“Do you think I don’t?” Sasha gathered her bandages and ointments, hid the acid blend in her jacket pocket, and started toward the next row. “So watch very close and keep me from getting caught.”

Chapter 7

Chapter
7

Border Base Camp

You’ve been sitting there under that tree all day watching me like a hawk.” Korgan turned to Alisa with a quizzical glance. “Why? I told you why I didn’t tell you about Gilroy’s visit to Masenak’s camp. Do you actually believe I’d do anything that would upset you again? The effort wouldn’t be worthwhile.”

“No, it did occur to me, but I agree I’m not important enough for you to waste your time.” She looked around the bustling camp that looked vaguely like a SEAL team barracks. “So I decided to watch you and try to pick up anything I could about what was going on.” Her gaze shifted to the drones stored in the munitions shed across the way. “You’re going to use those drones for the assault on Masenak’s camp? How are they different from the ordinary drones that couldn’t pierce that overhead jungle canopy?”

“Faster, smaller, more powerful, absolutely precise. The usual drone is bat-blind in comparison. We won’t have to go overhead and through that canopy of trees. Thanks to your map of the camp, we can skim through the jungle and target the exact area where Masenak’s soldiers are located. The avoidance capability has tested out at a hundred percent as long as the correct numbers are entered. If the attack is unexpected, they’ll be able to take them out with two bombs. The cleanup team will be there to take care of the sentries and stragglers the bombs don’t get. We’ll have two trucks in the jungle near the prisoner tent with a team designated to grab the students and bring them here to the border camp.”

“All very efficient. What if a bomb hits the prisoner tent instead?”

“It won’t.”

“What if one of those sentries escapes and runs to the tent and opens up fire on the girls?”

“It won’t happen,” he said quietly. “You can sit there all day and give me what-ifs. But these men are the best, and so is my equipment. Vogel has been getting ready for this for months. What we’re doing now is only the final icing on a very lethal cake. I’ve told them the consequences if they fail, and they won’t.” He paused. “I notice you don’t mention the possibility of Sasha failing to do her part in freeing those girls.”

“Because I can’t bear to think about it,” she said tightly. “You do know I’m going to be on the team going to get those girls from the prisoner tents to the trucks?”

“I never thought anything else. No objections as long as you follow Vogel’s orders.”

“Vogel?”