The Men's Camp

Chapter 12 Maria - The Sting

"Mike, I've had a great idea!" Maria was approaching Mike's desk and she looked determined. Mike continued to sip at his coffee.

"We know the woman, the 'Jane Doe' has something to do with research and we know she took the miscarriage drugs, right?? I also believe she had something to do with the surrogacy of Skye's baby, and Amanda indicated that she posed as a social worker. So maybe she has something to do with research about children and babies."

"Yes?" Mike hesitated because he was not overly convinced that it was the same woman and that Maria hadn't been influenced by the medication she had been given.

"So, what if they want more drugs? We could set up a sting!"

Mike chuckled a little at her enthusiasm, but the idea was actually pretty decent.

"So we sit out on the sidewalk with cheap miscarriage drugs for sale?" he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"No" Maria sighed "really?!? We say another clinic has received a large shipment of trial medicines and they have really bad security. Then we put up cameras and see who arrives."

Mike smiled again. Probably every addict in the area would arrive to rob a medical clinic with poor security, even if they were only going to get miscarriage drugs, but maybe it was worth a shot because up to this point it was all dead ends.

Mike's boss actually went for the idea and it was all set up. Night after night the cameras waited and finally the clinic was robbed. The robbers took out all the cameras, so all footage was lost but what they didn't know was that inside the vials of medicine the police had installed trackers to send back a signal. They also got the licence plates of the cars from a secondary camera source located further away from the clinic and the cars were tracked as they crossed the country thanks to toll bridges and CCTV installations. When the address of a large scientific research facility called 'Biovus' was revealed, Mike and Maria shared a moment of pure joy that the plan had worked so well.

What they didn't expect was that after the local team stormed the building with search warrants in order to get back the drugs, they found nothing but a clean laboratory. No missing child and nothing related to human experiments.

Mike was frustrated and Maria went to a low place. In addition, the CEO was soon released from holding, claiming he knew nothing about the petty thefts and that it was the work of some rogue scientists who had already disappeared.

"Cut off at every turn!" Mike raged, "we did some great work on this and I feel like we were so close. How could this happen?"

"I'm sorry Mike," Maria said sadly "but this is it for me."

Mike knew how she felt. He had been there so many times, but it still hurt to hear her give up.

"We still have her DNA" he reminded her "if she ever shows up anywhere it will be flagged."

"Yes, that is true and hopefully someday you'll find her and tell her how we tried."

"Tried?"

Maria took a deep breath "I'm out Mike. I handed in my resignation today. I can't do this job anymore because it affects me too much and also because, well...I'm pregnant."

Mike didn't know what to say, he felt extremely nervous to say the wrong thing.

"Don't worry about it" Maria laughed at the look on his face, "the doctor says I'll be fine, and I am excited to start a new chapter of my life."

"Then I'm happy for you" Mike said feeling more relieved, "and I hope you'll still come visit the office occasionally when you are in town?"

"Yeah maybe" Maria said, drifting off and thinking about a future that was now filled with children, baking, shopping and book clubs.

As the CEO of Biovus headed back to his facility to clean up the mess the search team had made, he was furious. He kicked himself for allowing his people to go after the experimental drugs although, the reality was, his corporation really needed them at any cost. This setback meant that months of research were potentially lost, and any lose ends would need to be destroyed so as not to worsen their legal woes. Being under the microscope of the justice department did not suit his business model at all and there was a high risk the entire facility would be shut down. In addition, newly acquired merchandise had been put at risk. He smiled to himself about his foresight in opening a secondary, smaller laboratory on the same property but at a distance that could not be seen from the head office. At this facility a group of young girls sat, huddled inside cages waiting to be transported. Bella watched the door with large eyes, waiting for the rescue that was not coming.