Page 9 of Radar

Bratislava,Slovakia

Xander clasped his hands, then leaned his weight onto his forearms, bringing his face closer to Anna’s. “Spit it out.”

“You’re heading home to Washington?” she asked.

“In the morning.” Xander eased back, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why?”

“Two things.” She swiveled in her seat and reached into her coat pocket. “First, I have a message for Nutsbe Crushed in Panther Force.” She held out a greeting card envelope with a quirk of her brow. “Do you think you can pass it to him without losing it in a mugging?”

“Not at all funny.” Xander accepted the communication, looking down at the pink envelope. The Slovak accent marks that decorated the curly, old-fashioned script written with a purple glitter pen looked like confetti at a birthday party. “What does this say?”

“On the front? ‘For my precious granddaughter.’” Anna tapped it. “I brought it just in case you had time to do me a favor and take this by Iniquus. It sounds like you’re heading there, right? You said you’re picking up Radar at their Cerberus campus?”

“That’s right.” Xander turned the card over to find a sparkly cupcake sealing the seam.

Anna turned her phone over to check the time readout, then twisted toward the bartender, calling out to him.

The bartender focused hard on Xander, nodded, and then walked away.

Xander tipped his head toward the door the guy disappeared through.

“I told him that a homeless guy with a knife jumped you on the way here and took your coat. That was what all the shouting was about when I rushed out. Then I asked if some drunk left a jacket in the lost and found that you could use to get home. You can’t go out on a night like this without something warmer on.”

“Thanks, cuz.” Xander reached under his sweater, unbuttoned his shirt, and tucked the envelope away.

“If someone does get hold of it,” Anna reached back into her coat pocket and pulled out a lip balm, “I wrote the card as if for a child and then included a letter written in English. It embeds the information that needs to go to Nutsbe andonlyNutsbe; it reads like it’s news for the granddaughter’s mom. More importantly,” she glanced over her shoulder, ensuring they were still alone. “I need you to meet up with Bill York.” She mouthed, “C.I.A.” silently. “York can give you the particulars of his assignment so we can coordinate with your D.I.A. team. There’s no room for overlaps right now. York’s been tracking a man named Orest Kalinsky.”

“Orest Kalinsky,” Xander repeated to memorize it.

“They fly to D.C. tomorrow.”

“York and I were buds in Afghanistan. I have his contact information. This Orest Kalinsky guy, what’s he doing in Washington?” Xander asked.

“Walking around without having a Zoric last name, mostly.” She uncapped the tube and slicked the balm over her lips. “But he certainly is a Zoric. He’s Medved’s favorite cousin.”

“Orest is new to me,” Xander said.

Anna snapped the cap back in place and turned to slide the balm into her pocket. “He would be. His role is both intrinsic andsomewhat peripheral. I’ll tell you about it in a second. First, York believes Orest is going to visit the Zorics in their various prison cells to bring them up to date on the family happenings.”

“Happenings plural?” Xander asked.

“We’re not entirely sure what messages he means to pass because things are fluid right now, which I’ll also touch on in a minute—So much to tell. So little time—But importantly, Orest planned this trip months ago. We speculated that Orest was adding a day to his itinerary to do the prison visits and perhaps explain how The Family has been working the back channels to see if they can’t obtain pardons and releases since there’s a rash of millionaires being pardoned for no apparent reason right now.”

“Why not take advantage?” Xander deadpanned.

“Exactly.” Anna wrinkled her nose as if the whole thing stank.

Which it did.

“Their releases are improbable, right?” Xander asked quietly. “They’re going to stay out of the public sphere, tucked under a shoddy blanket on a prison shelf, right?”

“The Family has dangled carrots of possible rewards and raised their sticks for inflicting pain. That’s not in my wheelhouse, so I’m not the best person to ask. I wouldn’t say improbable, though. The D.A. only charged the East Coast Zoric family with trafficking minors.”

“Only?” Xander’s face clouded.

“The worst crimes weren’t charged because who wants pundits on the evening news telling the world about the method the Zorics developed to kill people with neurotoxins that are legal to obtain, easily accessible, imperceptible, and without any known medical interventions?”

Xander released a breath. Yeah, there was that.

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