“We showed some photos ourselves, and we were just as determined as Bohdan’s scum. We had several photos of Campbell that we took from his home. We covered the village and all the outlying areas, and we got lucky because Campbell is also well known around the village. He appears to be a nice guy who has delivered quite a few babies to the villagers over the years. It became clear that the pier was out. He wasn’t taken anywhere by boat. But four separate people in the hill country thought they’d seen him walking with two other men toward the northern fishing lakes. One of them knew Campbell and spoke to him. He thought it strange that Campbell hadn’t answered him.”

“Did you follow up on it?”

“Of course. But that’s a lot of territory and it’s filled with small farms and those lakes where city folks come to spend weekends fishing. It will take time.”

“I don’t know how much time we’ll have,” Caleb said slowly. “I’m finding it a little odd that you were able to locate Campbell that easily.”

“I haven’t located him yet. Still, I see where you’re going. Only two men to hold a valuable prisoner? And we managed to do the initial tracking with no problem. Add the area where Campbell is presumably being held is going to be very difficult to explore or negotiate.” He paused. “Which means it could be a trap.”

“Very likely. And if it is, they’ll want to set the bait up in an appetizing way so that I’ll be lured into the trap,” Caleb said. “Which means if you send a sharp enough team down to the lake area and tell them to keep their eyes open, they should be able to spot Campbell.” He smiled sardonically. “Then we can only hope that we can pluck the good doctor out of the lion’s den before Bohdan lets loose the big cats.”

“You know as well as I do that it all could be for nothing. What do you think our chances are?”

“I’ve no idea. All I know is that we’ve got to try. Even if Campbell isn’t the good guy you tell me he is, Jane has a vested interest in keeping him alive. I won’t let her down.”

“Second question. Do you want me to be the one to go in and pull Campbell out?”

“No, I’ll do it myself. Just set up the operators to locate the place they’re hiding Campbell. You do what you do best and run the teams. You never can tell when a job is going to go to hell, and a little fine-tuning might become necessary.”

Palik was frowning. “I’m not sure that I should let you go in alone.”

“I beg your pardon?”