Page 6 of Radar (Iniquus Certified Cerberus Tactical K9 #2)

“That’s the guy, and that’s the story. It’s neither how it happened nor where it happened.

And that really doesn’t matter to 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, is pissed .

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.

“Off the west coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean.”

The location didn’t surprise Xander. Until the team found a way to disable the Zoric core, world safety was at risk.

To the extent possible, those working on the problem monitored every Zoric Family member with a connection to The Project.

And to that point, Xander had seen an odd uptick in Zoric movements.

“There have been an awful lot of Zorics flying to Singapore in the last week.”

“There have,” Anna agreed. “They’re trying to get to Singapore nonchalantly so that when the Doomsday Clock strikes midnight, the group of two hundred fifty invited family members and friends, along with a sufficient number of, say fifty, servants, will take boats to the island.

Even though it’s a trickle, not a stream, it is apparent that a Zoric migration is occurring,” Anna said.

“Shall I tell you about the island where they’ll eventually be landing? ”

Xander looked up as the bartender came back with a ski jacket that had seen better days.

The bartender spoke to Anna.

“He says he thinks this might fit you,” Anna translated. “There’s also a woman’s wool poncho in pink and purple that looks bigger and warmer.”

“ V?aka! Thanks.” Xander reached out. “This will do nicely. I appreciate the effort.”

The tone of his voice seemed enough for the bartender because he gave a slight bow and left to go to the other side of the room without Anna’s translation.

Xander refocused on Anna. “The island?”

“First, you already know that Karl’s dad is William Davidson, and William Davidson is not a good guy.

He walks a tightrope between legal and not.

Like the Zorics, he’s highly protective of his family.

Like the Zorics, he has no trouble working with terrorist organizations.

And because of that, Daddy Davidson knows some of the things in the pipeline and is afraid for his family.

Speaking of family,” Anna popped her brows, “want to hear an interesting tie-in?” Without waiting for Xander to respond, she said, “Strike Force’s Gator Rochambeau just married the Davidson daughter, Christen. ”

“Dirty DNA?” Xander asked.

“As much as mine is,” Anna said softly. “She’s a Night Stalker, so perhaps she’s doing family penance like me.”

Night Stalkers were the best pilots in the world.

It was their task to move American special forces into and out of the gnarliest operations.

Xander’s life had been on the line a time or two when a Night Stalker flew through hell to get to his team.

He had nothing but respect and appreciation for them.

“Anyway,” Anna continued, “Daddy Davidson is afraid that the world is coming to an end. In the papers, we can read about how multimillionaires are buying places to survive a zombie apocalypse in New Zealand. Daddy Davidson took it further. He bought an island all for himself. He named it Davidson Realm because he’s a narcissist.” She reached up and scratched the side of her neck as she sighed her disdain.

“The island is perfect as a sanctuary. It’s close enough to different civilizations, so they could get back to a mainland if necessary.

It’s also far enough away from anything, so displaced survivors aren’t likely to wash up on the shore.

There’s an ancient volcanic chimney on the island.

In the chimney, Davidson built his family’s survival bunker. And by family, it’s large enough for—”

“About two hundred and fifty friends and family plus servants.” Xander was getting the picture.

“Think cruise ship conditions for the family and fifty servants in bunk rooms. Johnna White, with the CIA Color Code, got on the island a couple of years ago and had a gander at it. And even at that point in its development, it freaked her out just a little bit.”

“I have a meeting with White when I’m in D.C.

, so I can ask her about it. But on the surface, that kind of Davidson project comes off as eccentric, right?

” Xander asked, but he knew where this conversation was going.

“It’s the kind of thing a billionaire like Davidson might do to flex for his friends. ”

“I think this goes beyond eccentric. Above the bunker is—hang on. Look at this.” Anna pulled her phone from her pocket and queued up a photo. “This is a satellite photo of the island with its ginormous volcanic chimney before it became Davidson Realm. That’s the hole there.” She tapped the image.

Xander took the phone and looked at a satellite image of an island that stood high above the ocean.

The cliff sides would be formidable for anyone trying to breach the area.

On one end, the island was level. On the other, a skyscraper-sized hole was flush to the surface of the topography but was so deep that, even looking down from the satellite’s bird’s eye view, Xander couldn’t see the bottom.

“Who did Davidson buy it from?” Xander asked, handing the phone back.

Anna swiped the screen to queue up the next photo. “It was in disputed territory. So, Davidson solved the conflict by paying each of the countries’ governments an unknown sum.” Anna extended the phone back to him. “And now look at this.”

In this photo, Xander saw an island with the same footprint as the last photo, but now, the entire surface was flat.

There was an enormous mansion, along with what appeared to be a golf course, a beach, a dock, and a helipad, but no volcanic chimney.

“The bunker is under the mansion?” Xander asked, handing the phone back.

“Right. So, underneath, there’s everything that three hundred people would need to survive without coming up for a breath of naturally occurring air.”

“Clothing. Food. Medicines.”

“It goes beyond that.” Anna ticked off on her fingers, “Air cleaning machines, desalination, water purification, sewage pipes that go out to the ocean. Power generators that get energy from wind and tides. Food storage that will support three hundred people for fifteen years.”

“Fifteen.” Xander let out a soft whistle. “You didn’t say solar energy. That seems significant.”

“It is if you think that debris in the air could block out the sun à la the extinction of the dinosaurs,” Anna agreed.

“Since Davidson had the bunker prepped for fifteen years, I’m assuming he calculated the time to repair the ozone layer after a nuclear holocaust. And interestingly, Orest Kalinsky is the one who made it all possible.

As a matter of fact, he’s even been developing a vertical interior farm inside the chimney. ”

“This is the Orest Kalinsky guy that Bill York is shadowing?” Xander drew his thumb along his chin. “What’s Orest’s role in the Zoric family?”

“To be rich,” Anna said. “He’s the jovial uncle, much beloved.

But he is as invested in the return of the USSR to world power as anyone else in the family.

The Zorics need science to make their schemes work.

As you know, their schemes rely on very advanced science applications.

The Zoric murder weapon was kept from public scrutiny, for example.

That scheme came out of their study of neurotoxins. ”

“Orest isn’t doing the research. He’s funding it?”

“Yes indeed. As the USSR started to break apart, Orest moved to Paris, where he set up a legitimate and internationally acclaimed foundation that funds young, cutting-edge scientists called the Carpathian Foundation for Scientific Advancement. To answer your question: ‘What is Orest’s role in the Zoric family?’ It’s Orest’s job to find the right scientists to advance The Family projects and to own the intellectual property so that they decide what enters the public sphere and what they personally hold onto.

About a decade ago, when Orest discovered that William Davidson owned an island, Orest showed up with science in hand and a strong argument for using the island as a lab to test his young scientists' theories as a global good but also to ensure the Davidson family’s survival should the world catch fire. ”

“You mentioned energy systems and desalination, along with interior farming. That was all Orest’s doing?”

“The science was developed under the Carpathian Foundation for Scientific Advancement umbrella, yes. But Daddy Davidson installed it on his own dime. The island with all of its updates was handed over to Medved’ Zoric with a big red bow, along with a ‘Please don’t kill me and my family’ after his son Karl attacked the yacht full of Russian elite, many of whom were close friends with Medved’.