“Yes sir. I’ll relay your orders.”

“Be prepared to take action soon.” Matheson felt his groin tingling as he considered a plan to turn the hunters into quarry. “I’m growing tired of this waiting game.”

“Are you sure you want me to come with you?” Diane asked as she packed her suitcase. “I know what Cam said, but—”

“If you weren’t already here, we’d come and get you.” Blair sat cross-legged on the bed in blue jeans and a long-sleeved navy T-shirt. Her hair was loose and she was barefoot. “I can’t believe I let you go back to Manhattan alone in the first place.”

“Who knew that these people… these maniacs… who tried to hurt you would keep coming? How can they possibly think they can gain power in this country? We aren’t some third world dictatorship that’s likely to topple at the slightest show of violence.”

Blair shrugged. “They’re fanatics. Look at all the paramilitary and right wing fundamentalist groups springing up across this country. They think they can change the order of things, and they’re recruiting more people all the time who agree.”

“God, it’s like those zealots who shoot abortion doctors and think that’s going to stop the pro-choice movement.” Diane looked at Blair in confusion. “I can hardly believe it’s real.”

“I can’t believe we didn’t see it coming, and after what happened last month, I don’t think it’s going to stop.” Chafing at the inactivity, Blair stood and started folding clothes. “Every psycho with an agenda is going to think they have a chance after 9/11.”

Diane stopped what she was doing, her fingers digging into the sweater she held. “I’m ashamed to admit that part of me wishes your father wasn’t president, because I hate to think of you or Cam in danger. I can only imagine how you must feel.”

Blair smiled ruefully. “You know, for the first time in my life I’m honestly glad that my father’s president, and I want him to be president for as long as he can be.” She carefully placed a silk blouse into the suitcase. “Because these fuckers, whoever they are, wherever they are, have to learn that we won’t be victims.”

“I guess we’ll have to keep that sexy dress you bought for the wedding in the closet a while longer.”

“Why?”

Diane regarded her with surprise. “I can’t imagine either you or Cam is going to want to think about wedding plans until all of this is resolved.”

“We’re not waiting for something that might never happen.” Blair folded her arms, part defiance, part comfort. “And we’re not putting our lives on hold until it does. I’m instructing Lucinda to slip a nice quiet statement out to the press today that Cameron and I intend to be married in a private ceremony before the end of the year.”

“Oh boy.”

Blair grinned. “And girls.”

“Indeed.” Diane kissed her cheek. “I think you’re the bravest person I know.”

“I wish I were,” Blair said. “I’m terrified every day that something will happen to Cam. And if it did, I don’t think I’d survive it.”

“I would never have imagined you with her.”

Blair lifted her shoulders. “We don’t choose who to love.”

“No. We don’t.” Diane smiled sadly. “Now I can’t imagine you with anyone else.”

“Neither can I.” Blair stroked Diane’s arm. She was already dressed to travel in a pale blue cashmere cowl-neck sweater and tan slacks. For the first time Blair realized that Diane, always slender, had lost weight. “How are you holding up?”

“It’s so hard, knowing that Cam saw Valerie last night and I can’t even speak to her.”

“Have you thought maybe you should try to let her go?” Blair reached for Diane’s hand. As hard as it was to ask, it was even harder to watch her suffer.

Diane twined her fingers through Blair’s and squeezed lightly. “Cam didn’t tell me very much about what went on. I understand that she can’t. She wouldn’t tell me exactly why Valerie is staying away, but I know it’s partly because of me.”

“She doesn’t want you to be hurt.”

Diane trembled and Blair drew her close. With a shaky breath, Diane continued, “Cam must trust her, because she didn’t try to detain her. I love Valerie. I have to trust her as much as Cam does.”

“You’re really sure, aren’t you?” Blair said.

Diane smiled almost shyly. “I really am. Nothing has felt as right since I met you.”

“Then I’m on your side,” Blair said, hugging Diane tightly. “And hers.”

“We’ll travel in two groups to Whitley Point,” Cam said, scribbling on a flip chart that she had dug out of the closet earlier. She couldn’t find the stand, so she balanced the oversized pad of paper on her knees facing Stark, Savard, and Davis, who clustered around her in the living room. “Stark, you and your people will take Blair and Diane. You’ll fly out of Andrews again at 1100 hours, but this time you’ll land at Westover, Mass.”

Stark frowned. “What’s there?”

“It’s an Air Force Reserve base, so it’s relatively low profile. We’ll have Tanner’s people pick you up in three vehicles and take you the rest of the way, each vehicle following a different route.”

“Who knows about the itinerary?”

“The flight plan was filed through Lucinda’s office, but there’s no attendant passenger list. Only Tanner knows the routes and final destination.”

“You’re putting a lot of faith in Tanner’s people,” Stark said mildly.

“My feeling is that we know more about her team than we could about anyone coming to us from inside the system right now. You’re the security chief. What’s your call?”

Stark took her time. “Until we find Valerie and Matheson, I don’t want anyone new getting close to Blair.”

“I agree.” Cam blew out a breath. “Basically we’ll handle Blair’s security in the same way the Vice President’s has been set up since the attacks. She’ll be based in a secure location away from the White House known to as few people as possible, and she’ll make very few and only essential public appearances. We can’t keep her completely sequestered—first because she’d never allow it, secondly, because we can’t make prisoners of our elected officials and their families, and finally because the public is going to be looking for her. She’s too popular to just disappear.”

“We’re going to be thin on the ground,” Stark said, “now that Davis has gone over to OHS.”

Cam nodded as she drew a grid and added names. “You’ll have to work with a smaller team than usual for the time being. Hara, Wozinski, yourself, and Tanner’s people. Can you handle it?”

Stark didn’t hesitate. “Yes, we can.”

As satisfied with the security as she could be when all she really wanted to do was take Blair to some remote island for six months, Cam switched her attention to Savard. “We’ll follow by ground as soon as you and Davis are happy that you’ve accessed all the data immediately available to us. You can use the computers in my office in the West Wing and wipe them when you’re done.”

“How long will you need, Felicia?” Savard asked, sitting with her injured leg straight out in front of her. The cane she’d used in lieu of her knee immobilizer rested against the arm of the chair. She looked focused and steady.

Davis smiled, her dark eyes glowing. “I want to make sure I look in everybody’s closets and leave myself a backdoor before we leave. Say, three hours.”

Cam checked her watch as she stood. “It’s 0815 now. We should be leaving DC by 1200 hours, which puts us into Whitley Point around 2300.”

Savard and Davis rose, and Savard asked, “Where will we rendezvous, Commander?”

“In case anyone is checking, I’ll schedule you and Davis for a meeting at FBI headquarters at 1130 hours. On your way there, the meeting will be canceled and a vehicle will pick you up at 13th and Pennsylvania Avenue.” Cam regarded Stark. “When would you like to depart here, Chief? If there’s anyone following Blair, they’ll lose the trail at Andrews.”

“We’ll have the vehicles out front at 0900 hours. I’ll wait downstairs until then.”

“Thanks,” Cam said, appreciating the few moments of privacy she would have with Blair. After returning from her meeting with Valerie, she’d been up all night talking to Lucinda and the president’s security adviser. She had yet to tell Blair the specifics of the plan, because she hadn’t worked it out until shortly before Stark and her security team had arrived. She was sore and tired, but it felt good being in the field again. Working. Doing what she knew how to do.

When the others had left, Cam walked down the hall to Diane’s bedroom and tapped on the door. “Can I talk to you a minute, Blair?”

“Sure,” Blair said. After she’d finished helping Diane pack, she’d gone to the kitchen for more coffee and heard the murmur of voices in the living room. Although she knew Cam wouldn’t exclude her from the discussions if she asked to sit in, she also knew that Cam and Stark were getting their first real test of working together in their new roles. She doubted that anyone in security or intelligence was going to like being overridden by agents from the new Homeland Security Office, not even Stark, not even when the agent in question was Cam. She decided her presence would only add to the tension. “When are we leaving?”

“About forty-five minutes.”

Blair glanced over her shoulder at Diane. “I’ll meet you in the living room in a few minutes, okay?”

“Yes. I’ve got some calls to make. I should let my gallery manager know how long I’ll be away.”

“Tell her three weeks for now.” Cam rested her hand lightly on Blair’s shoulder. The contact felt good. She had missed her the previous night, missed the way holding her through the night rejuvenated her.

Diane nodded. “All right, but I can’t be away any longer than that.

Sooner or later, I have to go back to my life.”

“I understand.”