“Ah, the past . . . the past. How I wish we could change it. Yes, I recognized him as brilliant, one of the sharpest young men I’ve ever known. I wanted him to work for me, creating lower cost nuclear energy for developing countries. We had a falling out. I didn’t like where he was going. He wasn’t interested in peaceful use of heavy metal. He was interested in weapons. But would he listen? No. Like so many young idealists, he wanted to go back to his home country and fight for independence.”

“And the technology that the Group is after?”

“What Sikari developed was based on the old Nazi copper-bracelet theory. But what he created was only partially successful. It wouldn’t operate as a super-generator the way he wanted . . . Look, I’m a businessman, Colonel Middleton. I make more money off the living than the dead. If something happens to the American secretary of state, it’s not just war in the Indian sub-continent we will need to worry about.”

Harold Middleton wasn’t sure he believed everything the Russian said, but it was true that if the secretary were assassinated the whole world would reel from the repercussions.

If this Archer Sikari were truly moving forward with his father’s plan, then the arrival of the secretary of state would be too irresistible to pass up. One of the goals the secretary had laid out not long after being sworn in was to ease the tensions between India and Pakistan with an emphasis on the troubled region of Kashmir. This was undoubtedly the reason she was traveling to the area.

Middleton said, “We’ve got to contact the State Department immediately.”

“Of course they’ve been notified. But they’re in agreement that the visit should go on. Security is going to be very high—both State Department and my company, BlueWatch. In any case, we have no knowledge that Archer even knows about the visit.”

“Why do you want me to go there?”

“It’s not just me.” The Russian handed Middleton a decoded communiqué from the State Department. He recognized the name of one of the deputy directors. It authorized Middleton and the Volunteers to locate Archer Sikari and coordinate with local authorities to arrest him. A final paragraph added that Tesla, Carson and Chang had been notified and had acknowledged receipt. That meant they were fine.

Middleton noticed the document didn’t say anything about Charley.

“I have to contact my daughter.”

“Encrypted emails only,” Chernayev said. “My compound is constantly scanned for cell and text signals.”

He wrote out a message for Charley. Chernayev gave it to a young man in a BlueWatch uniform. He hurried off to send it.

“Now, will you go to Kashmir?”

“Of course,” Middleton said.