Page 27 of Radar

Xander watched both Nutsbe and Titus stiffen as Adele passed into the room.

Tension always hid beneath the Panther Forces' professional demeanors when Adele showed up. While Xander didn’t know the details of the story—didn’t want to know the details—what he’d pulled from the wind was that Adele had been on a mission that sought to neutralize what the Mossad viewed as an existential threat.

The threat happened to be a Panther Force operator’s now wife. And she had been the victim, not the perpetrator.

Once again, Xander heard the drum beat of perils when falling in love while working in a career like his.

Just don’t do it.

“We’ll give you the room,” Titus said, gathering his file. “Your escort is standing outside the door, for your convenience.” Titus and Nutsbe, along with Beowolf and Covington, left the room.

When various alphabets came together for exchanges that required plausible deniability, Iniquus often allowed the meetings to take place on neutral ground. Today, they were in the war room because it was effectively a SCIF. They had not just privacy here but security as well.

White and Adele moved to find seats around the table with Finley, Xander, and Radar. Hiro sat to Xander’s right.

Xander had known Suko Hiro from Afghanistan, where his call sign was Super Hero, and he’d lived up to his name. After losing the toes of his left foot to an IED, he’d moved over to use his brain in logistics since his body was no longer able to keep up in the field. It was a good day when Xander realized that most of the AWG alumni would be under Hiro’s command.

“White, I haven’t seen you in a while.” Xander was rubbing Radar’s ears as Radar assessed the newcomers. “I heard your teammate, Red, was in a car accident in Morocco. How’s she doing?”

“She’ll never be in the field again,” White said, her face purposefully wiped of emotion. “She’s okay with that. She’s had enough.”

“Of course,” Xander said.

“She has another surgery coming up. Did I hear correctly?” Hiro asked.

“Yes, tomorrow morning, actually. We’re hoping it reduces Red’s pain levels. She’s in pretty good spirits, taking things day by day.” White turned her focus on Xander. “That accident has a distant connection to you.”

“Yeah?” Xander paused his Radar scritches.

“On the day of the accident, Red was traveling with a Delta Force operator, Nomad, who was a new guy on the same Delta Force Echo team I brought to Kyrgyzstan to find and extract Scott, Tink, and Peter.”

“Small world. Nomad. You used his name,” Xander pointed out. “Does that mean he’s left Delta?”

“He took medical leave to stick with Red and help her through. He’s mostly healed from the accident. He gets migraines when there’s bright light in his left eye. He can mitigate it by wearing a patch when he’s out in the sun. But that’s not compatible with Delta Force field requirements. I will tell you, he was heroic on the scene. If you’re going to be in a car accident in the middle of nowhere Morocco, it’s best to have special forces sitting by your side.”

Xander said quietly. “Please let Red know that we stand in friendship if she needs anything at any point along the way.”

“That’s very nice of you. Thanks. I’ll pass that on. Yeah, it’s weird not having Red on the team. An adjustment.” There was something hard and sharp in White’s eye when she said that.

And Xander wasn’t the only one to notice.

Everyone in the room knew that look; someone had stepped out of bounds to hurt one of White’s team, and that person wasn’t going to be allowed to go quietly into the night. White meant to extract her pound of flesh.

Xander silently wished her the opportunity to see that through.

But first, they had to stop the Zorics’ retribution against the world.

“So now that we’ve settled into our seats and caught up a bit on the big news happening with our cases, the dog at my feet is Radar. He was trained by Cerberus to be my Digger as I continue to search for the machine.”

Heads nodded.

“Let me tell you why I’m in town,” Xander continued. “Anna Senko sent me to talk to Bill York,” Xander said. “York has been tracking a guy named Orest Kalinsky.”

“I know of an Orest Kalinsky, best buddies and cousins with Papa Bear Medved’ himself,” Adele said.

“What’s his involvement?” Hiro asked her.

“He’s rich. He uses his money and his fundraising skills for a foundation that supports cutting-edge science around the world,” Adele said.

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