Page 12 of The Lazarus Protocol

Two days later he’d had a heart attack in the hot tub at his house.

One of the international regulators had been signing off on all the transactions.

This wasn’t just one company, or a few people trying to get into the space race or expand communications assets. This was a plan being put into action.

Just not according to her boss.

Sure, each one of the orbital slots had been purchased by a different company, or a subsidiary of some company, and it was all perfectly legal. But if it was what Kathryn suspected the pattern might indicate, then someone was seizing control of huge portions of satellite space for their own use, which was a kind of monopoly that could spell a serious problem if no one looked into it. Someone could at least ask the company—companies—what they had planned.

The dash lights on her car flickered.

“Whoa.” Her speed started to dip, but Kathryn hadn’t moved her foot from the accelerator. She lifted it now, pushing down to pick her speed back up. But she continued to decelerate.

A car buzzed around her, honking his horn.

“I’m trying.” She gripped the wheel and tried to encourage the car to pick up speed again. In a few seconds she managed to get back to the same speed as the flow of traffic around her. But the car kept accelerating. She moved her foot to the brake, pushing down. No response. “What on earth?”

As the car continued to speed up, Kathryn changed lanes to avoid slamming into another vehicle in front of her. She had to use the shoulder to avoid a collision. The car still sped up. She tried to engage the emergency brake, but nothing happened.

“Call 911!”

Instead of the onboard system acknowledging her, the volume on her stereo increased until the level was deafening. Kathyrn whimpered, twisting the dial to no effect while Tricia screamed in her ears. A song started, the music even louder now. Turning it down did nothing.

Kathryn pumped the brake. “Call 911!”

Nothing.

The car careened around a corner, nearly sideswiping another vehicle, and all she could do was hold on. It was supposed to have all these built-in safety features. Was she doing it wrong, or could the system just not hear her over the deafening music?

She reached over and dug in her purse, still holding the wheel with her other hand.

It turned of its own accord. What on earth?

Finally, Kathryn got her fingers around her phone. She shifted back to sit straight, and the car swerved. The phone fell out of her hand and landed in the footwell.

Kathryn looked at it, crying out, “No!”

She needed help.

She needed⁠—

The car bumped off the road, swerving to the side, and slammed into a tree.

FIVE

Argentina

Ice watched the helicopter swing around, rapid-firing at the east side of the building where Adam and Dan had entered. The loud boom of shots echoed across the valley and split the sky with the smoke of violence.

In his ear he heard, “Any indication who they are?”

He shook his head at Marina’s question, mostly because she couldn’t see his face. “It’s not like they have Evil Incorporated stenciled on the side.”

She chuckled over the comms channel, sounding relaxed while the ever-present tension in him hardened like concrete.

“Maybe I’ll go ask.” He figured no one cared if entry showed up on the security system now, so he simply bypassed it since the guards were likely more preoccupied with the chopper firing at the building.

Ice ran down the hill toward the building, sprinting for cover. Not that being up against the white exterior wall would protect him if they came this way. He raced to the corner and spotted the chopper as it set down.