Side Effects

Chapter 28

We could have taken a ferry to Germany, but that was looking like a madhouse, and none of us liked the idea of not being able to run if another attack happened. Instead, we moved with the crowd, and went with local trains. The first train was a commuter that took us to Odense, with many stops, and the three of us huddled in our seats, though Alaya was in my lap while wrapped up in a hug, with our luggage tucked safely between us. We didn't talk at that point since the train wasn't really the best place to go over the situation or the plan. The most we'd done was set up the new phones we got at a kiosk at the station. Hell, I was pretty pathetic, I couldn't remember anyone's actual phone number, they were all just contacts on my phone, so other than my two scared companions, it was empty of names.

Once through Odense though, it got better. We were on a bigger train, with more privacy and a table and snacks that we'd purchased for the almost five hour trip to Hamburg, Germany. That meant we had time to brief Esme on what we'd learned when we examined the files from Mali, even showing her the copies we had and trying to keep her calm.

It didn't go well.

I could understand that. When you're told that the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, who was worth over $50 billion on her own, was after you, it was not easy to process. When you took into account the fact that she'd already played a role in killing millions with COVID, plus exploded bombs in a café and airplane, it got worse. Hell, there could be more things we didn't even know about.

"I can't believe that this is even happening!" Esme said, struggling to keep her voice down. "Your sister is a complete and utter thundercunt!"

"Jodidamente loco," muttered Alaya in agreement.

I cocked my head, amused by the word, and yet it seemed strangely right. "Yeah, she is. That is why we're getting out of that area. Once we find a place we can relax for a bit, we can scan in all of those files and then send them to WHO with a recap of everything else."

"That's a good idea. Your sister will be on the run if they can't keep it a secret though. I hope they catch the bitch."

"These phones are pretty nice," Alaya said, holding it in front of me. There was a little dot showing us on the map and where we were going. I didn't know the first thing about Hamburg, I'd always gone to Berlin instead, but it might be a good place to hole up. On the other hand, it was the first stop outside of Denmark, so maybe it would be better to go further if people were looking for us still. It was scary not knowing what they were up to, and if they thought we were dead.

"I like that. Does anyone have a second leg they'd like to recommend? Amsterdam? Brussels? Paris? Prague?"

"And that will be where we go to rat out your sister?" Alaya confirmed.

"Yep. I think one stop isn't safe enough. From Hamburg we can go in a lot of directions, so they won't know which one we took."

"Does it matter which one we take?" Esme asked.

"I don't think so. It might be better to make it random. Once we can find a place that seems safe, we grab a hotel and buy a scanner, and get to work. Hell, we could just take pictures if we needed to. Once everything is scanned, we can send it to Dr. Wirth, the executive director of the World Health Organization, and hopefully we can coordinate the next steps on getting the authorities involved. We need to take my sister and Ken at the same time." I felt awful, because I used to have his number in my old phone, but obviously had no access to it.

"And Tim!" Alaya added while she kept checking out her phone.

I snorted and added Tim to my mental list. "Right. Tim. He's the asshole who threw the bomb into the café."