Thanks again to mudget for beta-ing, and big thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing. I really appreciate it! :)
Chapter Eleven: Favors for a Friend
Dr. Barbara Blight pulled her pink Mercedes into a parking space in front of St. Mary's Community Hospital, a small hospital on the outskirts of Albuquerque. She loved the car; not only was it her favorite color, but it was one of a kind. Plunder had it custom built for her as a birthday present. She had always admired Plunder's taste for expensive and opulent things. It worked out especially well for her, at least when the two of them were on good terms.
Fortunately for Plunder this was one of those times. He had asked her to do him a favor; he wanted her to go to New Mexico and check out the boy who had been injured in his grandfather's abandoned factory. The Planeteers had somehow gotten involved in all of this and he was concerned that the situation would escalate into some sort of scandal.
Blight had forgone her typical pink jumpsuit that day in favor of a pink pants suit. She wore a white lab coat over top with a stethoscope draped around her neck. She looked like any other doctor walking into a hospital. Well, she felt she had a bit more class than most of the other doctors walking into the hospital. If she was going to go in disguise, she figured she might as well do it with style. She also had false identification with her claiming that she was working for the Environmental Protection Agency. She could have claimed to be from the Center for Disease Control or even the FBI, but she liked the irony of posing as an EPA official.
Her black heels clicked loudly on the pavement as she strode quickly towards the entrance of the hospital, like someone on a mission. Once inside she wasted no time heading directly for the front desk.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Barbara Blight, Environmental Protection Agency," she said seriously, flashing her phony ID at the girl seated behind the desk. "I believe you have a patient here by the name of Eric Miller."
The girl typed a few things into a computer. "Yes we do, what can we do for you?"
"I need to speak with the doctor who is treating him. It's urgent," Blight answered with a slight air of impatience.
"I will page Dr. Synder, he should be here in a minute," the girl replied. A moment later the doctor arrived at the desk. He looked to be in his early fifties, handsome and well groomed. Blight smiled pleasantly and the doctor smiled back appreciatively.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Synder. How can I help you?" the man said amicably.
"I'm Dr. Barbara Blight with the Environmental Protection Agency. We believe that Eric Miller came into contact with some very hazardous chemicals when he was injured in that abandoned factory. The site has been under investigation for some time for being non-compliant with regulations. We would like information on his exposure, in case we should ever have to take action against the owner of the site." She lied so smoothly, one of the many skills that had enabled her to make it this far in life.
"You understand that I do need to verify this before I can give you access to this patient?" Dr. Synder replied, though he did not sound as if he doubted her story.
"Of course," she replied sweetly, "You can never be too careful these days." She was not worried. MAL had already hacked into the internet and phone lines in the hospital and was monitoring everything that happened. If any call came through concerning her MAL would make sure that it looked as if everything she was saying was true.
After a moment Dr. Synder hung up the phone, having been reassured by MAL that Dr. Blight was indeed working with the EPA. "Ok, Dr. Blight, you can come with me and speak with Eric Miller."
She followed the doctor to Eric's room. The young man looked rather weak, his face flushed as if he were running a fever. "Does he have some sort of infection?" Blight asked as she took the young man's temperature.
"Yes, but we are not sure what the source of the infection is. We began treatment with antibiotics this morning," Dr. Synder answered.
"Do you believe it is related to what happened to him in the factory?" Blight watched Dr. Synder carefully, observing his reaction.
"No, I do not believe so," Dr. Synder said uncertainly. "When he was brought in, we treated him for chemical burns and chemical inhalation. He did not seem to show any signs of infection at the time, nor do any of his injuries show any sign of infection."
"Interesting," Blight muttered. She scanned the young man's medical records looking for anything useful, specifically anything that could be used to take suspicion away from Plunder or the old factory. "It says that he was injured around three in the afternoon yet he was not admitted the hospital for treatment until almost nine at night. What was he doing for those six hours?"
"Apparently he was with some friends. They were concerned about getting in trouble for trespassing so they did not seek medical treatment right away," Dr. Synder answered.
"So Eric Miller didn't receive any treatment for his injuries until six hours after the incident?"
"No, first aid was administered prior to his arrival here," the doctor replied.
"By his friends?" Blight asked. She could pin the blame on his friends very easily, this should be no problem.
"No," the doctor answered. "By some sort of environmental group. A bunch a teenagers. They had some sort of name for themselves…"
"The Planeteers?" Blight suggested helpfully, her wicked mind already formulating a plot.
"Yes, I believe that's right. Have you heard of them?"
"Oh, yes, we are well acquainted with them at the EPA," she lied. "They are a rogue group of extremists who claim to be trying to help the environment. It's no surprise to me that they were trespassing on private property."
"Hmm, they seemed like nice kids to me," Dr. Synder said.
"Well, looks can be deceiving," Blight said with a smile, completely amused at the irony of her own statement. "If they come back here you should call me immediately."
"I will do that Dr. Blight. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No thank you Dr. Synder. You've done quite a lot to help already," she said, feeling rather pleased with herself for her deception. "If I need anything else I'll give you a call." She turned and sauntered out of the hospital proudly with the medical records for Eric Miller in hand. This might turn out better than she expected. If she played her cards right she could not only clear Plunder of any suspicion but actually make it seem that the Planeteers were the ones at fault.
Once she was outside of the hospital she gave Plunder a call. "Looten, baby," she said sweetly. "Do you love me?"
"Of course I do, my dear," Plunder responded, glad to hear Blight in such a pleasant mood. "I take it things went well at the hospital."
"Things went beautifully," she replied. "I think I might be able to turn this whole thing around in your favor."
"Excellent," Plunder responded. He knew he could always count on her to help him get out of a tough situation. At least that made one person on the planet he could trust, he thought rather bitterly.
"There is one thing that would help me," Blight said, interrupting Plunder's musings.
"What's that?"
"It would help if I knew what was present in that facility. You wouldn't happen to have any records of what went on there would you?"
Plunder thought for a moment. Most of his grandfather's belongings had gone into storage after his death. "I guess anything useful that I may have would be in storage in a facility just outside the city."
"I'll meet you at there," Blight said.
Thirty minutes later she arrived at the storage facility on the outskirts of the city where Plunder was already waiting. The place looked rather neglected.
"This place doesn't even look like it's still in business," she remarked as she surveyed the location.
"Well, this stuff has been here a long time," Plunder said as they navigated through the rows of sheds to look for unit 43. "I've never even been here. I'm kind of surprised it is still open."
"You mean you inherited this stuff years ago and you've never even looked at it?" Blight gave her companion a strange look. It was not like him to let property sit idle, especially an inheritance.
"I guess I've never really cared to look at it," he said, though he knew it was not a very convincing answer for someone as greedy as himself. It was definitely out of character for him, but it almost seemed as if some part of his mind was warning him to stay away from it.
"Well, here it is," Plunder said, pointing at the number. He had gotten the key from a safe deposit box at a local bank. He was amazed it was still there; that account had been inactive for years.
"Wait!" Blight said, grabbing his hand as he reached for the door.
Plunder looked at her curiously. "What's the matter?"
"Somebody has been here recently," she replied as she examined the door.
Plunder frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why would anyone come here?"
"Well for all you know this room could have been filled with valuable antiques. You probably got robbed," she responded harshly. She was still a little bothered by Plunder's lack of concern for his grandfather's possessions.
"Well let's open it up and see what's inside," Plunder said, turning the key in the door and shoving it open. He flipped the light switch and slowly the old fluorescent bulbs flickered on.
The storage unit was filled with antiques, paintings and other valuable items, as well as plenty of boxes full of unknown things. Everything was coated in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. It made the place seem more like a mausoleum than a storage shed. "It looks like everything is still here," he said, feeling just a little uneasy.
"It doesn't make any sense," Blight said. "If someone bothered to break in here why would they not have taken all of this stuff?"
"Maybe it was just a maintenance worker," Plunder suggested, though she was no longer listening to him. She was busy examining the contents of the room, hoping to find something useful.
"Look at this," Blight said after a moment, summoning him to a corner in the back of the unit. She pointed to a spot on the floor where something had obviously been sitting until very recently. There was a square area of the floor that was not covered in dust like everything else. "It looks like there was probably a box here. This area is the same size as the other boxes in this room."
"So someone broke into this place and only took one box?" Plunder asked curiously.
"Whoever it was, it was not someone looking to make a fortune fencing stolen antiques. It was someone on a mission for something very specific," Blight answered.
"But who would want to…" Plunder started, realizing the answer to his question before he finished asking it. "Those damn Planet brats! They were snooping around the old factory, they're the only ones who would have any reason to be looking around in here."
The explanation seemed feasible, though Blight was not quite sure if she believed it. Whoever had been here had known exactly what they were looking for. They had walked directly to this box and taken it without disturbing anything else. It seemed unlikely that the Planeteers would have known exactly what to take without looking around first, but since she could not think of a better explanation she would work off of the assumption that they were the culprits. Still, she could not quite shake the feeling that something very odd was going on.