Tunnel Rat

Chapter 271: Victor is still Causing Trouble

"How?" Milo had counted on Victor being fooled and giving him time to figure out what they would do next. A week would have done it, even a couple of days. But not this soon.

"The news release is sketchy. Interpol picked him up when his plane landed at Heathrow Airport outside of London. The pilot reported a mechanical failure and changed his flight plan. Victor got caught at the airport by Interpol trying to enter the UK or switch planes. He explained the pod by claiming he was taking me to a doctor in Prague, but when the authorities checked the pod, they found out that he was smuggling a bio-terrorist into the UK. She is the partner of two others who were arrested simultaneously. The UK is on high alert against a bio-terrorist threat. Uncle Victor is being held in London, along with everyone on his plane and the terrorists, with no bail. The news programs are full of theories about what he was planning. The UK is yelling at the US; the US is demanding he be returned to their custody. Interpol isn't giving him up to anyone, claiming it was their agents who apprehended him after an extensive amount of research to track his movements as soon as he left the US and violated his protective custody agreement."

She turned to Milo. "And the interesting part? All three bio-terrorists were my doctors up until a day ago. What the hell is going on? How much of this was your doing?" Her suspicion was confirmed as Milo looked sheepish. "More secrets?"

"No, not really secrets. It's more like things are moving fast, and we haven't had time to talk. I found out a lot of things when I went to get your medical records. The doctors were going to try and kidnap you in the next couple of days, and so was Victor. Worse, they were planning to kidnap someone in the Hab and put them in a pod as a decoy. I was spying on one of them when she talked to the others—and drinking. She was upset and drinking alcohol, and arguing with the others. She was drunk enough that she tripped, hit her head, and knocked herself out. I put her in a pod to keep her alive, and she became the decoy."

"Knocked herself out. Or you made that happen?"

"Nope, I swear, she was drinking and spilled some on the floor, slipped, and went down. It was really convenient though. Her computer was unlocked; I had her codes to the vault and put her hand on the keypad. We have all of the data they were storing. Part of it is your medical records, which only take up part of one disc."

A screen came on, showing security footage of the event, and Rusty's voice chimed in. "I want to watch! This is better than anime. We'll watch it together. Oooh, you were doing sneaky stuff. Are those data storage units? What do they have on them? Anything I'd like to watch?"

Belinda covered her face with her hands. "OK, I believe you now. And I am never going to drink vodka. So you did a good deed and sent her off with Victor. I suppose you set up the rest?"

"More sneaky stuff! Tell us!"

Milo remembered a time when no one knew he existed, and he didn't have to explain things. It seemed long ago. "I sort of set it up. I have an Interpol agent I work with, and I gave her a tip about the two doctors. But I have no idea why Victor was there. He was heading to Prague!"

Belinda put all the news reports she could find with video on the screens so Rusty could watch, and she could see her Uncle Victor get arrested. She might never see him again and was sad because of that, while part of her cheered that he was out of her life. "Victor is old school. I've heard him say that he never follows a flight plan. He probably told the pilot once they were up in the air. Oh god. I just realized. This is big news! No way does Daddy not hear about it. He's going to flip about the part where Victor claimed to have me in the pod, and he will be calling Eric. Victor will have people come look for me, and I'm trapped in Frankenstein's Laboratory with no shower, no clothes, and only frozen tacos to eat."

Milo looked at her, concerned. "You don't like tacos? Everyone likes tacos. And I have cheese, lots of it. We're fine."

"Until someone tracks me down because of that damned implant Daddy or Victor put in me. I know when it happened. I woke up with stitches on my leg, and an explanation from the doctors that they needed to attach a sensor to my femur next to a major nerve to get better readings for diagnosis."

"They can't find you in here. It's shielded."

Belinda looked around and raised her arms. "Behold! My kingdom!" She sighed and looked at Milo. "I don't think I can stay here for two months. I need to do physical therapy to get better, and I need a medical pod and a doctor looking at my readings. And clothes and a place to wash up."

Rusty said, "I don't think it will be two months. Someone will find you by then, probably in the next few days. Milo is correct that his home is shielded, but that implant is designed to send signals that are hard to block. Some scanners could detect the signal if they got close enough. I'd estimate 50 to 100 feet would show she was nearby."

Milo was looking at the specs on the device and becoming more worried by the minute. "And they'll know roughly where in the Hab you were. The signal would have been picked up as we traveled. They'll know you went to Section E and can home in with the scanners. Rusty? I have to ask you a fav..."

"YESYESYESYESYES!!!!! Belinda can come to live with me. YESYES!"

"Live with Rusty? Milo, where does Rusty live?"

"Um."

"I live in the Hab, too! Just like my friends! But on another level. AND I HAVE SHIELDING. The best shielding. Please? I get lonely now that I have friends again."

Milo held up his hands. "Quite. Please." Then he sat down to think. A minute later, he looked at Belinda. "He's right, but getting you there will be tricky."

"We should come to Geneva more often; I love this town." John Sabbatino had been in a good mood since Eric had shoved him onto a helicopter in Philadelphia. The conference was everything he'd ever dreamed of. He'd been to tech conferences like this before, but that had been different. Back then, he'd been a lackey, just a middle management shlub taken along because he was an old friend of the heir to the Seimovich fortune. No one had wanted to talk to him then; he was a nobody. People wanted to be near Ekaterina or Vigo. Mostly Vigo. While Kat could sparkle when she wanted to, it wasn't second nature. Vigo was always handsome, charming, and the most intelligent person in the room. It had galled John that as jealous as he was of Vigo, he'd have done anything for the man. There was just something about him.

It didn't hurt that he owned a successful biotech firm whose stuck was enjoying an unimaginable growth rate. They took out patents monthly, sold their creations, and then raked in the royalties while other companies did all the work. They were seen as the future of how research corporations would evolve. Vigo would preen and posture to the crowds, and anything he said affected the stock market. John was along because he was convenient. Kat trusted him, so Vigo used him as an errand boy on these trips. No one talks to the errand boy.

Today, everyone wanted to talk to John. The Manpower-Claw Master-Genesis-Rhebus deal had surprised everyone. It had come out of nowhere, and the sale was all anyone wanted to talk about. Myrna was feeding John information about who he was talking to and what to say, while John did his best to smile and capture some of the magic that Vigo had conjured with. He had a meeting with Tesladyne in ten minutes to look at the design for a prototype Mk 8 pod, and an hour later, Alexacorp wanted his input on their version of the same product. Only one would be approved by Genesis, and both companies wanted to influence John in the hopes he had input on the decision. John hadn't known that the MK 8 was even at the prototype stage, but he smiled and nodded as if it was something he knew about. Vigo had actually taught him that, pretending you knew more than you did. It was hard to, though. Vigo usually did understand what was going on, and John didn't.

Myrna was tugging on his arm. "John, time to go. Now."

"What's up? I have meetings. Important meetings, and we've already briefed on them." He saw that his security team was converging around him and Myrna.

"Move now, talk later. I don't want you on the floor when something hits, and we have maybe 30 seconds until it does."

Her tone worried John. "What's going on? Just tell me. Is the deal off?"

"It's about Belinda, please, trust me and move." They began walking to the elevators. John saw a newscast on a monitor that people were staring at, and several of those people turned to look at him. And then there was a journalist in front of them.

"Mr. Sabbatino! Any comment on the arrest of Victor Seimovich? And what can you tell us about Belinda Seimovich? Was she actually kidnapped?"

John wanted to watch the newscast or ask the newsman about what he knew, but at that point, two of his guards took him by his arms and steered him into the elevator.

"Myrna, what the hell is going on?!"

She turned to him and held up a tablet with a news program running. "Watch this, but you already know the details. Victor landed in London, got arrested trying to smuggle in a bio-terrorist wanted by Interpol, and there was some sort of plot going on with two more. Do those faces look familiar to you? Those were Belinda's doctors, John. We need to find out what's going on fast and get ahead of this. Why were those three people working for you, John?"

John was covering his face with his hands. Things he'd dreaded for years were being discovered, and the house of cards was about to crumble. "They are specialists. They came highly recommended." What he didn't tell was that they'd worked for Vigo a long time ago under different names and were some of the few people who knew the truth about Belinda. That couldn't come out. He'd promised Kat he would protect Belinda. But where was Belinda?

"I need to talk to Eric."

"Your girl is fine, John. I told you I'd take care of her."

"Fine?! Victor nearly kidnapped her! How is that fine? There are already people asking us questions about Victor. What the hell am I supposed to say?"

Eric could sympathize with John; the whole situation was stressful. But Eric had been dealing with both Victor and John for months now, and they were finally to the end game. "We've talked about this, John. It was going to happen, sooner or later. You tell the truth: Victor isn't Belinda's guardian, and attempting to take her out of the country would be illegal. Seeking medical treatment is just an excuse to kidnap her. Remind them that Interpol and numerous countries have investigated Victor for years, and they should talk to Interpol about the details, not ask you. You aren't in control of Victor; he doesn't work for you, and you don't have any business relationship with him. If they ask why he was living in the Manpower section of the Habitat, refer them to the US Justice Department. If they ask about what he was up to in London, just shrug and refer them to Interpol or the London police. Keep your answers short and say as little as you can."

"But..."

"And then, John, you tell them you're in Geneva to talk tech and start talking about the deal and Manpower. Use all their sudden interest in you to talk about what you want to talk about and not Victor."

John liked that. "I can do that. This might not be so bad after all. Short answers, refer the questions to someone else, then switch gears to what we want to accomplish. But what do I say about Belinda?"

"Say that Belinda is safe, and that's all you are going to say for security reasons. And John, believe me, she is someplace Victor will never find her. We talked earlier, and even I don't know exactly where she is right now, but she's completely safe. Your girl is smart and had a contingency plan already set up and ready to go. Don't worry. Your job is to grow her company and make it bigger. Go show them who is in charge."

As the video conference ended, John left with a new purpose. Eric collapsed in his chair. "Where the hell are you, Belinda?"