Dueling Six Demons: A Dangerous Clique Novel (The CIA’s Dangerous Clique Book 4) by Jim Geraghty

Author:Jim Geraghty [Geraghty, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Discus Books
Published: 2024-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

TIRASPOL, TRANSNISTRIA

TECHNICALLY PART OF MOLDOVA

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

The drive across the border was smooth enough; Alec Flanagan and Patrick Horne had gone through the border under the assumed identities of Aidan Flannery and Jerry Van Horne, a pair of Silicon Valley venture capitalists who were eager to dump a pile of American dollars onto anyone who promised they were on the verge of a breakthrough in a development of a working quantum computer. The not-quite-a-country of Transnistria wasn’t exactly awash in foreign investment, so the local self-proclaimed technology innovation guru, Vadam Balan, was eager to meet with them when they inquired.

Before formally starting the meeting in his office around the corner from the Transnistrian national parliament, Balan insisted upon showing his American guests the national memorial in Surorov Square, across the street from the parliament. The site featured an Arc of Triumph, a Russian-made T-34-85 tank that had been imported from Hungary, and a memorial to those who had died in the Great Patriotic War—what Westerners called World War Two—as well as the short war that had left Transnistria in its state of semi-independence, as well as Chernobyl and another infamous war from the Soviet era.

“Afghanistan,” Alec observed. “Boy, that place bites everyone in the ass eventually, huh?”

Once the trio returned to Balan’s office, Alec and Patrick quickly learned that while Balan may have been an enthusiastic fan of the idea of quantum computing, he offered no sign that he knew how to actually build one. He argued that the need to keep the computer at super-cold temperatures could be easily overcome, that the “model” for a quantum computer he had designed looked like an hourglass or a woman’s body, and, in what seemed to be a translation issue, Balan kept referring to the measurement of “qubits,” or quantum bits, as “Q-berts,” which made Alec think of the 1980s arcade game.

What Balan lacked in useful knowledge, he made up for in crazy conspiracy theories. He echoed Vladimir Putin in contending that a network of global elites, a “golden billion,” secretly controlled the world’s resources outside of Russia.

“That’s roughly one out of every eight people on the planet,” Alec observed. “Where do they hold their meetings?”

Balan ignored the question and added that Madeleine Albright was the head of a global project to dismember Russia and distribute its energy and mineral wealth to rapacious regimes around the globe. Alec cleared his throat and asked how Albright had been performing in this role since she passed away in 2022. Each time, Patrick gave Alec a disapproving glare and a nudge, wanting to keep Balan talking, in hopes he would say something useful. Alec felt confident within five minutes of meeting Balan that not only was he not Kobold, he doubted the fast-talking young man could spell Kobold.

When Balan told Alec and Patrick that he was certain the CIA had already developed a quantum computer, Alec had to swallow a spit-take.

At one point, the conversation drifted to the topic of the ongoing war next

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