Page 88 of Radar

Elyssa flicked her gaze in the direction of the door, and for a split second, she considered walking out. But someone had tried to kidnap her, and if for no other reason than self-preservation, she needed to know why. And maybe they had that information.

“White, can you explain Elyssa’s family tree, so she is very sure of the facts?” Xander asked.

White put some pages in front of Elyssa and walked her through the genealogical information from Orest’s family tree, then hers. She finished with the conclusion that Elyssa and Orest weren’t related at all, and Orest had been lying to her the whole time.

“Not my uncle. But a terrorist?” Elyssa went numb.

“One of the worst people in the world,” White’s matter-of-fact tone was helpful. “And he’s planning very bad things.”

Elyssa dropped her hands between her knees and rubbed them together as if to generate heat. “Food things?”

“The food studies you were conducting and the systems that you designed were created specifically to keep Orest’s family alive through a nuclear winter if one should occur,” White said. “He and his family do not traffic in nuclear weapons. Buttheybelieve that there is a distinct possibility that the act of terror they’re planning might result in worldwide dire consequences. If they are successful with their plan, there’s a potential that a nuclear war would ensue. We need to stop him. And we specifically need your help to do that.”

“Me.” She put her finger on the genealogical page with her name. “Belov.” Her eyes widened, and she fixed on Xander. “Are we cousins?”

“No. You and Xander are not in any way related,” White said without hesitation.

Now that that was out of the way, the FBI guy next to White seemed to have the conversation baton handed to him.

“I’m Finley.” He pointed to his card. “And as you know, I’m with the FBI.”

She flicked her eyes toward Xander. “The FBI because the man tried to get me on his snowmobile this morning?”

“Elyssa,” Finley said, “you escaped that event, but Eddie and Claude Burns—the man you call Paca—did not. They were kidnapped. We believe that it might have something to do with Orest going to Singapore.”

Those were words sitting on the table. They didn’t seem to want to go into Elyssa’s mind. “But he left this morning.” She flailed to make sense of this.

“And left you and his other two invitees in an Alaskan forest?” White asked.

“He had a family emergency. I switched my plane to leave Alaska early because I wasn’t able to handle the freezing temperatures.”

“How are you right now?” Xander asked. “Is there anything I can get you to make you more comfortable?”

“I’m okay. It’s just a lot to take in. I introduced Eddie to Orest. Someone kidnapped Eddie? Dear god.” She shook her head in bewilderment. “I didn’t know Paca. Orest never spoke of Paca’s work, just about his sled team in Alaska. You asked if Orest simply left us there. No, we had a plan. Orest would leave very early in the morning.”

“Why didn’t you go in the same car?” White asked.

“Because his flight was very early this morning, “Elyssa repeated. “He had to leave the cabins just after four o’clock to make it, and he wanted to sleep in the car.”

White laid a paper in front of Elyssa, and she scanned over the copy of a plane ticket in Orest’s name, from Fairbanks to San Francisco. White put her finger on the departure time.

“That was an hour after I was supposed to leave.”

The room fell quiet, giving Elyssa time to process.

“He wanted to go without me. He left hours before he needed to.” Elyssa looked at Xander. “How does that make sense?”

“We have pieces to that puzzle that tell us that Orest Kalinsky arranged to have Eddie, Paca, and you kidnapped.” Finley let that information sit for a moment before continuing. “This morning, before your departure, Eddie and Paca were kidnapped from their rooms. Someone tried to break into your room as well.”

“Elyssa was in my room with me,” Xander said. “She left my room and was walking to the car when the assailant on the snowmobile was waiting on her path.”

“Did you recognize him?” Finley asked Elyssa.

“No. The attacker was wearing a helmet,” Elyssa whispered, her chest growing tighter. “The only thing I saw was that he was red-faced. He was angry.”

“Did you recognize him, Xander?” Finley asked.

“I didn’t wait around for that. I was following Elyssa to make sure she was safe.”

---