“She’ll die,” Alisa repeated. “You don’t understand. Masenak thinks he knows what he has, but he doesn’t really. Either it hasn’t sunk in, or Sasha’s managed to keep the details of how really special Chaos is from him. I believe it has to be the latter or Masenak would have been bragging to Reardon on that call. But Sasha knows and she’ll be getting ready. We’ve got to get her away before she does anything reckless.”

Korgan took another look at her expression and stopped arguing. “Then we’ll do it. It will be your way. No problem. After you tell me why. You’re right, I don’t understand. But I’m damn well going to.” He started the car. “I’ll call you later, Vogel. Any news of Margaret?”

“She said she’ll be ready to leave Geneva by tomorrow morning. I’ve arranged for a helicopter to bring her from Casablanca to where you are in the mountains to meet you, if you can find somewhere to land up there in the stratosphere.”

“We’ll find it. I’ll give you our location later.” He ended the call. “Don’t say anything right now, Alisa. No pressure. You’re upset and not ready to deal with questions or anything else right now. I’m going to drive for a couple more hours and then find a place to stop for the night.” He was backing out of the layby. “But then I expect you to be ready to tell me everything I need to know about Chaos…”

*  *  *

Korgan had to drive another three hours before he found a place where they could stop for the night. He settled on an open cave that was set several yards back from the road and surrounded by scrawny pines, branches, and brush. “It appears dry enough and we can use those branches for fuel for a fire.”

“Fire?” Alisa asked as she got out of the Land Rover. “We’re not going to sleep in the Land Rover again?”

“Maybe. It depends on how low the temperature drops. We’re high enough now that it could go below freezing. But we can start out with a warm fire and a hot meal this evening.” He was pulling out their backpacks, water, and supplies and tossing them on the ground. “Or we might use the cave if it’s habitable. I’ll go check it out for scorpions, snakes, and other critters.”

“I’ll do it.” She was scowling as she grabbed her flashlight from her backpack. “You’d be more efficient gathering wood and making a fire. I’m still using this damn sling, so searching for scorpions is about the only useful thing I can do.” She headed for the cave opening. “I’m sorry about that. But I promise this is the last day I’m going to pamper myself. I’ve hated it, too.”