“Don’t be nice. Not now. I don’t want to like you. I want to get away from you and Travis and the Major and Shalev and Cliff Cameron and—” She had a sudden thought. “Were you going to ask me to join you?”

“I have no right to ask that. If you remember, I was one of those who played soccer, using you as the ball. I have no right to toss you back into the game now. Except for Cliff. If you’ll tell me where Cliff is, I’ll leave you alone.”

“So you can get him out?”

“Yes. Your people abandoned you on the dam. We can’t do that.”

Her voice was barely a whisper. “Even if he won’t know that you’ve gotten him out?”

Eric’s eyes were stricken. “I heard what Travis said.” She saw him swallow hard. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll get him out.”

“He’s heavily guarded.”

“It doesn’t matter!” he shot back angrily. “Will you tell me where he is?”

Nicole stood up, walked to the fireplace, and leaned on the mantel, looking away from him. “If I did that, it would mean treason,” she said. “I don’t have to go with you into the mountains, or operate on somebody. Even the simple act of telling you where they’re holding Cliff Cameron becomes treason against the Guardians, against my people, and against everything I’ve always believed in. With one word I become as guilty as if I held the knife.”

“I understand.”

She whirled to face him. “Do you?” she cried. “You’re asking me to risk everything—my career, my freedom, Travis—”

“You’ve already—” He bit back the angry retort.

“I’ve already what?” she demanded.

“Nothing. I have no right to say that either. I’m sorry I bothered you, Nicole. You’re correct, I have no right to ask such a thing of you.”

“I’ve already lost Travis. That’s what you were going to say, isn’t it?”

Eric knelt down by Cricket. “Good-bye, old girl. Take good care of her, will you?”

“Say it!” Nicole cried, taking a step toward him. “You’re thinking it. Why won’t you say it?”

He straightened slowly, his eyes gentle. “If I ever ask a woman if she loves me and her answer is, ‘I don’t know’…” He shrugged.

Surprisingly enough, she did not flash back at him.