“Anything else would’ve been both foolish and unfair. I hope I’m neither.” He was still looking at her speculatively. “And those words were remarkably generous when you’re so upset with me. Evidently Margaret has more influence than I thought.”

“Because I won’t have her believing I’m unfair.” She tapped her chest. “And I won’t believe I’m unfair, either, just because you did something that hurt me and I couldn’t think through the pain.” She drew a deep breath. “But I’ve thought it through and I’m okay now. I won’t let it get in the way of us working together.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“It’s going to be hard for me,” she said stiltedly. “I have to warn you about that. This means too much to me, and I might explode every now and then if things don’t go as they should. But I want you to know that I realize you tried to do the right thing.”

“I just didn’t do it,” he said bitterly. “And I could have gotten you killed. So I can take an explosion now and then. But I’ll just have to make sure that everything does go as it should from now on.” He glanced at the sling she was wearing. “The doctors told me they’d released you, but why don’t you sit down instead of standing there staring at the scenery? I know they told you to take it easy for a while.”

“I don’t really need this sling. The doctors just said it was a precaution. I feel fine. Well, almost fine. A little woozy.” She sat down. “I won’t pamper myself, but I won’t waste strength I might need, either. Now tell me what you’ve found out about Sasha while you were gone.”

“Not much.” He held up his hand. “It’s too soon for an explosion. As I told you, Masenak had that castle built somewhere in the mountains years ago and made sure that it was carefully hidden away. No one knows where that damn thing is. I’ve had aerial reconnaissance for the last two days trying to locate Jubaldar, but no sightings.” He grimaced. “Those mountains in the Atlas range are so twisty-turvy that you could tuck an entire city in corners of them and never see it from the air. It just means that we’ll have to track them on foot. You said that wouldn’t be a problem for you, remember?”

“That was when I was trying to persuade you to make a deal about Masenak,” she said. “Now it’s Sasha, and everything is a problem. You said Gilroy got some information about Jubaldar from Baldwin. Can you give me a starting point? Surely he knew where that helicopter set down?”