Tunnel Rat

Chapter 246: Lab Work

As he hurried through the main air duct between Section E and Section H, Milo wondered just when he had gone from being bored with all the time in the world to having no time at all and too many jobs. The nature of the buried building and its treasures weighed heavily on his mind, and he desperately needed to return to it and further his investigations. But he feared what might happen to Belinda.

They had talked some while playing games, and he noted that her problem-solving ability and reflexes improved after being much lower when they started playing. She attributed it to the new drugs the doctor had prescribed her, and Milo agreed. As soon as Butch and Min had put signs in front of the security cameras saying 'Private Party, Keep out!', she had unhooked the IV. Over the next four hours, she improved remarkably. Milo picked the lock on a cabinet that held medical supplies and removed small vials from it so he could take a sample back to analyze. Belinda also had him take a vial of her blood.

But he needed more than that. First and foremost, he wanted a look at her gaming pod. It was heavily modified to deal with her disabilities and access. It was sending false information, but he didn't know if it was storing her actual scans or not. Proof that the pod was sending inaccurate data would help Wally (or Ralph!) formulate a plan to protect her. Milo had been an orphan and victim with no guardians, making Ralph's job easier. Belinda was heir to a financial empire with many people who wouldn't just let the AI take charge of her. The law was on her Stepfather's side. Or possibly Victor's. It depended on the country and the courts.

Milo didn't care about laws and courts. He'd held off doing a full hack of the Manpower computers and personally visiting them because he had been leery of offending Belinda or having to lie to her about why he was running around her home during the night in a set of cybernetic armor with a tail and claws. But now she was encouraging him to do just that. The scenarios he had described seemed more likely each day, and Eric confirmed that her stepfather and Victor had plans in the works. Whatever it took to make sure she didn't disappear some night. The last day had been hard on her, and Milo could see some of his paranoia rubbing off on her. He approved of that.

So here he was, with not enough time to get to his next chess game but needing to to do some snooping. Snooping and Belinda won out, and the chess game could wait another two hours. And it was more efficient this way. He was already suited up and could go from snooping directly to spelunking. He had several computers sharing the job of ensuring he didn't show up on the security system and any room he was in looked normal. The outer layer of his armor was specifically made to be hard to photograph and easy for his computers to edit him out. Sound was taken care of by another computer. In front of him, a small Roomba-like drone moved alone, just another of the thousands that cleaned air ducts regularly, except that this one was scouting ahead for him and under his control.

The drone hit an obstruction and signaled him. Milo rounded the corner, saw the barrier, and got out his tools. The way was blocked by a metal door with a fan in the center to move the air along. These baffles prevented debris or vermin from moving through the air system while helping the air to flow. Milo had removed all of them in Section E since they hampered his movement. He had two of these to remove from his path. Each took only a few minutes, loosening the clamps and folding them to the side. This was a 30" tunnel, technically able to be used by a human maintenance worker. However, no one used them unless they had to. Further on, he took a side passage that narrowed to only 24", with several corners and small drops. These would never be used by a normal-sized person without Milo's love of cramped spaces.

The last barrier was a short section of ductwork only 18" wide, tight even for him. The grate that separated him from the room beyond was tricky to remove, but eventually, he could drop down into the room, stepping onto a handy desk. It reminded him of the time he and the twins had exited into Old Healer's office. But unlike then, no one was waiting for them with claws out. This was the office of one of Belinda's doctors and part of a small lab complex. Three offices, a lab, two hospital rooms, a surgery, and a large room for meetings made up the small hospital. The outer doors were secure and always had a guard on the outside. But inside, Milo had things to himself.

Before he went any further, he modified the vent so that he could remove or refasten it in seconds. This might not be the only time he came this way, and he liked having an unblocked escape route. After carefully scanning the office for any surveillance equipment, he got to work on the computer by plugging his tail into a port and hacking it directly. The amount of information on Belinda was disappointing. Schedules of rehabilitation and suggested vitamin supplements. Boring reports showing steady but very slow improvement followed by down-turns that corresponded with her time spent online in her pod or exerting herself physically. Milo downloaded all the information and set up a back door to the computer so he could access it indirectly.

He was sure that this entire office was a false front. It was too neat and lacked the personal touches of being used much. Family pictures and diplomas were on the walls, but little to nothing was in the desk drawers or filing cabinets. No apps on the computer, games, or anything other than very boring and completely faked reports. It was perfect bait if anyone ever came looking. Milo moved on. He hacked and then dismantled the lock on the door, acquiring the doctor's access code and making his own magnetic passkey. From there, he went to the next room where examinations were done and found Belinda's pod sitting in the middle of the room. Main objective accomplished!

An hour later, he had confirmed that this pod had never sent her actual medical records. It was heavily modified only to monitor her, and all data was sent elsewhere. The reporting apparatus used the fake medical information Wally had informed him of. He was more concerned about the additions made to the pod in the last few days. Additional sustenance and drug reservoirs were added to allow a patient to remain in the pod for several weeks. When he realized what was being done, he sat on the floor and got very still.

He still remembered being locked in the pods as they moved from place to place. The drugs weren't as effective as their captors had thought they would be, and Milo and his siblings had been partially awake for the days and weeks they were locked inside until woken at the next work site. The nightmare of having it happen to Belinda made him angry, and several horrible plans went through his head that would leave Victor, John, and all of their employees dead. He shook himself awake. That wasn't a path he was going down. Yet. He had to admit to himself that if someone threatened his family or Belinda, there wasn't a lot he wouldn't do to save them. But he wasn't restricted in his options. Anger was just a tool that helped him focus. It had to be that way.

A sudden thought hit him, and he rechecked everything on the pod. The similarities in the use of drugs and how the pod was modified were too close to what Kaminski and Victor had used on his family. Their data had included all of the technology, and Milo had read it. This was too close. Was it a standard modification for evil kidnapping assholes? Stranger things had happened. But he needed more information. The two other offices of Doctors Shephard and Nihalia were of the same type as the first office. He hacked the computers, put in back door programs, and modified the locks. Better to be thorough than to regret it later. Before moving on to the examination area, he broke into Manpower's employee files and sent all the information he had on his medical staff to his waiting systems, with an order to begin complete searches as soon as he left this complex, and they had the capacity.

The examination room was sterile, basic, and boring. The equipment was there to analyze blood and tissue samples, but it was not as complex as Milo would have expected. They could monitor Belinda but not cure her or adequately treat his disabilities. He concluded that this lab was also a false front, a fake, just something to show the authorities or lawyers if they ever showed up. Those people wouldn't have a complete 3-D map of the habitat. Milo brought up his maps and saw that a large area nearby was a blank spot, with access non-existent and no use specified. But it was drawing a surprising amount of power. It was located directly below this lab.

Knowing it was there, Milo found what he'd missed the first time. The floors were shiny and clean, freshly buffed, but there was additional wear on two tiles at the edge of the room, between two pieces of equipment. The access was a tiny slot an inch wide where a magnetic key could be placed. The slot was hidden under the overhang of a piece of molding and difficult to see even with his enhanced vision. Infra-red showed it as slightly warmer than the wall around it. Milo tried the key from the first office, and to his disgust, it worked. A short hallway went to a ramp down. Carefully, he worked his way in, scanning ahead. There was one tricky area with a scanner, but again, he found the slot in the wall and used the key to disable it. Beyond was a large bio-tech lab with all the equipment he had expected and even more. An additional bonus waited at the far end of the room: A high-tech vault door of the type used to store data on hard storage securely. This wasn't something he had either the tools, or the time to deal with. It annoyed him that most of the answers he needed were probably behind that door. An additional mystery was why Manpower needed such a large Data Storage Vault?

He was very aware that he was using too much time! This was like killing a boss and not being able to open the Loot Chest! This lab had several air vents to draw off fumes and bring in fresh air. The rest of his time was spent taking apart the filters, removing baffles, and working out a pathway into the lab. It was a very tight fit, but he was confident he would have no problems returning. He added two surveillance cameras in the other vents so he could monitor the lab over the next day. He was nervous about how advanced plans were to use that pod. From now on, he would carefully watch both labs, Victor, John, and Belinda.

Plans and options were cascading in his mind. He needed to get home, set up his security systems, begin searching the backgrounds of the medical staff, and then play a game of chess. As nervous as he was, he was happy to have so much interesting work to do.

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