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“Did you see the news?” Dylan asked. “On the TV?”
Ivan shot him a blank look. “Do you see a TV in here?”
Dylan’s expression remained deadpan. “You do have the internet, though, right?”
“Alright, yeah. But no I didn’t see it.”
“Look, Ivan, there’s no easy way to say this… The Russians have got their hands on a piece of the blueprint for your device, and –”
“But we destroyed it! You were there for that. What the hell are you talking about?”
“I know. Look, the guy who told me about it… he said you’d been expecting some visitors in California, but they never showed up. He says they had some of the blueprint in their possession, but it was intercepted. He seems to think the Russians could use what they’ve got to start a war.”
Ivan stared into space. His voice came out a whisper. “Shit, he’s right. I can’t believe I forgot about that piece of blueprint.” His head whipped up. “You told the police?”
“No. I’ve got this detective on my back. You heard of Vladimir Orlov?”
“Sure…. Oh, Dylan, you’re not doing business with him, are you?”
“He approached me about a sponsorship deal between his soccer club and Grafton Techs. But unfortunately I screwed his wife, who turned out to be a double-agent and now she’s dead.”
Ivan shook his head in disbelief. “You’ve always gotta have more fun than me, don’tcha?”
“Ivan, this is serious…”
Joseph intercepted. “Do mom and dad know you’re alive?”
Ivan scratched his chin, making his beard rustle on his fingernails. “No. And neither does our sister. You can’t tell anyone.”
Joseph swallowed. “I think they’d like to know.”
“The more people we tell the more danger there is for everyone. I need to lie low, just for a while. Okay.”
Joseph nodded. “Right.”
“So what are we gonna do?” Dylan asked.
Ivan removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “About what?”
“About what? Ivan, I’ve got the goddamn KGB after me.”
Ivan raised an eyebrow. “Well, what do you think you should do? Did you come here expecting me to give you a fully-formed plan? I hardly speak to a soul these days. All I care about is Samira, but I’m stuck here, going slowly nuts.”
“Okay. Well, tell me what this pi
ece of blueprint looks like. I’ve got information that suggests it’s at Orlov’s house. Maybe I can get it back, but I’ll need to know what I’m looking for.”
“Yeah, and make sure you destroy it when you find it,” Ivan said. “You need to get this thing off the face of the planet and out of my hair.”
“Alright, so what does it look like?”
“It’s just a little square of flimsy plastic. Like an old floppy disk. But your friend’s right – a coding company could probably crack it if the Russians got it into the hands of an expert.”
“Like Grafton Techs? Their best engineer?”
“Yeah, they probably could.”
“Motherfucker. I bet he’s planning to buy my goddamn company from under my nose then use it to crack open that blueprint.”
