Margaret nodded. “I told Sasha to be ready after midnight tomorrow night.” She turned away. “And now I’m going to get what sleep I can manage before we have to welcome your team, Korgan. I’m looking forward to the result, but not the interaction. I’ve heard you can be a bit of a dictator on occasion. I wouldn’t advise you to try that with my friend Alisa.” She moved toward the hut. “But I’m going to grab something to eat first. Join me, Alisa?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She glanced at Korgan, who was still staring down at the diagram of Baldwin’s tent. He was frowning and didn’t look at all pleased. Too bad. If everything went as it should, the plan could work, and Korgan would have his decoy to lead Masenak away from the camp. She trusted Sasha, Margaret, and herself, and there was no reason why she should be upset if Korgan didn’t have a similar faith in them. She headed for her sleeping bag. “I ate earlier.” She gave Korgan a cool glance. “It was a banana, and somehow it didn’t sit too well…”

*  *  *

“Everything okay?” It was the first thing Vogel asked Korgan as he led the team of twenty or thirty soldiers out of the Maldaran jungle the next afternoon. His glance went immediately to Alisa. “Any unexpected surprises other than the one you mentioned on the phone last night?”

“No, and that one might turn into a plus if we handle it right,” Korgan said. “Where’s Gilroy?”

Vogel motioned to the path behind him where a stream of other crew members were carefully transporting boxes of ammo, weapons, and some very unusual drones. “He had to sign off on those weapons as they left the helicopter. Now he’s taking a look around. You said to land the Chinook 47 deep in the Maldaran jungle so there was no chance it would be visible. He wanted to make sure that we could get out with no trouble. He’s used to Black Hawks, and he said this Chinook was going to be one big headache.”

“But you can’t get over fifty teenage girls on a Black Hawk,” Korgan said impatiently. “We’ll be lucky to get them on the Chinook. So Gilroy can just suck it up.”