Page 45 of Radar (Iniquus Certified Cerberus Tactical K9 #2)

Xander

Monday

Paris, France

“You ready?” Xander asked, bringing his pack into the room.

They both turned as Xander’s phone rang.

“Hiro, I’m putting you on speaker. I’m here with Elyssa. We’re in a private space.”

“The electrical outage is spreading into France.”

“Do you have a local safe house for us, or should we follow the earlier plan to get to Portsmouth?”

“Let’s see if you can get to the ferry before the lights go out,” Hiro said.

“Question, why Morocco, Greenland, most of England, Portugal, Spain, and now France, and not the rest of Europe? I’ll answer that.

If it were me, I’d want to see what happened.

What safety measures were in place? How do people respond?

Why would the Zorics take it in stages? I’m working under the theory that this is stage one, and it escalates from here. ”

“Agreed,” Xander said. “They had to be careful about how they spread the attack. They couldn’t be too close to Russia, so it couldn't include Poland. And not Germany because of U.S. installations and their military and weaponry,” Xander said.

“No need to put NATO on high alert. Just enough to test the theory. Nothing that would cause a societal meltdown. It’s the same reason they chose Newark. ”

“Go on with that thought,” Hiro said.

“Newark is close, they could budge over a bit and hit Manhattan. 9-11 is still a fresh trauma in many New Yorkers’ minds.” Xander was looking at Elyssa when he asked, “What would happen if New York’s towers went dark like Newark’s did?”

“Panic,” Elyssa said. “Terror.”

“Terror. Bingo,” Hiro said. “It would be investigated as a terror attack, and the Zorics don’t want the scrutiny.

I checked my Aurora Hunter app, and there has been high activity on the sun.

There was an alert suggesting that it could mess with our systems. The same alert that went out when Newark had their event. ”

“What if the call that Orest told Elyssa that he got—the one that he said was about a family emergency and he needed to get to Singapore—what if that was the family saying, ‘We have the cover of a good sun storm. We’re a go.’?” Xander asked.

“Checking your theory with data.” There was a pause on Hiro’s side, then “Elyssa, when did Orest say that he had to go to Singapore?”

“Let’s see. We landed in D.C. I was packing for Alaska when he called and said I needed to go with him to Singapore after the start of the race.

He didn’t tell me a date. But I reminded him I had to fly home Wednesday at the latest to be in the wedding.

When I suggested flying to Singapore on Monday, he seemed upset.

More upset than I remember him being in the past, and he left to get a glass of water.

I still thought he was going to be in Alaska to see the race leave Fairbanks.

But the same day I got to Lumberjack, I realized I couldn’t handle the cold, and I made arrangements to go home.

Again, Orest asked me to accompany him to Singapore, where a crisis was unfolding.

He told me he had changed his plans and was leaving in the morning.

But so much has happened so fast across so many time zones that I can’t tell up from down. ”

“Friday, you flew to Fairbanks,” Xander said. “Saturday, you were in Lumberjack, and we met. Sunday, Orest flew to Singapore, and we flew to D.C.”

“What day is it today? Monday?” Elyssa asked. “Yes. I was supposed to still be in Lumberjack today, all day Tuesday, and fly out Wednesday. Wedding stuff Thursday. Get back on the plane next Monday—Monday a week from now—and fly to Singapore.”

“I was going through the information we pulled from Orest’s phone. He doesn’t use it for the most part. A text on Saturday morning,” Hiro said. “It was a sun emoji, and it said see you Sunday-Tuesday.”

“That’s the cover story, the sun spots are creating havoc,” Xander said. “That’s pretty weak sauce. Is it working?”

“Europe is throwing it out there as the cause,” Hiro said with a mouthful of something. “We think it’s to keep everyone calm. But, yeah, it seems to be working. It’s a good cover for the governments to offer the citizens an acceptable explanation. It’s also good cover for the Zorics.”

“But sunspots could be the cause, right?” Elyssa asked.

Neither Xander nor Hiro answered her.

After a pregnant pause, Hiro said, “Here’s a question for you, Elyssa. Was Eddie planning on going by his lab during your layover in D.C.?”

“No,” Elyssa said. “We were heading into the weekend. Because he’d been gone all week, he didn’t have anything running that needed his attention. He was going to go in after he got back from Alaska.”

“Fairbanks FBI went by Paca’s lab,” Hiro said, “and it was empty. All his files, computer, and equipment are gone. Empty. Knowing this, Finley’s team went over to check on Eddie’s lab, and it had a huge bar bolted across the door and a "Do Not Cross" sign. Some information about contamination is available, along with a contact number that can be reached on Monday for further details. Upon further inspection, Finley’s team discovered that the lab was also emptied. All of it. Everything. Same with the cheese lab in Seattle.”

“They stole their labs?” Elyssa asked. “What did they think they would just set them up on their island and keep going? With the food research, it makes a little sense. But the squirrels? I mean, what the heck?”

“We’re trying to figure it out, too,” Hiro said. “What do you know about Paca’s work? What did he say when you were there?”

“I know he’s going to work for NASA to see if they can help the astronauts snooze through most of the trip. Do you think Orest thought that might be a good idea for his family?”

“White thinks Orest would find that an intriguing idea,” Hiro said. “Orest is a brilliant man. Evil, yes. Crazy, yes. But brilliant. He can hire the right scientists to fix the problems that he foresees.”

Elyssa said, “Here’s an interesting thing Paca told us: When the squirrels wake up each year after their hibernation, they have to go through adolescence again, which sounds horrific.

And each year during hibernation, they develop a kind of amnesia.

They recognize their family and close friends, but they don’t remember much more.

Hibernation amnesia, in my mind, makes trying to hibernate astronauts headed to Mars a terrible idea. ”

“How far did Paca get with the astronaut hibernation, Elyssa? Did he say?” Xander asked.

“He had the designs and the science ready. He had done some work with large animal studies. Orest released Paca from his contracts to allow NASA to bring Paca in to get that going with human studies. But if Paca is like me, he would have been submitting his work to Orest all along. And Orest built my prototype without my knowing that he was doing it. He might well already have Paca’s prototype built, too.

” Elyssa sank to the floor and reached her arms out for Radar. “Holy crap, he is batshit crazy.”

“Agreed,” Xander said. “Hiro, I’m changing the subject. You’re seeing the news feeds from the affected areas. Are people panicking?

“Hardly,” Hiro said. “It’s like a national holiday. Everyone’s out, looking like they’re having a great time. Spontaneous street dancing.”

“Okay, if you have nothing else, I’m going to end the call. Elyssa and I need to get over to the boat and head for Le Havre. What’s the reason for a boat?”

“No CCV. We don’t want anyone tracking Elyssa.”