Page 111 of Radar

“Subs,” Finley exhaled.

“Subs can communicate with satellites if they put up an antenna at periscope level,” Xander said. “We know from back when they attacked Strike Force at Iniquus that the Zorics had the capacity to interrupt satellite communications. And we knowthat they can do that for whole regions. We also know that the Zorics just launched a communications satellite under the Iranian flag, put in place by Russia. I checked back in Paris. That satellite will be over the same area affected by the electrical outage starting at zero hundred Zulu time. It could well be that the Zorics have the capacity to stun—for lack of a better word—the other areas' satellites to make it look like an EMP while leaving their own satellite unaffected and able to guide Russian subs out of the Baltic.”

“I’m following the reasoning,” Finley said. “That all lines up.”

Hiro was back in the picture. “I have a car coming to get me. They’re putting everyone on alert. Give me what you’ve got. I’m headed in to talk to the joint chiefs, we need to be in motion, and I need to take them everything available.”

“Bottom line, Xander, what do you see as the end goal?” White asked.

“Worst case in my imagination is that they sneak into the Atlantic undiscovered. There, they could position themselves off of D.C. or N.Y.C., where they could hold the United States hostage. Our administration would flinch. Of course they would. What choice would they have with millions of lives at risk?”

“We’ve had this dance before in Cuba,” Hiro said.

“The devastation of a nuclear bomb,” White said, “especially if multiple urban centers along the coast were targeted—not just D.C., what about Norfolk? What about Atlanta? Yes, our nation would be held hostage. I don’t know how it works from there. But surely, it could change the world order.”

“What if they weren’t negotiating?” Hiro asked. “What if they just pulled up, launched the missile at close range, the bomb went boom, and the United States was facing its Hiroshima? And like Japan, terrified of who else might pop upand not knowing who sent the bombs and what could come next, what if not just the U.S. but the entire world capitulated?”

***

After Victor left them off at a village wharf, renting a car wasn’t as complicated as Xander thought it would be. There was a mother who was willing to drive them to the chateau at Sainte-Mère-Église for a hundred euros. He didn’t know she was going to bring her baby in the car seat, but at that point, the decision had been made.

When they arrived, Elyssa went to talk to Colette, the concierge who managed the chateau, explaining that she’d beaten her uncle in and didn’t have the key to his apartment. Elyssa said she needed to retrieve a photograph from the turret room. Colette had no problems at all loaning her the master key until Orest arrived.

Xander made a quick dash through Orest's apartment with Radar conducting an electronics search, then they made their way to the side of the castle, entering through the back door and down the dark hall.

“The Gestapo were living here on D-Day. They have a swastika in the laundry room, and they have bullets in the walls where Americans came in to clear the leadership out of the area.” She slogged her way up the staircase. It wound and wound up four flights of stairs, which were narrow and dizzying, and Xander understood why she didn’t think Orest could get himself to the top.

Inside the rounded room painted periwinkle with white trim and a golden curtain at the enormous windows, Xander only took a moment to scan the room.

Beside the bed, six metal trunks were stacked in groups of three. So, more than Elyssa had seen go up.

“Radar, find electronics,” Xander commanded.

Radar walked over to the trunks and sat down.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Elyssa said.

There were no locks, and when Xander asked Radar to find explosives, he came up empty. So, Xander opened the first trunk, expecting the acrid smell of acid to fill the room, just as it had in the field in Newark.

It did not.

The trunks were filled with innocuous-looking components.

Xander did what his gut told him to do; he pulled out what he could grab and smashed them under his heel.

Elyssa joined in, but it was such an aerobic action that Xander didn’t want her to do it.

“Elyssa, it would be faster if you could pull pieces out and throw them on the ground.”

The first locker was completed, they hauled it to the side, then started the second.

When they got to the third, a car raced up the long gravel drive under the canopy of trees and screeched to a halt in front of the castle.

Xander was loath to leave his task. He looked around for a safe place for Elyssa to go. He knew that as soon as she heard those tires on the drive, her heart went into overdrive. She was not looking well, and Radar got up and booped her aggressively.

Then booped Xander for good measure.

Xander turned the enormous metal key in its old-fashioned lock.

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