Page 91 of Radar

Elyssa

Sunday

Washington, D.C.

White made a call, and soon someone knocked on the door with a stretcher covered in pristine white sheets.

“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” Elyssa mumbled.

“No.” White smiled. “But it would be good if you lie down for a bit. And this is much more comfortable than the floor.”

White pointed to a place where the stretcher should be parked, then she walked to the door, effectively dismissing the first responder.

Xander got up from behind Elyssa and snapped his fingers to tell Radar to get off her lap.

Elyssa missed Radar’s weight as soon as it was gone.

White unbuckled the straps on the gurney and adjusted the headrest to a comfortable elevation, then stepped aside.

Elyssa expected Xander to hold out his hand, but instead, he did a kneeling squat and scooped her into his arms. It was the stupidest, most girly sensation in the world, but Elyssa really liked it. She liked how it made her feel precious and cared for. Maybe it harkened back to the time when loved ones cradled her in their arms when she was a baby. Who knew? But it was true that it was wonderful. And she was a little sad it was over when Xander gently laid her on the stretcher.

“Do you want Radar back on your legs?” Xander asked, handing her a drink, then moving a bag of chips within reach.

“I would, thank you.”

Xander lifted Radar into place, his hand on the tactical vest handle and another under his hind legs. Radar seemed used to it, lucky dog.

She should be mortified that that all happened in front of White when it seemed so intimate,feltso intimate. But Elyssa had zero energy to worry about such things right now.

Radar across her lap not only helped with Elyssa’s blood pressure, but it also made her feel less vulnerable.

Xander had moved over to the wall and sat on the floor with his legs crossed at the ankles.

White dimmed the lights, then she too came to sit on the floor next to Xander with her legs stretched out in front of her.

Elyssa could see them both without strain.

“If you felt up to it, Elyssa,” White’s voice matching the calm state of the room, “I thought maybe you could ramble.”

“Ramble.” Elyssa tried on the word.

“I bet you’ve had a lot of thoughts come up since we’ve forced a paradigm shift onto you. We’re grasping at straws as we figure out what’s happening, and I’m afraid that our time frame has moved up to before Tuesday.”

“Because Orest didn’t have time to wait for me to fly there on my own, he was going to kidnap me.” Elyssa paused. “But he bought my ticket. So that means he thought that if something were to happen, it would be later.”

“We agree with that,” White said. “So rambling, sometimes, in a stream of consciousness can allow your mind to offer up details that we wouldn’t know to ask you about. How about you just start talking, and let’s see where we go with that?”

“All right. I was thinking about other people’s names that I might have mentioned in front of Orest. And if maybe my conversations put people in danger. Maybe Uncle Orest invited them to Singapore, like he did me. I can imagine that people are leading their lives and can’t drop everything to go. I hadto turn down his invitation. Is he just out grocery shopping for scientists? I may need what’s in his brain? I may need what’s in hers? With Paca, perhaps Orest thought, he's interesting, I might as well put it in my cart while I’m getting some meat and cheese.”

“I don’t think that’s far off from the reasoning,” White said.

Elyssa looked up. “I don’t know what Orest wants. What is the goal of all this madness?”

“A return of the USSR,” White said.

“Wait. What?” Elyssa’s brows pulled tightly together.

“A return of the USSR, The Family has a grievance with the western world because their entire way of life was upended.” White turned as Finley and Hiro came back into the room.