Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.9 - Hidden in the Data

MULTIPLE TIMESTAMP ERRORS DETECTED

APPROXIMATELY -0.15.04 PRE-INCIDENT

Emmett sat cross-legged on the floor of the backup lab's control room. The room was dark—the holographic table and screens were powered off. The metal was cold, but Emmett's body could barely feel it through the legs of his supersuit. Not that it mattered—

His mind was elsewhere.

He didn't need the overlapping displays from the room. He barely needed the visuals in his HUD anymore. His new sense for data had manifested. It came intuitively to him now.

It was hard to put into words how it felt... In the last few months, Emmett felt the new sense as it developed. It came in flashes of insight, like catching a glimpse of something submerged beneath the waves. Like a shipwreck emerging for a moment, only to submerge again as the next wave came. Except that was backwards...

As Emmett worked with the swirling mix of lights from his Heads Up Displays, screens, and holograms, they would all recede away. Instead of coming in flashes, Emmett's insights came when everything receded beneath the waves. The world receded. The screens receded. Some kind of trance-like meditation.

At first, it didn't last long. As soon as Emmett realized what was happening, he'd startle himself out of the trance. It was impossible not to, like realizing you were dreaming and accidentally waking yourself up in the process.

But it got easier and easier to stay under.

Maybe that part was like dreaming, too. Emmett had gotten so used to this new sense that he couldn't pinpoint exactly when it fully manifested. One day, he no longer jolted awake. It had become second nature, like so many other things about his cyborg body. Pinpointing the start of it was like trying to remember when you fell asleep and when you started dreaming.

~

Footsteps echoed down the hall. A few seconds later, the control room door hissed open. Clara stood in the doorway, staring at him. Her hood was pushed back and her voice quivered.

"When were you going to talk to me about it?"

Shit.

Emmett glanced at the floor. "I... I'm not sure. Soon."

Clara nodded slowly. "How long have you been working on it?"

A readout appeared in Emmett's HUD: Three weeks, two days, seven hours—

She wouldn't want to know all that. Emmett canceled the display and replied, "About three weeks."

Clara gestured to the dark control room. "Is that why you don't leave anything up on the displays anymore?"

Looked up from his seat on the floor and shook his head. "It's not that. It's just easier this way. It goes faster. I can think faster..."

Clara folded her arms across her chest, eyes boring into him. "I want you to stop."

"You know I can't. Everything comes back to this. We need to take back the lab eventually—maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not next week or next month, but we need the lab. I just know there's something there that we're missing. And we need to break your dad out of—"

"Don't bring Dad into this." Clara's words were sharp and final.

Emmett took a measured breath. "Fine. But you know I'm right. Everything comes back to the lab."

"We're not ready."

"I know! That's why I'm starting on it now."

"Emmett, you're obsessing about it. You haven't gone outside in days. You only go outside when we're recruiting. Do you even remember the last time you left this room?"