Chaos

by Iris Johansen

  “Why? You want me to entertain you again? I’m not your personal court jester.” Sasha had always been a very private part of her life that she had never discussed with anyone, yet she found she had enjoyed sharing that intimate connection with Korgan. His intensity as he listened, the way he watched her and responded…She smiled as she had a sudden thought. “I might tell you how I broke through one of those barriers. Probably the most important one. Sasha’s horses. I had to find a way to beg, borrow, or steal those horses away from Alonzo Zeppo.”

  “Now, that’s an intriguing way to start a story. How?”

  “I wanted to get her away from that circus so that I could take care of her. It took over six months for her to trust me enough to want to be with me, too. But one of the things I’d promised her was that if she agreed to come with me, I’d find a way to buy her horses and give them to her. I knew she’d never leave them behind. The problem was that I worked for the CIA, and there wasn’t a chance in hell of my being able to afford to buy them. Not only were they highly trained, pedigreed thoroughbreds, but when I approached Zeppo, he jacked up the price to almost double because he knew he might lose Sasha. I had to think of a way to get the money without resorting to robbing a bank.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I robbed a bank.” She shook her head as he started to chuckle. “Well, it was really the banks of a few casinos. I taught myself to count cards, and I visited three casinos in Macao and managed to get the amount I needed in one night. But they didn’t appreciate it and sent a few of their men after me to retrieve it.”

  “I believe my amusement in your story is beginning to fade. How close did you come to getting your throat cut?”

  “Not too bad. I’d already arranged an exit strategy. I was careful to disguise my features to avoid the video cameras. People seem to remember my face.”

  “I can see how that would happen,” he said grimly. “So you got Sasha’s horses?”

  She nodded. “All four of them. Though I had to apply a little pressure on Zeppo. He got greedy and wanted to keep upping the price. But I wasn’t about to hit those casinos again.”

  “Excellent decision.” He finished his coffee with one swallow. “But if you run into the need for a bank again, come to me. I won’t ask questions, and I’ll give you terms you won’t be able to beat. One will be a guarantee I won’t try to cut your throat.”

  She shrugged. “It was a risk worth taking. I was able to give Sasha her horses, a life at St. Eldon’s where she could keep them, and a fine education along with it. I could visit her, take her on trips. She was happy.” Her lips twisted bitterly. “I had no idea that Masenak would pick that school to raid.”

  “How could you?”

  “I should have found a way to keep her safe. Next time I’ll do it.” She looked at him. “But I can’t even make sure I can keep her safe now, can I? You’ve listened and probed and you know Sasha now. You’ve found out all the answers you need, haven’t you?” She smiled crookedly. “Tell me. Who is Sasha?”

  “An extraordinary human being,” he answered quietly. “Clever, resourceful, full of endurance and extreme inner strength, able to think on her feet, kind to animals, able to adjust to new situations. She was also able to command your trust and affection, which is a talent in itself. You’d rarely give either willingly.” He paused. “I noticed considerably more, but that’s all I needed. She could do anything we asked her to do.”

  “Of course she could. That doesn’t mean we have to ask her. I didn’t commit to anything.”

  “Not yet,” he said. “But I’m not letting you walk away until you do.” His eyes were narrowed on her face. “You agree that the most efficient and safe way to get those girls out of the camp will be to let Sasha handle it with whatever help we can give her. Is that true?”

  She was silent before she said reluctantly, “Yes, that’s true.”

  “And that’s how it should be handled? How you would have handled it yourself if I hadn’t become involved?”

  She couldn’t deny that, either. “I would have probably had to handle it that way. But it would have been difficult to ask that of her.”

  “But you will ask her,” he said. “Because she wouldn’t forgive you if you’d kept her from helping if something happened to one of those students.” He stood up and moved around the fire to pull her to her feet. “We both knew that, but I had to make sure I wasn’t going to send her on any suicide mission.” He grimaced. “And you had to admit to yourself that you’d probably have to do the one thing that you’ll hate above all. We couldn’t move forward without coming to terms with both.”

  “Move forward.” She leaned toward him, her gaze searching his face. “You already have an idea of something definite you want Sasha to do, don’t you?”

  “She’s one of the essential keys,” he said simply. “Right place. Right time.”

  “I’m beginning to hate those words.” She added, “And I’m not feeling too friendly toward you at the moment. You’re a very dangerous man. I can see how you manage to manipulate all those directors in your boardrooms.”

  “My least favorite thing in the world, but I have to do it to free myself to get back to my labs. But I wasn’t manipulating you, Alisa. I just had to—”

  “Move me forward?” she repeated. “Well, you’ve done that, Korgan. But only if you can show me that we can keep her safe. I want to know what you’re planning for Sasha.”

  “As soon as I have a firm plan. It’s all in stage one,” he said. “So go to your tent and get some sleep. I promise nothing is going to happen that can’t be reversed after a few hours. I’m going to talk to Vogel about the drones and give Gilroy a few orders. You’re not going to miss anything of major importance. You can still try to take over and run things when you wake up.”

  She hesitated. She could see he was determined to get rid of her, and she might let him do it. She was exhausted, and that discussion about Sasha had been a troubling mixture of warmth and sheer anxiety. “You’ll fill me in on what you did when I wake up?”

  “Absolutely. Feel free to grill me.”

  “I will.” She covered a yawn as she turned away. “But I’ll try to be polite about it…”

  * * *

  Korgan stood there watching until Alisa disappeared into her tent. It wouldn’t have surprised him if she’d changed her mind and turned around and come back. All it would have taken was a sudden question or idea that she decided she needed to share. He’d learned during these last days that she was always questioning, trying to find the answers. She had probably been doing that since childhood, he thought. Well, so had he, and that might be why his emotions toward her had tended toward being convoluted and extreme.

  Hell, face it, he could tell himself it was bonding, but the extreme end was definitely sex. Which made everything else he felt for her all the more volatile and frustrating and very—

  “I wasn’t sure that you’d manage to get rid of her. I was going to rescue you.” Vogel was walking toward him, his gaze on Alisa’s tent. “While you were questioning Baldwin, I was watching her expressions. At one point she lit up, and I could tell she was zeroing in.”

  “No rescue needed,” Korgan said quietly. “You might be uneasy about her, but she’s no threat. No sinister plots to take me down. She just had her own agenda and felt she had to lie a bit to facilitate it.”

  “You’re making excuses for her, which means the threat could be still present.” He held up his hand. “But I’m not uneasy about her intentions any longer. Gilroy said that everything about Masenak’s camp and the situation there was just what she said it was. And she brought you Baldwin, an action that speaks louder than words.” He smiled. “I’ll even admit I’m beginning to have a guarded liking for her. It’s hard to dislike anyone willing to risk everything to save those schoolgirls.” He paused. “Even though I realize that there’s every possibility she’s going to get in your way. Those questions to Baldwin about Jubaldar were too p
ointed not to mean that you might be going in that direction.”

  “Not if I can help it,” he said. “But I have to be prepared. I don’t know enough about Jubaldar Castle, but I will before this is over. Has Gilroy started questioning Baldwin yet?”

  Vogel shook his head. “Just preparation. He spent the past hour with Baldwin listing all the information he wanted him to spill, and what he would do to him otherwise. He was very explicit, and Baldwin believed every word. Then he left him alone to think it over and went to take a nap.”

  “No one can say he’s not confident,” Korgan said dryly.

  “There aren’t many people who aren’t intimidated by Gilroy when he makes the effort. Baldwin isn’t one of them. He’ll be sweating blood by the time Gilroy comes back. He can be a wonder on a job like this.” He shrugged one shoulder. “But you know that. Why else would you choose him?” His gaze narrowed on Korgan’s face. “Do you want me to wake him?”

  “No, let him sleep. Just send him to me before he goes back to Baldwin. I might have something else for him to do.” He turned and moved toward the munitions shed. “Right now I want to check out those drones and make certain the targeting sensors are adjusted correctly.”

  “They’re correct.” Vogel followed him quickly. “I checked them before we loaded them in the helicopter. Give them a path and they’ll blow their way through anything around them.”

  “One more time,” Korgan said absently. “I trust you, but it won’t hurt to be careful. It might make a difference…”

  * * *

  Masenak’s Camp

  It was almost midnight before Sasha felt free to leave the girls Masenak had upset so terribly in the prisoner tent and make her way back across the camp to her own tent. Not that she’d been able to do very much to soothe them, she thought wearily. What she’d told Masenak about the wariness and resentment the girls felt toward her had been true. She could only try to intercede if the guards became too brutal, heal what wounds she could, and listen to them when they poured out all their fear and bewilderment. The listening was the most painful, because she was totally helpless to do anything about the ugliness and desperation that surrounded those girls.

  Try to sleep and forget that helplessness for a few hours. Think of Chaos and how she felt when she was riding across the hills. How the wind felt in her hair, and that smooth, joyous togetherness she never knew at any other time.

  Back in the tent, she stood there letting her eyes become accustomed to the darkness. Masenak had supplied her with this tent but no lantern, and she didn’t like to use up the batteries in her flashlight. She didn’t mind the darkness when light revealed only—

  She wasn’t alone in the tent.

  She froze.

  She could hear someone breathing.

  A shadow near the back of the tent!

  One of the guards? Masenak?

  Her grip tightened on her flashlight, getting ready to swing it when he leaped for her.

  A hand clamped down on her mouth from behind!

  “Shh. Not a word. I won’t hurt—”

  Her teeth sank into his palm!

  He cursed, but his hand remained on her mouth.

  And she recognized his voice. She reached up and tore his hand off her lips. “What the hell are you doing here, Gilroy?” she hissed.

  “Bleeding, at the moment,” he whispered ruefully as he lit his small pocket flashlight. “I risk my life to see you and you sink your fangs into me.”

  “Because you’re incredibly stupid and shouldn’t be here. Masenak has had the camp in an uproar since last night, and I don’t know how many search parties he’s had out trying to find Baldwin. And you come back and park yourself in my tent? You’ll spoil everything Alisa was trying to do.”

  “No, I won’t. Because from what I’ve been told, Alisa’s main objective was to do whatever Korgan wanted her to do with Baldwin. I’d say that’s definitely been done. I just came back because Korgan added a few other things to our list.” He was pulling her away from the door to the other side of the tent. “Now will you sit down and let me tell you about them so I can get out of here?”

  “Go now. I don’t know how you got in here to begin with.”

  “Because I’m very, very good. Though I have to add that it also helped that no one seems to be allowed near your tent, which gave me the privacy I needed to wriggle in myself.” He knelt, and she saw he was reaching into the flap of his backpack. “And I can’t leave now. I haven’t given you the present Korgan sent you.”

  “Present?”

  “A very thoughtful present. But then Korgan is always thoughtful when it comes to weapons.” He lit a tiny flashlight and shone it down on the small black control switch in the palm of his hand. “A little something Korgan whipped up. It can jam any device that’s rigged to wirelessly trigger those bombs in the prisoner tent.”

  She inhaled sharply. “Any device?”

  He nodded. “It blocks all cell phone frequencies, Bluetooth, walkie-talkies, you name it. Korgan developed it for the armed forces in Afghanistan. Almost every vehicle there now is equipped with one to lessen the chances of an IED attack.”

  She couldn’t believe it. “So long as it’s powered on, he won’t be able to remotely trigger those bombs?”

  He shook his head. “Home free for about twenty minutes. After that it will blow. Korgan thought you’d need it to be very small, and he couldn’t give you more time than that.”

  “Give me more time?” She reached out with her index finger and touched the signal jammer. So small, yet she was fascinated by the power it represented. One press and she’d be able to withdraw the threat hanging over all those girls in the prisoner tent. “You’re talking about me being able to do this?”

  “Korgan said you gave Alisa the information about the explosives. He said if you’re as bright as he’d heard, you wouldn’t have just obeyed orders blindly. You would have already thought about the possibility of having to do it yourself.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, her gaze still on the jammer. “But that seemed…impossible. That maybe it would be me and Alisa together.” Her eyes flew to his face. “But you’re telling me that maybe I should think about doing it without Alisa.”

  “No, that’s what Korgan is telling you. It will be difficult finding a way even to get Alisa into the camp at the crucial time. It might be dangerous for both of you. He said no matter what the situation, we’ll give you all the help we can to make it happen and get your friends out of this camp. But he wants you to know that if Alisa had her way, she wouldn’t want you to have anything to do with any of this if she could help it. You’ll have to decide for yourself what’s best. If you don’t want to do it, then that’s the end of it. He only wanted to prepare you for anything and everything.”

  “Prepare me to do what?”

  “Be ready to jam the signal that would blow the CL-20.”

  “With the hostages still chained to those posts?”

  “Not if you can find a way to break the link that binds the chains to the posts at the right moment.” He was digging in his backpack again and brought out a bottle. “It’s one of Korgan’s favorite chemical combos, nitric acid combined with hydrochloric acid. Pour it on the link, give it a minute, and then make sure it’s covered with dust and mud. One strong jerk will cause it to break free from the post.” He sat back on his heels. “After that, all we have to do is get those girls out of the tent to vehicles and away from the camp.”

  “All? Am I supposed to do that, too?” Sasha asked shakily. “This Korgan doesn’t ask much, does he?”

  “He asks a hell of a lot. But he asks a lot from himself, too. I believe he assigned the rest of us the job of removing the students. Unless you want to volunteer?” His smile faded. “Or opt out entirely. Your choice, Sasha.”

  “I can’t opt out,” she said harshly. “I told Margaret once that I knew it would end up being the three of us who had to get Masenak and his men away from those girls. That no one
else would help us.”

  “Then you were wrong. I promise we’ll never let you go through this alone. We have an entire team ready to help.” He touched his chest with a flourish. “None more extraordinary than me. Korgan might disagree, but he wouldn’t have sent me here if he hadn’t believed that I—”

  “Hush.” She had heard something. She jumped to her feet, straining to listen. “Masenak. He’s talking to one of his men, but he’s coming this way…Keep quiet. I’ll go and meet him outside the tent.”

  “I could take care of him,” Gilroy said quietly. “I guarantee I’d get a bonus from Korgan.”

  “Shut up!” She drew a deep, steadying breath and then pushed open the canvas door. She took a couple of quick steps forward and let the door swing shut behind her.

  Masenak was standing only a few feet away from her!

  Close. It had been so close…

  She squared her shoulders. “What are you doing here besides bellowing and waking everyone up, Masenak? Still looking for Baldwin?”

  “Rude. Very rude.” He trained the beam of his flashlight on her face. “I’m not in the mood for listening to your nasty tongue at the moment. I’d be very careful, Sasha.”

  She hadn’t intended to antagonize him. She had been acting instinctively out of sheer panic. “It was only a question. Then why are you honoring me with your presence? You never come here at night.”

  “Because you have your place in my life and it’s not to entertain me.” He chuckled. “I rely on your friends in the prisoner tent to do that when I feel the need. Haven’t they told you all the things they have to do to please me?”

  She felt rage tear through her. Don’t let it loose. This wasn’t the time. “They don’t talk about you. I just wish you’d find Baldwin and leave them alone. No sign of him?”

  “Not yet. But the trackers found one of his cigarette butts about four miles west. They’ll locate the asshole once they find his trail again, and we’ll have a long talk.” He took a step closer and said softly, “And maybe one of those subjects will be you, Sasha. As I told you, I was curious why Baldwin was pushing me to arrange ransom for you, so I decided to explore it further. I contacted Larry Hoffman, the lawyer I use as my hostage negotiator, this morning and asked him to delve deeper into your background and find out why no one appeared to be particularly eager to have you returned to their loving arms.”