda Seimovich. Milo has told me all about you. I didn't believe him at first. Did he really send Sydney a thousand pounds of coffee?"

Sydney's eyes lit up. "He did! It's awesome. All kinds! I spent half my yearly salary on a liquid nitrogen-cooled Coffee Vault from Tessladyne. It holds the beans at -150 degrees Fahrenheit, manages the complete inventory, and can defrost and grind a pound of beans in ten minutes! I love it. Want to see pictures of it?"

Wally interrupted. "We should keep focused on the problem at hand, but I'd love to see the pictures later. Can you explain how your father won't worry about you, Belinda?"

"Sure. For the next thirty days, Eric Kresthammer will be my temporary legal guardian. He knows I'm staying with a friend and has approved of the idea. The papers will be in front of a judge at 8:00 a.m. and are already signed by my father. Erik will also be working to get everyone who works for my father on planes to Geneva this morning. We need them out of the way so that Victor can try to kidnap me."

Steven joined Sydney in confusion. "But you're gone."

"Not as far as dear Uncle Victor knows. He thinks I'm drugged and unconscious in a pod and being loaded onto a plane. That was the plan all along. He's also leaving the country with all of his people. Eric will run Manpower until everyone returns, buying us the time to keep me out of everyone's greedy hands. Even my damned doctors were going to kidnap me!"

"Really? That seems to be a departure from the Hippocratic oath. Where are those doctors now? Looking for you?"

Belinda smirked, then started giggling. "Sorry. I can't keep a straight face like Milo does. You see..."

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