“Oh, am I back with you again?” Vogel asked dryly. “My reports are never bullshit, Alisa. They always have substance, and there was every chance Sasha was still alive.”

“‘Chance,’” she repeated. “I have a problem with that word connected to Sasha. Is Korgan right? Does Masenak seem to have an agenda that could keep Sasha alive for the long haul?”

“Yes and no. I’ll play the conversation between him and Reardon, and you can judge for yourself. It all seems to depend on this race and a horse named Chaos and another called Nightshade. The call was short, and I didn’t understand a good deal of what they were talking about. I had an idea there was a lot going on that wasn’t on the surface. I thought I’d throw the ball in Korgan’s court and see if he could figure it out.”

Alisa stiffened. “Chaos?”

“Did that strike a chord?” Korgan asked. “Something Sasha mentioned?”

“Oh, yes, that struck a chord. Chaos is one of Sasha’s horses that was stolen with the others from St. Eldon’s. She hasn’t mentioned him to me lately. And I guarantee she would never have mentioned him to Masenak if she could help it.” She shook her head in frustration. “But how can we tell what she was forced to tell him during those last days before the attack? She was so alone and might have been trying to handle everything on her own.” She gestured impatiently. “Just play the video and I’ll try to make sense of it.”

“Right.” He punched the button. “Here it is.”

It did make sense to her, she thought after the Skype had finished. It was as brief as Vogel had said, but she could understand and predict every nuance of what was going on among the three people involved. Particularly Sasha, who had not spoken at all. Alisa could tell Sasha had been trying to remain expressionless, but Alisa could read every emotion.

And what she was seeing was terrifying her. Chaos…She felt physically ill. Waves of cold were bombarding her as she thought about what this development might mean to Sasha. Caught. She’d be caught and wouldn’t be able to free herself.

“Alisa?” Korgan’s gaze was on her face. “Bad?”

She nodded jerkily. “We’ve got to get to her right away. No matter who wins that race, she’ll die.”

“No, she won’t. There’s always something we can do. First, we decide which way we want the race to go. We should be able to—”