Spring Break was over, but Scott and he and his friends were not allowed to leave Mexico. They had given statements to three different law enforcement agencies along with the US Consulate. Melinda had insisted that they were junior employees of the companies, and she was their manager, so she was handling the majority of follow up requests.
They had notified a rather skeptical school administrator that they were the victim of a terrorist attack in Mexico and were not allowed to leave the country and return to school. The news had not covered the incident, so they had to get the Embassy to contact the school on their behalf. Both governments and Genysis members had agreed not to involve the press.
Melinda had reserved a block of rooms at a resort on the Mayan Riviera a few hundred miles to the East of Merida. Spring Break was over, so there were a lot of rooms available. She told them not to worry about the expense. They had made over $20 million on their first and only delivery of metals with the Dark Siren. About $12 million got the mining company out of debt and much of this was owed to their other companies which were now all showing a profit. All had at least some cash surplus although most of their assets were wrecked.
Scott found the tropical resort relaxing and it was a well needed break from the high stress of the last few weeks. His father was in stable condition. Melinda was frustrated that the doctors for their injured people would not let her transfer them to the Thailand facility. She complained they were suffering unnecessarily, and that most of the procedures they were going through would just have to be “cut off and regrown”.
Melinda hired a private car to take Scott to visit his father once they declared he was able to accept visitors. It wasn’t hard to find someone who could understand him at the hospital, so Scott was able to fill out the necessary forms to visit. His dad was conscious when he arrived but resting. He had visible burns on one side of his face and an eyepatch. One arm was heavily wrapped in bandages.
“Hey dad, it’s Scott,” he announced.
His dad looked a bit drugged but focused on his son. “Scott, is that you? You look like you’ve been working out. A lot!”
“Um, yeah. We have some crazy medical tech that seems to have helped my fitness.”
“You shouldn’t be doing steroids. Just because we were attacked, you don’t need to do anything crazy.” Mr. Henderson said. Even half burned to a crisp he was worried about his son.
“Too late. Melinda did this to me. It doesn’t hurt anymore and I’m actually enjoying working out. It’s cool seeing these ex-military guys look impressed when I’m weightlifting.”
“So, I heard the base was destroyed and obviously our ship was sunk. I’ve been out most of the time since then, although Melinda told me that you kids came out OK,” his dad replied.
“Yeah. We want to start rebuilding, but the government is still investigating the site. It might be months before we can start up again. Very frustrating for all of us. They won’t even let the other kids go home. I want to stay here until we can get you out of this hospital.”
“Might be a while. The doctors are worried about infection and want to do some skin grafts. Melinda told me to decline any treatment and try to get out as soon as I can. Do you think I should trust her?” Scott’s dad asked. He didn’t know Melinda like Scott. Scott also wasn’t willing to admit that anyone should trust her, especially once she got you into that mysterious lab in Thailand.
“Um, I’m not sure if you should trust her. She does have some amazing medical tech, but I would make sure Dr. Chaikhot is around at all times. Otherwise, you might end up with some untested upgrades.” Scott admitted.
“Well, maybe you or your mother could go with me to keep an eye on what they are doing.”
“Sure, I will definitely insist on that.” Scott agreed. It was the least he could do for his dad after getting him into this mess.
“I knew this job was too good to be true.” Scott’s dad lamented. “All that money, and cruising around in the Gulf was great. That ship was so fast it was amazing to conn. Even that fight at the end was exciting! All my time in the navy was boring by comparison. Here I was exchanging shots with the Russians! I even sank two of their boats!”
“I was underground at the time. I heard a bit, but what happened up there?”
“Oh, so we got the distress call and started really pouring on the speed. That freighter felt more like a frigate when we were cruising at full speed. Of course, turning it wasn’t going to be easy, so we were kind of a sitting duck.” Scott’s dad began. He was clearly excited to talk about his adventure despite the horrific injuries he received.
“We saw five boats on radar, slinking away from our base. When we got in sight, I lined up this really long range shot and blew up one of their ships right away. I shot at the closest one - probably a mistake in hindsight, but it’s been 20 years so I’m a bit rusty. I should have gone for one of the bigger ones.”
“Still, it’s lucky we hired you. We didn’t realize we would need combat experience on a cargo ship.” Scott admitted.
“Right! So, the Ruskies were pissed and launched an SSM and dropped a couple fish in the water.” Mr. Henderson was starting to use jargon Scott didn’t understand now.
“Uh, SSM? Is fish a torpedo?” Scott asked.
“Oh. SSM is a surface-to-surface missile. Fish is old-fashioned slang for torpedoes, but appropriate in this case because they were close to the surface, and we could see them in the clear water. Just like you see in the old movies! Anyway, I lined up another shot and blew up another boat. I didn’t even try to hit the missile since it came at us so fast. Anyway, the missile knocked me unconscious. I heard later that the captain had launched the collection submarine which blocked one of the torpedoes. He probably saved our lives. Too bad he didn’t make it.”
“Oh, that’s awful.” Scott said. He hadn’t been thinking about the captain and one other crew member who had not survived.
“At least his family is taken care of. We all had life insurance through the company, and he had just got a $200k bonus for the first run. Still awfully sad.” Mr. Henderson appeared to be struggling. “Um, so it’s great to see you, but I’m about ready to press this pain med button again which will probably knock me out.”
“OK dad, thanks for the story.”
Scott left and his car returned him to the resort.
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As Scott was returning to the resort, he received a call from Solomon Rhodes.
“Hello, Scott? My lawyer got me this number,” Solomon began.
“Hi Mr. Rhodes. I heard you were held in the same place as Adriana. I’m really sorry you had to go through all that.” Scott said. He had heard that the Russians had been a lot rougher on Rhodes than they were on Adriana. He shuddered thinking about what the man had gone through.
“Yes, it was very unpleasant, but I am grateful that your company was able to get me out of there.” Rhodes continued, “The reason I’m calling is because I heard you were recently attacked by the same group that kidnapped me.”
“It was terrifying,” Scott admitted. “They destroyed our base and stole a lot of valuable equipment and tech. They also killed a couple of our sailors and some security people. I’m pretty worried about what they will do next.”
“Yes, we probably shouldn’t talk too much over the phone about things like this. Anyway, I destroyed the data on my computer that accessed their systems, but they made me tell them about you. Sorry, but I told them everything I knew but I burned my access so they can’t get it either. They took my phone and computer but won’t get anything from it. Your people helped me regain access to one of my accounts here in the States before I turned myself back in. I have to go in person to Switzerland and the Caymans after I’m released to get the rest of my money back. Getting kidnapped really hurt some trades I had going. They probably cost me half my wealth.”
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“Um OK,” Scott said confused. “Not sure I can help you with any of that.”
“Right, of course not. Don’t worry I’m still rich, but there are still other people that want me dead. Anyway, I was calling to ask if we could continue my employment with your company under the same terms. I would need you to supply me with another laptop, but the rules would allow me to continue to access what I need.”
“Sure, I’ll ask Melinda to send you another computer. The Russians weren’t able to steal a lot of our research and our HR application because of how you set up our systems. We think they got some designs and research data stored on personal computers that mirrored the cloud drives, but it would have been much worse without your help.”
“Right. Well, I destroyed my master access key before they captured me. Your systems are secure, but no one can really access them anymore. All we can do is allocate or remove cloud resources. By the way, before they captured me, I noticed you had some systems using most of your server resources. If you can afford it, I would recommend doubling what you have provisioned.”
“OK, I don’t know how to do all that,” Scott admitted. “Can you coordinate that with Melinda when you get your computer back? Also, if you need a raise or something we should have a bit of money now.”
“It pains me to turn down a raise, but I think I’ll be OK financially. One of the reasons I need that computer is so I can resume some of my charity work. It will be a good defense against some of my other enemies if I can buy a bit of goodwill.”
Scott wasn’t sure how contributing to charities would help defend against enemies, but he wasn’t going to stand in the way if Solomon wanted to do some good in the world.
“All right, anything else I can help you with?” Scott asked.
“No, I’ll be in touch once I’m set up again. I’m hopeful they’ll take some time off my sentence now, so maybe I’ll come visit you in Mexico if you are still there. I could use a very long vacation.”
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At the resort, Scott wondered why more companies didn’t run their businesses from Mexican resorts. Meetings happened over meals or hanging out in a private pool cabana, so people didn’t seem to mind. They set up a multi-monitor, high end computer in his room so he could work while looking out at the Caribbean Sea from his 3rd floor room. For an IT guy, it was hard to beat this setup.
Matt, Elsa and Barry all missed having their labs. Their complaints seemed half-hearted as they were currently all sitting in a cabana with frozen drinks in hand.
“Elsa, it was crazy during the attack, but I remember hearing something about rainbow rats?” Scott asked.
“Yeah, my babies were drowned when the level flooded. We didn’t have a way to get them out.” Else replied sadly. She looked pretty good in a bathing suit with a floral-patterned cover-up. There was something odd about her straight dark hair. The roots looked like they had been dyed a light blue color.
She passed him her phone which had pictures of these adorable mice dyed a wide range of bright colors. Also, they had a bizarre mix of hair length and curl. One looked a bit like a bright green sheep with long, very curly hair. A few others had long, silky hair in red or purples. Scott could see why she called them rainbow rats.
“I’m assuming this was some kind of experiment?”
“Yes!” Else said, getting a bit more excited. “We just loved the colors that nature invented for tropical birds and wanted to see if we could express it in hair color. As you can see, it worked! We can basically make a shampoo that edits the DNA in a mammal’s hair follicles. It’s much easier than making changes to internal organs since you can just apply it directly and repeat as needed.”
“That’s awesome!” Barry added. “I noticed your blue hair coming in, but I didn’t realize you were a mutant.”
“Yeah, I kind of wanted to try a new look. We’re taking time lapse pictures as it grows. It will take a couple months before I get the new hair to the right length. I think this would be a very popular product, but genetic engineering on humans is illegal. We could probably sell it for pets.” Elsa said, sounded disappointed about not being allowed to genetically engineer humans.
“I’m pretty sure this is part of why Melinda wants us to build an underwater habitat deep in the Atlantic. With international waters so she can just ignore whatever rules she wants.” Adriana added.
“She already ignores all the rules!” Scott protested. He did admit he didn’t mind his new physique. He had caught Adriana staring a few times and had noticed a few of the girls at the resort giggled sometimes when they saw him. At first, he had been embarrassed and wondered if he had something in his teeth or if his hair was sticking up more than usual.
“No kidding!” Matt agreed. “Did you know she is starting up the mine again, even while the government has the whole property cordoned off?”
“How?” asked Scott.
“She already bought up a couple of the neighbor’s houses. They had been eager to sell thinking we were a cartel or something. Most people don’t want to live near a walled compound with guns on the walls.” Matt continued.
“Yeah, I feel kind of bad for our former neighbors.” Scott said.
“Oh, she paid them more than the market price for the area as soon as our first cargo run hit the balance sheets. With how the economy is right now, they should all be able to upgrade somewhere safer.”
“We used that tunnel we dug to set up the comms at the next-door neighbor during the attack and expanded it. Rafael and Phillip are setting up a new basement and robotics lab. The high-end 3D printers we rented are still in the original lab. We can’t get them out until the government allows us back on our property. That is about $6 million in gear we were renting, so it’s good that it wasn’t destroyed.”
“Can you still make what you need to rebuild the lab?”
“We are buying our own machine at the new location, but the capacity will only be about a third of what we had. The good news is, we have most of the mining robots and the mine is already at the depth we wanted for the lateral tunnels. We still have most of the robots we used for shipbuilding, and they are hard at work repairing the Dark Siren on the seafloor.” Matt explained.
“Nice!” said Barry. “Hey Scott, how is your dad?”
“He’s not in great shape, but his mood is good. Melinda was talking about a military raid to get him and Gabriel out of the hospital so they can get what she considers proper care. I have mixed feelings about that, but I’m not sure I can talk her out of it.” Scott admitted.
“Hah, that explains why she was asking me to research venom that knocked people unconscious or caused temporary paralysis.” Elsa said.
“Hah! You might be the largest shareholder, but Melinda is just going to do whatever she wants regardless of what you or the government says.” Barry laughed.
“Speaking of the government, do you think we’re in any trouble with the law?” Adriana asked.
“Obviously we are the victims. They don’t have a specific law about owning railguns or needler rifles, but the lawyers say they might try to charge us for building firearms without a license. Our battle robots might have been a problem, but the cartel guys we intercepted have apparently been released and refused to talk about incident.” Matt said. He seemed to be the most informed of the group.
“Between the bombs and what the Russians stole, I don’t think they know about the illegal genetic engineering. Building a nuclear device is probably illegal, but they wouldn’t be able to prove anything without destroying the generator. We had permits for all our mining operations, even if the government had no idea how valuable they would be.” Matt concluded.
“Are we really going to just get up and running again like nothing happened?” Scott asked.
“Of course not. It will take a while to get the labs rebuilt and the ship repaired. We were supposed to get a big dividend from the first cargo run, but that is out the window now that most of that money is spent. The house had insurance, but obviously our secret underground lair wasn’t covered.” Matt laughed.
“What are the rest of you working on?” Scott asked.
“I’m working with Dr. Springer to rebuild our labs. His family is here at the resort so I’m doing most of the work!” Barry complained.
“Same here,” Elsa said. “A lot of my equipment was wrecked so I’m just planning my new lab. All my research is on hold for now.”
“I’m finishing plans for our underwater habitat. We made a lot of security related changes after the attack. There are so many things to think about now that I’m designing it with military attacks in mind.” Adriana said. “I need Melinda to hire some more people in the construction company. We have two habitats to finish planning, the design for rebuilding the base and we need several types of submarines for different purposes.”
“I wonder if my friend from NASA would be interested,” Matt said. Scott remembered Matt had a bit of a crush on some girl who had commented on some of his designs.
Scott pulled up his laptop.
“What was her name again?”
“Zaliha Min. She works on spaceship designs, so submarines are probably something she could handle with a bit of extra training.” Matt replied.
“Yeah, she’s in the top 5000 skills even without Glitch_HR training. It looks like she’s not currently making all that much money. Would you mind asking her if she’s interested?” Scott said. “Melinda can figure out what to offer her for salary, but I bet we can pay more than NASA.”
“Awesome.” Adriana agreed. “It’s about time we get another woman working here. This company was turning into a bunch of beefy men running around with guns.”
“Hah, I’ve caught you admiring my work, looking at Carl by the pool.” Elsa teased.
“What can I say? He’s 50 years old, but Carl looks good!” Adriana laughed.
“I think I need to figure out how to cure skin wrinkling and maybe some other female upgrades,” Elsa said. “Poor Melinda doesn’t have a chance with all those young ladies fawning over him.”
“Right. You will just casually destroy the multi-billion dollar beauty industry so Melinda can get a date.” Barry said, sounding impressed with his girlfriend.
“The laws won’t let us sell any of it, “Elsa grumped. “Besides, helping Melinda out will probably save the lives of some of those women drooling over Carl.”