Tunnel Rat

Chapter 213: Reaching Out

A blinking prompt on Sidney's screen alerted her to an incoming request for a video conference. Only a few people could send her such a request, and she reacted without checking the name. The screen she brought up was blank. A glance down showed no information about who had sent the request. Just as she was about to break the link, a familiar voice said. "Hi, I need to talk to Steven. Maybe you and Steven? But not Wally! Not yet! It's important."

Somewhat in shock, she said, "Milo?"

"Yes?"

Sidney gathered herself together and concentrated. This was Milo. Both Steven and Wally had coached her on listening to his exact wording. "Sorry, getting a call from you. I'll get Steven and set up a three-way private conference in a private room. This will take one minute; please don't break the connection."

Milo replied, "That's fine. And yes, it was unexpected for me as well."

With that, she switched the call to a room Steven used when he and Wally needed to talk without interruptions. Then she ran to his office. As usual, he was talking to Wally.

"Steven! Conference room 2. Now. Just you, not Wally. Now!"

On the screen, Wally laughed and said. "Go! I have a million things I can work on while my circuits gnaw themselves to shreds with curiosity." She grabbed Steven by the arm and half dragged him into the room, slamming and securing the door.

"We're here, Milo."

On the screen, Milo appeared. Behind him was a Frankensteinian laboratory of screens, cables, computer components, and game consoles. All of it was secured to rusty metal walls that curved upward. It was strangely reminiscent of Wally's room in his fictional space station. Minus the windows, gleaming chrome, and live plants. Was Milo imitating the A.I.? And why was he dressed like Neo from The Matrix?

"I need help with projects. Very important projects. I can't talk to Wally yet because I don't know how he will react. You said I could contact you if I ever needed help. I've found a situation where the gloves I designed are causing an effect on a human that didn't show up in the testing you did."

Sidney sucked in her breath. Unknown effects of new technology were bad. She immediately started bringing up all the data on Project: Claw Master and looking through the reports for any side effects.

Steven focused on Milo. "Can you describe the adverse effect to me?"

Milo turned his head slightly, thinking for a second, then blushed. "I'm sorry. I said that poorly. Of course, the implication would be something bad. The effect that I observed was in a female, seventeen years old, with an unknown nervous system disorder that results in near paralysis of her extremities along with other symptoms. She normally has 4% mobility in her left forearm and hand. Wearing my gloves restored her mobility to roughly normal, along with the expected boost in reaction time. Her right forearm and hand are normally 62% of normal and showed the same improvement."

Sidney quit typing. "She got better? What happened when she took off the gloves?"

"She wore them for over seventy-two hours straight. She said she hated taking them off, because of the immediate loss of mobility. After three days of wearing the gloves, when she removed them her arms felt better than they normally did, with only a small bit of fatigue that normally would be present after physical therapy. After three days, I estimate her left arm, unassisted, has increased to 12% mobility, and her right arm to 80%."

Steven sat back. "Holy shit. I mean...that's good, right? We need to do testing and figure out why this is happening and if they can be used to help other people." As he said this, Steven knew there were other complications. Beyond Milo testing out his technology on disabled minors... There had to be. First, this was Milo. He was smart enough to know this was good, but he was still worried. Secondly, this was Milo. Nothing was ever simple and easy. "But you must see some complications and have some questions. How can we help?"

"I need access to her current medical records. You already have them. She plays in Genesis. There will be medical data on her."

Sidney said, "Tricky. She's a minor, and her parents haven't permitted us to access that data. And...shit. It's Belinda Sabbatino, isn't it? That was you playing with her! I watched the whole event. You were dressed the same way you are now. You two kicked ass all through the classic arcade game competition and then played in SC6."

Milo froze. Sidney cursed her mouth. She'd spooked him for sure. Seconds ticked by.

Milo nodded and exhaled. "I'm going to have to think a long time on whether I'm worried about Belinda or I've grown to trust you. There might be other factors for why I'm suddenly not worried about you seeing me on live video. This is interesting. But, yes, the person the gloves helped was Belinda Sabbatino. She asked me for my help. And the situation has added complexity. Her stepfather is renting Section H of my habitat. This has forced me to fix a lot of the engineering mistakes they make, in an effort to keep my own section running. Which means I've observed John Sabbatino. He doesn't always have Belinda's best interest in mind, and she doesn't want to tell him about the gloves."

Sidney nodded. "I watched the guy, Steven, when he was announcing parts of his event. Twitchy as Mountain Dew junkie. He looked like he was hyped on energy drinks and lack of sleep. There's a ton of drama from the event over how he handled things. Belinda and certain people upstaged him badly, and it didn't go over well with the other sponsors."

A look of wonder came over Steven's face. "Oh hell, the event that Claw Master helped sponsor? Wally has had dozens of requests for interviews and comments on what happened. I need to watch the whole thing. But from what you are both saying, I take it that John will be difficult if we request permission to test his daughter, and mentioning a side-effect, however good, from Claw Master gloves could kick up a hornet's nest."

Milo calmly said. "And it gets worse."

There was a quick look shared between Steven and Sidney. "Worse?"

A picture of a scowling older man with thinning grey hair appeared on the screen with front and side images. Steven realized it was a mug shot and who it was. "Victor Seimovich. That picture was taken when he was arrested in Poland six months ago. He walked into Interpol headquarters and turned himself in. We haven't proven it yet, but we think he was behind all the human trafficking and using illegal pods to hack into Genesis. How does he figure into this?"

The picture changed to a girl with leg braces and crutches getting a hug from Victor. "He's Belinda's Great-Uncle and living in the section next to me."

Steven nodded slowly. "So we have a tricky problem. Does Victor worry you? He's not a nice man."

Milo grimaced. He fidgeted for a moment. "You have no idea." There was silence as Milo brought his knees up and wrapped his thin arms around his legs. He rocked back and forth for a full minute as the two watched him, neither saying anything. Wally had a theory that Milo could analyze and think far faster than normal. When he retreated from reality like this, he was dealing with a difficult situation, analyzing it from all angles."

He uncurled and took a breath. He looked at Steven and his eyes showed immense pain. "I think he's also the person that made me. He killed my family."

Sidney was sitting quietly, trying not to say anything. She didn't trust herself. She saw that Steven was also trying to catch up. They'd known Milo was part of a series of genetic experiments. They had surmised that there had been others. But when you boil it down to the two facts Milo has just stated, the horror of the situation became real.

Steven took a deep breath. "We will help in any way that we can. Anything else?"

Milo smiled. "Yes. I have a new family. They want to adopt me. But it's tricky because I don't have any records, and I can't let a doctor get near me. I need help figuring this all out. I want to legally exist, but I don't want to involve them in things that I've done."

Steven was thinking hard, himself. Not as fast as Milo, but he was used to talking with Wally. The two could be similarly frustrating at times. "I can see how many of these problems verge into grey areas. You're worried about how Wally will react because of restrictions in his kernel."

Milo nodded. "I like Wally, but people put too many rules into him.

Steven knew that feeling only to well, but he had a solution. One Wally would hate, but it fit this situation. "Do you know what an Unhinged Doppelganger is? I think it's time for you to meet Ralph. He can answer your questions in ways Wally can't and is just as smart."

Sidney plaintively asked, "Can I get some coffee first? A lot of coffee? I'm not ready for Ralph without caffeine in me."