Page 52 of Radar

“And when you graduated from high school, what did you do with your brains and brawn?” Elyssa asked.

“I became an analyst.” Shit, he hated not giving her a more honest answer. Not telling her the whole truth physically hurt. Now, wasn’t that a revelation?

Xander reminded himself that, in this situation, Elyssa was a siren, drawing his attention away when he needed to focus on the rocks around him.

Though thinking of Paca as dangerous was hard for Xander to do with any level of seriousness.

Still, Xander’s job wasn’t to flirt with an amazing woman.

He was here to thwart Orest Kalinsky, and that meant figuring out why Orest was interested in Paca and his squirrels.

“So, how do you find yourselves in the wilds of Alaska?” Xander looked directly at Paca.

“Me? Oh, I live here. Well, in Fairbanks. I come out to Lumberjack every year to play with sled dogs.”

“What kind of work is there in Fairbanks?” Xander asked.

“I’m the only one of us from Alaska,” he said. “But we’re all scientists. Eddie is in meat.”

“Meat?” Well, Kalinsky did have a thing for food. Was that a link? Was Eddie another Carpathian scientist? “Like ranching?” Xander asked.

“No.” Eddie shook his head. “No. I produce it in a lab.”

“Lab-grown meat?” Xander made a face.

Eddie turned to Paca. “See? Every single time. I’m trying to save the environment. But when I say how I’m doing it, it sounds like I want to make soup out of their old running shoes.”

“That’s not how you should tell someone what you do,” Elyssa scolded.

Eddie tipped his head. “Then how would you do it?”

Elyssa turned to Xander. “Eddie is a NASA scientist.”

“Bovine in outer space?” Xander grinned. “Gives a whole new meaning to ‘the cow jumped over the moon.’”

Elyssa was laughing.

“NASA has a goal of sending humans to Mars by 2050. Eating solely freeze-dried foods for years on end would be difficult psychologically. They thought,” Eddie nodded toward Elyssa, “a fresh salad once a week or so, or some fresh chicken or fish.”

“I see,” Xander said. If Eddie worked for NASA, he wasn’t a Kalinsky fellow. Turning to Squirrel-guy, he asked, “You work for NASA, too?”

“Not until next month.”

“And your specialty is?” Xander asked.Come on, Paca, tell me what you know about Kalinsky’s goals.

“Uhm. Squirrels,” he said.

“Squirrels,” Xander repeated slowly. “For … for food?”

“Oh no.” Paca laughed. “Not for food. You’d starve.”

Okay, this was moving too slow, and his getting mini chunks of information would start to sound intrusive. Xander was going to push. “I thought the only squirrels around here are arctic squirrels, known for going into—Wait. Does NASA think they can put the astronauts into hibernation so they can sleep through most of the flight?” He opened his eyes wide, and with his lips held tightly together, he dropped his jaw as he nodded.“Genius if it works. No food. Less air. Less shit.” He turned to Elyssa. “Excuse me.”

“Don’t excuse yourself to me,” Elyssa said. “That’s a biological consideration the teams need to think through.”

“She shits, too,” Eddie said.

“Thank you, Eddie. While true, perhaps not a topic for conversation with our new friend.”