“Of course I was scared. You’ve been the most important person in my world since I woke up on that plane. I had to be careful not to make stupid choices and do the wrong thing.” She made an impatient gesture. “But I can’t sit back and let you make stupid choices, either. I have to know what you’re doing so I can help you. When should you be receiving a call from this Sherman about Stockholm?”

“Very soon. It depends on how quickly he can get someone out to that airport to ask questions. I’d say within the hour.”

“Not before that?”

He shook his head. “I doubt it.” He smiled crookedly. “I promise you’ll be the first to know.”

“Okay.” She leaned back in the seat. “I guess I can’t do better than that. Unless you can call Sherman back and make him—”

“Aren’t we done, Lara?” Maria asked dryly from the backseat. “I’ve been sitting here listening to you gnaw at the problem, and I’d like to get back to setting up this computer to work. I agree Nash might be trouble, but you don’t know anything yet. Let Tanner worry about him. You said we could use him. Now don’t get in his way. He signed on with Kaskov to get the job done. Let him do it.”

“You heard your mother,” Tanner said. “Let me worry about it…”

*  *  *

The call came from Sherman thirty-five minutes later. Tanner put the call on speaker. “Answers?”

“You’re not going to like it.” Sherman’s voice had a twang, but his words were clipped. “Oliver Radkork, the manager of the airport, is in the hospital with injuries.” He paused. “All three of Nash’s men are dead. Shot with automatic weapons. Nash himself may die eventually. He was still alive when he was found, but he’s in bad shape. He was tortured for a long time and was almost cut to pieces.” He paused before he added hoarsely, “He said to tell you he was sorry. That must mean he told them what they wanted to know. Radkork said there was a lot of screaming.”

“Bastards.” Tanner’s lips tightened. “Tell them to get him the best care possible and let me know if he makes it. What else do you know? Who did it?”

“Radkork said several hours after you left a Boeing Chinook helicopter landed and fifteen or twenty thugs poured out of it. Nash was still working on his copter in the hangar, but they were all over the airport in seconds. They knew what they were doing, and Nash and his guys didn’t have a chance.”

“IDs?”

“The one who was giving the orders was Balkon. The son of a bitch was laughing when he was interrogating Nash.”

Lara inhaled sharply.