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She turned on the speaker.
“A moment, sir,” Nicholas said. “You were monitoring us and we went dead?”
“Completely. Satellite went down, all the comms went offline. This happened before the shooting, mind.”
“That makes no sense. Our team comms have been working fine the whole time.”
“Gray doesn’t have an explanation. All I know is I haven’t been able to reach you until now, which means the satellites are up again.”
Nicholas said, “Someone must have used a jamming device. Someone intentionally blocked us from your view. And who could that be other than Kitsune’s clients, who want her dead, and apparently want us dead, too?”
Both Nicholas and Mike heard Zachery draw a deep breath. Mike looked up when Louisa came running into the waiting room, Adam right behind her. She held up a hand, mouthed, “Zachery.”
Zachery said, “Do I believe you, Drummond? Or did you personally go offline to black us out?”
“No, sir. I would never do that.”
Mike said, “Sir, we did not black you out. Nicholas told you we were ambushed. As you know, the Carabinieri was supposed to watch our backs, be on-site in the square, but they weren’t. We’re checking into it.”
Nicholas said, “Which means we’ve got a very powerful enemy. They took you offline, removed our backup, and tried to take us out. This isn’t good, sir. The only people who knew we were coming were Carabinieri and Kitsune. And she didn’t engineer this.”
Louisa said, “When the Carabinieri finally showed up, it was over. They didn’t want to let Nicholas go.”
Zachery said, “I’ll make some calls. You won’t be detained or hassled again.”
Ben came on. “Will Lia be all right?”
Mike said firmly, “She will be fine, Ben, but I won’t lie to you. It was close.”
Zachery said, “I’m calling her dad. He’ll want to come over to be with her. Keep me posted on her condition. Look, guys, you’re always telling me Adam Pearce could call the moon if only there were someone there to pick up the phone. I don’t care if another satellite goes down, you stay in communication with me.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1989: Hurricane Hugo made landfall in South Carolina. The 162 mph winds caused 61 fatalities and resulted in $10 billion in damages.
The Bermuda Triangle
Jason opened his notebook to an empty page and began his daily journal entry, a family tradition he valued. It was his hope that in the future, someone would read his journals, perh
aps even understand what he had created and why.
He recorded the events of the day, closed the fine leather cover, and stared at the North Star satellite system. He was tired, he admitted it.
A subtle beep.
Jason opened his eyes—he’d just been resting them for a minute—not really been napping.
His longtime assistant said, “The twins are on the line, sir.”
“Put them on the screen, Burnley.”
Two identical faces stared out at him.
Cassandra said, “Hello, Grandfather.”
Ajax said, “Sir.”
“Yes? What did you find?”
