Tunnel Rat

Chapter 260: Rhebus decides to move in.

The forced relocation for the Alphabet was not going well. They had abandoned too many locations in too short of a time. The adrenaline rush was gone. Fleeing through the sewers was fun and hectic. But after traveling through three countries to throw off any possible pursuit, they started to relax. Now, they were back to rebuilding and creating a new base of operations. The set of rooms they occupied were in the top three floors of a building in London's East End. They owned the building, kept the bottom floors empty, and filled with furniture covered in painter's tarps. A yellowed sign in the window proclaimed, 'Coming Soon! ABC Children's Book Store. They hadn't been here for over a decade and were only using it now because it was easy to get to and very expendable. It was stocked with food, no computers, and a crappy video game system. There were no links between them and the building. Not that they expected they would have to run. This hidey-hole had no data net connection and no way for any of them to draw the attention of someone looking for them from the last failed attempt to break into Claw Master. It was simply a place to hide for a few days and move on, but by unanimous consent, they decided to stay longer.

All of them were shaken by the thought someone had seen them and eventually shared their fears with the others. After hiding for so many years behind lifelike images on computer screens with only a handful of people knowing what they really looked like, it was traumatizing to be caught like that, with someone actually getting into a screen and taking a look at them. No one had ever come so close to catching them. Part of their therapy was making fun of Bork relentlessly. He took it in stride and started planning his next assault. That was when the other four decided to visit London, spend some time offline, and wander the streets daily, pretending to be normal teens.

They never went out singly and only felt safe together. There were too many variables in the real world, too many things that could go wrong. They had rules on how to dress, how to act, and what to say if any type of authority noticed them. School uniforms were the best, giving them the alibi of roaming as a gang but looking harmless. They spent little money, bought snacks, sat in parks, or played silly games. After two hours, they returned home. Only twice had they needed to employ tasers and run from situations they couldn't control. They all agreed that the therapy was good for them. It reminded them that for all their abilities, things could go wrong, and they were physically weak. This was what Bork needed now, a reminder. Over the week they spent in London, he felt caution return, and the need to succeed receded enough that he wouldn't do something stupid, and then the others could relax.

Their last night in London was a meeting to plan their next few months. Three months of every year were spent at Rhebus, engaged in pure research. During that time, no hacking was done or anything that could compromise the biotech laboratory they had spent years building. Rhebus did more for the world every year, and it was important to keep it clear of everything else. Activities for the rest of the year were planned, locations set up, escape routes created and tested, and targets selected. Claw Master was atypical. Normally, they went after people and businesses operating outside of the law. It was the mystery surrounding Claw Master and the possibility of a connection to Milo that had made it a target. And the mystery had only grown.

Bork surprised everyone with his first thought. "I don't think we should go after Claw Master again."

Nina tossed a cold chunk of fried potato at him. She loved the deep-fried fish but detested the soggy chunks of dirt-apple. "I'm not sure what we have here. It's not a hologram but can't be the real Bork. Zander, do the doppelganger test. If he doesn't know the code word, set him on fire."

Bork held up his hands. "Whoa! We don't have a doppelganger test!"

"Exactly what a doppelganger would say. I'll get the flamethrower." Zander got up and grabbed a bottle of coke, shaking it menacingly and pointing it at Bork.

"What did you do with the real Bork?"

Bork sighed, "He whined too much, so I took him to the zoo and fed him to the penguins." The other four looked at each other and came to an agreement.

"That's acceptable, DoppelBork, you can stick around. Now tell us why you don't want to make another run at Claw Master?"

Bork gathered his thoughts a moment. "Because I'm scared. Really scared. The security I ran into had to be an A.I. or another sentient construct of similar power. It had me dead to rights, and could have done much more in the couple of seconds it took to say hello. That's not something you just hack into; it's an entirely new level of problem. I'd want to use all five of us at once, backed by all the resources at Rhebus, and that's an unacceptable amount of risk for potentially little reward. We got access to some cutting-edge technology by just offering them money. I want to continue along that route. Build on the partnership, show what we can do, and if they have more secrets, pry them out that way. What corporation doesn't value profits?"

Nina was intrigued by the idea. Hacking came so easily to them. "That is a novel concept, in some ways. It means treating Claw Master like an equal or partner. What do you propose?" She knew DoppelBork would never make a suggestion without a plan and was correct.

"Claw Master just bought Section E of the same Habitat that Manpower operates from and where we think Milo might be hiding. There is way too much synergy going on to be a coincidence. More than ever, I think Milo is working with them. My suggestion is that Rhebus leases or buys a few sections as well. We can build a full medical facility for testing our new cloning tech, enhanced by the Claw Master system. With Claw Master next door, our researchers will have immediate feedback and troubleshooting from them. And it gives us room to house thousands of patients and control the experiments. We want to ensure they are in good physical, emotional, and mental health before sending them through the program, and they'll need physical therapy afterward."

Algernon was making notes in shorthand on the back of a pizza box. "Recreation facilities, physiotherapy, full hospital, apartments for family members, administrative offices, a separate hospital and lab for the cloning and attachment. That's at least four sections of the habitat."

Zander was drawing little boxes. "We take these six. It is better to have more space than not enough. That puts our block adjacent to both Manpower and Claw Master. We'll want several floors of the worst section for Freedom Engineering. We can hire ourselves to do all the work, and we already have permits to work on the Habitat."

They brainstormed for several hours. Finally, Algernon brought up a problem that had no easy answer. "What about Victor Seimovich? We can't forget that bastard is part of Manpower. And from our studies, he may get much more powerful soon if he gets access to his family fortune."

Bork had thought of that, as well. "We need to regain control of the security system in Manpower or install another. We have to watch him 24/7 until we can find a way to make things uncomfortable for him. We have options. People in Greece and Croatia would be on planes in an hour if we pinpointed his whereabouts for them. But I don't want to see a habitat full of people turned into a shooting gallery or worse. Despite promising to obey US law, he and his crew will be heavily armed."

Zander shrugged. "If he gets more money and that makes him dangerous, we steal the money. It's safe now in the long-term investments that are held in trust for his grand-niece, but we have all of Victors accounts monitored and can hack them at will, despite the new security programs he has in place. As soon as we move in, we can tap into every camera in the habitat, install more, and hack everything. Make it secure and able to keep tabs on Victor at all times. We won't feel safe otherwise."

Nina pointed to the section in the corner. "This is the worst, and on the outer wall. I say we put Freedom Engineering down low and make the lowest level into an emergency hideaway and an escape route." Everyone nodded. You always needed someplace to run to, and going underground was the easiest.

Bork was typing furiously. "I'll send the details to the lawyers at Rhebus and instructions on what we want. We've got plenty of money to speed negotiations. By tomorrow, we'll have leases on six sections, with options to buy."

Algernon nodded, but his brow was furrowed. "And we have to leave London? I was just starting a new project here."

The other four looked at him, and Nina tried to make out his doodling on the napkin he was staring at. "Penguins?"

He looked at her, totally serious, and said, "Yes. Penguins. I need to measure the intelligence of the penguins that ate Bork. I want to know if they got dumber or smarter." The rest groaned; his study was not approved, and he was pummeled with soggy chips.

The vacation was over; the Alphabet was back to work. All of them felt relieved, and some of the pressure in their brains disappeared. They needed things to do, and this was a huge job, with variables like Victor, Milo, and the possibility of dealing with an A.I. that increased the difficulty and the fun.

Wally was in a good mood as he called Steven into his office. "Things are so interesting these days. Guess who I just had a very interesting conversation with, in my persona as the head of Claw Master?

Steven replied, "Oh, a guessing game. Let's see, was it someone from Rhebus wishing to discuss the expansion into Milo's habitat?"

Wally's image stopped moving for half a second before he answered. "You cheated."

Steven allowed himself a smile. It was rare he could do this to Wally. "I was speaking to someone from Rhebus as well. They wished to talk to me about Contract Workers in Genesis and what they could do for them."

Wally went from petulant to intrigued. "Contract Workers? So interesting. So very interesting. They called me to inform Claw Master that they were following our lead and leasing a full six sections of the habitat. It's a large undertaking, even for them. They sent over reports on their work with cloning missing limbs and the progress they are making using the Claw Master technology to train the new body parts to integrate fully with the patient's nervous system. The work is decades ahead of anyone else researching cloning techniques. And they just gained another edge by using Milo's technology."

That shocked Steven. "Six sections? That was fast. They must have had plans in the works for a new research facility in a habitat and pivoted locations based on our announcement. Corporations simply can't move that fast."

Wall agreed. "It is quite out of the ordinary, but then, they aren't an ordinary corporation. They want to construct a large testing facility and, unless they hit major problems, start helping tens of thousands of people at once. They plan to move half of the research into the habitat and construct a full hospital, treatment center, rehabilitation facility, and housing for all of the patients and, in some cases, their families. They chose the habitat for several reasons, but mainly because Claw Master's purchase of Section E means they have better communication for constructing their sections and easy integration of the research done by both companies. Luckily, I've been hiring and training a research team, so Claw Master has someone besides Milo in that role. Now, tell me what Rhebus wants with Contract Workers."

Steven took a moment to process the information Wally had just given him. Rhebus had mentioned building in a habitat, but not which one. "It's very simple, on the face of things. Over 22% of Contract Workers are missing fingers, toes, or part of a limb. Some are missing multiple limbs. I'm sure you have the data and know why; Long-term VR work from a pod is popular with this group of people. They can't get jobs anywhere else, and in a VR world like Genesis, they have a healthy body. The woman I talked to at Rhebus, Nadine Mire, says her company is offering their services for free to up to ten thousand contract workers. If the people agree to the process, they will wake up with fully functioning limbs when they finish their contracts and can start physiotherapy. The work can be done without waking them up. It gives Rhebus a controlled population of patients with constant medical data available from the pods and eliminates variables from their study. Some of the work is traditional surgery, but most will be through the nanites already used to maintain the worker's bodies."

Wally shifted a part of himself to analyzing all of the data on Contract Workers, the new information waiting for him from Rhebus, and compared it with the work he was already doing. He liked the answers. "I'm potentially in favor of this. It will mean an increase in the quality of life for many people and encourage more people to enter into long-term agreements to use the medical pods. We can fix their bodies while we are fixing their nervous systems. It's tricky, but it can be done. What are they proposing after they have cured ten thousand Contract Workers?"

"That's the interesting thing; they aren't acting like a normal corporation."

Wally actually laughed. "They never have. I've followed Rhebus for some time. While they have no trouble making money, anyone investing in the company signs a waiver that they understand that research and developing methods to help victims recover come before profits. The stock is still profitable, just not as profitable as any other corporation would be with its resources. Just look at the cures they developed for the three viruses in Africa. They put the formula in the public domain for anyone to use."

"Well, they are continuing with that. They will offer to help any Contract Worker we send to them, limited by the facility in the habitat. They are working with various governments to bill them a small amount for each patient. It will save the healthcare systems the cost of treatments and disability payments. Based on those savings, it will be easy for Rhebus to be paid a fee for each person. The real money will come from the next facility they open. That one will charge the full amount to insurance companies and healthcare systems of people in the higher income brackets."

Anything that helped humanity, either an individual or a group, pleased Wally. "We'll have to coordinate with them carefully. It would be easiest if we convert several floors of Section E to areas where we oversee the Contract Workers in their pods. I already have dozens of similar facilities scattered across the globe. I've had to take several of these over when corporations were not meeting my requirements. I worry, though, that Milo will have his own plans for Section E."

Looking at the map of the habitat, Steven made a suggestion. He'd learned to do this when he had an idea that Wally hadn't come up with. He wasn't sure if he thought differently or if there were restrictions in Wally's kernel that precluded him from making decisions on certain subjects. "What about using the Manpower corporation? They are already supplying Contract Workers for corporations that need extra people in the game on a short-term basis. We keep a closer eye on them than we do other places. What if we let them handle the job of overseeing tens of thousands of pods? As part of the hab rebuild, we can include a system for carefully tracking and transporting pods between Manpower, Rhebus, and Claw Master."

Wally nodded carefully. "Thank you for making this suggestion, Steven. I have to be very careful with the health and well-being of humans in my care. Having the oversight of humans be decided by humans is more acceptable to my kernel. And those watching me."

Steven felt he'd figured out yet another piece of the puzzle. "And, of course, as an administrator for Genesis, I'll have to insist that you keep a close eye on Manpower and the humans it cares for. I'll suggest that we help them a bit to get started. Claw Master and Rhebus will be moving ahead with their parts; I'd rather not have them lag behind."

The A.I. stretched in his chair, another clue for Steven. He said, "I'll make the call for you. You look like you have a lot to do."

"Thank you, Steven. I hate to panic people, and that can happen when I call. While you're at it, could you check in on Milo and keep him updated? He was looking stressed when he called earlier."