Chaos

by Iris Johansen

  “Let me go. I have to get out of here.” She jerked away. “I tried to get her out. She wouldn’t come.” She ran toward the truck. “I’ll tell one of those soldiers to go back for her.”

  “That might be too late.” Sasha knew Natasia wasn’t listening; all the girl cared about was that she saw freedom beckoning and she was going to grab it. Sasha whirled and elbowed her way through the crowd of students to run back through the smoke toward the prisoner tent. Her eyes were stinging now, and she could barely make out the figures of several of Masenak’s soldiers who had escaped the explosion as they staggered across the camp in confusion.

  Shots…She heard shots from the edge of the camp. Sentries?

  Don’t worry about it. Concentrate on finding Jeanne.

  Then she was back in the prisoner tent.

  Fire!

  Alisa had been right in her prediction; the north corner of the tent was now enveloped in flames.

  Screams.

  More smoke.

  She was coughing, her gaze searching the tent. “Jeanne!”

  No answer.

  The smoke was growing heavier.

  But she heard someone whimpering, coughing.

  “Jeanne.” She made her way toward the sound. “Jeanne! Answer me. Where are you?”

  No answer. But that coughing sounded a little closer.

  And then she saw Jeanne Palsan, huddled on the floor near the guardroom door. She was gasping, struggling to breathe. But at least Natasia had broken her chain and dragged her this far before she’d abandoned her, Sasha thought bitterly.

  She slipped her arm around her. “Come on, Jeanne. Help me. We’re getting out of here.” She half pulled, half lifted the young girl to her feet. She wasn’t heavy, but she was a deadweight. “Just help me a little. It’s going to be fine. We’re going to get away from them.”

  “You bet we are.” Alisa had come back into the tent and was slipping her arm around Jeanne from the other side. “Keep walking, Sasha. We only have another few minutes to get out of here before this tent goes up in flames.”

  “Natasia…told you I was…here?” Sasha’s throat felt raw, but she managed to get the words out. “She said…she’d tell someone.”

  “Only after I cornered her. I saw her talking to you and then I didn’t see you.” She was coughing. “Hurry. Vogel already sent the first truck toward the border. I want you out of this damn country.”

  “I am hurrying.” And Jeanne didn’t seem nearly as heavy now that Alisa was with her, Sasha thought. Everything was always easier when Alisa was there. Together they managed to get Jeanne out of the tent in the next few minutes, laying her on the ground to see if she needed resuscitation. She was pale and gasping a little for breath, but she didn’t appear to be injured in any other way. “She seems okay, but we have to get her to a doctor. They…did things to her. She was hurt even before this happened.”

  “This must be Jeanne? I’ll have one of the guys bring a stretcher.” Alisa was pulling out her phone. “She’ll have medical attention as soon as we get her to the border. The director will probably want to whisk all the students away to some secure European facility, but we’ll make certain that she—”

  She stopped as a whistle of sound broke the silence.

  At first, Sasha thought it was the crackling snap of the fire in the tent behind them. Then she saw Alisa jerk and cry out and saw the blood flowing down the front of her jacket!

  Sasha screamed as she watched Alisa fall to the ground.

  A bullet, she realized in panic. Shot. Alisa had been shot!

  “She’s not dead yet,” Masenak said from where he stood just inside the tent behind Sasha. His gun was now pointed at her. “I was careful to aim for the upper body. But if you don’t come back into this tent and go with me out the main door, I’ll put another bullet into her that she won’t have a chance of surviving.” His lips twisted. “I take it that would make a difference to you, since she must have been the person who paid for your tuition all those years. Am I correct?”

  Nightmare. Alisa was so still, her eyes closed. “Yes,” Sasha said hoarsely. “She’s bleeding. You’re sure she’s not dead now?”

  “Very certain.”

  “Then will you let me stop the bleeding?” She dropped to her knees on the ground beside Alisa. “I’ll do anything you say, if you’ll let me help her.”

  “We don’t have time. If you’re lucky, one of the bitch’s friends will find her and stop the bleeding. All you’ll get from me is that I won’t finish the job this time.” His eyes were blazing. “Do what I tell you. You don’t realize how much I want to hurt you. I don’t know how you managed to do this to me, but you had something to do with it.” He spoke through bared teeth. “I want you dead. But you’re still useful, so I’ll let you give me what I need.” He motioned with the gun. “Move.”

  She didn’t move. “Let me stop the blood. I’ll be quick. Why should I trust that she won’t die anyway if I leave her like this?” She added hotly, “And if you shoot Alisa again, I swear that you won’t get anything from me.”

  He muttered an oath. “You have one minute. Do it.”

  She swiftly ripped off part of her shirt and belt and fashioned a pressure bandage on the wound in Alisa’s shoulder. Be safe, she prayed. You’re strong. I need you. You’ve always told me that we were a team no one could separate. Don’t you leave me now. Then she jumped to her feet and moved toward him. “You won’t get away, you know. Alisa is much cleverer than you, and she’s not alone.”

  “Yes, I will. I’ve got a reputation for slipping away from my enemies, and this will be no different. All this smoke and confusion will only help.” He pushed her toward the canvas door at the side entrance. “And they’ll probably think I’m dead anyway. Your friends took the precaution of blowing up my helicopter after luring me toward it with that fool, Baldwin. By the time they discover that I’m not also a fool and among the dead, we’ll be gone. I always have a standby plan. We’ll be going upriver and be picked up in one of the northern villages and taken to the mountains.”

  “It will be different,” she said fiercely. “You’re slipping away with practically nothing. Those girls are free now and every parent and organization you were taunting all these weeks will be on the hunt for you. And I don’t have to tell you that you’re a laughingstock to the CIA now.”

  “Only until the next raid.” His fingers bit into her arm as he pushed her toward the jungle. “Then I’ll show them all I won’t be laughed at. And as soon as I get to the mountains, you’re going to help me recoup everything I’ve lost here. You and your Chaos…”

  Chapter

  9

  Border Base Camp

  2:55 A.M.

  She was being carried…

  Korgan. Alisa knew that scent…Dark, spicy, clean. The fragrance that had clung to her when she’d left his tent that morning after she’d brought him Baldwin. But Korgan shouldn’t be carrying her. Not now. Wrong…

  And there was pain, and that was wrong, too.

  “Put me…down.” She tried to open her eyes. “I think…you’re hurting me.”

  “I’m not hurting you,” he said roughly. “You managed to do that for yourself. And I’ll put you down as soon as I get you into my tent to wait your turn at boarding. Gilroy wanted to load all the students before they put you on the helicopter so you won’t be jarred.”

  Helicopter? “We’re back at base camp? I don’t remember…” Why didn’t she remember? “And I didn’t…hurt myself.” Why was he so angry?

  She must have asked the question out loud because he answered. “Because you would have been safe if you’d done what I told you.” In spite of the harshness of his tone, he was putting her down on the cot with utmost gentleness. But she still tensed as hot pain shot through her upper shoulder. “Why couldn’t you have just stayed in the truck with Vogel?”

  “Sasha. I told you…We had to get them out.” But the thought of Sasha had started alarm bells ringing. Her
eyes finally flew open. “Sasha. Where’s Sasha? Is she okay?” She was struggling, fighting to sit up. More pain. Ignore it. “She was with me. And that poor child, Jeanne Palsan…She needed a doctor.”

  “Stop fighting me.” Korgan’s arms tightened around her. “You’ve been shot, and I’m trying to keep you from doing any more damage to yourself.” He added jerkily, “I won’t lie. Sasha wasn’t with you when we found you. But I believe she must have been there because it had to have been her who rigged this tourniquet to ease the blood flow. If she was well enough to do that, then chances are she wasn’t hurt herself. Masenak must have just taken her with him.”

  “Masenak?” she whispered. She couldn’t comprehend the horror. “It was Masenak?”

  “Jeanne Palsan was hysterical when Vogel found the two of you, but she kept screaming his name and begging Vogel to keep Masenak from taking her, too.” His lips tightened. “And there was a sighting of him at the main camp after that third drone took out the helicopter pad.”

  “You said Masenak would be killed. You promised me.” Her voice was shaking. “He’ll be in a rage. He’ll be blaming everyone. He’ll be blaming her.”

  “I’ve sent Vogel and a team to find them with orders to kill Masenak on sight and bring her back.”

  “If she’s still alive.” That thought was too agonizing, and she couldn’t take it. “She is alive.” She was trying to sit up again. “I have to go after her myself. I’ll find her.”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” He nodded at someone out of her range of vision, and she felt a prick as the hypodermic entered her arm. “Except to the same hospital we’re taking Jeanne Palsan.” He took her hands in his own as she tried desperately to strike out at him. “Yes, I know you believe no one can take care of Sasha but you, and that I failed you by not killing Masenak. You’re right, I did fail you, but I won’t do it again. I’ll get that son of a bitch, but I won’t risk you dying. It’s going to be my way, Alisa.”

  The tent was beginning to dim around her. She was only aware of his face and the intensity of those glittering silver eyes gazing down at her. “Everything is always your…way. But you couldn’t stop Masenak from taking her. I think I…hate you.” Her voice sounded blurred even to her. “If she dies…I’ll kill you, Korgan.”

  “I know that, too.” His lips twisted. “Either way there will be punishment in my future. Now let yourself go so that I can get you on that helicopter. The sooner I get you to that hospital, the sooner you’ll be able to go after me with knives drawn.” He paused. “But while you’re planning my demise, it might comfort you to go to sleep remembering how strong your Sasha is and how she’s stayed alive all this time. There’s no reason why she won’t be able to hold on until we take the bastard out.”

  He was right, she thought dazedly. Sasha would never give up, and Masenak had wanted her alive from the time he’d taken her from that stable. It was only panic that had made Alisa forget that in this moment. But Korgan had not forgotten, and he’d given her this lifeline to hold on to when the darkness came.

  And then the darkness was there…

  * * *

  University Hospital

  Geneva, Switzerland

  Three Days Later

  Sasha!

  Alisa’s eyes flew open and she sat up straight in bed.

  Pain! Ignore it. She had to get to Sasha.

  “Lie still.” Korgan’s hands were pushing her down. “You can’t go anywhere yet. You’ve been out for three days, and if you don’t keep quiet, I’ll have to ask those doctors to put you under again. You’ll hurt yourself if you—Shit!” He grabbed the fist with which she’d just struck his mouth and pinned it to the bed. “Correction. You’ll hurt me if you continue to fight,” he said grimly. “And that’s not going to happen until you’re able to do it with a clear head. So just lie there and I’ll let you stay awake and you might get some answers. Deal?”

  She shook her head dazedly. “Sasha…” Something was terribly wrong…She had to gather her thoughts and try to remember.

  Korgan’s tent at base camp.

  Korgan looking down at her and telling her that even if Sasha was lost, he’d find her.

  Masenak!

  “You’re tensing up,” Korgan said. “But I don’t think you’re ready to sock me again. I believe you might be ready to listen.”

  “Only if you tell me that you know Sasha is still alive,” she said shakily. “That’s the only thing that matters.”

  “I believe there’s a very good chance she’s still alive,” he said. “As I told you, she’s tough, and he wants to keep her alive.” He paused. “And when Vogel showed up here at the hospital this morning, he gave me a report that he and his team had tracked down Masenak. He escaped upriver and then boarded a helicopter at a village on the Moroccan border.” He smiled faintly. “He wasn’t alone, Alisa.”

  “You’re sure?” she whispered. “He must have been so angry with her.”

  “Not angry enough to cheat himself out of something he wanted just to get revenge. I can’t give you a guarantee, but it was a young girl who accompanied him on that helicopter, ponytail, boots, riding apparel that was dirty and smoke-stained. Know anyone else who fits that description?”

  “No.” She closed her eyes for an instant. Alive. Sasha was alive. Then her lids flicked open. “But why can’t you give me a guarantee? Couldn’t Vogel find out where Masenak went in that helicopter? Couldn’t he follow him?”

  “Never satisfied. Masenak had been gone for over a day when Vogel tracked him down. He called me yesterday and asked me if he should try to keep on tracking him. I told him to come back here. I think we both have an idea where Masenak is heading.”

  “Jubaldar.”

  He nodded. “You’ve said he’s been threatening to take her to the mountains since the day of the kidnapping. Now that there are no longer any hostages for him to barter, he has no excuse not to do it.”

  “But we can’t be certain she has any real value to him to balance what he believes she’s done,” she said fiercely. “He swore that if anyone tried to go rescue those students, he’d kill them all. Now that they’re free, he’ll feel frustrated and humiliated. He’ll be striking out in all directions, and she’ll be the only one in reach. He could change his mind at any moment. There’s no time to waste. I have to go after her.”

  “Not before we’re ready. You’re wrong, there’s still time.” He looked down at her wrists, still pinned to the bed. “And if you promise not to try to take me down again, we can discuss it.”

  She’d almost forgotten that he was still holding her down. “It was your fault. You shouldn’t have said you were going to have the doctors put me to sleep again.”

  “Obviously,” he said dryly. “May I point out that you weren’t behaving reasonably? I was afraid you might hurt yourself. Do I have that promise?”

  She nodded. “As long as you don’t threaten me again. Three days? There was no way I should have been unconscious for three days. You must have told them to do it. Just like you told them to give me that shot in your tent.”

  He nodded. “I admit it seemed the simplest way of handling the situation until I got it partially under control. But there were medical reasons for me to do it or the doctors wouldn’t have agreed.” He released her and dropped down into a chair beside the bed. “You’re at the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. I use this hospital whenever I can when I’m in Europe or Africa. It’s only a little over two hours from Morocco by air, and the doctors are brilliant. But there’s no way they’d interfere with the treatment of a patient just to keep me happy.”

  She looked at him skeptically. “Everyone wants to keep you happy.”

  “Some people have ethics. Inconvenient, but refreshing. However, I might have mentioned that once you woke, your condition might deteriorate due to stress. Which it clearly has. Your wound itself wasn’t serious, but you’d lost a lot of blood. If Sasha hadn’t rigged that pressure bandage, you’d have b
een in really bad shape. Still, by the time we landed the helicopter at the coast, you were in shock. I put Gilroy in charge of dealing with the CIA bigwigs who were there to meet us and loaded you, Margaret, and Jeanne Palsan on a medical jet to Geneva.”

  “Gilroy? I wouldn’t think he’d be diplomatic enough to handle a situation that delicate.”

  “You’d be surprised. Gilroy can handle almost anything that comes his way.” He made a face. “Though sometimes that only constitutes holding off the dragons until he can set them loose on me. He’s not self-sacrificing by any means.”

  “He probably regards that as being entirely fair. I’ve can’t fault anything he’s done in regard to helping Sasha. He’s been wonderful.” She jumped to something else he’d mentioned. “Margaret? She’s here, too?”

  “She wasn’t going to trust me to take care of you. Besides, I thought I might need help with Jeanne. You wanted her to have immediate medical treatment, but every time I mentioned her going home to her parents, she got hysterical. Margaret seemed to be able to keep her calm.” He paused. “That poor kid wouldn’t let anyone near her but Margaret.”

  “You can hardly blame her after what she’s gone through. I’m glad Margaret is here.”

  “She’s already persuaded her to start therapy.” He grimaced. “But Margaret left it up to me to call her parents and talk them into leaving her alone until she feels she can face them. That won’t be easy.”

  “But you’ll be able to do it. Stop whining. Her parents will be flattered you called and grateful that you were able to get her away from the monsters. You’ll know exactly what to say, you always do. You’re the golden boy.”

  “Was that bitterness?”

  “No, just the truth,” she said wearily. “You have talent and people skills. Use both of them to help Jeanne. That’s what Sasha would want you to do. When we get her back, I want to be able to give her good news.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “And I’m sure it will be a superb best.” She was silent a moment and then added, “Much better than when you said you’d make certain Masenak wouldn’t be anywhere around to cause Sasha danger.”