“I know that, Alisa.” Sasha tucked the whiskey bottle back in Baldwin’s backpack and fastened the strap. “I’ll be fine. Don’t stand there looking at me. Get out of here.”

She watched Alisa wriggle under the tent before she turned to look at Gilroy and said coldly, “If it turns out to be really close, you forget about what Korgan told you to do. You kill Baldwin. I don’t care how. Bury him in the jungle or tie a stone around his neck and toss him in a lake. Then you get Alisa and Margaret safely back to the border. If you don’t, I’ll come after you. Do you understand?”

“I understand you’re a lot like Alisa for such a youngster.” He was smiling faintly as he dragged Baldwin the last few feet out of the tent. “Don’t worry. She was only a couple of minutes late. We’ll still have time to make it…”

He was gone.

Sasha stood there for a moment. No sound. It was probably going to be okay. Gilroy had seemed to be very strong and competent and so confident she had wanted to hit him. Don’t worry, he had said. But she was always worried these days.

Then stop it. Just do her part to keep everyone alive and well. First, she’d finish making the tent look as if there had been no foul play and Baldwin had just flown the coop. She’d make certain no one saw her go back to her own tent, and then she’d lie there and wait for the camp to rouse.

And listen to make sure there was no gunfire from any of the sentries who might have caught sight of Alisa and Margaret. Nothing to worry about…

*  *  *

Border Base Camp

“They’ve been sighted two miles south.” Vogel hung up from talking on the phone and turned to Korgan. “Gilroy, a prisoner, and Margaret Douglas and that dog. No sign of Alisa Flynn.”

“Shit!” Korgan strode out of the shelter and headed into the brush. “Then where the hell did they lose her? I told Gilroy not to screw this up.”

“Then you should have sent more men,” Vogel said bluntly as he followed him. “You let Alisa Flynn call the shots. You can’t blame Gilroy if she wasn’t as good as she thought she was.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said harshly. “She is that good. And it could only have worked with a team that small and knowledgeable. Do you think I would have let her go if I hadn’t gone over those plans half a dozen times myself to see if there was a better way? This shouldn’t have happened. Gilroy screwed up. I should have gone myself.”