Sean strolled into the hospital fifteen minutes early, after another quiet pod ride since his ZipSled was yet to be repaired. The tech at the repair shop informed him parts were on order from New Canton, one of the industrial Cores on the East Coast. He sat down in his small, shared office and started looking over the work orders for his shift. Chad showed up a bit later and was nice enough to bring an extra coffee, truth be told, the coffee was for a nurse's assistant on Three-West he was keen on, but she was off ill. Sean thanked him for the coffee.

"Still issues with the MedLine network in paeds?" Sean waved the tablet at Chad, the device listed all the work orders, sorted by priority.

"Yeah, the nurses are having to send the Pediabot on rounds every fifteen minutes, since the vitals from the nursery aren't reliable. It's not that critical though, we can push that one off. Now, Nineteen-North is another story, I have had a bunch of calls and emails from the administrators, they want the air purification system fixed now, that's priority tonight. They have had to empty the entire Wing practically and they are running out of room."

"I'm on it. Have you pulled the logs from the environmental control servers?"

"No, I figured you would."

"My toolbox wasn't in my locker either, have you seen it?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, I had to borrow it. I think I left it in the maintenance closet on 8-North."

"Geez Chad, at least bring it back when you're done with it." Sean said, doing little to hide his annoyance.

"Sorry chief, I did bring you a coffee. I gotta run, bunch of reports to fill out. Keep me posted on your progress with 19-North." Chad excused himself and left, avoiding further discourse on the errant toolbox.

Sean, took a deep breath, turned his attention back to the tablet, and began reading through the notes left by the day shift. He downloaded the server logs and maintenance reports for the top 6 items on the to-do list. He initiated a diagnostic on the environmental systems for Nineteen-North and fired off an email to the Head Nurse on paeds advising her that he would try to get to that issue this evening. He then went over to his locker and changed into a clean uniform, which consisted of light-blue overalls and protective footwear. He clipped an ID badge to his chest pocket, and checked to make sure he had his nearband keycard, grabbing the tablet he headed toward the elevators. Up on the eighth floor he chatted with a couple interns before retrieving his toolkit and heading up to 19-North.

The environmental control system was a complicated collection of sensors, servers and devices that managed temperature, humidity, oxygen levels, air purification, water purification, waste treatment, and innumerable other things throughout the hospital. A pair of master servers in the data center provided central control, but each floor had a slave system that managed all the items of that floor, taking orders from the masters and reporting back on current conditions. All the various sub-systems had sensors that reported data points to the slave, all the environmental variables were sampled several times per second, fed back to the slave which then told the environmental systems to make adjustments accordingly. When working it was a symphony of modern technology, but when it was broken it was a nightmare to troubleshoot. Tonight it was not the well-orchestrated system it was supposed to be.

Some rooms hot, some rooms cool, ventilation running at all different speeds, sometimes not at all, and the dehumidifiers were all running at full capacity leaving the air bone dry on the entire floor. It made for an uncomfortable situation for both staff and patients, at least for those that remained on the floor, many found excuses to work in more favourable conditions. To make things worse, the lighting was also affected, the entire floor was either dimly lit or without any light at all. Sean donned his headlamp and proceeded to the environmental server closet. The diagnostics had come back inconclusive and then logs told him what he already knew, things on 19-North were bad beyond description. He reset the server, the switch and reinitialized the control application, nothing changed. He brought up an application on the tablet and paged IT, a man with a dark complexion in his early 40s appeared on the screen.

"How can I help you?"

"Hey, it's Sean - I'm working on the systems on 19-North, nothing is working up here. Can you scan all the environmental systems up here for infection, I'm running out of ideas?"

"Sure boss, gimme just a bit. 19-North you say?"

"Yes."

"You know, we had some issues up there yesterday."

"What sort of issues?" Sean asked.

"We saw a big traffic spike on the network between the data center and 19-North late in the day. Pretty much maxed out the uplink for an hour. We investigated it for a while, but never came up with anything and we've since been pulled away on other projects. Weird though..."

"Looks like this scan is going to run for a while, I'll page you when it's done or if anything comes of it."

"Ok, thanks." The screen blanked and Sean closed the application with a swipe of his finger. He decided to check the Nexus gear in each room, it was the device that all the sensors connected back to. He didn't expect to fix anything, but it was the unexpected that had much in store for him this night.

Sean checked a couple dark and empty rooms, the Nexus gear appeared fine, all green lights. The third room had a single flickering light working and one occupant. A young lady, who appeared badly beaten, lay in the bed surrounded by IV poles and equipment that monitored her vitals and beeped at regular intervals. He tried to be quiet and inconspicuous but he could hear her sobbing quietly, he grew uncomfortable ignoring her.

"Excuse me, are... are you okay?" It seemed a stupid question. "I know it's really dry up here, I can grab some ice chips for you." Acutely aware his contract forbade him patient contact, he continued "Has a nurse been by? You want me to buzz a nurse?" He stepped closer and courteously turned off his headlamp as not to blind her.

Even in the dim light, he could tell her face with badly swollen. Her lower lip was cut, she had sutures across her forehead closing a deep gash. Her eyes were both blackened and one was partially swollen shut. She looked at him, with the look of a scare animal, fearful and untrusting.

"My name is Sean - I'm just a maintenance guy for the hospital," He said gesturing to his badge that was likely near impossible to see due to the lack of light. "We're having all sorts of trouble with the environmental controls, which is why I'm up here. You know I just noticed it's really cold in here." He could see her shivering under the thin hospital linens, either from fear or cold he could not tell. "I'll be right back."

He headed down to a warming closet full of microfibre blankets, while down there he peered around the corner at the nurse's station, which was abandoned.

"Where the hell is everybody?" He wondered aloud. With a couple warm blankets under his arm, he headed back to the room with the beaten girl, this time checking the room info monitor. Bed A: Abigail Heather Carrington, it read.

"I didn't find a nurse, but I did find some more blankets." He covered her gently and stepped away. She appeared to grow a bit more at ease.

Abi found that the combination of the dry room, the pain medication and her sore and swollen face made it difficult to talk when she finally did try. "I... I..em...A-bi." She whispered weakly.

"Hi Abi. Can I get you anything else? I don't know where all the nurses went."

"Ice ch... chits." P's were particularly difficult at present.

"You got it." Sean quickly returned with a big, plastic cups of ice chips. "Look, Abi - I gotta get back to work soon - do you have a phone or netpod? I'll give you my contact, if you need anything, just send me a message. I'm here all night."

Abi motioned at the nearby table, "p..p..purse in d..drawer." She found that Sean's warm smile and easy nature made her more comfortable and she felt just a bit better. It had be a lonely, scary few hours since being admitted and being in a cold, dark ward was only making things worse.

Not wanting to pry, Sean did not ask what had happened. His first assumption was that this poor, young lady had poor taste in men and that her boyfriend had laid into her for whatever reason.

"Can you fix the light?" Abi asked. The light flickered incessantly and was making it difficult for her to get any rest.

"I can disconnect it, afraid that's the best I can do right now, lots of things up here are not working the way they should right now. I'll leave you a flashlight should you need some light. I'll be working on this floor for a while yet, so don't hesitate to buzz me if you need anything. If I do run into a nurse, I'll make sure they check on you."

"Thanks." Abi said as Sean started to leave.

"No problem, " Sean nodded and gave an awkward little wave. "Get some rest."

Sean went back to work. IT was still scanning the systems, he gave up after checking a couple more Nexus systems. He proceeded to do some very cursory checks of other systems, but the problem was not an endpoint, he knew that for certain.

He worked through his shift, frequently finding an excuse to head back to 19-North. He felt bad for Abi, who was largely alone so he checked on her frequently, hassling the nursing staff he could find for details on her condition and the scoop on how she ended up in hospital. He had a pretty good rapport with some of the staff which provided him with some vague details about a mugging or attempted rape. He found himself surprise by how much that infuriated him, which made him feel even more protective of her despite having only made her acquaintance this evening.

He lingered a bit when his shift ended and made a detour to the on-premise food court to load up a tray with a very generous breakfast spread. Fresh fruit, eggs, waffles, sausages, milk, juice, nearly everything on the menu and all chef-prepared. The usual hospital food came from a separate factory-like kitchen that while perfectly edible, was not quite as palatable. He made his way back to her room careful not to upset the overloaded tray and found her awake and sitting up.

"Uh, morning -" he felt his face immediately flush for a second, "I grabbed you some breakfast, it's not from the hospital kitchen. Didn't know what you liked so..." He placed the tray on a trolley and wheeled it over to her, a wayward sausage found its way to the floor in the process.

"Wow." She couldn't help blurting out. "Sorry, it's just - you didn't have too... that's a lot of food." She laughed a little, which made her face hurt.

"Yeah - I don't know what I was thinking." He admitted, staring at the mountain of food. "I just didn't want you to have to eat that hospital food - it can be pretty gross."

"That's sweet of you - thanks." She peeled an orange and pried out a slice, but found it quite painful to open her mouth wide and grimaced. "I think I might be starting off with the juice."

"My shift's over," Sean began awkwardly "I have to run some errands and get home. If you need anything buzz the nurse and if they give you a hard time, give me a call. I will be back tonight, I think they are holding you for observation for a couple nights, so I'll stop in again. Are you expecting family or anyone?" He was surprised nobody had shown up all night.

"My parents are away on business, and they live in South Dresden. I don't know if anyone has been able to get a hold of them yet."

"Well, if you get bored or lonely - call. I might be sleeping so let it ring. I'm sorry things on this floor are a little crazy right now, some of the environmental control hardware is messed up, they will be replacing some of it later today so hopefully it will warm up in here. I better get moving," he said checking the time. "Or I'm going to miss my pod." He wanted to linger and chat some more, but he did have some appointments he had to keep. "See you tonight, feel better."

"Bye. Thanks for everything." She watched him disappear out the door, and found herself immediately feeling a bit lonely. She looked at the tray of food and could not help but smile a bit despite the pain, it was an absurdly large pile of food. She took a piece of toast and began to eat.

Sean basically had to run to make his pod and his bad knee ached somewhat from the exertion, but he was largely oblivious, his mind was otherwise occupied with two things now. A cryptic message he received from Nic during the night and Abi. Nic has messaged him the previous afternoon while he was asleep, Sean did not get back to him immediately, but when he did the following message from Nic was more odd than normal, "Sean we have to talk, come see me. Do you still do any climbing?" Climbing? He thought to himself, what the hell does that have to do with anything?

When the pod did arrive, Sean found it shabbier than most, in a right state of disrepair and covered in gratuitous graffiti. The mag coils hummed loudly and it seemed slow and wobbly, it was not the best way to start the day, or finish one, he thought. The sky appeared to threaten rain again and there was a distinct chill to the air that cut through his light coat. He was not amused to find the pod also lacked a functional heater.

He made a quick stop for groceries, picking up mostly ready-to-eat dinners, some cereal and fruit, coffee and a get-well card for Abi. Picking out a card for someone you just met proved to be exceptionally difficult. In the end he thought a bit of levity was most appropriate, so he chose one with a cartoon dog with a bandaged paw.

Next he was off to Nic's residence, which was about 30 minutes out of his way, but he felt it was somewhat urgent he speak to Nic. Sean hit the buzzer, which he found amusing since he figured Nic likely had sensors that already informed him that a guest was approaching the front entrance. Sean had also not noticed Katherine hanging upside down nearby, she had camouflaged herself to blend into the wall. He swore loudly and jumped back when she deftly plucked the hat from his head. Just then Nic came to the door.

"Frang Nic, your pet almost gave me a heart attack! You program it to spook your guests?"

"Uh no, not sure why she does a lot of the things she does. You should have seen her the other day in the garden with Simon, she found a male Praying Mantis and I swear she was quite enamoured with it. Unfortunately, it was unrequited love. Poor girl. Well, no need to stand outside, come on in. Would you like a coffee? Simon just brewed a pot, he roasted the beans himself." Nic had had a very late night himself and was already on his second cup.

"Yeah, coffee would be great."

Nic showed Sean to the kitchen and grabbed him a mug, "Pot's right there." He indicated a nearby counter, "Milk in the fridge, sugar in the cupboard."

"Black is fine." Sean noticed Simon cooking up a breakfast at the other end of the large kitchen. It smelled wonderful. The aroma of bacon and coffee made Sean realize that he had gotten food for Abi, but not eaten himself. He was suddenly very hungry.

"Simon, when is breakfast on?" Nic called out.

"Another 15 minutes." Simon answered without turning. He was actually making an extra large portion of everything as he liked to serve some breakfast to his meagre flock following his sermon. Food for the body and food for the soul was something he often said to Nic, whom he often fed as well. Nic on the other hand, made sure that the kitchen was always stocked having local grocers deliver twice a week. It was the least he could do.

"Ok, come up to my office for a few minutes, we'll come back and grab a bite in a while."

"Sure." Sean followed Nic to his office, which was a few flights of winding steps up in the tower.

"OK, you know that coded message I received a while ago?" Nic began.

"Yeah."

"Well, we finally cracked it, it was a message."

"What was the message?" Sean inquired.

"It's instructions on how to establish further contact with the sender, in a nutshell."

"You're dumbing it down for me aren't you?"

Nic laughed. "I wouldn't say that, but I'm paraphrasing a bit. Let me get to the point, Miller and I talked this over and we think it's a bit risky to initiate the session from here. We think we can use the student lab at KTI to do this, but we need Katherine for the crypto."

"You're taking the bug to school?" Sean laughed.

"She will be camouflaged and she's not going in the school, she'll be on the roof. That's where you come in."

"Oh?"

"We need some who can get up to the roof with Katherine to run the cable. Are you up for that?"

"What about school security?"

"I have that covered already, I have access to their database, I'll just make it look like someone double-booked that sector for the night shift and issue a shift recall to the team that is really scheduled. They'll take the night off and no one will bother us all evening."

"Internal sensors and video?"

"Taken care of."

"So you just need me to climb a building with the bug and run some cable?"

"Yep, you can stay up top with Katherine if you wish, we don't need you inside for this."

"Oh wonderful, the bug makes for great conversation." Sean added sarcastically.

"What do you have against Katherine?"

"She's damn creepy, Nic."

"Well, then rappel down and hide in the shadows, whatever. Are you in? We need a climber."

"What do we gain by making this connection? I'm sure you guys have considered it could be a trap right? I mean, it certainly sounds fishy." Sean yawned, he needed to go get some sleep.

"I'm not going to say it's not a possibility, Miller said the same thing. It just does not feel like a setup. In my line of work, I see a lot of deception, I'm usually pretty good a detecting deceit and I just don't feel like that is what we are dealing with here. I promise, I'll have a Plan B and Plan C drawn up before we try to pull this off. If anyone gets a bad feeling, we can postpone or find another way to make this connection. Regardless of how important I think this is, you guys all come first."

"I'm not ready to commit just yet, let me know when you have drawn up some concrete plans and maybe we can do a secure conference call to get everyone's input. Trey's got a pretty good nose for trouble, maybe get his opinion."

"We don't need Trey for the job, but if you value his input I have no problem including him."

"Sounds good to me, let's do that."

"Let's grab some food before it gets cold." Nic suggested.

"That sounds even better, I'm starving."

"Why didn't you eat at work?"

"Slipped my mind."