“No, I don’t understand,” he said coldly. “Except that Vogel might have been right that those kids were only a decoy and you have another agenda. What is it?”

“It’s not a decoy. You know it. You can see it. You trust your instincts and you know I wasn’t lying to you about that. It was one of the only things I had on my side when I screwed up because of that damn drone.” She had to convince him. “You’re not the easiest man for me to read, but we both know that’s true. Don’t we?”

He didn’t speak for a moment. “My instincts aren’t always infallible, and you’re very believable.”

“But in the end, you trusted them enough to come with me when you had no idea if I was leading you into a trap.” She gestured impatiently. “Oh, there were probably a hundred other reasons bouncing around in that brain of yours that made you take the chance, but that was the main one.”

“Really?” he said with soft sarcasm. “Do tell me more.”

His gaze was probing, taking every word she was speaking apart and weighing it, but she could see that he was at least listening. “There’s not much more. Just that I knew you were armed and ready to pull that gun out of your jacket any second when you were shaking hands with Margaret. And you told me that Vogel had already sent a drone down here and knew exactly how many people you’d have to face when we landed. So I knew we were being watched. And do you think I don’t know that Vogel probably has one of those new super drones of yours keeping an eye on you that you can activate with a blink of an eyelash? He’d never let you go anywhere unprotected. Yet you still came with me, and you didn’t do either one even when Margaret told you the truth and you thought she might blow your plans to get Masenak. That means I’m right, and you want Masenak as much as I want to free those students. So you should just give me a chance to explain.” Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “Look, Margaret has to keep surveillance on that camp. You can’t imagine how careful she’s being. She won’t blunder and Masenak won’t go on the run. I promise you.” She paused and then added stiltedly, “And I’ll promise after she leaves here to go to his camp, I’ll tell you everything we’ve been doing since we came here and who we’ve been doing it with. Total honesty.”

“I’ve heard that before,” he said.