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quiet voice.
    Dilya stepped between Casper and Storm and in a belittling tone said, “We wouldn’t have been chosen for this assignment if Jedidiah Jones didn’t trust us. You need to be professional. You can resolve your personal disputes after we find the gold.”
    “Scarface is right,” Casper grunted. “We’ll settle our personal score later,
Stevie boy
.”
    Storm couldn’t imagine why Jones had paired him with Casper. He only knew that he’d have to watch his back when it came to him. As for the other two: Dilya seemed trustworthy. He wasn’t certain about Oscar. Did Jones have some reason—besides the fact that they were all officially “dead or disappeared”—for putting them on the same team?
    “Everyone gather around,” Dilya said, assuming command.
    They each took a position on one side of the square table. “We are here at the base of these mountains,” she said, placing her finger on the map. “We will drive as far as possible tomorrow morning up into the mountains, and then we will hike across the border into Uzbekistan. Our orders were to go this way.” She swept her hand across the map to where she had marked a bright red X. “That is where the gold is hidden. However, we are being diverted.”
    “What are you talking about?” Oscar said.
    “Yeah,” Casper said suspiciously. “Why the last-minute change in plans?”
    “As you know, there is no way for us to contact Langley from the base of this mountain, but while I was at the airport, I received an urgent call from Jones. He gave me additional orders.”
    “I don’t like the smell of this,” Casper grumbled.
    “I was with Jones yesterday, and he didn’t say anything to me about a change in plans,” Storm added.
    “You have been flying with orders to stay off the air since you left Germany,” she reminded him. “It seems that a friend of yours has been kidnapped in England.”
    “Agent Showers?” Storm exclaimed. “Kidnapped! How’s that possible? She’s in a hospital recovering from a gunshot wound.”
    “She
was
in a hospital in Oxford, but she was kidnapped while she was being driven to an English air base to fly back to the States.”
    “Whose got her? Where is she now?”
    “According to Jones, she is being flown to Jizzakh, a city not far from our original destination in the Molguzar Mountains,” Dilya said. “He has ordered us to go to Jizzakh and rescue her.”
    “What?” Oscar said indignantly. “I’m a geologist. I’m not risking my neck because some careless FBI agent got herself kidnapped.”
    In a move that surprised even himself, Storm grabbed the front of Oscar’s shirt, jerking him off his feet and slamming his head down on the map.
    “You’re talking about a partner of mine,” he said. “And she is not careless and we will go rescue her, is that clear?”
    “Please release Oscar,” Dilya said in a matter-of-fact voice.
    Storm turned him loose, and the Russian stood, clearly angry. “Touch me again, and I will kill you,” he sputtered.
    “With what?” Casper said. “A rock?” Reaching down, he pulled his knife from its scabbard and flipped it in the air, causing it to turn over so that he could catch it by its blade. “I can loan you this, if you think you can take him.”
    Oscar looked at the extended knife and then at Storm.
    “Huh, just like I thought,” Casper said, expertly returning the blade to his belt. “I didn’t think you had the nuts.” He looked at Dilya and said, “This Commie geek has a point though. We were recruited to help find the missing gold. If this FBI broad needs to be saved, why doesn’t Jones send in the marines?”
    “We’re the closest,” she said.
    “And we’re untraceable,” said Storm.
    “You mean expendable,” Casper complained.
    “This woman knows the location of the gold,” Dilya said. “If she talks before we can rescue her, we could be walking into a trap.”
    “We either need to rescue her or silence her then,” Casper