The news hit me like a blow. We should have checked it. We had checked our own, of course, as soon as we’d received them. But we’d made so much progress since then. We had so many reasons to believe we were ready to convert Elbar to an ally that we’d neglected to check the last card we had been issued.
We’d delivered Hunter right to them.
I snatched the card from Frank’s grasp, then stumbled to the open door and the veranda overlooking the gorge beyond. I collapsed against the railing and hurled the slim card with all my remaining might, throwing it out into the rain and the open air. I can only assume it eventually fell to the Bundar River below and was swept out to sea.
When I returned to the main room, Frank was still looking shaken.
But I was angry.
And I was resolved.
“We don’t
