“Not with you. You don’t give a damn about strategy. You just gather all the facts and then decide what you’re going to do with them. Besides, I think you’ve already made up your mind.”

“Perhaps. Providing I can receive reasonable assurance that I’ll get what I want from you.” He took a sip of coffee. “What took you so long to get down here if you were so anxious?”

“I was waiting for Vogel to come and get me. I didn’t want to strike a wrong note by breaking out of the room if the decision was still up in the air.” She added impatiently, “But he didn’t come, and I didn’t know if it was amusing you to rig some kind of test about the damn lock, so I thought, What the hell.”

He chuckled. “Indeed. What the hell?”

“Now stop talking about things that aren’t important. I’ve already given you all the assurances I can. What else can I do?”

“I’m about to tell you.” He leaned back in his chair. “You see, the entire problem is that I’m such a cynical bastard. I don’t trust you. It takes me a long time to have faith in anyone, and your breaking into my study wasn’t destined to inspire me to do it. You need to erase that mistake.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

“Proof of intent,” he said softly. “You keep talking about an exchange of services, but I’m obviously going to have to perform first to avoid having those students slaughtered. Correct?”

She nodded. “I knew you’d have to trust me.” She moistened her lips. “I thought you’d want some kind of bond to seal the deal. I told you I’d be willing to do anything.”

“So you did,” he said ironically. “I believe even Masenak’s head was mentioned at one point.”

She stiffened. “Is that what you want?”

“Not initially. You’ve told me that he couldn’t be lured into a trap by your people. And even if you could find his camp, he’s exceptionally well guarded. If you attacked him, he’d go into automatic, kill those students, and then go on the run himself. Which was exactly what I don’t want to happen.”

“I told you I’d track him down for you.”

“And so you will. My research affirmed that you weren’t lying about your tracking skills. Homeland Security gave you expert status after your training in the Arizona desert.”

“These days I’m even better than those reports say.”

He chuckled. “And so modest, too.”

“I don’t want you to change your mind,” she said. “You can’t do that, Korgan. I can’t let it happen. What was that you were saying about proof of intent?”