Page 74 of Radar

Hiro:She runs her own lab. It’s funded by the Carpathian Foundation for Scientific Advancement. Orest Kalinsky’s foundation.

Shit.

Xander knew from Anna that Orest had been gathering science for William Davidson to use as he developed survival systems on Davidson Realm. And in Bratislava, Anna had specifically mentioned an interior vertical farm in the volcanic chimney.

Had Elyssa been working on that part of the Zoric escape plan the whole time? Was the foundation using the Spoon Full of Hope initiative to maintain international goodwill and encourage other bright and promising up-and-comers to sign up to pursue science? And would they know—did Elyssa know—that their science would lead to death and destruction for others while providing thriving-survival for a select few?

If they did know, it would take a certain level of duplicity that Xander could not put together with the evening he had last night with Eddie and Pacca. The ready smiles, the good-natured teasing.

Radar was the key.

Xander could be duped like every human being. Though he prided himself on being in the kinds of danger for enough years, with a wide variety of cultures, where language barriers meant he watched for the tiniest nuances that would lead to a better-than-average ability to read a person.

But still, Xander was fallible.

Radar, that was a different story. You can’t fool a dog as smart as Radar. He could smell a bad guy a mile away. He’d had his eyes on that guy Elyssa had named Gaston. And that morning, when he saw the man get off the snowmobile, Radarwas primed for the fight, standing on the desk and rumbling his chest as he looked out the window. Before there was any real sign that Elyssa was endangered, Radar had thrown his body against the door trying to get to her.

Radar had been hyper-vigilant and hyper-protective of Elyssa from the get-go.

She wasn’t the bad guy here. Xander truly believed that.

He thought back to White’s admonishment that he sleep, which hadn’t happened. But White was right, Xander needed a clear mind. And this flight was going to be his chance to get some shut-eye for whatever came next.

With the arm up between their seats, Radar was curled up, his head resting in Xander’s lap.

Xander put a protective hand over his best friend’s head, closed his eyes, and passed out.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Xander

Sunday

Washington, D.C.

A buzz in his jacket pocket woke Xander. He lifted his head and wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, feeling how even that minor shift tugged at his knotted muscles. He hated to admit it to himself, but as he edged closer to forty, as he'd been warned by his fellow travelers down the military path, the hits felt harder and the recovery trail was longer.

It was difficult to admit that he didn’t have the same body as when he’d joined up. But, too, Xander reminded himself, he didn’t have the same mind either.

He’d learned valuable lessons.

He made fewer mistakes.

He developed a keen intuition from his days of walking around primed and ready.

Take Bratislava, Xander had felt danger riding the wind well before he was jumped.

And at the same time, he’d inexplicably labeled that sensation “Anna.”

Itwasn’tinexplicable. He’d been betrayed a time or two.

Xander glanced down at Radar, who had shoved himself between the seats on the floor, belly up, paws tucked toward his chest, T-Rex-style, zonked out by the low rubble of the plane.

Xander reached into his pocket to pull out his phone and check the text message that had woken him. It was Hiro.

Hiro –If we had theairline deplane you and Elyssa first, how complicated would that be given your seating?

Xander –We need to be first off or last off.

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