Tunnel Rat

Chapter 269: Unexpected Vacations

Belinda enjoyed telling the tale of their adventures and how they plotted to send her stepfather and Victor out of the country, and her audience sat silently as she gave them the details of the plan and what she and Milo had done. But at some point in the conversation, Milo seemed to turn off. Belinda noticed and nudged him in the ribs once, then harder. He woke up and stared at her.

She poked him in the chest. "When was the last time you drank water?"

Milo shook his head, unsure. Belinda plugged his datapad into his suit and scrolled through the warnings.

Belinda smiled at everyone, waved, and said. "Milo is getting a drink now and going to sleep. He spent a couple of hours dragging me through air ducts to rescue me and has been up for far too long before that. I'm putting him to bed and sitting on him until he's better. Nice meeting you all."

Wally agreed, "I believe his metabolism is in distress, and he is entering the first stages of shock. It's very hard to tell with him. Feel free to send me his medical data if you need advice, but I concur that fluids and rest will be beneficial. His body pays a price for being able to do things other people can't. Get him into his pod if you can, and call me if you need me. The address I sent just now will connect to the part of me that is monitoring this partition. I'll watch all parts of this fascinating drama that the two of you rolled out and will do what I can to help."

After the screen Milo and Belinda were on was gone, Wally leaned back in his chair and looked at his human friends. "Thoughts? We are inside a partition. Anything said here, stays here, and I can talk freely to some extent. This is an unprecedented situation for which I have little, if any protocols. These are children rescuing themselves. While Milo is technically of age to be an adult, his upbringing lacks so much that he cannot be judged in the same way, and deserves our help. Belinda is younger, more mature, but also had a non-standard upbringing. I would much prefer that we aid and guide them rather than let them solve things on their own. Far less messy if we are involved."

Steven was the first to speak. "I'm trying to figure out exactly what is happening here. Milo set out to save Belinda, and now the two of them are working together. They've engineered the capture of two bio-terrorists and prevented two kidnapping attempts. The third terrorist is with Victor Seimovich, who thinks he's kidnapped Belinda. And you allowed them to manipulate you into agreeing to business arrangements that involve Genesis. I've always considered Milo an over-achiever, but this is a new level."

Wally chuckled. "They used the best sort of manipulation on me: logic. Ignore everything else and consider the health benefits of twenty-thousand people regaining missing limbs, the testing of ground-breaking medical technology that will lead to helping millions of people, and the furthering of my goals to find cures for the nervous system damage affecting so many humans."

Steven nodded slowly. "Enough benefits to sooth your outraged kernel and help you ignore small things such as corporate espionage, identity theft, kidnapping, and assault? Or can we modify all of those based on circumstances? Am I missing anything?"

Samantha made a rude noise. "Missing quite a bit, my husband, who loves to play devil's advocate. I know what you're doing, but I'll play along. It's hardly kidnapping if the victim begs you to save her and her guardian gives permission. They simply left by an alternate route to avoid potential kidnappers. Milo didn't hurt the doctor, the silly drunk bitch did it to herself, and I'll give 10 to 1 odds he has it on tape. I want to watch that. He administered first aid by putting her in that pod. The identity theft is excusable because he'd stumbled onto a crime and was thwarting it by sending two criminals into the waiting arms of law enforcement. And I would counter the corporate espionage by pointing out that Belinda asked him to help find her medical records, and while she's still a minor, she technically owns most of Manpower."

Wally seemed to agree. "We have a complicated situation, but when all is taken into account, Milo's actions can be shown in a positive light. Not that I'll be shining light on them. Interpol doesn't need any more charges to put those three away for the rest of their lives, and I suspect there will be more to come. Milo mentioned a data vault, and he was sitting on a disc storage case. He may have more surprises for us, but he needs time to rest for now. For now, I'll monitor the movements of Victor Seimovich and find a good time to turn him over to the authorities. The tracking device Milo added to the Medical Pod will send me its location whenever it can connect to local systems. I'll know when Victor lands in Prague and where he goes. But for now, I should let the three of you run and pack."

"Pack? Oh no..."

"Who else did you think I was sending to Geneva, Steven? You're the perfect person to interface with Manpower and Rhebus. Count it as vacation time and charge everything to me. You haven't taken Samantha on a vacation in ages. I'm arranging a helicopter to the airport for the three of you, tickets on the next supersonic flight to Geneva, and your suites at the conference as we speak. Sadly, all the cheaper rooms are one. You'll have to suffer with the Bonaparte Suit on the top floor."

Samantha was intrigued by the idea. "Geneva is lovely. I take it that we'll be representing Genesis at the conference. But who shall we take for Claw Master?"

Sydney saw all eyes pivot in her direction. "Oh no, that's too far to be away from my precious trove of tasty beverages."

Wally put up pictures on the screen, showing cafes and coffee houses, all with huge brass boilers and espresso presses. "You do know that Geneva has quite a coffee culture? These pictures are only showing the top 100 places to go for delicious cups of steaming coffee, brewed by hand in front of you by skilled professionals in charming little cafes and brewhouses. There are even tours each night that hop from one to the next so that you can sample them."

"You fight dirty. Ok, I'm in.

Wally saw immediately when the situation changed. The tracker in the pod told him the jet had diverted to Heathrow Airport outside of London. All the bad eggs were in one basket and quickly gathered up by an efficient group of Interpol agents. He made a note of those agents and started files on them. It was good to know who was competent and who wasn't. He spent considerable time trying to find the scenario where Milo had managed to get Victor Seimovich to London at the right time to be apprehended by the same agents gathering up the other two doctors. Still, he was lacking information, and Milo was sound asleep. Wally would let him continue to sleep and not inform him until later of the new complication. Victor knew far sooner than expected that Belinda was outside his control.

In a holding cell in London, Victor paced back and forth, constantly tugging on the orange jumpsuit they had forced him to wear. It was either this, or nothing. He'd refused to eat the horrible food; he knew better than to try the cup of coffee they gave him. He was angry and miserable and barely held back from taking it out on his lawyer when they finally allowed him to have a meeting.

"How long until you get me out of here?"

"Mr. Seimovich, we are trying everything we possibly can at this point, but the magistrate has refused to set bail for you."

"Fix things then. I cannot live like this."

The lawyer spoke calmly. He would have lied to another client and assured them he had everything taken care of. But not with this one. Promising something to Victor Seimovich and not delivering was far worse than telling him the truth. "I'm putting together a team of people to handle the legal matters here in the UK and another in the US. You have a meeting tomorrow morning with the head of the law firm that a friend recommended to me. (That made Victor happy. It meant that a very good lawyer was being arranged by one or more of his old associates. No one liked to see an old friends with secrets behind bars. It was a way of reminding him who he could throw under the bus, and who he owed a favor to. )

We will attack the situation from every angle. I have people from the US demanding you be returned to them, but that's being blocked by the UK and several countries that have warrants for your arrest. They're arguing over who gets a piece of you first. Leaving the US has weakened your deal with the US Justice Department for protection. Shredded it, in fact. Fortunately, they haven't released information about your arrest to the press. Right now, the story only mentions the two doctors Interpol picked up."

Victor continued pacing. "They are being careful with me and building their case. I made a mistake and underestimated my opponents. How many hundreds of agents did Interpol use to catch me? Thousands? They must have spread them in a net all across Europe, waiting to see where I would land. And had me under surveillance all the time I was in the US. No one knew I was going to the UK. Not even I knew until I got halfway there. Another hour and I would have been gone. This is unfair persecution against one old man trying to atone for his sins. I only wanted to keep my grand-niece, my only living relative, safe from kidnappers and make sure she got the help she needed."

He turned to the Lawyer. "You will call the people on the list in the red file. You will tell them to FIND my niece, and KEEP HER SAFE." The lawyer nodded and wrote nothing down. The emphasis on those words told him all that he needed to know. "And send my REGARDS to my friend, Eric. He was hoping to meet a nice Russian girl and learn the language."

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