"When? How?" I asked.
"Seven-and-a-half months ago. I was working in Slovenia—"
"Working?"
He smirked at me and it was the exact same smile I often had on my own face, right down to the very tilt of the mouth. "Yes. In every place I've lived I've had to pick up odd jobs here and there to make a bit of money. Cash only, everything off the books. No paper trail, nothing to suggest that I was ever there in the first place. It's why Scorpion thought I was dead for awhile. There were no sightings of me and I made sure to stick to the most remote of places where people would be hard pressed to recognize me.
"But then I slipped up. I've kept tabs on you throughout the years. I knew it was dangerous but I couldn't help myself. I told myself it was for your safety, so that I would know if they were ever targeting you but in reality it was to give myself peace of mind. I wanted to make sure that we'd done the right thing by leaving you with your aunt and uncle.
"What alerted Scorpion to my whereabouts was when I was looking into your school records. You had a practical examination coming up at school and they were bringing in outside help to judge the progress of you and your classmates. One of the men they brought in was named Carl Hendrix. He was, is I should say as he's still alive, Randall Walker's right hand man. He's an agent with Interpol but this isn't widely known. When I saw that he would be near you, it sent off alarms in my head and I travelled from Slovenia to England to make sure that nothing happened to you.
"I wasn't careful enough. I was spotted and they caught up to me. They brought me to the prison you just broke me out of. I've been here ever since. My only solace during that time was that they didn't know why I was near Oaks. They didn't realize that you were at the school or if they did they didn't know which one you were. Walker speculated that I'd hidden Vavilov's research at the school as it's one of the most heavily guarded buildings in all of Europe. He knew that I knew of all the secret passages in an out of the building and that I could have slipped in and out without ever being caught.
"It wasn't until roughly two months ago—it's hard to keep track of time when your locked in a solitary prison cell—that they realized my true intentions for being at the school. That was when they began looking into all of the students and somehow found their way back to you. Once they realized that I was your father, you became a lot more interesting to them and they believed that they finally had leverage over me. A weapon they could use to make me talk and tell them where Alexi's work is hidden.
"And now, I believe, we've come full circle. Given what I know, I believe that Wesley is being held at one of four possible locations. Randall runs the European branch out of a corporate building in Bristol. He owns considerable businesses there and so it's possible that he could be there with your brother in order to remain close to his assets.
"Next, the city of Wels in Austria. There is another Scorpion hold there. It's mostly a field office where they have their agents report to but many of their higher up members either live near or report to this office. It's a possibility but not as likely as the Bristol branch, in my opinion."
I leaned forward, elbows resting on my knees. I was giving him my full attention, not wanting to miss a single helpful word.
"They also have a very remote control centre out in Siberia, deep within the Altai mountains. Due to its isolated nature, they could definitely be holding Wesley there. But, if Walker is the one who is overlooking your brother's...interrogation, then he won't be keeping him there. Walker doesn't go to that base ever. If he's put someone else in charge of watching over Wesley, then he could be held there."
"And the fourth?"
"Rome. Walker's mother was from Italy and his wife and children live there now. There is a very complex labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city and Scorpion has a stronghold within them. They've designed it into a very technologically-driven base and it's a very likely possibility that they're keeping him there."
"It's not Wels or Siberia," I said. "I know it. It's got to be one of the other two. The question is which."
Jack nodded solemnly. "If you can find where Randall Walker is right now, you'll be able to find your brother."
There was only one person who had the tech that I needed to find Walker. And she was currently recovering from a gunshot wound in a room down the hall. I didn't have time to waste. As soon as I knew Daniel's fate, I was going to leave. Wes was depending on me and every moment spent doing nothing as a moment that he could be taking his final breaths. I needed Tasha's tech if I had any hope of finding Wes before it was too late.
"I need to speak to Lia," I said to Jack as I rose to my feet. "She might be able to help me track down Walker."
He nodded and ran a hand through his peppered black and grey hair. His finger scratched at his jaw delicately. "I should speak with Malcolm and Grace. There are a lot of things we need to discuss. It's been many years since I've last seen them..."
"I'll let you know if I hear anything about Walker's position," I told him as I headed for the door. He followed me out and together we walked back to where Daniel's parents were still waiting. Jack took a seat across from the Ortiz's as I continued walking towards the elevator. I had to go up one floor to where Tasha was recovering from her surgery.
My friends were seated in hard plastic chairs and speaking in quiet tones when I opened the door. Lia and Max looked over to me, a clear question in their eyes.
I shook my head. "He's still in surgery."
"He'll be okay, Melanie."
"I hope so. Anyways, that's not why I'm here. Tasha's computer...do you have it?"
Lia nodded and got to her feet. She crossed over to another chair that was sitting on the other side of the room, empty except for a black bag. She opened it and came up with Tasha's laptop. "Why?"
"I need to use her facial recognition software. Jack thinks he knows where Scorpion might be holding my brother and he says if we can find the man who recruited him—Randall Walker—then we'll probably be able to find my brother."
I listed off the four locations Jack had given me to check as Lia powered up the computer. She started typing away rapidly at the keys as Max rose and sidled over to me.
"How are you holding up?"
"I'll be fine once we've found this son-of-a-bitch."
"I meant about Daniel."
"I know." I swallowed thickly. "It doesn't matter, Max, how I feel. The only thing that matters right now is that he's okay. The second I know whether or not he's alive or dead, I'm gone. I've got to get to my brother now. It's only a matter of time before they realize that we broke Jack out and once they know that then he's dead which means our time is very limited."
Max turned to face me head on. "You're not going alone?"
"It has to be a stealth mission. No noise, no explosives, no anything. As few people as possible. Malcolm and Grace need to be here for Daniel. Tasha needs someone with her when she wakes up. Her father is commuting from Mongolia. He won't be here for another day at least. And Jack can't come. The whole point of getting him out was so that Scorpion didn't have both of us at once and to protect Vavilov's research. We can't risk Jack getting compromised. And I won't trust people I don't know to have my back so I'm not calling in for additional resources from MI6 or the CIA."
Max nodded. "I understand. But let me come with you. Lia can be here for Tasha. You need someone else to have your back."
"I'm not getting left out of this," Lia commented from the other side of the room. Her tone was dry and she didn't lift her eyes from the computer.
"I won't put the both of you at risk as well. I've already almost been responsible for the deaths of your father, Tasha, and now Daniel, not to mention all of the other agents who actually have died for me and Jack over the past few days."
"And we won't let you go on a suicide mission alone. Deal with it." She gave me a real look for that one. "We can discuss this later. I used Tasha's tech to get into MI6 and pulled a picture of Randall Walker from their 'Must-Watch/Highly-Dangerous' list. I've got it running through her facial recognition software to see if we can get a hit. All we have to do now is wait."
I went back to the waiting room. Jack was still sitting there with Grace and Malcolm and the three of them spoke in gentle voices. Grace looked weary beyond belief. Even though Malcolm had received treatment for his injuries when we walked in here, he still looked to be in rough shape. If anything, the bandages made him look worse.
After another thirty-five minutes of sitting around waiting for news, a man with brown hair dressed in green scrubs walked through the door leading from the O.R. to the waiting room. He saw us waiting—we were the only ones in the room—and headed directly for us. We waited with baited breath until he smiled.
"He'll be just fine," he said and Grace started weeping almost immediately. "They're moving him up to recovery. You can go see him anytime." He gave us the room number and then departed, heading back to another part of the hospital.
"Thank you," Malcolm said as he walked away, his own voice chocked with tears.
Together the four of us headed for the elevator and took it up to where Daniel was recovering. Only Malcolm and Grace went inside the room. Jack and I waited outside, watching through the small window.
Daniel looked terrible. He was covered in bandages and gauze and he was hooked up with so many tubes and wires that I could hardly keep track of them all. His skin was pale and white. He could have been dead. The only thing that let me know that he wasn't was the steady beeping of the heart monitor and the gentle rise and fall of his chest beneath the blanket.
It was unexplainable the relief I felt at seeing him alive. My heart pounded in my chest as wave after wave of emotion shot through my veins. It was the strangest thing to experience, but also the most wondrous.
I didn't know if this meant that I loved him. Loved him as more than a friend would. Maybe it did or maybe it was just thankfulness that another one of the people I cared about was safe now and that the only person I really needed to be worried about was Wes.
"Melanie."
I turned away from Daniel as Lia's voice carried to my ears. Beside me, Jack turned to watch as my friend appeared at the end of the hallway. She was carrying Tasha's laptop. I presumed that Max was still in Tasha's room.
Her blue eyes slid over me to Jack. "You were right," she said. Then, to the both of us, "Bristol. We've got him."
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