Tunnel Rat-Chapter 254: Murder on the Habitat Express

The cheese was very good. Taking a break was also very good. Milo woke from his nap, stretched, and then froze. There were two creatures next to him, staring up with large eyes. They were small, with floppy ears and big teeth. He had no idea what to do. The brown bunny scampered away, but the white one daringly took one more bite of his cheese before escaping. He looked down to find the ground around him covered in small tracks, and half of his cheese was missing. He knew what rabbits were, but he had never been so close to any animal in real life except for the small mice that infested some of the unused sections of the habitat. These creatures were bigger. So much bigger! He was pretty sure they weren't aggressive, but they had put a severe dent in his cheese, so he couldn't count them as harmless. He crumbled off the part they had gnawed on and left it as a peace offering, packing the rest into the storage of a waiting crawler.

He was glad he had taken the break, even if it meant a close call with possibly dangerous wildlife. It helped him to consider his strange position in the world. He was sitting in one of the most advanced creations known to mankind, and it had been abandoned with the intent that it would be destroyed. Someone had needed to hide their involvement in something massively criminal. And that something was the Wildfire Virus and LLAMA. The A.I. was created here and either turned loose or escaped. The report seemed to indicate a more controlled situation had been expected. Projections had been run for one day to 6 months of LLAMA terrorizing the internet of various countries. That implied control and the ability to set the parameters of the rampage. That hadn't been the case at all when Wildfire got loose. No county was safe. LLAMA had destroyed most of the internet, erasing databases, crushing security systems, and deleting bank accounts, making most online commerce impossible. The data net used by the A.I. to communicate could handle only a fraction of the load. It was only set up for data transfer, not the internet's myriad uses. After wildfire, the AI guarded the data net and refused to adapt it to other uses. Giving control to humans would have created the same problems in the data net that the internet now had. And things were still crippled.

Ironically, covering up what had been done was made easier. So much data was corrupted or erased that erasing a project like this became possible without leaving footprints. He wondered about all the people Rusty was still waiting on. Could they not get here with the maglev destroyed? Or were they hiding? Or dead? Initially, it seemed that destroying paperwork and wiping computers was the goal. But someone had realized that the entire complex was a clue. A huge one. They'd taken steps to cause a critical event in the fusion reactor and destroy everything.

That was the thought that had brought Milo to this little park. Whoever had done this was very dangerous and had a lot to lose. If anyone suspected that this facility could still operate, they might be back to finish the job. Certainly to silence anyone who knew anything, which currently was one immature A.I. and his new head engineer. He wondered if they assumed the quantum fortress had been destroyed. Rusty said no one had come back to check. The maglev was blocked, and Rusty had said he would know if the elevator was used. Unless there was a communication link that Rusty was unaware of, no one might know that the A.I. and Jeremy had been able to stop the fusion reaction from going critical, temporarily, at least.

There was a rustling in the grass as the bunnies, over a half dozen of them, started rooting around in the grass for the crumbled cheese. Milo wondered if they had been pets left here. What else did people keep as pets? Cats and dogs? Lizards? The thought of a pet snake made him pause. He hoped no one had liked snakes. Putting aside the curiosity of what else was on this level, he returned to Independence Hall and found the stairways to the upper levels. He noted that the security Roomba patrolled up here, their presence seen by the tracks in the dust. A foot-wide ramp along the wall gave them a path to the upper levels. Max and two of his squad accompanied Milo as he searched around. They zoomed off to scout, returning quickly, beeping to get his attention. Max had found a body.

It was at the end of a short hallway that ended in a set of collapsium doors. The reason for death was obvious: the body had a dozen holes through it from high-intensity lasers. A large number of shots had been fired based on the marks on the walls, charring the wood wainscoting. Someone hadn't known the security Roomba had been set to exterminate humanoid intruders. The body was male and dressed in a suit and tie. Near one hand was a Glock automatic pistol. Looking down the hallway, Milo saw where bullets had hit the floor in a vain attempt to stop the horde of security drones. If any of the Roomba had been shot, they had been dragged away for repairs. In a pocket was an intact security ID that read: William Jerkowitz. The body had obviously been here for years. Turning it over, he found a second pistol.

He held his breath and used the security card at the doors. There was a grinding sound as the heavy doors pulled back, giving him access to the room beyond. There were more bodies, eight of them. All had been killed by gunfire. The floor was almost entirely covered in dried blood. The stray bullet impacts showed that the gunfire had come from the corner of the large room, where another set of steel doors were held open, revealing the elevator to the Habitat. Part of Milo wanted to just leave, but he had to know who these people were and if his guess was right. The first body was a woman. Her identification gave her name, Sheila Jones. With a sinking feeling, Milo looked at the others. Familiar names were added to his list of people who had come to help Jeremy and Rusty. Dan Gurgens, Dorian Radcliff, Bobby Benson, Taylor Markenson, Ravi Singh, Wilma Bernstein, and Istvan Turr. Bill the Jerk had lived up to his name and died a moment later. But why?

The computers in this room were working. One chair had been pulled out, making tracks in the blood. He sat down and got to work. Bill the Jerk's ID card enabled him to access his email. He'd deleted them, but Milo found them in the security logs. The first had been sent to the General, whose ID card Milo had found.

"I've located the entrance from the habitat, but the elevator system shows a blockage, and the shaft collapses past the Habitat's lowest level. The system shows that the problem occurred while our sensors showed the fusion reactor reaching critical—surprisingly small damage to the habitat other than cracks in the foundation under Section E and adjacent sections. As was ordered, I have eliminated personnel attempting to help Dr. Jeremy Cooper. Cooper is assumed dead, along with the complex. The Habitat recycling center will handle the bodies."

Milo couldn't track the second email. It was brief and sent to a relay. "The facility is intact. I have reported to our favorite General that it was destroyed as planned. I made the decision to kill the traitors before they scattered in the facility. Continuing into the fortress from the elevator to find Dr. Cooper and determine how far along he is with the immature A.I. and how he has delayed the destruction of the facility. The system in the security area shows the fusion core rising in temperature. It only has a few more days at this rate. Will report when I know more." fr(e)ewebnov(e)l.com

Bill the Jerk had been wrong; that was his last report. But who had he talked to? And why hadn't they investigated further? Milo was getting few answers and too many new questions.

Leaving the bodies was out of the question. It bothered him on so many levels. He searched through the kitchens of the Hall and found a large walk-in freezer and dozens of huge trash bags in the maintenance area. He summoned his horde of Roomba and put them to work. While they scrubbed the floors and eliminated dirt, dust, and blood, Milo put each body into a bag and dragged them to the freezer, stacking them in the back. He was very thankful that he was wearing a sealed environmental suit. It was the best he could do for now. He did take all the ID cards from them, if nothing else, to have proof of the story for Rusty.

The last thing he checked at the computer in the security room was access to the data net. It proved to be blocked, but it only took a minute for him to find out how to turn the access back on for Downtown, but only with his approval. Any computer, Roomba, or A.I. that tried to use the link to the Habitat would still be blocked but would alert him to the try. He kept the rest of the facility blocked. He didn't know enough about Rusty to give him access to a direct link to the data net. Bad enough that Rusty had worked through the wireless connections to his systems in the tank. Luckily, relying on wireless signals with a dozen relays made for a very slow connection.

The elevator was programmable and could be controlled from this end. He sent it on a trip to the top and then brought it back. Everything seemed to be working. He checked the emergency hatch on the top and could climb out. The hollow area inside of the support stretched up into the darkness. Cables ran up the walls, and he was relieved to see a ladder. It would be a long climb, but he couldn't take the chance of becoming trapped in a stalled elevator. While the elevator took up one-half of the area, he was intrigued to see that a pneumatic delivery tube was on the other side. Where did that start and end? More questions to worry about tomorrow. For now, he needed to figure out the elevator. He only saw two destinations: Administration and Roof. He selected the first one, and the elevator started moving quickly, carrying him back to the habitat.

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