Page 84 of Radar

“Careful, brother,” Xander said. “I put up with it from White because she can kick my ass. But I won’t stand that from you. How do you know my family tree? Is that the typical way the DIA looks into its hires?”

“The DIA was involved in a case recently where the Prokhorov family tried to destroy Delta Force.”

Xander nodded. “I read the files.”

“One of the side players that isn’t in that file was a guy Raine Meyers was tracking at that time, a guy named Todor Bilov.”

“And I’m I related to that guy?”

“While you and Anna are from the same Bilov family, this guy was not. We had to look.”

“Because you used Anna’s family connections to infiltrate the Zoric family, you all thought I might have that kind of in?”

“You’re grateful we looked before. It made it easy to let you know you’re not sleeping with your cousin,” Hiro said. “Which is a good thing.”

Xander reached into his pack for his water bottle. His mouth was the Sahara. “The plane was a Secret Service goof-up. Elyssa doesn’t have evil running through her blood. She and I aren’t related,” Xander said, unscrewing the top. “Next?”

“Onward then,” Finley said. “I have information out of Fairbanks FBI and Foggy Bottom, and the two go hand in hand.” He passed a page toward Xander. “This is the entirety of the box and Dr. Tapper conversation from Orest’s phone call from his room in Lumberjack.”

Xander took a swig of water before pulling the paper over. “This doesn’t edify anything. It’s just two guys agreeing on boxes.” Xander slid the page back to Finley.

“The box conversation makes perfect sense in terms of the criminal events that followed,” Finley said. “It tells us that Orest Kalinsky was an architect in the kidnappings of Claude Burns, aka Paca, and Eddie Baylor, and the attempted kidnapping of Elyssa Kalinsky-Landers.”

Xander accepted the map that Finley pushed his way.

“When the Fairbanks FBI got to the lodge, they were able to follow the foot and drag tracks out to a set of snowmobile tracks. They were able to follow the snowmobile tracks and map them before the next snowfall covered them over. They moved through the wooded area toward the northwest, coming out of the tree line at a small airport.”

“There are airports all over Alaska,” Xander said. “In certain areas, that’s the only way to get around.”

“The airport manager said that a man named Dr. Tapper arrived with three large boxes. He stored them in the hangar. When he left on his scheduled flight, he took two of the boxes with him, and the third was left behind. The FBI examined the box, and it contained folded blankets, a stack of pillows, and adult diapers. There was ventilation wiring around the lip.”

Cold sweat slicked Xander’s skin.

“Orest had to at least like Elyssa a little bit,” White said. “She has tickets for a flight to Singapore on Monday.”

“Why not just fly with him today?” Xander asked.

“That’s not noted with the airline ticket counter,” White said.

“We can ask Elyssa when we speak to her in a second,” Hiro said. “I’m concerned about the line in the Lumberjack phone conversation when Orest said, ‘Sadly, we must add the extra box. I had hoped to avoid shipping. Make sure Tapper has the file. This last box is the most important. There are to be no mistakes.’ I am making the assumption that the last box was for Elyssa, indicating that Orest cared for her and took precautions for her added health concerns. And that, for some reason, Elyssa’s getting to Singapore on Tuesday wasn’t soon enough.”

“It may be a clue as to their timeline,” Finley said. “We’re looking at hours to a day or possibly two before the event.”

“Orest wasn’t inviting her there as family. He was inviting her as a farm hand. She knows how to make the food supplywork,” Xander growled. “But damned if you’re not right. This must be a clue about their time frame. Sometime before Tuesday. That’s fast.”

“He must like her enormously,” White said. “Otherwise, I would think he’d just have her killed straight out. And it would be the easiest thing in the world given her POTS if he’s carrying palytoxins.”

Xander stopped breathing. His voice came out just above a whisper. “Why would he want her dead before the attack? Did she see something? Does she know something?”

“We have photos of her around plants—trees, bushes, foliage—from York’s briefcase,” White said. “We can’t figure out their importance. AI doesn’t know what they mean.”

“They seem significant,” Hiro said. “We’ll ask Elyssa about them when we go in.”

“Finishing up with the information of the kidnapping of the two men,” Finley said. “There were a total of six men on the flight. The pilot, five men, two boxes. None of those five men flying as passengers matches the description of Eddie or Paca. The two cargo boxes were flown to Nome.” Finley moved his finger from one red dot on the map to another.

“Isn’t that the end of the Iditarod?” Xander stacked the genealogical pages and passed them back to White, then pulled the map closer.

“Not significant here. The two boxes were unloaded in Nome and placed on a different plane, which flew them to Wales’s airport. On this leg, it was only Dr. Tapper andthreeboxes. We have no idea what happened to the other four men. They got off the plane and left the Nome airport. And we have no idea why there was a third box or what that box looked like. There.” Finley pointed to a small dot on the far west and well north of Nome. “That’s Wales, Alaska. From there, the airplane refueled and then left again heading west.”

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