He picked up a rock and threw it into the lake. “The beginning was a letter I received several years ago from a college student attending classes at Cairo University. His name was Karim Raschid, and it took almost three months to get to me because my secretary thought it just another request for a donation and was just going to send it to the appropriate office for consideration. But Vogel ran across it because the student had also sent a copy to my head engineer in the drone laboratory in California.” He smiled. “Karim was nothing if not determined. He’d decided I had what he needed, and he wasn’t going to give up until he got it. Rather like you, Alisa.”

“What did he want from you?” She snapped her fingers. “Drone lab. He wanted a drone?”

“Not just one drone. He wanted an entire fleet. Karim was a graduate engineering student and he’d been searching for an answer to his problem since he was a boy. He was from Noura, a small country on the west coast of Africa. It was very poor, and the only source of wealth were wonderful forests rich in timber that the villagers could harvest to make their living. Karim loved his country, and the people, and all the traditions that made it his home.”

“Past tense?” Her gaze was searching his face. “What happened?”

“Marcus Reardon. A lumber baron who made deals with half the countries on the west coast for lumber rights to their forests. He decimated Noura’s forests in a little more than fifteen years and then moved on to devour the next country on his list. No replanting, no fire protection. He followed almost a scorched-earth policy in Noura after he pulled his crews out of the country. The villagers were left without any hope of making a living and preserving their way of life.” He threw another stone into the lake. “But they didn’t count on Karim. He’d studied, and he’d found a way to take it all back from Reardon. He heard about California and their terrible fires that wiped out acres and acres of forests.” He paused. “And somehow he heard about me and the drones I donated to the state to bring those forests back to life.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how because I’m careful to keep the donations anonymous. There are always factions who think that it’s just a tax write-off or publicity gimmick. Either way, I don’t like to deal with it. But Karim did his homework, and then sent those letters asking me for the drones.”

She frowned, puzzled. “To do what exactly? I told you, I don’t have any idea what you did in those drone labs.”