It should have been a good week. Their fledgling mining operation had reached the target depth over a mile below the surface of the sea floor. The carbonate rock they had been digging through changed to an iron rich ore. It was tougher to dig through, but they had started smelting iron and were also able to get decent quantities of aluminum and nickel. They were currently pouring magnesium rich slag on top of the large mound of tailings near the vertical shaft and still several hundred meters below the surface of the Gulf.

The robots had changed to more horizontal tunneling, and a couple geologists they had added to the staff were busy examining ore samples that were brought up to map out any promising intrusions of other rock types.

For the first time since Scott had given her this new life, Melinda was struggling to multitask. Her thoughts kept returning to worries about Adriana who had been kidnapped over the weekend. was obsessed with what kind of ransom offer would be made and how they could secure the girl. Her concern wasn’t as much what they would have to give up so much as what she could reasonably demand to ensure the girl was released unharmed.

was planning out likely scenarios of what would happen when their technology fell into the wrong hands. She was also worried about the girl, but even more worried about the longer term consequences. If the Russians secured this technology, they could overhaul their military within a year to the point where they could overpower Europe. Would biting off chunks of Europe be enough for them, or would they keep pushing until nuclear war was the only option? In the nearer term, how could she protect Scott, Matt, Barry, Elsa and Dr. Springer.

schemed how they could launch a counter strike. She scanned through lists of mercenaries, investigators, negotiators and bounty hunters in Glitch_HR. Was there someone out there who could find their enemies, and if so could she assemble a team to kill them all and rescue her girl? She didn’t know who they were up against, but was busy making contingencies for potential opponents ranging from governments to multinational companies.

wondered how they were interrogating the girl. She believed Adriana would not be tough enough to resist more forceful questioning. She also knew that they had some interesting drugs that made it hard to keep a secret, so they likely would not even need physical torture. They might do it just for fun since there was a high correlation between psychopaths and people who got involved in the interrogation business. Still, if they started lopping off fingers or toes to prove they were serious, she was eager to try re-growing them. She had been working on a new tech with that darling girl Nittaya Chaikhot in their lab in Thailand. She also had some ideas of a brain surgery that might help with the trauma and probably would keep the girl's intellect intact.

of course was just mostly weeping about what poor Adriana was going through and how scared she must feel. Also, she was worried that Scott would be blaming himself. At the same time she was kind of excited about how Adriana might realize her feelings for Scott once he helped rescue her!

Sometimes, having multiple personalities was no help at all. There was a lot of planning needed for their various companies and she could not focus on any of it.

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Scott Henderson naturally blamed himself. Melinda had called him and apologized for not anticipating this attack. She seemed really remorseful that she hadn’t been able to find anyone to hire as a bodyguard fast enough when they had called her at the party.

Melinda was in Mexico running at least 5 companies. This wasn’t her fault. Scott had warned Barry and Matt when they first joined that his software might get the attention of dangerous people. He was pretty sure he had not warned the girls. Honestly, he had been so excited to work with Adriana and Elsa he had been afraid to scare them off.

Instead of a happy life in college he had dragged her into this. Who knows what she was going through right now? Matt had told him it wasn’t his fault and Adriana would have chosen to work with them even if she knew all the risks, but he wasn’t so sure. Elsa probably would have - that girl loved her work so much Barry only got scraps of affection. Yet it was Adrianna who had been kidnapped.

He knew Melinda would be doing everything possible to get her back. When he asked how he could help, she had assigned him a project to upgrade Glitch_HR so it could match people with facial recognition to the data in his software. She said it was important that he train the computer to work even if they had different facial hair or covid masks.

For the moment he was scanning through the training for anything that could help. Detective skills, fighting skills, surveillance - he wasn’t finding anything useful like that. Scott sighed and got back to working on Melinda’s project instead.

Scott was interrupted from his work by a request to speak with a police detective about Adriana’s abduction. She had requested a meeting near his dorm. Scott agreed and went to a campus security office that they had provided for the police to use on this case.

Detective Benton was a tough looking Hispanic woman, probably in her thirties. She asked him some basic questions about the events leading up to the party and his relationship with Adrianna. She figured Scott probably had a crush on Adriana, based on the body language as he explained his version of the events at the party.

Detective Benton thought this attack sounded more like organized crime, but she did not understand their motive. The girl’s family was firmly middle class and not worth the effort for such an elaborate kidnapping.

Earlier, Benton had interviewed the primary witness, Marta Lopez. Marta had reported getting jumped by three men outside a party near the Horace Mango campus. She claimed to have disabled one of the attackers while her friend was getting pulled into a car. The third attacker had opened fire and hit her with a bullet that had gone through her right lung.

The girl, Marta Lopez had somehow crawled away while the gunman had dragged his unconscious partner into the car before they sped away. The physical evidence supported the girl's story, including blood on the pavement from the attacker she claimed to have taken out with a leg sweep combo.

Marta needed her rest to recover from injuries and she had not had any idea why someone would kidnap Adriana, other than because she was pretty.

“So, we haven’t heard of any ransom demand and your friend was kidnapped two days ago. If there is anything you know about why someone would take her, it would really increase our chances of finding these people. “ Benton said. She left unsaid that if they didn’t receive a demand in the next few days, the odds were not good for Miss Adriana Foster.

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“I’ve signed some confidentiality agreements so I can’t tell you all the details, “Scott began, “but I can tell you Adrianna owns a stake in some startup companies that have valuable technology.”

“That’s interesting. “Benton considered whether pressing him to break his confidentiality would help the case, or if it was just her curiosity. “I guess you don’t have to tell me just yet, but maybe you could explain who might be interested in this technology? Is it likely to make a lot of money, or maybe it would hurt another company?”

“I think a lot of people would be interested. It has military applications, but also could threaten other companies' business. I probably shouldn’t say any more until I talk to my boss.” Scott said nervously.

Detective Benton thought industrial espionage could explain it, but she had a hard time imagining that some college students would have access to anything so valuable or important. Also, it seemed unlikely that a company would go to such drastic lengths.

“OK, that’s helpful but doesn’t narrow it down. Could you provide me with your boss’s contact information?” Benton said. Scott gave her a number.

“What can you tell me about Tony Zimmerman?”

Benton had interviewed several other people who were with the victim at the party. They had mentioned a student named Tony Zimmerman had invited them and they were all suspicious he had been involved. Mr. Zimmerman was not actually a student and had disappeared before she could speak with him. He had been staying in an apartment near the school for over two years, but the place was cleaned out when she had the manager let her in. It smelled strongly of bleach and the carpet had even been ripped out.

“We met him at a party last semester. He was kind of a smooth talker, and there were a couple of girls with him. He invited Matt to the party and asked him to bring friends.”

“Do you think Tony was involved with the kidnapping?”

“Yes, he seemed very interested in our company. Matt and I were suspicious and had decided to leave before we accidentally said anything important.”

“Can you tell me about the women who were with him?”

“I think they said their names were Aida and Natalie. They were very good looking and seemed interested in my friends. I can’t really see girls like that being interested in my friends. Matt maybe could date someone like that, but I don’t think they would throw themselves at him. For a girl to be interested in Alvarro, that’s what clued us in something wasn’t right.”

“Some girls like intelligent men.” Detective Benton argued.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before but never found it to be true personally. Regardless, this guy has no money and sits in his room about 16 hours a day playing video games. Do you really think a girl who looks like a model is going to fall in love with that?” Scott laughed.

Detective Benton had already talked with the boy Alvarro. Apparently one of the girls had returned to the dorm with him, but he sadly admitted he had no way to contact her. She had to admit it didn’t seem like a woman would willingly enter his room without some other motive besides love.

“We’ll be in touch if I have any more questions.”

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Alexey Lukina had a big decision to make. He was certain that the girl Adriana had told him everything. There was a treasure trove of technology in that Mexico facility. Micro fusion reactors which used magnetically pulsed deuterium ions channeled through carbon nanotubes. Advanced composites to capture the energy. An advanced robotics lab that built other robots. Extensive underground research and mining facilities. They even had some kind of novel biotech device which sounded valuable, although it was not strategically interesting.

The problem was this tech was too valuable. If the Russians controlled it, they could dominate the US and European military within a few years. They could challenge China’s manufacturing economy. Assuming they could keep it to themselves and keep it secret.

The US probably had the right idea, building this in a remote facility outside of their country, but Alexey had caught a lucky break when Scott Henderson had hired Solomon Rhodes to secure their IT. Rhodes was quite skilled and so far they hadn’t been able to find where he had hidden all this data. He had triggered a dead man switch when they captured him so that even he couldn’t access the systems, no matter how they persuaded him. He suspected that Rhodes might have made a different choice if he had known who was capturing him and what they would be willing to do.

Regardless, this had led him to uncovering the facility and could save his country from embarrassing irrelevance in the next century. His current dilemma was how he could best benefit his country while also protecting himself. With such a valuable find, it was a complex problem to solve.

Obviously, he would extort prototypes and detailed schematics of every piece of tech in that Mexican facility. Equally obvious would be the need to send a strong offensive to eliminate the facility as soon as he acquired the tech. The value increased immeasurably if he could also deny it to the Americans, or at least delay them from rebuilding it.

Alexey had idly considered grabbing it all for himself. He could take over a small country and set himself up as a king. It was possible, but the most likely outcome would be the major powers sparing no expense to steal any advantage he had and kill him off. This was not worth the trouble.

His best bet was to share some of the information, and withhold more to protect himself. If Alexey played this correctly, he could help his country return to glory but also set himself up with control of key government contracts to provide for their upcoming war. He would be a proud patriot, but also a man of unassailable wealth and power. It took him several days to finish his schemes, but finally he was ready to start the endgame.

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The ransom note Melinda received was pretty much what she had expected, although it arrived almost a week after Adriana had been abducted. The waiting had been tough; she couldn’t imagine how the poor girl was feeling by now.

As expected, the kidnappers demanded a working fusion device and full schematics. They wanted the design for the robotics factory, the Dark Siren and the mining robots. Furthermore they demanded notes on all biotech research. Melinda assumed Adriana didn’t really know or understand much about the biotech since she had not been involved. Her captors didn’t know enough about what to ask for.

The kidnapper demanded that all of this be delivered and verified that they could reproduce the technology before releasing Adriana. In short they wanted almost everything and provided little in the way of guarantees they would even bother keeping the girl alive. She was certain they would detect any tracking devices, and plans to frustrate them would only keep the girl hostage for longer.

Melinda thought her best leverage was the threat they would just abandon Adriana, or else share the tech with the kidnapper’s enemies. She was also certain they would make an attempt to destroy her facility in Mexico. A good deal of her efforts were now spent working with the security team to prepare for the most likely attacks. The problem was that Melinda didn’t expect there was any scenario where they would let the girl go. Adrianna was a loose end who knew too much about who they were and what they were planning to steal.

They would be keeping her alive for now to ensure the deal went through. They might even keep her alive briefly afterwards as protection in case they were located. Adrianna’s continued health would be a deterrent against aggressive retaliation like bombing their location. Once they got what they wanted and escaped, the girl would be dead. The Mexico facility would also be exposed even if it somehow survived whatever attack they planned.

Scott was too soft-hearted to be kept in the loop. She was keeping him busy at the moment, but could not allow him to be involved in any critical decisions. Kidnapping was a common problem in this part of the world, so she had found a fair number of people with experience who she could hire to advise her.

Melinda also had a secret weapon that was almost ready in their Thailand lab. She booked a ticket, wanting to supervise the final stages in person.