Page 37 of Croatia Collateral

Dax recognized the five people he’d spent the last twenty-four hours studying both their appearances and their backgrounds.

The man closest to him with dark hair, a receding hairline, a barrel chest and a persistent sneer was Vitaly Rabinovich, the Russian Oligarch who had controlled most of the chemical and biological labs in Russia as well as the army of hackers stealing intellectual property, blueprints and formulas from countries around the world. The dark web had rumored his hackers had hacked into the energy grids of some of the most powerful nations. It might only be a matter of time before they infected those grids with viruses that could bring entire nations to their knees.

Yuri Kagalovsky stood beside Rabinovich, the other Russian Oligarch of the Nexus Collective who controlled forty-five percent of Russian oil exports and weapons production. A few inches shorter and slightly younger than his sixty-two-year-old counterpart, Kagalovsky was said to have lost favor with the Russian president. His control of the Russian oil exports and his own factories’ weapons production could be taken away at any time.

He had yet to be visited by the president’s emissaries to be encouraged to commit suicide or watch his family murdered before he would be murdered.

The tall German, Dieter Strüngmann, with the dirty-blond hair and blue eyes, stood on the other side of the table beside Marco Galeotti, dressed in a tailored business suit, his graying sideburns and temples giving the man a distinguished look that photographed well.

The smallest member of the Nexus Collective—and the only female—Hochi Yamaguchi, stood at the head of the long table, wearing a sleek gray pantsuit with a white silk blouse. Her ink-black hair was pulled back from her face and secured in a simple ponytail, hanging precisely down the center of her back.

As Dax approached the table, his escorts stepped back, awaiting their next orders.

“Vitaly, your escorts may leave the room,” Yamaguchi said. She spoke in English, and her command of the language was excellent.

Dax let go of the breath he hadn’t known he was holding, wondering what language would be spoken in the meeting.

Rabinovich told the escorts to leave in Russian.

Though his grasp of the language was rusty, Dax understood the words.

The burly Russian escorts left the room through another door, closing it behind them, leaving the Nexus Collective alone.

Dax’s pulse sped up as he stared around the room at the others, glad they’d sent Rabinovich’s men out. If his charade was discovered, he could handle the people who remained in the room.

“Now that we are all here,” Hochi Yamaguchi said, “let us not waste valuable time.”

Rabinovich frowned at the woman. “Why were we called here now? We weren’t supposed to meet for three more weeks.”

Yamaguchi dipped her head slightly, her demeanor quiet, respectful but firm. “We cannot wait any longer. News of our meeting has leaked to the dark web. If we wait much longer, we will be discovered and potentially shut down.”

“We have a plan. Have the specifics of that plan surfaced?” Rabinovich asked.

Yamaguchi shook her head. “Not yet, but that could be soon.”

“I do not see a need to deviate from the plan based on rumors,” Strüngmann said, puffing out his chest.

“Timing is key to the success of this operation.” Yamaguchi tipped her chin toward Dax. “Evan Maas San, do you want to remind everyone of the steps we’ll take to test before we initiate?”

Dax waved a hand toward her. “You’re doing fine. Please, continue.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed for a moment, and then she nodded. “Preparations are complete. The command center has been constructed and outfitted according to the specifications Evan Maas San required. We need to test the device before we go full-scale. Once the initial test is completed, we will evaluate and adjust.”

“That part of the plan hasn’t changed, Rabinovich said irritably. “But we were scheduled to test in three weeks.”

“As I mentioned,” Yamaguchi spoke slowly as if addressing a difficult child. “Enough information about our plan has leaked, making people curious. We do not want international authorities involved.”

“No, we do not want authorities involved,” Kagalovsky said.

Yamaguchi nodded. “We need to test the device on a small target. If it is successful, we must follow through quickly with the planned target before anyone starts looking for the source.”

“Maas assured us he could focus blame on any country he chooses and that the destruction the device inflicts cannot be accurately traced back to its origin,” the German said. “Why hurry?”

“The timing is right,” Yamaguchi repeated. “There are demonstrations and protests erupting in the country that will take the blame. A significant number of ships and a huge quantity of products are poised to leave our target country within the next thirty-six hours.”

Dax let the others do the talking, taking in what they were saying. So far, Yamaguchi wasn’t telling him enough of what he needed to know. Target country? Blame country? Test target? Where were they planning to strike? And what device were they using to inflict damage in their strikes? Someone needed to be more specific.

And just as concerning was Yamaguchi’s comment about the command center being constructed according to Evan Maas’s requirements. They’d expect him to know what the hell was going on and how it would happen.

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