Zurich, April 24, 2010

Morris was in this city, accompanied by Ovronnaz, who was taking him to where the other plans were hidden. It should be surprising that Morris had to be in Switzerland, but he didn't appear as much.

"I suppose Winch literally has a bank account here, where the Pulse didn't take effect." Morris wondered.

"Even if I knew, I shouldn't tell you that." Ovronnaz answered.

"I suppose I should be thankful that he did this." Morris said, "Or else all the great companies couldn't be saved, like Cale Industries, which would've put me on the street if that happened."

Ovronnaz didn't say anything. Instead, he stopped at a large building. Morris, who looked at the building and recognized it as a bank, didn't understand: "What is this?"

"Believe it or not." Ovronnaz said, "But this is the best place to keep things safe. Like those plans."

"I should hope so." Morris said.

Together, they entered the building. All the necessary steps were taken, showing the bankers that Largo Winch himself approved Ovronnaz's entry to the safe-deposit, entering the security code to at all even be allowed to the safe,... after a while, the safe was opened, and a box was found inside it. Once they had it, Ovronnaz and Morris retreated into a room, where they could quietly take out what they were looking for. But when the box was opened, all Morris could see was a blue piece of paper that read: "Busted."

"Is this a joke?" Morris asked.

"At least a funnier one than yours." a voice said.

Morris did recognize the voice, but he couldn't believe it to be who he thought it was, until the man to whom the voice belonged entered the room himself.

"M... Mr Winch?" Morris sounded somewhat nervous, "Why are..."

"You can cut the act." Largo said, as he took his knife out of his pocket and Ovronnaz raised his gun.

Morris thought he could help himself out of this: "Er... hey! Aren't weapons for..."

"And since when do you care about the rules?" Largo questioned.

"For someone like Largo, it's hardly a bother to bring guns in a bank." Ovronnaz answered Morris.

"Thank you, Simon." Largo said, referring to Ovronnaz by his first name, "Well now, Mr. Morris, tell me who you're really working for?"

Morris backed away, desperately looking for an exit: "Not even my high school principle Belding ever had me cornered like this."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere... Zachery." Largo remarked, "I've got an eye-witness who saw you talking to a Doctor. Does this doctor have a name?"

Morris didn't say anything, so Ovronnaz decided to take the safety off his gun and Largo was about ready to throw his knife.

"Krimson!" afraid of what would happen, Morris finally admitted, "His name's Krimson!"

Sarjevane

The five were still on the island. They wanted to start looking for the girl, but something came up, so they were told to wait until further notice. This did make them think of some things.

"You don't think that Winch wants that girl for his own business?" Max suddenly decided to say.

"He can try that." Snake remarked.

"What's that?" Ginger asked him.

"Never mind." Snake replied.

"Business people have money to burn, but they always need more." Al said, "That Winch already has some of the most powerful ones under his wing, like Luthor- and Oscorp, or Wayne, Stark and Cale Industries. And the 4400-cult is growing stronger as we speak, so if he could use that Tess to take that too,... you're right, Max, he may need her for his own business."

"If I ever meet anyone rich, I'll beat him into a wheelchair and take all that makes him rich." Max had made up her mind about that.

"Or we can use that weapon that the government is working on now." Al thought out loud.

"What weapon?" Snake asked.

"From what I heard, our government thinks that an EM-Pulse is a powerful weapon to use against their enemies." Al explained.

"Luckily, I don't have to care about what your government thinks." Ginger laughed.

"Well, anyway..." Al continued, "They're working on an entire satellite system that would shut down all electricity. Wherever they want and whenever they want."

"In other words, history will repeat itself, again." Snake hissed.

This is when Thirteen entered the mess-hall, where they were gathered.

"Why, Thirteen..." Ginger sounded her usual sarcastic self, "You still need us after all."

"I wish I could laugh right now." Thirteen replied, "Unfortunately, I have much worse news."

All five of them looked somewhat surprised, if not worried, at Thirteen, who continued: "The theft of these blueprints and the kidnapping of Tess Doerner may still be connected."

"How?" Max asked him.

"I don't know anything more on the mice." Thirteen said, "But it would seem like they were just in this by coincidence."

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Max didn't want to ask 'how' again.

"Sorry." Thirteen apologised, "Mr. Morris, who was to deliver the prints to Tracy, had made a deal with someone. It was supposed to look like theft, so Morris would be left out of it, but then the two mice intervened."

"So you think that this... other guy is the same one behind the kidnapping?" Al asked him.

"I'm still waiting for details from Mars." Thirteen replied, "But what I can tell for sure is that a Doctor Krimson is behind it all."

"Krimson!?" Snake exclaimed, surprised, "You can't be serious."

"You know about him?" Thirteen asked him.

"How could I not know him?!" Snake told him, "He's known to be the King of Crime, Europe's most wanted, especially in Belgium, or what was Belgium at the time. But he can't be behind all this."

"What makes you think that?" Thirteen wondered.

"If he didn't O.D. on all the drugs he was taking, age would've killed him by now." Snake answered.

"And what if he's as dead as Al is?" Max asked him.

"No." Al didn't think so, "Hell wouldn't send another hellspawn like me just yet."

"Think we'll ever meet someone a little more normal again, Jase?" Ginger asked Jason.

"Unfortunately, nobody knows all the details." Thirteen told them, "What we do know is that he was last seen in Professor Barabas' house."

"And that Barabas would be...?" Max wondered.

"A inventor, not unknown to many scientists." Thirteen explained, "Rumor has it that he had invented the time-machine. But then, there are other inventors of whom the same thing is being said. Still..."

"Still what?" Snake asked him.

"As I said, Krimson was last seen there, according to his accomplices." Thirteen said, "The house itself was left in ruins, Barabas himself was found in a bad shape, as were the remains of a machine of which nobody knew, or could even figure out it's use. But Krimson himself was never found. Some people who knew about the time-machine speculated that he must have used the machine to escape."

"But that's just speculation." Al remarked.

"Maybe." Thirteen replied, "But from what Morris told me, Krimson could just stretch out his hand, and make things fly into it."

"What? You mean like telekinesis?" Max asked him.

"You're joking, right?" Ginger didn't take this serious.

"If this Morris has double-crossed you people, then how can you take him serious?" Snake wondered.

"If he lied, he would have said it was just a regular guy." Thirteen reasoned, "Plus Caine's eye-witness report confirms this."

"So that invisible bastard's good for somethin' after all." Snake hissed.

"So what are you saying?" Al wondered, "That Krimson used that time machine to travel to the present time?"

"We don't know where he went, if he used the machine." Thirteen replied, "But last time he was seen, he couldn't do such things, and now he can. Wherever he went, or whenever he went, it must have changed him somehow."

"But whatever power he has, it's clearly not enough." Snake said, "Or else he wouldn't want to make a giant robot."

"Agreed." Thirteen said, "That's why we're using those mice's plans now."

"What?" everyone said in unison.

"Once Krimson has his robot finished, how do you plan on stopping it otherwise?" Thirteen asked.

"But I've seen those plans." Max told him, "Their robot has no way of working."

"Maybe, but at least Tracy understand enough of it, so he can correct some things that they had in mind." Thirteen assured her, "Also, this way he'd know what materials he'd best use, or not use, when he makes his own machines. He has just as much to gain from this as we do."

Lynchburg, Virginia

In this U.S. capital city (as it has been since the election of the last president), somewhere in the city's park, a young man was sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper. Though, if anyone looked at the article that he was reading, they'd notice that he wasn't reading the paper at all, but a comic book.

"That's completely inconspicuous." a young girl's voice said.

The young man turned around, only to see Mars, who spotted him reading the comic.

"Well now, Agent Banks..." Mars said, "... aren't you a little too old to be reading 'Captain Napalm' comics?"

"Yeah well..." the young man, Banks, replied, "... it this is all that the papers can write about, wouldn't you lose interest?"

Banks showed Mars the headline of the day: 'Mysterious slab disappeared.' along with a short article that spoke about strange activity on Jupiter.

"Besides, I wouldn't say I'm too old to read these comics either." Banks added, "As the constitution these days forbid kids to read these."

"Those new rules make me wonder why I even wanted to join the Federal office." Mars said.

"Yeah, this country was a lot different when I joined Intelligence too." Banks replied, "But I'm sure you didn't come here just to remember old times."

"Read my mind." Mars replied as she finally said down next to him. She gave him a magazine, to which she added: "I want you to help me look out for something."

"I can't say I can do this without anyone noticing." Banks warned her, "Ever since somebody hacked into many government systems, including that base in Creek Mountain, they're quite paranoid."

"I'm sure they are." Mars replied.

"I'm serious." Banks told her, "They're even trying to find this guy on the internet who apparently knows about this, despite that it's not supposed to be public knowledge."

"So I heard." Mars couldn't care less.

"Some people even speculate that you may know this guy they speak of." Banks reasoned.

"Cody, even if I did..." Mars replied, calling Banks by his first name, "... do you expect me to say it out loud?"

"I suppose not." Banks agreed, "Oh well... I'll look through this, and if I find anything, you'll be the first to know, Veronica."

"That's Agent Mars to you." Mars replied, just before getting up to leave him.

Banks didn't do anything to stop her. Instead, he looked at the magazine she gave him. It had a few loose papers inside it, which must contain the information about that which Mars wants him to find.


Note: if you want to know more about this internet guy mentioned in this chapter, you should read my other story, "How I Spent My Summer".