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Before he could lay the phone down, it rang. Kennedy was on the line.
“Nutsbe here.”
“Hey, early, sorry, I’m about to jump into a meeting. I talked with Sy Covington this morning. We’re grateful to be looped in.”
“Yeah,” Nutsbe said. “Anything new on your end?”
“There is, actually. We might have found out how Russia got your name.”
“Oh?” Nutsbe drew himself up to sit rigidly in his captain’s chair.
“A little more digging. And if we’re right, that’s not information we can share over an open line. Even if Iniquus encrypts all communications, there are still people out there with the technology to sniff the air. And someone could have followed you from the police station last night to get close enough to do just that. Are you still at home?”
“I’m leaving here for a meeting in a few minutes. I’m not sure I’ll be at Iniquus today. Listen, my neighbor drove me home from the police station last night. A couple times, I thought someone might have been following us.”
“To your neighborhood?” Kennedy asked.
“Hard to tell on a rainy night. If someone followed us, they had skills, maybe a team.”
“Russia wouldn’t know you were at the police station, not yet.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself.” Cold tingled over Nutsbe’s scalp when he said that. It was the feeling he got when he tried to blow sunshine at a situation that didn’t warrant positive thoughts. “I hope it’s just a dose of paranoia sauce,” he added lamely.
“It’s to be expected,” Kennedy said. “You know how to get me if you need anything.”
***
Sitting on the faux leather bench, Nutsbe ate a breakfast sandwich and waited on Marvin.
Gadgets and parts filled the office. Paused projects littered the tables. It looked like a mad scientist’s playroom. Marvin was a robotics engineer who teamed up with a reconstructive surgeon and an orthopedic surgeon to develop the protocol for osseointegration surgery, implanting hardware directly into the bone so an amputee could easily attach their prosthetic legs. The cool thing about their team was that it included a neurologist, kinesiologist, and a software engineer who specialized in AI.
Years ago, hoping their research could benefit soldiers injured on the battlefield, the working group went to Afghanistan to see the injuries as they presented when the PJs climbed out of the heli with the soldiers. They were touring the combat surgical hospital where Nutsbe’s rescue helicopter landed. And that team performed Nutsbe’s operation. They were testing new surgical techniques that preserved as much muscle and nerve tissue as possible, gathering it up at the end of his residual leg so that now, those systems could inform the software in his robotic prostheses through a series of sensors.
That AI system, to Nutsbe’s way of thinking, made a world of difference in his recovery and day-to-day life. He liked being involved in the research and feeling like he was contributing.
The research was making a difference now as the teams’ work was put to use in Ukraine and other turbulent areas.
After Nutsbe had worked through his recovery and had the great good luck of signing on with Iniquus, Nutsbe found himself a few miles from Marvin’s research facility. Making it easier for Nutsbe to continue to give his volunteer feedback on the team’s continuing efforts.
This morning was Nutsbe’s monthly check-in and stint as a lab rat.
Seeing through the open door that Marvin was coming up the hall, Nutsbe shoved the last bite of breakfast in his mouth, wiped his fingers, rolled the papers into a ball, and shot it across the room into the trash.
Marvin stood in the door following the trajectory. “Two points.” He held out his hand. “Good?”
“Good enough.”
Marvin plopped into his chair and set a pair of lower-limb prostheses on the ground.
Nutsbe lifted his chin toward them. “Fancy.”
“Yeah. They got a little imaginative with the airbrushing on the robotics’ cover.” Marvin moved the limbs over to Nutsbe. “These are loaners. So let’s start here.” Marvin rubbed his palms back and forth, then set his hands on the chair's arms. “In the past month, was there anything you decided not to do because of your prostheses?”
“My team was in Estonia and went out on the bogs to walk around.”
“Bog walking?” Marvin shook his head incredulously. “Does that come up much?”
“First time,” Nutsbe grinned. “I declined.”
