Lost at Sea

Chapter 4: Great Expectations

Sara was enjoying this stakeout so much more than last time. In February, during an investigation of Alex Hunter, she'd inadvertently crashed an undercover operation Neal was running. Now they were acting in tandem. It also was a significant help that their quarry was a geeky guy. Definitely not Neal's type.

Even more reassuring was that Sara was able to monitor their conversation through an earpiece. Travis had expressed a package of some of his custom gadgets for their use. Her earpiece was linked to Neal's watch. The feed was being sent to New York rather than London since John's technical resources were limited.

At the initial meeting, Neal had finagled an invite to a local pub with Victor after work. Sara tailed the suspect during the afternoon while Neal searched for incriminating evidence. He was convinced that somewhere was hidden a disguise for the person who'd impersonated Mozzie. She agreed with his reasoning that the outfit wouldn't have been trashed in case a repeat performance was needed.

As far as the Doctor Who production crew was concerned, Mozzie was suffering from a bout of intestinal flu. Victor and whoever else was involved with the scheme must be wondering why there hadn't been any news of his arrest. Sara hoped the uncertainty would lead to a breakthrough. The time remaining before Mozzie would be entered into the system was decreasing far too quickly.

Neal had been able to capture Victor's cell phone signature thanks to the sig-zapper, an electronic marvel Travis had invented last autumn. Taps had also been placed on the phone and computer at his workstation. The one glaring omission from their blanket surveillance was his flat. He rented a studio in Iver Heath, and until there was enough evidence to tie him to the crime, a search warrant was out of the question.

Neal had searched the costume warehouse during the afternoon under the assumption that hiding in plain sight was the best policy. He'd taken advantage of the contacts he'd made during the incident at Scima last year for this case but failed to turn up anything resembling the apparel worn by the Mozzie impersonator during the staged altercation.

At quitting time, Sara tailed Neal and Victor as they took a shuttle bus from the Scima campus to the town of Iver Heath. Their destination was a local pub called The Black Horse. It had a long history of being patronized by actors and production crews from Scima. Sara had switched her disguise in the car before entering the lounge. She was now a frazzled production assistant in coveralls with short curly brown hair. She'd prepared an official-looking document she could pretend to edit while monitoring Neal's table.

Over a couple of rounds of beer, Victor became progressively friendlier. No mention of origami but he revealed an expertise in online gaming that Neal stoked with stories he'd acquired from Jones and Richard. Sara once more marveled at Neal's chameleon-like ability to shapeshift into a different personality. She could assume the appearance of someone else, but he had the gift of projecting someone else's personality.

Sara had just received her second pot of tea and the guys were wolfing down pizza. Neal was complaining about being cut off from the L.A. gaming community when Victor finally took the bait.

"You might be interested in a group I belong to," Victor remarked, his tone a little too casual to be natural. "We focus on the latest games coming on the market. Some of our members work in the gaming industry. We've become the source of insider tips." He smiled. "We call ourselves the Pod."

Neal's eyes widened as he appeared to lap up the talk. "As in space pod?"

Victor grinned. "We prefer to think of ourselves as an octopus, using our tentacles to probe the latest products."

Gotcha. Sara reached for her phone to text John. The Pod was already known to Interpol. Victor's comment should be enough to justify a search.

Victor Liu was taken into custody late that same evening. When the police searched his flat, they found a set of clothes along with a mask for a Mozzie impersonator hidden in the kitchen cabinet. Victor had likely played the role. The clothes had been padded to make his slim frame appear like Mozzie's.