“Four minutes,” she repeated. She’d been so absorbed with just getting here to Sasha that she’d barely been paying attention to anything else.

“Just following your orders. You told me to handle it. So I had Novak send an initial commando team on-site to Jubaldar ready to strike the minute he sent off the drones. He’ll follow with a second team himself when he’s free. By that time Vogel’s forces should be getting there. I know you like to be consulted, but I figured you were a little too busy with hijacking the helicopter Reardon was expecting and getting it here in time to be backup if we needed it.”

“And we did need it.” She was shaking her head in frustration. “But none of it is going to do any good unless we make sure Masenak and Reardon won’t get away. They’re like Houdinis. Close your eyes and they’re gone.” She could feel the panic rising. “And they’re not stupid. They’ll know that Sasha is still a card they can play.” They’d reached the access road, and she jerked her arm away from him. “We’ve got to find her before they do. We’ll have to split up. If one of us locates her, fire two shots.” She was running toward a maze of warehouses and garages. “She might have just tried to get lost in all those buildings over there. You check out the west area.”

“Alisa, dammit…”

She glanced over her shoulder and saw that he was coming after her. “Forget about me. You know I’ll be okay,” she said fiercely. “Find her!”

She ran into the first warehouse. It was huge and stuffed with Masenak’s treasures and furniture. You could hide a herd of elephants in here, not to mention one small girl and two racehorses.

Kaboom!

Kaboom!

Kaboom!

She had to grab on to the wall as the floor shook and dust came down from the high ceiling.

Novak’s drones. Right on time. Just as efficient as she’d told Korgan. And powerful. This area was more than a mile away from where the bombs had hit, but the explosions had been very strong.

She hoped Masenak had heard and realized it was his wonderful Jubaldar that had taken the hit.

But it would also make him as furious as Korgan had said, and she had to find Sasha and make sure she wouldn’t be exposed to that rage.

She took a cursory glance around the rest of the warehouse. She was almost finished when she saw the wide-open door at the end of the corridor. It looked as if someone had run out of the building and just left it flung open.

She stopped and moved toward it. As she came closer, she could see glimpses of forests that ran from the access road toward the distant cliffs.