“Manipulate him,” Margaret finished. “That’s not going to happen, and you know it. The best you’ll get is a draw.” She paused. “And personally I like the idea that he sent that jammer to Sasha tonight. The sooner he finds a way to get those girls out of there, the better. It makes me uneasy that Masenak’s looking into Sasha Lawrence’s parents. I know you laid out a false trail complete with forged documents to get her into that school. How good was that forged identity?”

“Good enough to fool any school administrator.” Her lips twisted. “Not good enough to survive a full-scale CIA or FBI investigation. For Pete’s sake, why on earth would I think she’d need an in-depth personnel file like that? She was only a ten-year-old girl entering a snooty private school.”

“No reason why you’d dream a Masenak would appear in her life,” Margaret agreed. “Only he did. We’ve just got to hope we can keep him from finding anything about you before we can get Sasha away from him. Korgan seems to be on the right track for doing that.”

Alisa nodded wryly. “He’s moving at top speed, and that means he’s pushing Sasha ahead of him by giving her that damn signal jammer. It scares me to death.”

“Do you trust him?”

“Yes, why do you think I went after him? He’s the smartest man I know, and if anyone can save Sasha and those other girls, it will be him.”

“Then after all you did to get him to commit, may I suggest that you stop all this weeping and wailing and go help him do it?”

She frowned. “I’m not weeping and wailing. I was only telling—” She broke off and started to laugh as she saw Margaret’s faint smile. “Well, maybe a little weeping and wailing. But it’s only because it’s Sasha, and you’re the only one in the world I’d show it to. Anyway it’s partly your fault, because you’re the one who sent me to that circus tent to check her out.”

“Only to let me know if I should go see her for myself,” Margaret said. “I never told you to take her under your wing, did I? Or snatch her away from that circus, or buy those four horses for her? How did I know that you’d take over her life?”

Alisa shrugged. “It seemed the right thing to do. We were a good fit.”

“Yes, you were,” Margaret said softly. “I thought the same thing the first time I saw you together. It’s friendship that matters, what you saw in each other, not only what you have in common.”