Tunnel Rat

Preparing Jeremy's pod took Milo an hour. His mobile batteries supplied power, although the pod's internal batteries lasted for at least a week. Milo didn't want to take a chance of failure. His little caravan made its way back to the higher levels and into Downtown with no problems. With Rusty in total control of the complex Milo didn't have to contend with security droids, hidden traps, or other problems. Just long corridors and endless stairs to navigate. He cursed whoever had jammed or disabled all the elevators in the lower levels, which may have been Jeremy. But eventually, he entered the habitable part of Downtown with Jeremy and his Roomba brigade.

His family was waiting for him, Rusty having alerted them to his return. What Rusty hadn't done was mention what he was dressed in or who he was with. His friends focused on what was important, his armor and Max.

"Wow, is that like a spin on the HunkBurster Suit from Ironmanuel 6?"

"No, it's more mecha, look at the design. That's Pilot Interface Armor from Toystory vs. Evangelion, part 3.

Minn ran to Max and his crew, admiring their sleek, upgraded designs. "You have a pack of Battle Roomba? From the DeathBot Battle Royal series? They are so Deadly-Cute!" All of the Roomba made noises of agreement, glad that someone appreciated the time they took designing their outer shells.

After a quick and basic explanation, everyone escorted him to the medical center where he gave a quick explanation of why he had a body in a pod. They watched as Milo crawled out of his armored outer shell, and then, with Butch's help, stripped off his inner suit. It was a difficult process when he was exhausted, and his good leg was still fractured. Kenji found his prosthetic leg and his crutches. Seeing the transformation from an armored juggernaut to a skinny boy who had trouble walking made Mama shake her head in wonder. His ribs were showing again and he had dark circles under his eyes and bruises that matched the dents in his armor.

"This is Dr. Jeremy Cooper. He saved Rusty and Icarus, but it took years and he had to detach his mind from his body and enter the Quantum Core to do it. His body is nearly frozen and in stasis, but his mind is still alive and with Icarus. For now, he'll be here, and Rusty will monitor him constantly. I'll be getting him to someone else when I can, who may be able to help him."

Mama looked at the pod, then looked at Milo. "And?"

Milo's head jerked around, "And I'm hungry? What's for dinner?"

"You aren't getting off that easy, young man. If there was no way to help that poor man, you wouldn't be keeping his body. You are helping him? I don't want to have another discussion like last time when you casually said 'By the way, you're all living in an atomic bomb.' If something is going on, you need to tell us."

Max booped twice and added a series of beeps. Mama glared at the Roomba. "Not a bomb? Don't mince words with me."

Max gave one beep of apology and retreated a few feet. Backing Milo up against Zeus was one thing, Mama was another.

Milo held up his hands, "Yes. I'm trying to help him. There are people I need to talk to who might be able to help him. It's tricky and may take some time."

"Fine, you keep me updated. You're burning the candle at both ends and there isn't much candle left. You need to tell the rest of us what's going on so we can at least make sure you get enough sleep and food. And who knows? Maybe we can help with your problems. Now, let's get some food into you. And I want you to rest up for a couple of days. Butch? Belinda? You're on 'Milowatch'. His two friends grinned at each other and saluted Mama.

Milo looked at them nervously, "Don't worry, all I want to do is rest and eat."

Other people had similar ideas. "Are we there yet? I want to eat something and sleep like the dead for eight hours straight."

"You aren't the only one. We haven't had to work this hard since we escaped."

"Yeah, well, that's the price we pay for being good."

"And cheap."

Nina surprised everyone with a thought. "I wonder how Milo would handle all of this? He's had to work on his own for so long, he may have developed labor-saving techniques. If nothing else, finding him will give us one more person to help with emergencies."

Onyx nodded slowly, remembering how Milo had gotten them out of the trap in the game. "A good point. He may look at things differently than us, coming from a different set of environmental obstacles to overcome. He certainly looked at the problem of gaining freedom differently than we did. But we need to find him, and not spook him. Have we had any recent sightings while dealing with storms, bugs, tunnels, and that outbreak of carnivorous koala bears?"

Bork shook his head. "I check daily. All of our video surveillance shows nothing, and I've checked in with the three undercover detectives working in section E. No one has seen him, the cameras haven't picked him up anywhere in the tunnels or air ducts. Nothing. If he's there, he's being very careful. I still think he's feral and now he's in hiding."

Nina surprised Onyx by saying, "Or, he's obsessed with that gameworld and playing non-stop. People are living in pods and not coming out for months at a time. It might be worth looking for him in there."

"Are you volunteering?"

"Hell no. Onyx is the one who wants to go back to the game, but I don't think any of us should risk it. Maybe we could engage the services of some players to look for him?"

"Let's think about that after we get home." All agreed and they passed the time playing five-dimensional Rummycube in their heads until their private plane landed and they could take their armored limo to the Rhebus section of the habitat in South Philadelphia

The Alphabet had been busy the last few weeks, globe-hopping from one job to another and taking little time off in between. First had been a simple job in Chittagong, doing a survey of their eroding coastal infrastructure constructed piecemeal over the last 70 years by three different corporations. Rising sea levels and increased storm severity had caused problems for Bangladesh's major port, and the problem was going to get worse over the next century. Freedom Engineering had been tasked with coming up with a comprehensive plan to replace and rebuild the work done by Soylencorp, Alchemarx, and Alexacorp.

Different solutions and approaches had been used by the different corporations and the subsidiaries that they hired. The task would have been nearly impossible since no one in charge of the past work would share their plans and data, and what was in the city's files was woefully incomplete. The Alphabet didn't bother asking and pulled the information straight out of the corporations. It was more fun that way.

As usual, they enjoyed a 'rant session' where they vented about the shortcomings of people doing work while trying to maximize profit.

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"They didn't take into account how tidal patterns changed with the seasons. Sure, this breakwater helped in the winter months, but it actually tweaked the artificial reefs the other nine months of the year."

"Look at this concrete! Just look at it! Rome made concrete that lasted for two thousand years and these idiots make stuff that dissolves in seawater in decades! They rediscovered lime clasts and hot mixing at MIT, but does anyone use it? Hell no. They want things that break, not last two thousand years."

"It's a traffic jam. They had to see that coming. Increasing trade, not enough docks or ways to unload and load the ships with a mix of commercial and military shipping using the same harbor."

After the rant session was over they spent a month constructing a detailed report of the problems facing the city, many of them unknown and just waiting to happen, and a seven-year plan for reconstructing the shipyards, docks, and military shipyard. Then offered to do it in three years as long as they were in charge, cut through red tape, and shoot the people that asked for bribes. The government of Bangladesh delayed signing the contract, (They liked their bribes.), and the plans became moot when Cyclone Erin formed in the Indian Ocean, pushing the limits of what was considered a Category Five storm.

The Alphabet switched hats as Rhebus was contacted, first for help with evacuations, and then for disaster relief. What had started as a fun engineering project became serious and the Alphabet devoted all of their energies to doing what they could, working 22 hours a day and pushing their human subordinates to their limits. Large amounts of overtime pay and long, paid vacations would compensate for the stress of the long hours. The people who thrived in that environment were promoted, and the people who couldn't handle it were retired with generous benefits or found jobs elsewhere. Not everyone could handle the workload at Rhebus. Sometimes in the Alphabet found it tough.

That became apparent when during the disaster in Bangladesh, corporations in India and Pakistan turned a simple trade dispute into threats of war. After two weeks of increasing stress, Nina and Bork began a campaign to expose the government and corporate officials working to create and profit from the crisis. Arrests were made, several people retired, and others disappeared. The crisis was averted and they got back to work creating plans for settling people inland in newly built cities and rebuilding a destroyed port.

With 90% of that work done, Rhebus was contracted by the US government to quickly find a way to neutralize a new strain of locust created by a now-bankrupt laboratory that had been associated with Symtech. Their new bugs were designed to eat other pests that were eating the Florida citrus crops. The superbugs were bred in captivity and sterile when released. They ate furiously for six months, then died. Symtech charged a high price to release their bugs into orchards and their stock soared. New generations of locusts would be needed each year, guaranteeing ongoing profits. The problem with breeding five billion superbugs is that you had five billion chances for a mutation to occur and throw a wrench into your profit statements. It was estimated by researchers later that only .00001% of the bugs failed to be sterile. Symtech dutifully checked the orchards where they had released their bugs, finding none alive.

It turned out that the mutant locust, like their parents, didn't like oranges and lemons. But they loved sugarcane, watermelon, and tomatoes. In the second year, small swarms of locusts were munching through fields in three parts of Florida. Symtech investigated and swore in court those weren't their bugs. By the end of the summer, the blight was spreading fast, Symech was in bankruptcy, and someone called Rhebus. Nina and Algernon finished the work in Chittagong while the other three started working on something to deal with the bug problem. Bork hated the idea of spraying with an untested pesticide or making another genetic monster. He created huge bug traps instead. His traps were three-story steel towers 30 feet wide with mesh membranes that allowed bugs to go in, but not come out. Zander bioengineered a scent that drove the locusts crazy and attracted any of them within a mile. Then they outsourced the manufacturing of the prefabricated traps and the chemicals to reliable small corporations.

They finished two days before a small earthquake in Italy trapped two thousand miners a half-mile underground. Someone in the government looked for people with experience in constructing rescue tunnels and found Onyx's work on an emergency tunnel built in Peru to save people trapped in a similar disaster four years before. Within 24 hours the parts to that drilling machine were being airlifted to Italy, prefabricated bracing was printed in Germany, and drilling started on the third day. It was a harrowing week as Onyx and the others coordinated the rescue by the seat of their pants, spending hours going over geological surveys and gathering every bit of information on the mines in that area. They made it with 17 hours to spare, bringing down supplies of food and oxygen as they began ferrying the trapped miners to the surface.

During all of this, they still coordinated work being done in their sections of the Habitat through their employees. Much of the work they needed done was standard building and engineering. The tricky and exhausting parts of the build-out involved linking their water, sewer, air, and electrical systems with those in the habitat. The further they were from Section E, the worse things became. After their marathon problem-solving tour, they were actually anxious to get back to work in the habitat. But something else had to come first.

"So, were agreed? This weekend will be the 2nd annual Silent Ninja event?" Bork raised his own hand and watched as the others did the same. "Then let's get to work. Nina, we need two dozen identical ninja outfits. One dozen wasn't enough last time when 'someone' used the mustard strategy. He glared at Zander.

"No proof, wasn't me."

"Make it three dozen, Nina. Zander, you're handling snacks. No hotdogs, no mustard. Algernon will set up the video games, and I want gloves this time, no fingerprint readers in the game controllers. Everyone else is on decorations, and surprises. And I'm adding a hard, fast rule of no wearing a costume over a costume: There will not be a return of the Evil Pink Ninja."

That brought many sighs of disappointment. The Evil Pink Ninja had been popular. Whoever they were.

Bork looked around the room and smiled evilly. "And I have a further suggestion. This is just practice for the real event. I say that after Silent Ninja Day is over, we head over to section E and look for Milo ourselves."

Nina looked at Onyx and rolled her eyes. He agreed with her. "Yeah, nothing wrong with that idea."

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