Chapter 8
Dax walked with the two men down the street from the Jesuit Stairs, turned onto a less traveled street and then into a narrow alley between ancient stone structures. According to Dmytro's instructions, he pressed his heel into the stone every other step, praying the invisible ink was leaching through the holes in his heel as designed.
Armed only with the plastic blade, Dax went through several scenarios in his mind of how he could fight his way free of the two bruisers chosen to escort him to the meeting of the Nexus Collective.
At six feet two inches, he didn’t consider himself a small man. His two escorts made him feel considerably insignificant. But size wasn’t always what mattered. Cunning, skill and quick responses made all the difference.
When the two men stopped in front of what appeared to be a solid stone wall, Dax tensed, ready to defend himself.
Had this all been a ruse to get Evan away from his bodyguards so they could rough him up and demand a ransom for his safe release?
If that were the case, Dax might be screwed. He wasn’t Evan. Nor was he rich like Evan. If they demanded a ransom, they’d be sorely disappointed by the meager amount he had in his savings account. It was a lot for a guy who’d been in the military most of his adult life, but nothing compared to the billions Evan Maas had accumulated.
As the man on his right raised his hand, Dax bent his knees slightly, assuming a ready stance.
The big guy’s hand reached for what looked like an antique iron light fixture. He pulled down sharply.
Dax expected the fixture to break away from the wall, but it didn’t. It acted like a lever.
Once the man released the lamp, it sprang back in place. The stone wall swung inward, faster than Dax would have thought possible. The two men gripped his arms and hurried him through the opening.
No sooner had they cleared the opening, than the stone wall moved back into place as if set on a timer. Had they been standing in the way, the huge stone door would have swept them back out into the street. Had anyone been following them, they might not have gotten to the alley in time to see the wall open or close.
One of his escorts clicked on a flashlight.
Dax didn’t have time nor enough light in the right direction to search the walls around him for a lever that would reopen that door.
The two men ushered him, single file—one in front of him, the other behind—through a narrow stone passage, barely large enough for one man to traverse. As it was, all three men had to duck slightly as they moved through the structure or risk scraping their heads on the stones above.
The passage sloped downward. When they came to a T-junction, the man in the lead turned right.
Dax tried to guess what structures might be above where they were. After a left turn at a four-way intersection and another right turn at a T-junction, he wasn’t sure. Maybe they were heading back toward the Saint Ignatius Church.
He’d memorized the turns. Should he need to find his way back to the stone doorway, it would behoove him to know which way to turn. Especially if he was running blind. Without a source of light, he’d be feeling his way along the walls, praying he didn’t miss one of the turns.
The longer they walked, the more turns he had to commit to memory. Where the hell were they taking him? He was beginning to think they were taking him outside the walled city.
A moment later, the man leading the way came to an abrupt stop.
Dax nearly ran into him. Stopping short, he tried to see around the big guy and what his flashlight was aimed toward. A heavy metal door stood before them, appearing as old as the fortress and as impenetrable as the stone walls.
The man aimed the light at a dark metal plate on the wall beside the door. He slid the plate upward, exposing a keypad and keyed in five numbers.
Dax committed the numbers to memory as the door swung inward, revealing yet another passage lined with stone walls, ceiling and floor.
He followed the lead escort around two more corners, arriving at another door like the first. Again, he slid a metal plate upward to expose the keypad and entered the same set of numbers.
The door opened, not into another passage but into a room the size of a gymnasium with high ceilings and the same stone walls. Modern lights illuminated the space, shining down on modern furnishings.
In the middle of the room stood a massive black table with what appeared to be a raised relief world map taking up the center. Every continent was represented, with current borders and major cities marked.
Several people stood around the table, staring at the map.
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.
The only thing he’d gathered thus far was that the other members of the Nexus Collective weren’t happy about the schedule moving up.
With his thick eyebrows and deep scowl, Rabinovich could scare a weaker man or woman. Although he spoke English, his thick Russian accent was difficult to understand. “There will always be strife in Taiwan, especially in regard to the mother country’s desire to reclaim that territory. Three weeks will not make a difference.”
Finally, Dax had a country name.
Taiwan was the country they planned on taking the blame for the strike? How could they? They weren’t much more than a big island with little in the way of a military.
“It is imperative we move now, before we miss the chance to inflict as much damage as we can at this moment.” Yamaguchi shook a clenched fist. “We might not have as good an opportunity as now to take out as many ships and infrastructure and bring exports to a halt in Shanghai, one of the busiest ports in all of China.”
Dax’s gut clenched.
China?
They were planning a strike on China? Talk about poking the bear.
The Japanese woman lifted her chin and swept her gaze from one man to the next. “You have had ample opportunity to prepare for this event. Either you are ready to take full advantage, or you will fall behind and other corporations will move in and reap the benefits before we can. Are you prepared?”
“We’ve begun movement of our ships and air transport,” Dieter Strüngmann said. “But we need the additional three weeks to complete our staging.”
“It will take some time for the events to unfold and for news of the attack to leak out of China,” Yamaguchi said. “Do you have enough assets in place for a reasonable start? To get your foot in the door of those who will need your products or services?”
Strüngmann’s brow dipped. “Barely.”
“Barely will be better than most,” Yamaguchi said. “When we began these talks, I had my factories stockpile an increased number of critical electronic components, knowing there will be a huge demand for them after Evan Maas San’s targeted EMP strike renders those in that specific area completely unusable. We are ready.”
Dax fought to retain his poker face when inside he was dumbstruck.
EMP? Holy fucking hell!
Kagalovsky nodded and said in his thick Russian accent, “I, too am ready. Several months ago, my corporation increased the number of firearms we normally produce and added the production of weaponized drones. We anticipate Taiwan will need all the firepower they can gather to go against China.”
“Taiwan will not stop the behemoth,” Kagalovsky said.
“No,” Marco Galeotti agreed. “Other countries will likely join forces to protect Taiwan from China’s retaliation, increasing the need for the products and services we can provide.” As he spoke, his hands moved to emphasize his words, spoken with a thick Italian accent. “I am prepared to meet some of those needs.”
“Then we are all in agreement to move forward?” Yamaguchi’s gaze moved from person to person, pausing long enough for each to nod.
Dax forced himself to nod, though he wanted to scream, Are you fucking out of your minds?
Yamaguchi gave a final nod. “Then let us begin. Follow me, and I will show you what your investment has accomplished.” She led the way out of the giant room into a well-lit passage, talking as she moved.
“As we discussed all those months ago, we needed a place where our construction efforts wouldn’t draw attention and had sufficient access to import the necessary components we would need without interference from overzealous border agents. Evan Maas San had such a place, here in Dubrovnik and graciously offered it for our use.”
“Could you not have offered a place with taller passages?” Rabinovich muttered in Russian from his position behind Dax.
Kagalovsky snorted behind Rabinovich. “ Da .”
“As this is the first time most of you have seen what some of your investments have achieved, do not be concerned about the age of your immediate surroundings. The thick stone walls and building foundations serve a purpose,” Yamaguchi said from the front of the single-file line. “It is difficult for tracking and communications devices to penetrate effectively.” The Japanese woman stopped in front of another door. Like the other doors Dax had encountered, this one appeared as old as the walls surrounding it, but it also contained a similar back metal plate that slid upward to reveal another keypad. Yamaguchi keyed in the same five-digit code the escort had used. “Evan Maas San can better explain all of this.”
“I have complete faith in you,” Dax said.
As the door swung open, the woman turned to nod acknowledgement. “Your confidence in my abilities allowed me to work autonomously to complete the renovation of the space and the installation of the computer components and satellite access equipment in less time than was originally allotted.”
“I had no doubt you were the right person to oversee the project,” Dax said, figuring Maas would have supplied some words of approval to the woman he’d put in charge of such a time-sensitive and top-secret task.
She bowed her head, accepting his praise.
“I do not understand why you did not have my computer experts involved,” Rabinovich groused.
“Because they are hackers,” Strüngmann supplied. “You trust them to hack into foreign countries’ data and grids, but would you trust them to keep your secrets? They are nothing more than hired criminals. I would not trust them with my bank account. Certainly not with my life.”
Rabinovich’s face flushed an angry red.
“Gentlemen,” Yamaguchi said. “Please.” Her softly spoken command for attention drew the two men’s focus back to her. She entered another room with stone floors, walls and ceilings like the other huge one. This one was smaller with three other doors as if the room was the hub, and the doors would lead into other passageways like spokes of a wheel.
Dax wondered how Maas had acquired what seemed to be the entire subterranean level of Old Town Dubrovnik without securing ownership of the buildings above. The man was one of the wealthiest men on the planet, but surely a place as historically significant as Dubrovnik couldn’t be bought.
Then again, if the price was right and the country needed the money, what would it hurt to sell the cellar to a crazy rich man?
Yamaguchi turned to the door on the right, keyed the code into the keypad and led them down yet another passage. Thankfully, this one was shorter than some of the others.
Dax would soon lose track of the number of passages and the turns they’d made. He hoped they would arrive at the operation center Yamaguchi had alluded to.
She stopped at another door. Here, she slid the black plate upward, keyed in the code and paused to look back at Dax. “Do you want to do the honors?” She stood back.
Beside the keypad was what appeared to be an iris or retinal scanner. His heart skipped several beats before the beats came back with a thunderous vengeance. He waved his hand. “Not necessary. This is all your work. You do the honors.”
For a moment, her eyes narrowed as she stared at him, a slight pucker in her brow.
Dax held his breath. If she insisted on him performing a scan of his eye, the game would be over.
“Very well,” she said finally, turning, leaning her face close to the scanner and staring into it. A lock clicked, and the door swung open into a brightly-lit, modern room where the stone walls had been painted bright white and modern tables had been installed.
The wall to the left was covered in large display monitors. Four stations were set up in front of the wall, with monitors, computers, keyboards and modems. Two men sat in front of two of the computer stations. On the right was a raised area, that overlooked the floor below. A plexiglass wall separated this area from the rest. From what Dax could make out, it had an array of monitors and two computer stations.
“As you directed,” Yamaguchi said, “we installed the stations we needed with redundancy for each. The wall on our left is comprised of four sets of displays. The first two tap into webcams scattered across the port of Shanghai and the surrounding city.”
Dax studied the images of the massive port operations conducted on a daily basis from Shanghai. Targeting it with an electromagnetic pulse would devastate their operation and cause mass chaos among the people who lived there.
Trains, buses and automobiles would cease to work. Electric grids would be disabled for who knows how long it would take to repair. Twenty-five million people would be without power. A hit like that could take years to recover from. The number of displaced persons would be impossible to manage. Millions would die before they could get enough help.
“The next two sets of displays tap into webcams from various large ports across China, Japan, Taiwan, India, the US and European nations,” Yamaguchi said, her gaze on the monitors. “We can also bring up images from satellites focusing on military installations around the world.”
The monitors flicked from one site to another, pausing only a few seconds before going to the next. Dax recognized London and Houston among the ports flashing by. Then, the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. A naval port flying a Russian flag, a military installation in a desert location. Dax couldn’t tell if it was in the Middle East, but that would be his guess.
Yamaguchi turned to the plexiglass room on the right. “In the operation center, we have two stations. The primary and a backup. These stations are connected to an array of satellites positioned worldwide, thanks to Evan Maas San.” She dipped her head in deference toward Dax. “Each of the satellites is equipped with the ability to emit electromagnetic pulses that can target precise locations down to a one-mile radius.”
“That does not sound very specific,” Strüngmann said in his stilted English. “I thought you could be more exact on target acquisition.”
All gazes turned to Dax. He’d read a little bout EMPs but didn’t possess the extent of knowledge Evan Maas must have. They waited for him to explain something he wasn’t familiar with. “I’ve experimented with a smaller version of the device,” he said, pulling bullshit out of his ass. “No matter how much I adjust, the pulse spreads wider than my target. Shanghai is a massive target. The energy necessary to cripple such a large city will affect a large swath I can’t accurately predict.”
Rabinovich’s bushy eyebrows descended. “Could it spread worldwide?”
Dax backpaddled. “No. No. The device will only impact the area around Shanghai.”
“The test will help you to see and understand,” Yamaguchi said.
“Where is the test site,” Galeotti asked.
Yamaguchi met Dax’s gaze. “It’s a small town on the coast of China in the Guandong Province. It has a limited port operation. There are a number of other small cities nearby. We have positioned webcams in the target city and those surrounding it. The test pulse will help us determine how accurate and specific the effects will be.”
Strüngmann held up his hands. “This is the first test you have run with this device? How do you know it will not impact the entire world?” He shook his head. “I want increased business, not a blitzkrieg .”
Dax held up his hands, guessing at what Maas would have done up to this point. “It will be the first test on a target this size. My team has performed hundreds of tests on smaller locations, expanding to a drug cartel’s compound in Columbia, an isolated resort on the coast of Mexico and a terrorists’ training compound in Pakistan. Each test helped us calculate the amount of energy needed for the target size.”
“The point is,” Yamaguchi said, “targeted EMPs work. We only have to test on a larger target before we direct it toward Shanghai.” She nodded toward Dax. “We can begin now.”
Well, damn.
Dax scrambled through his brain for some way to stall, a way that would allow him to leave the command center and report what he’d learned.
With all the Nexus Collective members staring at him, he was trapped.
If he tried to make a run for it, he wouldn’t get past the door fast enough. Yamaguchi or Rabinovich would have the Russian guards on him in a heartbeat.
He clapped his hands together. “Okay, then. Let’s get started.”
Yamaguchi waved a hand toward the plexiglass-enclosed room.
“You’ve done an excellent job so far,” Dax said. “You should have the pleasure of firing the test pulse.”
The woman’s brow creased. “You know I can not. The device can only be accessed by the man who created it. You are the only one who can access the controls you had shipped here. The biometric scanner will respond to your fingerprint and your iris alone.”
He forced a smile. “Just as I planned and programmed.” Dax shot a glance toward the others. “No one but me can set off that EMP.”
So, now they would expect him to do just that.
Holy hell.
The door they’d entered through suddenly slid open. One of the burly escorts stepped through and spoke in Russian to Rabinovich. His words were too fast for Dax to catch all of them. The few words he did get were…prisoner, woman and what should he do.
Rabinovich turned to Yamaguchi. “My men captured a woman looking around the exterior entrance and brought her into the compound.”
Red stained Yamaguchi’s stoic face, and her eyes flashed. Instead of yelling at the Russians, she folded her hands together. “Bring her to me.”
Galeotti threw up a hand. “You cannot allow her inside the command center. She will see what we have done.”
The only emotion the Japanese woman displayed was a slight tightening of her mouth. “It does not matter what she sees. She will never leave.”
Dax froze, his heart sinking to the pit of his belly as his two escorts appeared with a kicking, struggling person held between them. They were flanked by two more Russian guards.
“Let me go, you muscle-bound meatheads! I told you. I was looking for my fiancée, and he will be very angry at the way you’re treating me.”
“Let her go,” Yamaguchi said.
A quick command from Rabinovich and the two men released their hold.
The woman dropped to her knees and nearly crashed face-first on the ground. One of the Russians placed a hand on her shoulder, steadied her and then yanked the bag from her head. Dark hair tumbled down around her shoulders.
She looked up at Dax and glared. “Evan Maas, you rat bastard, are you cheating on me?”