"What am I missing out on..."
A voice muttered to itself as machinery whirled and sparked.
"Nanobots repair broken tissue and inject nutrients into the cells to encourage self healing and stimulation of nerves, but the tissue will degenerate..."
A clear click of a tongue echoed through the empty, dark halls of the hospital.
"Um, Doctor Angela?"
A small meek voice broke her out of her thoughts.
"Yes?"
Her intern, one that had offered to work with her despite the risks, knocked on the door.
"Did you..." He flinched slightly at her gaze.
"Did you introduce telomerase to the cells so that they don't die too soon?"
She blinked, before looking at the containers of the enzyme next to her apparatus.
She let out a shaky laugh, and tucked her fringe behind her ear.
"It seems like I forgot to do so."
He approached her desk, and took out a notebook from the inner pockets of his jacket.
"I heard you talking about your project, and I got some suggestions for it."
She smiled.
The suggestions might help her.
"Sure, let me hear them."
His face lit up, and he flipped open the book and started to scan the pages.
"Well, because you're using nanobots to inject compounds into the body, you could use a constant stream of nanobots that connects from a portable device that stores the compounds and nanobots to the patient's body."
His finger traced a badly sketched diagram, but she understood it and nodded when he looked up at her.
"And to control the stream, you could use an Omni's electromagnetic bot pump or something similar to control the flow of the nanobots, and have a backward stream to reuse the nanobots at the same time."
His finger slid to another diagram that looked like a staff or a long rod.
"I have a prototype's design here where it can control the flow of nanobots, and have the nanobots return automatically even if the device isn't activated."
Only then did she notice that he was right next to her, and his smile was contagious.
"Why a staff?"
Her question threw him off guard, judging by his jerk of his head.
"Um, well, Greek mythology has a God of medicine, and his symbol is of a caduceus, and I thought it was fitting." His bent form stood straight as he scratched his back.
"That and it was the only design I thought of that had sufficient space for enough nanobots for 5 people at once, which is the most out of all the prototypes I thought of."
Her jaw dropped slightly as she flipped through the pages and saw how many rough sketches there were.
"How- how long were you doing this for?"
Her voice quivered as she pinched the pages, and estimated it to be about thirty to fourty pages thick.
He laughed nervously.
"Um, about a few weeks now, maybe two months."
He was with her for two months now. So he spent his free time doing this?
She voiced her question, and he nodded.
"You seemed way too stressed about it at that time, and I was fascinated by your project."
He rubbed the back of his head as he bit his lower lip, which she found herself looking at more.
"And I might have hacked into your database of papers to learn more about it."
Her awe died instantly, and her right hand inched to her desk drawer.
"But I only hacked into your workstation's database."
He took a step back and raised his hands when she pulled out her pistol.
"You... you hacked into my database?"
Her red face was hidden by her fringe which thankfully fell down.
"Only your work station's database, and I only copied the PDFs in your work folder."
Her eyes glared at him.
"And nothing else?"
He shook his head.
"Besides clearing the log folder out of habit, that is all I did."
The pistol lowered, and he let out a breath.
"You didn't dig through my personal files?"
He nodded.
"I know you said you had experience with technology and systems, but why didn't your entry say anything about hacking?"
He cringed slightly.
"I... kinda worked for Hacknet for a couple of years during my days in med school."
Her mind stopped thinking.
Hacknet?
That name was... familiar.
Her jaw dropped again as her mind clicked.
Hacknet was notorious for doing jobs that only involved hacking, and they were only publicly known after hacking into the Pentagram's database right after the United States announced that their system was only hackable using a quantum computer and a full year was needed. The hacker was arrested, and had copies of the latest files on his phone.
His identity was protected, and he was released after twelve hours.
... no wonder he didn't put it in his entry.
"I did some horrible jobs against humans back then for money, and I quit after jobs against the Omni came in."
He shuddered.
"The sheer hate against the Omni in those requests were too much for me."
Her curiosity rose, but the haunting look in his eyes stopped her from asking.
"Sorry." His apologetic smile was sudden.
"Huh? Why?"
He coughed into his hand.
"I hacked into your database." He stated matter-of-factly, before coughing again.
She could feel her face cooling down.
"As long as you didn't take anything personal, it's alright."
Her internal thoughts, however, were of a different track.
He's lying, he had to have seen... those pictures.
Her face grew warmer again.
"I'll leave the notes to you then, hopefully you find something of use."
He left her office with a bow and a smile, and she waited until the door closed behind him before rushing to check her laptop's files.
They were all untouched, and the cycle of programs used to monitor the files' usage didn't pick up any moving or copying of files.
She sighed in relief, and sunk into her chair.
She needed to take a break from her project.
Her eyes drifted to the notebook.
Maybe reading through it would be enough revenge for hacking into her database.
A smirk rose as she realised that he had written his diary in the book in her hands.
Definitely enough revenge.
Besides, he did hack into her database.
Her finger flipped to the first page of the book.