Rival of Atlantis

XX

 GILLIAN CRASHED HER BODY ON the bed and stared at the ceiling long enough. Some thoughts are hovering over her mind. The event at the Novotel plenary room ended not quite the way she imagined it. She had just joined Green Earth X world tour a week ago and caught up with it in time for her lecture at Sydney. Sydney ended up talking with people until dawn but Paris, the hometown of SAR, ended up with bloodshed.

She tried to recall what happened earlier, her mind coming up with the talent of replaying it like a movie clip taken from a different perspective. The man who died by poisoning was engaged in a talk with her. Later, his body started shaking madly and his feet and arms wildly trashed when he dropped on the ground. The replay that played before her eyes was so surreal that she can almost extend a finger to touch him. Then there was this Novotel crewman aiming a silenced .22 handgun at her back. She was sure a shot or two might have ended her life if not of the quick eyes and actions of two bodyguards of Cayetano.

She can still see the smoke from the barrels that are spiraling up in the air and almost can smell the odor of gunpowder above the fresh scent of the room. The other guards swarmed around Cayetano and surrounded him with a belt of human fence with pistols at the ready. One of the two guards who killed the assailant was instantly over the body and kicked the g*n away and was aiming his g*n at the head of the dead man. The other came by Gil's side, alert if there is another assailant nearby.

The night ended with local police swarming in the room. They found that the man was wearing a wig to cover his bald head and was wearing another set of clothing above the Novotel crew uniform. Gillian was briefly questioned before the local police authorities found out that the killer is staying in a penthouse in Novotel and has a car with fake plate registration in the parking lot.

The failed assassination also earned her a talk with Rudy Cayetano who was surrounded by his bodyguards ever since the assassination attempt. They talked about who would want a doctor in biology dead and Gillian lied about it. She knew that the failed assassination was connected to the feat in Costa Rica, but she cannot draw a line to tie it to the rescue and firefight event. Someone wanted her dead and she somehow thought that Summer is in grave danger too. Whatever they stumbled upon at Costa Rica involves mighty power that can make orders to kill anyone anywhere the globe. She made no attempt to reveal all of these to the business lord. Their talk ended with an invitation in the launching of GE-X engine series that Gil cannot turn down because Cayetano's men are the reason she is still breathing.

She sat and checked the calf wound that she earned in Costa Rica. The bullet wound is almost healed but there is still a hot searing pain crawling from it. Someone wants me dead over something I don't know.

She changed her clothes in something more comfortable before popping her laptop open and retrieving her phone from her bag. She found herself going through her e-mail inbox flooded with a lot of birthday greetings from across the globe.

It's my birthday, she thought and shook her head for almost forgetting it. She was reading the greetings in her e-mail or social media and SMS inboxes when she thought of listening to her voice mails. She picked her phone and dialed a number to retrieve her voice mail recordings. She listened to some ten voice mails which are all about greeting her on her birthday before the sweet voice of Summer came after a long beep.

"Hey, girl," Summer began in the recording. "I wish to greet you happy birthday and send you lots of hugs and kisses. Don't keep yourself too busy and remember to pop open a California red for the two of us. I wish I am there to greet you personally. Again, happy birthday, best friend."

Summer's greeting brought back the thought of the possible danger. She dialed a direct call to SAR San Jose office. John told her she went AWOL and has no intention in bringing the matter to their director, Patricia Laurent. Gil dialed all known numbers of Summer and all ended up out of reach or unanswered. Just then, she thought of her phone in her condominium unit in the Philippines. She dialed it, hoping it will ring and almost jumped in joy when it did.

"You always know how to catch your fox," Summer greeted when she picked up.

"Little Red Riding Hood is thinking she is a fox," Gil shot her back. "You going AWOL might mean something, home and luxurious vacation."

"Almost," Summer's voice has something in it that made her shiver. "I was having this fancy vacation when something came up."

In an instant, Gil knew Summer has already encountered the hovering danger. "What something? What happened?"

Summer filled her over the details of what she encountered. "It's eleven here, and I am meeting someone from the FBI's Counterterrorism Division at two in the afternoon. I will fill you up with the details later. We must've stumbled into something to deserve this."

"I bet. You wring it out of the FBI and be careful."

"You too, Gil."

                                                                                          -ROA-

THE AFTERNOON SUN IS SCORCHING hot and heat had engulfed the amenity deck of the Proscenium Residence when 2 o'clock came. Officer Daniel De Vera, Amanda and Dylan were enjoying a tall glass of pineapple juice in one of the gazebos. They were ushered in and were accompanied by one of the residence's guards up to deck then left them. Summer has already arranged their visit when she came back and they encountered no trouble in going in.

Summer strode towards the gazebo wearing only her workout shorts and sleeveless tops. Sweat is still trickling down her eyebrows when she reached them. All the life-threatening events are making her mind go swirl and she decided she needs to hit the gym. Working out is like a therapy to her and it makes her mind at ease.

"How do you find the place?" Summer looked around and found that no one is around aside from two teenagers enjoying swims in the pool and the deck crew attending their jobs.

"You must have an enormous salary to afford this," Daniel moved a hand around.

"Just a luxurious living of a spoiled brat," she said with a sweet smile and took a seat but not before laying down a bucket of locally-brewed chilled beer. "Beer seems to taste different when you are here."

"May I introduce all of you?" Daniel asked which she responded by a nod. "Special Agent Dylan Miracle and Special Agent Amanda Nicholas."

The agents took turns shaking her extended hand over the table. Summer studied them for a while and found that Dylan may look more a preacher than an agent and Amanda was astoundingly pretty. She was thinking they could make a good couple when Amanda spoke.

"We are kind'a Mister and Missis Sharps," Amanda said and winked.

"And not an official business of the FBI," Dylan added.

Summer produced a bottle opener and gamely opened the beers and passed them around. "So what brings you here?"

"We are here to ask your help about a certain individual, Engineer Charlie Alistre."

"Met him at Costa Rica, what about him?" Summer drank from the bottle and consumed her drink by half.

Amanda reached for a briefcase under the table. She opened it and picked a folder which she later handed to Summer. Summer opened the folder and saw copies of printed photographs of men and women with their names at the bottom. A data sheet of their profiles and copies of news clips came after each photo. She studied them for a while and found that they are engineers from different fields and all of them were dead.

"Electronics and communication, software and these or those engineers," Summer said as she laid down the folder.

"Dead engineers," Amanda corrected.

"We afraid of Zombie Apocalypse engineer version?"

"They are engineers employed under a contract when Dyna Space and Universal Defense Corporation collaborated for a project," Dylan came up instantly letting the sarcasm of Summer passed. "And all of them are already dead. You missed something, the last two pages."

Summer picked up the folder and moved through the pages. She felt like she was bathed with a pail of cold water when she saw the last picture and profile that did not interest her earlier. It is copy of Charlie Alistre's profile. A name at the bottom confirmed it too. She looked at Amanda then to Dylan with terror-stricken face.

"Universal Defense and Dyna Space collaborated for a project which is still unknown up to now," Dylan went on. "The two companies hired people of their choice for the same contract. Charlie Alistre was employed under a Dyna Space contract but was teamed up with those under Universal Defense contract."

"First, what Dyna Space does for business?" Summer asked curiously.

"Dyna Space deals mainly with rocket and aviation technology," Amanda batted in. "They manufacture or assemble rockets mainly used for payload delivery systems like sending a satellite into orbit. They also get subcontracts from other aviation companies."

"Universal Defense is a different entity," Dylan pitched in. "Under contracts from different nations especially those in the NATO outfit, they develop designs of tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters, ships and firearms. Universal passes down the design to sister corporations which handles the production. Universal is like the head and the sister corporations are the tentacles."

"And Dyna Space is one of these sister corporation?"

"Far from it," Amanda cut through. "Dyna Space is entirely an independent company. It is owned by many stockholders, some posing as corporations holding a percentage within the corporation itself. Although it is likely that there is a connection."

"What connection?"

"Corporations getting some percentages of shares of stock are common in the business world."

"I used to skip my economics class," Summer lied about it. She topped or came next to Gillian on almost all of their subjects but a wide-scale economics and commerce is not for her. "Corporations within a corporation?"

"Let's say you are Corporation A," she referred to Summer. "Dylan and Daniel are B and C. I am X." She went on when Summer got the hang of the concept. "You are owned by various people, just to make it simple. The highest stockholder gets the position of President or CEO. Same goes with B, C and X. Let's say 50% of stocks are for sale in my corporation and the boards of directors from A, B and C showed interests in acquiring a portion of what is for sale. You ended up getting 30 percent while B and C have 10 each. Now you have corporations within a corporation."

"Quite getting the picture."

"The process can be repeated as many times as possible," Dylan continued for Summer. "Corporations and individuals making up corporations which acquires another and the links can go on in an endless web. Some of them are dummy corporations which are owned by group of people or corporations that does not exist. Ownerships are almost untraceable in this scheme."

"Through a web of untraceable connections," Amanda's turn came when Dylan made a long pause. "It is possible that Dyna Space and Universal Defense end up in one pocket."

"Who's pocket?"

"Rudolfo or Rudy Cayetano, the CEO of Universal Defense."

"Back at the story," Dylan patched through. "Universal Defense and Dyna Space may have completed the project. The team of engineers pirated from across the globe was sent back home with a fat pay cut. Yet all of them died one way or the other."

Summer made a quick scan on the contents of the folder again. She noted the cause of the subjects' deaths. There were robberies, vehicular accidents and murders. "People die. I see no connection in this."

"Believe me," Amanda said. "Me too."

"But the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370," Dylan went on feeling she almost had Summer convinced. He let Summer scan the folder again and waited for her when she reads at a profile. “Leo Anarillo’s last contract was under Universal Defense. He was going home on the fated night when the MH370 disappeared. A cab driver vouched he drove him to the airport. He also got a seat reserved for him at a plane in Beijing that should take him back home. He never showed up and he was never on the list of those who have gone missing along with the MH370 when Malaysian Airlines released the list."

"How do you know he got on the same plane?"

"Matter of fact, I don't. I just connected the dots and there is big possibility that he was on the plane. Her plane takes off from Beijing after about a couple of hours the MH370 is scheduled to arrive."

"He could be on an earlier flight or later."

"Later is not a possibility. Earlier will not match to the statement of the cab driver. His plane reservation mysteriously vanished in Malaysia but the Beijing one is still in place. Someone made a lot of effort to erase data about him."

"What's FBI Counterterrorism Division got to do with this?"

"For the moment, none. There were many theories like the plane was shot by a guided missile or hijacked. I suspect differently. I suspect that Leo Amarillo has a connection to the plane's disappearance."

"You suspect? For all God knows, the plane could be lying somewhere down the sea."

"South China Sea," Dylan filled her in. "The-"

"West Philippine Sea!" There is a stress in Summer's voice that has traces of burning patriotism in it. The South China Sea or West Philippine Sea is a contested territory in Southeast Asia.

"Yeah right," Dylan backpedaled. "This is just between all of us. Did you know that the latest US spy satellites can be moved into orbit to check it out. I am talking about satellites that can see through the water and tell you the color a fish's eyes?"

"Heard of them on conspiracy theories, yes."

"It is no theory. It can be moved above your backyard and see how many slits you put in any hotdog you just placed on the grill. The MH370's disappearance was put in the attention of the international community. US can simply put a satellite in position and solved the case. I admit that below the surface of the water at thousand of leagues deep, the satellite can sometimes mistake a reef as an outline of a submerged plane or ship. It can also be the other way around as ships and planes may be mistaken for coral reefs or rock formations. But with the retrieval team on the water and a satellite helping them find the possible debris of the plane, things may have been concluded with haste. I mean there is a fat chance that the plane can be located with such effort granted that it was there."

"But US didn't do it."

"It didn't? Or simply there is nothing left to be seen. Did you consider that they might have moved the satellite in position then planned to send manpower later and act like they located the bird with the use of SONAR. The MH370 vanished into thin air and there's a connection to Universal Defense. If it can be proved that they have something to do with MH370's disappearance, I will bet my entire pension that there's a connection to a bigger terrorism scheme that will involve CTD in this case."

Summer considered the points of Dylan in the debate. She looked at Daniel as if asking his opinion but the local Philippine policeman who was silently drinking his beer all those times simply shrugged. They presented her a hard case although they cannot place the ball at the doorsteps of Universal Defense and Dyna Space. The list of the dead from one project under these companies made the case undeniable. If they are going into a lot of efforts to cover up their tracks, what bigger thing or things are they planning?

"How do I help you?" Summer said after finally considering Dylan's allegations.

"You can start by introducing us to Charlie Alistre," Dylan said relieved. "We will have short side trip to Leo Amarillo's place and see if we can get more information."

"Where is this place?"

"A remote barrio in Visayas," Daniel said finally after turning out mute for a long time. "Four days top."

"See you at SAR San Jose Office in one week then."

The meeting with the local and international officers ended up with exchanges of contact details. Summer was escorted by Daniel to a police station to give her statements about the three gunmen. Dylan and Amanda hailed a cab to get back to their hotel.