"Who we're personally involved with—it's a matter of security. They'll watch you, Diane. Your privacy will be gone. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Then tell me why you did it."

Her voice came through the line muffled, as if by unshed tears. "I couldn't help it. I needed you. I need you."

Diane closed her eyes. She felt their bodies soar together, their breath mingling, their souls surrendering as one. "Then I'm here."

"Do you understand what that means?"

"I do. I don't care."

"I have to go." A beat. Two. "I love you so very much."

The line went silent, but the words echoed in her heart. I love you too.

*

From the air, the access road through the dense green forest looked like a snake slithering through the grass. If she hadn't known it was there, Cam didn't think she would have recognized it for what it was—a single-track dirt road leading five miles into an unpopulated and undeveloped region of the Appalachians that bordered Virginia and Tennessee. As they descended, she focused the binoculars Major Simons had provided her on a tiny patch of tan that stood out amidst the confluence of green. After a few seconds, she nudged Simons's shoulder and pointed, mouthing the words, Fire tower.

He followed her direction and nodded. Then he climbed forward, pointed to the pilot, and spoke into his throat mike. The helicopters veered north to circle around what might be a lookout post. Cam doubted it would make much difference, but minimizing advance notice could only help. She glanced across the aisle to Savard, who looked composed, almost meditative. She almost would have preferred that Savard look a little jumpy. Sun Tzu said that the greatest warriors did not fear death and, therefore, did not hesitate in battle. On this particular day, Cam wanted a little bit of hesitation on Savard's part. If she got hurt, Stark would have a hard time handling it. So would she. She'd just have to see that nothing happened to Savard.

*

Felicia walked out onto the deck. "Do we know anything yet?"

"Holding pattern," Stark said. She nodded toward Blair. "But it's possible that Ms. Powell may have something for us in an hour or so."

Felicia raised an eyebrow.

"I spoke with Lucinda Washburn not long ago," Blair explained. "She promised to give me an update, but you know how information is handled at that level. It may or may not be the whole story." She shrugged. "Usually, Lucinda tells it to me straight. I could call my father, but..." She considered what Cam had told her earlier about the layers of protection around her father when these kinds of operations were underway. Her lover was willing to risk her life for concepts as hard to define as honor and patriotism. Blair was not willing to compromise those ideals by asking her father for the details. He might very well tell her, because he loved her, and that was something that she could not ask him to do. He was more than her father. He was the president of the United States. Sometimes, she didn't want to think about that, because it frightened her that there were people who wished him harm. It also overwhelmed her when she considered the magnitude of his importance to the world. He was the man who had held out his arms to catch her when she took her first steps, lest she fall. He was the man who had swung her up to his shoulders to watch the Fourth of July parades when she was too small to see through the crowds. He was the man whose opinion mattered to her more than any person's in the world, except Cam's. But despite all of that, he was also the man whose responsibilities set him apart from everyone else, even her. She shrugged again and tossed the dregs of her coffee over the railing. "Maybe Cam or Savard will call soon and fill us in."

She turned and strode into the house.

Felicia watched her go and as the door swung shut, looked back to Stark. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Everybody's on edge, that's all." She hunched her shoulders against a sudden gust of wind and studied the sky. "I think it's gonna rain again."

"Maybe. The weather's really hinky out here in the middle of the ocean." She squeezed Stark's shoulder. "Why don't you go on in. I'll stand watch out here for a while. I've been cooped up in that damn building for days staring at the monitor—I can handle a little fresh air."

"What do you think is going on with Valerie?"

"Ah, God. I think the CIA wanted to know what we found before anyone else." She buttoned the top button of her navy wool pea jacket as the wind picked up. "She helped break the case open for us. We'd have arrived at the same place eventually, but she helped get us there sooner."

"I was thinking the same thing," Stark admitted reluctantly. "You know, sometimes we don't have a lot of choices."

"I have a feeling no one really knows what's happening minute to minute these days in terms of our security network," Felicia said, her expression uneasy. "I'm glad we're here and that Egret is out of things for a while. They're keeping the vice president under wraps somewhere too. Probably smart. I'm glad I'm not on the president's detail."

Paula snorted. "Yeah. They probably want to keep him in the underground bunker, and knowing President Powell, he's not going to go for that."

"No. That's why I can't be too angry with Valerie. Every day we get closer to these guys, we cut the risk of something really bad happening again."

"So maybe it all evens out in the end?"

Felicia wrapped her arms around her body, wishing, not for the first time, that Mac were with them. "I hope so."

*

The four helicopters descended in a ring toward the compound. As the layout of the camp became more distinct, Cam noted that the trees had been clear-cut for a hundred yards around the fenced perimeter and the ground bulldozed flat. There appeared to be guard posts on either side of the main entrance, which was barricaded by a double swinging gate. A ground approach, even if they'd had armored jeeps, would have been ill-advised because of the absence of cover. As it was, the helicopters would have to deliver the troops right into the heart of the compound.

Simons's voice came through the powerful loudspeaker in their helicopter. "This is the United States Army. All personnel in the compound, assemble on the parade grounds. This is the United States Army. Surrender your weapons and assemble on the parade grounds. This is the United States..."

As the message repeated, Cam quickly scanned the open area between the main building and several smaller ones that probably served as the training grounds. At least a dozen men in fatigues hurried from the buildings. The helicopter to the right of hers, which she could see through the open door, zigzagged sharply away. Through her earphones she heard Simons shout, "The idiots are firing on us. Take us down! Take us down!"

The helicopter dropped precipitously, and Cam was thrown back against the inside wall. Across from her, Savard appeared eerily calm.

"All troops, prepare to jump," Simons commanded. "I want these birds back up in the air as soon as we hit the ground."

Cam drew her weapon and glanced at Savard once more before getting in line behind the two Delta commandos who crouched in the open doorway, waiting to drop the last ten feet into the hot zone.

Chapter Thirty-One

C am was grateful for the enormous clouds of dust that the helicopters lacked up from the hard-packed earth of the parade grounds. At least the impromptu sandstorm afforded them a few seconds of cover as they prepared to drop into the fire zone. She put her hand on Savard's back and leaned close to her. "Go first. I'll provide covering fire. Take cover anywhere you can, but try to follow the front men."

"No," Savard shouted back. "You won't have anyone at your back."

"Do it," Cam said as she saw the second soldier drop from view. She pushed Savard forward. "Go, go!"

The helicopter bounced from side to side as if buffeted by a high wind, hovering as close to the ground as possible. As soon as Savard's head disappeared from sight, Cam jumped after her, mentally repeating, drop and roll, drop and roll. She landed with a bone-rattling, teeth-jarring thud and let her legs go soft, pitching forward into a shoulder roll and coming up in a crouch with her weapon extended. Overhead, the steady pinging of bullets impacting on the ascending helicopters sounded like hail on a tin roof. Her eyes were filled with grit and her vision hazy, but she could see well enough to make out that Savard was down and unmoving eight feet away. The only thought in her mind was to get her to cover as she threw herself flat on the ground and started to crawl, ignoring the small puffs of dirt that signaled bullets striking the ground nearby.

*

Blair walked into the living room, surprised to see Diane curled up in one corner of the sofa with a glass of wine in her hand. "Isn't it still morning, or did I miss something?"

Smiling wanly, Diane shook her head. "No. You're right. But if I drink another cup of coffee, I'm likely to have a meltdown. And frankly, I've been keeping such odd hours for the last week or so, my internal clock is totally disrupted. It feels like seven at night."

"Actually," Blair said as she threw herself down on the sofa beside Diane, "I might join you if we don't hear something pretty soon."

"You don't have any idea what's going on?"

"No. But I'm willing to bet that once they have the names of these guys, which they do now, they're not going to wait around to go after them. And I'm willing to bet there's a reason that Cam took Savard, and not Felicia or Stark, to this so-called briefing. Savard's FBI. She's trained in armed apprehension. So is Cam, because she was originally part of the investigative division of the Secret Service. But Stark and Davis have always done protection, and there's a difference. They're not as used to making arrests."