Tunnel Rat

Chapter 244: Moves on Chess Boards

The word sat on the screen, blinking. Milo stared at it. Every other part of this facility was dead, with no power, and filled with a neutral gas that couldn't be breathed. Yet this room had power and possibly a working operating system that had noticed him as he entered.

[Would you like to play a game?]

(What games do you have?)

[Games: Tic Tac To, Chess, Berzerk: Roomba Style, Reactor Control System]

Milo selected Tic Tac To. A simple board appeared, and he played against the computer, resulting in several ties and, surprisingly, several wins for him. The responses from the computer were slow. After a dozen more games, all resulting in ties, he got a prompt.

[You are good at Tic Tac To; thank you for playing. How about a nice game of chess?]

A chessboard appeared, giving Milo a choice of colors. He chose white, going first. He won in four moves.

[You are good at chess! You have played before?! This will be fun!]

The board was set up again. This time it took Milo nine turns to win. He quickly played another seventeen chess games, always winning but taking longer and longer. He wondered if he was training the computer. Queries about the system, commands in multiple computer languages, and anything besides playing chess got no response.

[Thank you for playing games. Resources limited. The next game of chess is available in 17 hours and 31 minutes. Will you return and play a nice game of Chess?]

Milo noticed that the lights were dimming slightly.

(I will return. How do I increase resources? Emergency power generation? Storage Batteries? Trouble Shooting?)

[Energy Storage: .0000000000000000000010017%]

[Emergency Battery Backup System: Disabled]

[Secondary Emergency Battery Backup System: Disabled]

[Diesel Generators: Manual Control, Offline]

[Trouble Shooting Crews: 0]

[Repair Crews: 0]

[First Shift Personnel: Transferred, Files Deleted]

[Second Shift Personnel: Transferred, Files Deleted]

[Third Shift Personnel: Transferred, Files Deleted]

[Administration Personnel: Files Deleted]

[Communications: Offline]

[Core 1-9: Down]

[Core 10: Operating at 3% capacity. 99.99999% devoted to Reactor Control Game]

[Armageddon Protocols Enacted-Pending completion of game and win conditions.]

[Schwarzschild Singularity System: Critical]

[Bethel Containment Fields: Critical]

[Current Game Status: Critical. The estimate of the end of the game has changed. Old estimate: 2 years, three months, seven days. Current Estimate: 1 year, two months, three days. The new estimate reflects the usage of resources to learn new games.]

The screen blinked with this information three times in red, getting dimmer. Then the screen went dark, and the lights shut off. Milo sat in the dark, thinking for a few minutes, then got up and left. He needed to research and bring down supplies for an air system, tools, and many other supplies. His mind whirled with the possibilities presented by this place. He also knew something very, very bad was going on, and he needed to figure things out.

"Honey, it's just a little paperwork. I know you aren't feeling well, so I made sure that the legal guys put markers where you have to sign and have those pages on top. It will only take a moment."

Belinda looked at her father, flanked by a woman from his legal department whose name escaped her. It was hard to think, the new drugs were hitting her very hard, and she was sleepy. "Why am I signing these things? And why now?"

"Business can't wait, honey; some of these are about your treatments. We have to get your signature for some of them since you're over 16 now. That's how your mother set things up."

"Fine, hand them to me." She swung out the small table on her desk, and the woman put the first of many papers on the desk with a pen.

Belinda looked at her. "Just put them all down at once. What the hell, Do you think I can't handle signing more than one paper at a time? And Daddy? What have I said about bringing strangers to my private hospital room? I don't like it."

The woman hesitated, and Belinda glared at her. "That wasn't a damned request. Put the paperwork on my desk and leave. Or take it and leave; I don't care. But I'm not going to sit here and have some stranger hand me things one at a time while you and Daddy make eyes at each other or talk over my head."

"Miss Sabbatino, I'm sorry, but I..."

"Seimovich. You know my name. It's on all the paperwork you want me to sign. Belinda Seimovich. The same name as Uncle Victor. Have you met Uncle Victor? Do you talk back to Victor Seimovich? Of course not; you're still around. Drop the papers, then leave. I'm tired and sick and don't have to be pleasant about things when you barge into my room and wake me up!"

Shaking, pale hands put the paperwork on her desk, and John made shooing motions for the woman to leave. Her father smiled at her awkwardly and sat down to wait.

Belinda made no move to pick up the pen. "I sent you an email about my friends coming over today, Daddy. Did you tell the front desk?"

Her father shook his head. "No, I don't think you feel well enough to have friends, honey. Let's skip that until later. Just sign those papers, and then you can rest for the day. Maybe next week?"

Belinda looked at the first one. Her eyes were blurry, and the words were difficult to read. "I need to talk to Eric, please. Can you get him, Daddy? I have some things to talk to him about."

"About what, Belinda?"

"You want me to sign paperwork today? I'm trying, but I can't read it. You're horrible at reading things to me, even when I was little. If you can't handle fairy tales, you can't read legalese to me. Eric can help me with these. If you want them signed today, go get Eric so he can help me. I'll nap until he gets here." She picked up the stack of papers, held them to her chest, and rolled on her side, facing away from her father. John tried to talk, but she ignored him, and he left after a few minutes.

A half-hour later, Eric Kresthammer knocked on the door politely and waited.

"Come in, Uncle Eric. I need your help with some things."

Eric sat down, noting the tone of her voice. How John, who'd been around the girl all her life, couldn't understand her moods was beyond him. But then, John had always had trouble reading people. He was great at 'big picture' stuff but not so good with people—even his own daughter.

"Whatever you need, Belinda. I'll always be here to help you."

She looked at him directly. "I'm counting on that. Here's what I need today: My oversized tablet, the one I've customized. It's in my room, 2nd right drawer of the pink desk, slid under a pile of shirts with ponies on them. Bring my laptop, and please, burn those shirts. I don't know why John keeps buying them for me. Then I want electronic copies of all these papers he wants to be signed sent to my laptop so I can enlarge the print, read them, and sign electronically. I'll work after I get cleaned up and go to my rooms. Have Clement and Sally from the nursing staff come in and help me with that. They can set me up in my chair with an IV drip to continue my treatments. Then I need you to notify the front desk and security that I have friends coming to visit and to escort them to my rooms."

Eric was silent for a moment, then made a decision. "I'll handle it. Send me your friends' emails, and I'll send them a confirmation message. Legal is going to throw a fit about the documents, you know that?"

"Oh, I know. They hate to ever give me electronic copies. That's why I think you shouldn't ask them. They work for you, and you have access to all the files. Go into the legal files, and send me the documents. And Eric? While you're in the legal files, please copy all documents pertaining to my trust funds and stocks, and send those to me in a file marked 'Pony Pictures.' You and I will be going over them this coming week. Something you don't need to bother either my step-father or Victor with. Do you understand what I'm asking of you? I will need help and guidance over the next few years, maybe forever. I need to know if I can count on you."

That made him pause. He'd assumed this day was coming at some point; he just hadn't expected it today. His world was dividing itself into three factions, with him in the middle and needing to choose a side. He'd put thought into the choice already. "I understand, and I'm in. But I'll be honest. The two of us can't do this alone. I can keep John and Victor away from you for now, but it will become more difficult as time passes."

"Play them off against each other. Hint to Victor that Daddy is being pushy and that you're delaying the paperwork. Victor will put pressure on Daddy. You can tell Daddy you're working to get what he needs from me."

"And in the meantime, I have someone that I think can help."