“I’m sure he’s excellent, but there are more things to consider than speed. Sasha is in a very vulnerable position. I prefer to handle it myself.”

“Too bad,” Lakewood said. “It’s my way or nothing. Give me the location where I can find Masenak or you won’t get my help. I’ll send out a team and we’ll find Masenak on our own.”

“I’ll think about it. I believe we should both consider possible consequences. Suppose I call you tomorrow?” He hung up the phone and glanced at Alisa. “You heard him. The son of a bitch wants Masenak so bad, he’s not even thinking straight.”

She nodded. “Everyone at Langley knows that Lakewood is more politician than CIA operative these days. Masenak made him look like an amateur to the entire world.” She shivered. “And Sasha may pay for it.”

“No, she won’t. I’m just stalling him until I see how I can work around him.”

“We don’t have much time to stall. Do we have to have Lakewood’s team for the assault? Couldn’t we just use the same team we did at Szarnar?”

“We will. But we need more feet on the ground in these mountains. We’ll have to strike Jubaldar from several different directions, with painstaking coordination from all team leaders.”

“That’s why you want to be in charge.”

“Lakewood would say I always want to be in charge. I’m surprised you didn’t.”

“No, you always have a good reason,” she said absently. “And Lakewood should have realized that, too. He was just in too much of a hurry to catch Masenak.” Her lips tightened. “It was clear he was already considering Sasha collateral damage given in sacrifice to the greater good. It’s like him to expect me to give up a family member so that he could have Masenak that much sooner. Not bloody likely. If we need those additional teams from him, we’ll get them.”

He gave a low whistle. “Just the response I thought you’d have. Now tell me what you know about this Walt Edwards. How good is he? And can we work with him?”

“He’s very professional and skillful.” She paused. “But he’s also what Lakewood said. He’s goal-oriented and ambitious and would want to wrap up the attack quickly and hand it to Lakewood any way he was ordered to do it.” She added harshly, “And I’m not having him anywhere near Sasha.”

“Then he won’t be,” Korgan said. “I had to ask. I’ll think of something else.”

“Or I will. You’re not the only one who has experience,” she said as she got to her feet. “Now that you’ve told me what we need, we’ll just go and get it.”

His brows rose. “Right this minute?”