Page 10 of Radar

“At any rate, we speculated that Orest was taking an extra day in D.C. to update the imprisoned family members on the potential for their release. But now?” Anna paused to draw in a deep breath. “Now, something new is rumbling under the surface.”

The same sensations that flooded Xander’s system in the street before the thugs jumped him raced along his nerves. “Okay.”

“The Zoric dinner table discussions have become extra bitter. The Family has putdecadesof effort, blood, and treasure into their project.”

“Project is such a laughably innocent-sounding word,” Xander said. “They’re trying to upend world order so they can reestablish their beloved USSR.”

“And,” she leaned forward to whisper, “they’re afraid that AI is advancing to the point that if they wait, they’ll lose their chance because their systems will be obsolete. The sense I get is that it’s now or never.”

“F’ing hell.” Xander threw his hands into the air. “That’s what you brought me here to tell me? Doomsday is fast approaching?” He stalled and caught her gaze. “Wait. Why were you asking if Radar was mine?”

“Thethingyour team was looking for in Kyrgyzstan has moved, so you won’t need Radar for that mountain trek. We don’t know where thethingmoved. Westward toward Europe is all I have right now.”

“I—"

Anna held up her hand with a little smile and a shake of her head. “I’m going to take this conversation back a step and tell you that Russia’s space agency sent up a rocket last week.”

“With satellites, yes.” Xander sat up straighter, stretching his arms out the width of the table and wrapping his fingersaround the edge. “Two space weather monitors and then about fifty smaller satellites.”

“Not just Russian satellites. It had two Iranian satellites that it put into orbit. Of the two Iranian satellites we identified, one is a communications satellite—that’s the one we’re going to focus on. The other is for high-resolution imaging.”

“This isn’t a first,” Xander said. “Russia worked with Iran in the past on a satellite project. A couple of years ago, they put up an Iranian satellite that was legitimately there to help research Iranian topography. So, there’s precedent. As I remember it, they got Russia to do it because the Iranians had had a bunch of failed launches.” He let his focus shift away as he contemplated the regional fallout. “Israel isn’t going to love that much, given the present circumstances,” he muttered under his breath. When Xander focused on Anna, he asked, “Are the Iranian satellites driving more instability? The Zorics have taken advantage of unrest in the area in the past.”

Anna turned to the window, conducting a practiced sweep of the street. “The Iranians are saying they need the images to monitor their natural disasters.”

“Which is true.” Xander’s voice drifted off.

Anna brought her gaze back to Xander, offering him a weak smile. “Yes, while true, and therefore a plausible reason to have the satellite, the Iranians can also use it to gather other information.”

“Also true. Realistically, though, how good are the images?” Xander asked. “What kind of pixels can they see?”

“Now you know as much as I do about the Iranian imaging satellite,” Anna said. “Our concern isn’t about the images. We’ll leave that to others. My team is worried because the Zoric Family paid for the Iraniancommunicationssatellite.”

“Shit,” Xander whispered.

“Yup. Whatever The Family has going on down here on planet Earth, they needed a satellite where they had a door—not a back door—but a door they could legitimately walk in and out of whenever they wanted. Why? To dosomething.”

“Right to dosomethingwithsome machinethat’s bigger than a breadbox and is functioning in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan—”

“Wasfunctioning there but no longeris,” Anna reminded him.

“Right. Bigger than a breadbox and on the move toward Europe. But please, AWG alum, go find it and figure out what the Zorics are doing with it that puts humanity at risk.” Xander bit down, making his jaw bulge as he looked at the shot glasses that represented the death of one team member and the lifelong injury of another. When he returned his focus to Anna, he said, “You’ve stopped blinking. There’s more to it.”

“Do you remember last year when Niko Popyrin’s yacht was taken over by Somali pirates?”

“Vaguely,” Xander squirmed in his seat as a new shot of pain traveled up his spine from his bounce off the cobblestones. “I read in the paper how the passengers were saved by one of the cruising bajillionaire’s security forces that showed up out of the blue.”

“McKayla Pickard’s security. And it was Iniquus’ Strike Force that saved them. It’s a very small world, after all. Also, it wasn’t East African pirates; it was a group of very selfish, very wealthy friends who bankrolled a rogue mercenary band in the hopes of becoming the Kings of the Earth. The friends group included one Karl Davidson.”

“Karl Davidson, the oil guy that lost his leg in a big game hunting accident in Tanzania?”

“That’s the guy, and that’s the story. It’s neither how it happened nor where it happened. And that really doesn’t matterto what I’m telling you. Karl and his buddies had this new ‘Rule the World Economy’ scenario they were trying out. And honestly,” Anna rolled her lips in, lifted her brows, and nodded, “if not for McKayla and her security, Karl and his buds could very well have succeeded. Instead, Karl is in prison in the Seychelles while he fights extradition to the U.S.”

Xander shrugged. “His dad’ll get him out of that. Billionaires live in a different world than you or I do. In their world, consequences have no gravity.” Xander leaned in a little farther, bringing his shoulders up near his ears to stretch the cramp in his back. That plane ride tomorrow was going to be hell.

“Not this time. Eastern European power players are upset with the Davidson family as a whole. Medved’ Zoric, for example, ispissed. You don’t need to know the palace intrigue. But the bottom line was that Daddy Davidson needed to make nice with Medved’, and he did so in a big way. Daddy Davidson handed Medved’ his private island, Davidson Realm.”

“Where’s this island?” Xander asked.

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