Victor Briggs Timeline and Summary

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• Secretly, Victor has long been obsessed with finding Symmes's Hole, a portal into the middle of the earth.
• Before the events in the book, Victor searched for Symmes's Hole with Larry, Sym's dad. When Larry wanted to give up the search, Victor murdered him.
• Then Victor stole the money from Larry's life insurance policy and "invested" it into his explorations. Meanwhile, he falsely presents himself as a savior to Sym and her mother… who have money problems.
• Victor tells Sym and her mum that he's arranged a surprise trip to Paris.
• In secret, he steals Sym's mum's passport so he and Sym can go to Paris alone.
• In Paris, Victor slowly unveils his master plan to Sym: They're going to Antarctica. He behaves strangely, literally eating part of his mobile phone.
• Also strange? The contraption Victor uses to protect his brain from his mobile phone. And the tin of orange peel he stores under his bed. And the way he sleeps upright in a chair. As Sym slowly reveals these details, Victor seems more and more loopy.
• Victor and Sym head to Antarctica. They don't have to do much to prepare because he's been planning this trip for a long time, so he's already packed their stuff and everything.
• In Antarctica, Sym learns that Victor has been working with a fellow traveler, Manfred Bruch, long before the trip started. Manfred is a film director who's making a movie about Victor's explorations. (Except he isn't—he's actually a con man.)
• It comes to light that Victor is there to search for a place called Symmes's Hole, a hollow portal to middle earth. He thinks a whole race of middle earth people live there, no joke.
• Manfred Bruch doesn't believe in Victor's crackpot theory, but he's been indulging him so as to better swindle him out of money—money that really belongs to Sym and her mother.
• To prevent Manfred from flying back to cash a fake check, Victor blows up a plane, killing a journalist. Then he drugs the other travelers so he can steal a vehicle and go look for Symmes's Hole.
• Victor becomes increasingly crazed during the expedition to Symmes's Hole. He doesn't seem too fussed when Manfred tells Victor about his con; instead, almost nonchalantly, Victor murders Manfred.
• Eventually, Sigurd tricks Victor and Sym, leaving them to die in the cold. Victor presses on to Symmes's Hole, which of course does not exist.
• Thinking he's found Symmes's Hole, Victor pushes himself through a crevasse in the ice. Bye, Victor.