Kitty Hawk

The sun was coming up. It looked like it was going to be a clear day on the Outer Banks.

Boone watched the dashboard computer in John’s SUV. Another signal had appeared on the GPS a few minutes earlier. It had been a little hard to explain to John how this had happened, so Boone had simply told him the truth, or a version of the truth.

“Croc put the tracking devise back on the Tahoe.”

“Your dog?”

“Yep.”

“Wow. That’s a good dog,” John had said, and dropped the subject.

It was then that Boone knew he and John were going to get along well.

The Tahoe and the Audi were driving parallel to them about a half a mile inland along Bay Drive. Eben and Ziv were barreling south on 158 and were about a half an hour out. Felix was just crossing the bridge to Roanoke Island.

“Turn signal,” John said.

Boone looked through the windshield. The truck was turning left onto Kitty Hawk Boulevard.

“Back off,” Boone said. “Give them plenty of room.” He pointed to the GPS. “The Tahoe and the other vehicle are going to intersect with the truck a half a mile down.”

Boone called the president.

“Looks like it’s going down in Kitty Hawk,” J.R. said.

“Maybe,” Boone said. “Might be time to move your team in a little closer just in case.”

“I already have,” J.R. said.

Boone wasn’t surprised. “Where are they?”

“South of you. First Flight Airport. Kill Devil Hills. They landed about twenty minutes ago.”

“How many?”

“Eight operators. Half a platoon.”

Boone thought for a minute before responding. “Do you think there’d be any objection to Masters taking the lead on this?”

“I’m the commander in chief,” J.R. said. “The SEAL team will do what I order them to do.”

“Putting that aside,” Boone said.

“I don’t think there will be any objection. These boys would be thrilled to take orders from John Masters.”

“Let them know,” Boone said. “He’ll be down at Kill Devil Hills soon. This needs to look like an Israeli Mossad operation. No American involvement.”

“Understood,” J.R. said.

“This is my last call until this is over.”

“Get her back, Boone,” J.R. said, and ended the call.

Boone called Eben and Ziv next. Ziv answered. “Go to the First Flight Airport in Kill Devil Hills and suit up. Make certain you’re wearing vests. Your lives will depend on it. The Mossad is going to do an illegal favor for the president of the United States.”

“I have great admiration for your Culpepper president,” Ziv said. “It will be my pleasure to do a favor for him.”

The last call Boone made was to Felix.

“How are you holding up?”

“Tired,” Felix said. “Sore.”

“You can take your time getting here. I think we have enough people. We’ll need you to pick us up later this morning.”

“I’ll get breakfast,” Felix said. “There’s an outlet mall up ahead. Big and Tall shop. I need new clothes.”

“I’m not sure where we’ll resurface,” Boone said. “I’ll give you a call when I know.”

Boone turned to John. “Stop the car.”

“The truck’s getting quite a ways in front of us,” John said.

“Pull over.”

John pulled into a gas station.

“I’m getting out here,” Boone said.

“Why?”

“End game,” Boone answered. “You probably caught some of the conversation, but there’s a SEAL team waiting for you at the First Flight Airport. You’ll be in command. It’s strictly black op. Way off the books. I’ll give you more instructions when you get there.”

“The Tahoe and Audi are now heading south on Elijah Baum Road. The truck’s probably with them. They’re a mile away. How are you going to get there?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll catch up with them. Get going. You’ll need to be in place soon.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yep.”

John pulled his pistol out of the holder and offered it to him. Boone smiled and shook his head. “Weapons are your deal,” he said, getting out. “I won’t need it.”

He watched John pull a U-turn. As soon as John was out of sight, he turned his cell phone off.

Then he blinked.

Dead Kids Tell No Tales

It seemed like they had been in the truck for weeks. Malak looked at her watch. 6:53. They had been in the truck for less than four hours. She switched on the flashlight she had found in the boat and shined it at Bethany. Other than looking a little rumpled and tired, the president’s daughter appeared to be in remarkably good shape. She even managed to give Malak a slight smile.

“So this is it,” Bethany said.

“I suspect so. Are we clear on everything?”

“My part’s pretty simple,” Bethany said. “Play dead.”

“Unconscious,” Malak corrected. “There’s a stretcher in the boat.”

“I sometimes get a little queasy on boats. Do you know how far we’re going?”

There had been a nautical map in the boat with a course plotted to a small island in Kitty Hawk Bay.

“It’s not far,” Malak said.

She handed Bethany the hood. “Sorry.”

“That’s all right,” Bethany said. She slipped it on, lay down, and began her deep yoga breathing.

The truck came to a stop.

Malak went into a state the polar opposite of Bethany’s. Every nerve in her body was on high alert. She pulled out her pistol, chambered a round, and pointed it at the door. To protect Bethany, and to protect herself, she needed to bound from the truck like a leopard ready to hunt. She needed to be completely in charge.

The locking mechanism screeched. A moment later the doors swung open. Light poured in. The Leopard did not shade her eyes. They were parked in the middle of a cemetery. The white Tahoe was backed up to the rear of the semi-trailer. Exhaust billowed out of the mufflers in the cool morning, past the tombstones. Three men surrounded it, facing out, assault rifles ready. Scuff Boots started pulling out the ramp. A woman stood to the side of the open door. She was tall, with long black hair pulled back into a severe ponytail. Malak knew her as Ariel, aka the Lion of God. She had a cell phone to her ear with one hand, and an assault rifle in the other.

Malak lowered her pistol, but kept it in her hand. She had worked with Ariel several times before. She and her team’s specialty was security and assassinations.

“The hostage is alive?” Ariel asked.

Malak nodded, wondering if Ariel knew who the hostage was. There was a good chance she didn’t. She was high up in the cell, but several notches beneath Anmar the Leopard. She got down from the truck.

“Alive,” Ariel said into the phone, then handed the phone to Malak. “For you.”

“Congratulations,” a man said. “You are now officially one of the Five.”

It was the same man who had questioned her in Virginia, but she only knew his voice. He hadn’t allowed her to see his face. Hopefully that would now change. He had told her that if she succeeded in kidnapping Bethany Culpepper, she would become a member of the inner circle. If she failed, he would have her killed. She glanced at Ariel. There was no doubt in her mind who her assassin would have been. She had not heard of the Five before. The name implied there was more than one person in charge of the ghost cell. This was the worst possible news she could have received. It meant that her journey would not end today.

“Bethany is well?” the man asked.

“She’s still unconscious, but stable,” Malak said. “She was overdosed.”

“She will wake soon. There is a map in the boat. Bring her to me. Ariel will set up a security perimeter around us. The only people allowed inside will be you, Bethany, and the other two. We try to keep our identities secret. I will tell Ariel that you are in charge of the operation, but I will not tell her that you are one of the Five.”

“The other two?” Malak asked, thinking they must be members of the Five she hadn’t seen yet.

“The children,” the man said. “Angela Tucker and Quest Munoz.”

It was all Malak could do to stop her knees from buckling. “They’re here? Why?”

“It was voted upon,” the man said. “I will explain how the Five works when we get a chance. You’ll find it interesting. Put Ariel on the phone. I’m looking forward to finally meeting you face-to-face.”

Malak handed Ariel the phone, keeping her face completely neutral although she wanted to scream. Ariel listened, then handed the phone back. Her face was neutral as well, but Malak was certain she wasn’t happy to hear that the Leopard was in charge of the Lion.

“I assume Tyrone Boone was with the children,” Malak said.

“He was driving,” Ariel said. “But he wasn’t there when we made the snatch. We didn’t take him.”

“He couldn’t have been too far away. Why didn’t you wait for him to come back?”

“We were led to believe he wasn’t an important asset. Our primary mission was to make sure the truck arrived here without any interference. The children were a target of opportunity. We were told to take whoever we could and not to harm them. There was no time to search the highway for the old man. There was a traffic jam. Many people were out of their cars. Too many witnesses.”

Ariel had made a huge mistake in not apprehending Boone, but Malak didn’t ask any more questions. To do so would tip her hand. Ariel could not know the Leopard was in the dark.

“Where are the children?” Malak asked.

“Around the corner in a car.”

“I’ll go speak with them.”

“I already questioned them,” Ariel said. “The girl lies badly.”

“I’ll see if I can get some truth out of her,” Malak said. “I want you to supervise the loading of our cargo. Use the stretcher from the boat. Handle her gently. I don’t want her woken until we are ready for her. And this is not the place. I assume the truck will haul the cars away from here?”

Ariel nodded. “We leave no trails.”

Malak nodded. Another one of the ghost cell mottos.

“See to it. I’ll get the children out of the other car so you can move it. I’ll bring them over when the boat is loaded and ready to leave. It’s best they see and hear as little as possible.”

Ariel smiled and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Dead kids tell no tales.”

Malak returned the smile, but she was sick with dread.

Dead terrorists tell no tales either.

She walked around the side of the truck to the second car … and her daughter.

A Voice from the Grave

“Here comes your mom,” I said.

“I see her,” Angela said.

“She doesn’t look too happy.” Actually she looked furious. She was walking quickly toward us with her gun out.

“I imagine not. She just rode half the night in the back of a semi-truck after kidnapping the president’s daughter. Now she’s in the middle of a graveyard, and we’re here.”

“That’d be enough to tick anybody off,” I said. “But I’m glad to see her anyway. It means we may not die today.”

Malak yanked the door open. She looked even angrier close-up.

“Get out of the car!”

I knew it was an act, but it still scared me. T3 seemed nice in comparison. We got out.

She pointed. “Walk over to that bench and sit down.”

There was a stone bench about a hundred feet away surrounded by tombstones. We walked over to it and sat down with our backs to the truck. She came up behind us and quickly cut our flex-cuffs … well, Angela’s cuffs. Mine were already off. She squatted in front of us so the people at the truck couldn’t see her. Only then did she give us a small worried smile.

“I can’t say that I’m happy to see you here, but I am happy to see that you’re both alive.”

Tears ran down Angela’s cheeks.

“You need to get all of that out of your system right now,” Malak said. “When we get in that boat, you need to stop thinking of me as your mother. If anyone suspects our true relationship, we will all be dead. Now tell me what happened, quickly, from the time you left the White House until you got here. We have very little time.”

Angela gave her a quick and pretty concise summary of what had happened, skipping a few points, like Croc sniffing out their whereabouts in the crab truck and his and Boone’s ability to vanish into thin air, or teleport, or whatever they did.

When she finished, Malak looked at me. “So your dad followed you from D.C.?”

“Yeah. He’s not wrapped too tight. But it kind of worked out for us in the end.”

“And they don’t know about this John Masters guy?”

“I don’t think so,” Angela answered. “They thought Boone put the tracking device on their car.”

“Do you have any idea where Boone and Masters are?”

“I’m here,” Boone said to our right.

“Don’t look!” Malak warned us.

Angela and I stared straight ahead.

“I’m not impressed with your idea of protecting my daughter,” Malak said, staring at us.

“We can discuss that at another time,” Boone said.

“I assume your team is here?”

“No,” Boone said. “Just me.”

A look of anger and disappointment crossed Malak’s face. Of course she didn’t know about Boone’s special talents.

“Are you armed?” Malak asked.

“Nope.”

“That’s just perfect.”

“Who were you talking to on the phone?” Boone said.

“How long have you been here?”

“I got here before you arrived.”

“How did you know—”

“There’s no time to explain,” Boone said, cutting her off. “Who were you talking to?”

“The same man I talked to in Virginia. He’s on an island waiting for us. The cell is controlled by five people. He’s just one of them.”

“So if we get him, we still have four more to go,” Boone said.

“Three,” Malak said. “I’m one of the five now.”

“That’s good to hear,” Boone said. “We need to keep you in that five so we can take the rest of them down.”

“How?”

“The Mossad is going to do a raid on the island led by the rogue agents Eben and Ziv. They’re going to rescue Bethany Culpepper and return her to the president. The guy waiting for you on the island is going to be wounded. But not too badly. You’re going to save him by shooting Eben and Ziv. They’ll have their vests on. Shoot them in the chest. No head shots. After they’re “dead,” you’re going to get away to fight another day.”

“There’s a woman here named Ariel. She’ll be setting up a parameter with three pros. They’re not going to be easy to take out.”

“I suspect the Navy SEAL team posing as Israeli Mossad will be up to the challenge,” Boone said.

“What about intel from the island?” Malak said. “The team will need to know what they’re up against. I have a phone now, but I can’t risk using it. They might be tracking outgoing data.”

“No worries,” Boone said. “Q will be providing intel for us.”

“I will?”

“Sleight of hand,” Boone said. “I’ve seen how you can conceal a phone in your hand to snap photos. This time you’re going to use video. You’ll need to get interior room shots, doors, approaches to the house. It’d be nice to get a shot of where Ariel sets up her team. Just think about what kind of information you would need if you were going to storm the island with an assault team. Make sure you don’t get caught doing it. And you won’t have much time. As soon as they get you in the house, or whatever they have out there, they’re going to lock you and Angela in a room. As soon as you’re alone, upload the video to John. We’ll be along not too long after we get the video. If you can’t manage to get the shots, we’ll still be along, but not quite as efficiently.”

“You’re forgetting something,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t have a phone.”

“Angela’s phone is under the bench right next to your feet. I’ve programmed John’s number into it.”

“It takes a long time to upload video,” I said. “And there’s a size limit.”

“It will upload instantly,” Boone said. “And there’s no size limit on Angela’s phone. X-Ray has messed with it.”

“Ariel’s coming,” Malak said.

She was halfway between us and the bench, moving quickly.

I picked up Angela’s phone. Croc had been messing with it too. It was covered in dog drool.

The Hunt

Before we got into the boat, Ariel wanted to put flex-cuffs back on us, which would have killed the video idea. I’m pretty good, but I didn’t think I could manage a camera phone with my hands cinched behind my back.

“Once the cuffs were off, the girl told me some interesting things,” Malak said. “And I don’t think she was lying.”

“Such as?” Ariel asked.

Malak answered her question with another question. “What can they do to us? They’re children.”

There were a lot of things Angela could do now that her hands were free, but the question had its desired effect. Ariel climbed into the boat and shut up about it.

The boat was made out of aluminum and it was good-sized. The enclosed cabin was long enough to hold the stretcher. Malak gave the coordinates to one of the men. She told Ariel to take the bow and put the other two men on the starboard and port sides. Malak, Angela, and I sat in the stern. This allowed me to practice with the phone without anyone seeing, and for Angela and her mom to talk quietly without anyone hearing. I tried not to listen, but it was kind of hard not to. We were sitting three feet away from each other.

“So what’s going to happen?” Angela asked.

“Violence,” Malak said. “Boone’s team is going to move in and surgically take out Ariel’s team. Then they’ll storm the house. You and Q will be locked in a room and won’t hear much. The SEAL team will probably use silenced weapons.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Angela said. “What I want to know is what’s going to happen to you?”

“Oh,” Malak said, a little startled. “I’ll be fine. Since Ariel won’t be around to defend herself, I’ll put the blame for the raid on her. I suspect that whoever gave her the order will do the same. They should have never taken you without taking Boone. You and Q obviously didn’t put the tracking device on their SUV. They had the president’s daughter in hand and one of the five had the bright idea to break protocol and kidnap you. It was a stupid mistake. The ghost cell has not survived all of these years by making mistakes. I might be able to cause some dissension among the four. Maybe I can get them to take out one of their own.”

“And then there were three,” Angela said.

Malak smiled. “I hope it gets to, And Then There Were None.”

“You mean one,” Angela said.

“Definitely,” Malak said. “Remember the Agatha Christie novels we read together when you were young.”

“I remember,” Angela said. “I remember all of the books we read together.”

“I thought this was going to be over today,” Malak said. “I can see now that was wishful thinking. But I am closer to being done with this than I was a few days ago.”

“What are you going to do when it’s finally over?”

“I try not to think about that too much. Thoughts like that are dangerous for me. I suppose I could move back to San Francisco. I’ve always loved the city. I’d have to change my identity of course. I think I’d like to become a librarian.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No joke. I love books, and believe it or not, I like helping people.”

“That’s hard to picture,” Angela said. “I mean, the librarian part.”

It was impossible for me to picture too. Malak didn’t look like any of the librarians I’d ever known.

She gave Angela a wistful smile. “Sometimes at night when I’m trying to sleep, I imagine myself walking down an endless aisle of books, running my fingers along the spines, pausing once in a while to pull a book off the shelf to see what’s beneath the cover. I know it’s kind of an odd fantasy for an infamous international terrorist.”

“You’re not a terrorist,” Angela said.

“Actually, I am a terrorist,” Malak said sadly. “I have done some very terrible things. Things that I deeply regret, but I had little choice if I wanted to stay in the hunt.” She looked off across the water for a moment, and bit her lower lip just like Angela did sometimes. When she looked back, there were tears in her eyes. “It’s been all about the hunt,” she said softly. “It’s why I went off the grid. It’s why I stepped into Anmar’s shoes. It’s why I lied to your father. It’s why I lied to you.”

“You didn’t lie,” Angela insisted.

“Yes I did. Letting your loved ones think that you are dead is a lie. I broke your father’s heart. I broke your heart. All for the hunt.”

“Someone had to do it,” Angela said.

“But I volunteered,” Malak said. “You and your father didn’t. I brought you both into this. Now I need to get you out of it.”

“We all need to get out of this,” Angela said. “Including you.”

“That may not be possible. There are a lot of people looking for me and they aren’t going to stop just because I decide to stop hunting. If we’re lucky enough to take the ghost cell down, there will be more people looking for me. We won’t get all of them. There will be some that are too deeply buried for us to dig out. It will only take one of them to kill the librarian in the stacks. If they find out you’re my daughter, they’ll come after you too. They’ll come after your father as well. These people are vindictive and they have long memories. It’s a deadly game I’m playing. And to be truthful, I’m not sure how to end it.”

“I think it can be worked out,” Angela said.

“We’ll see. I hope you’re right. But first we have to get through this day.”

“Boone’s plan seems pretty good,” Angela said.

“Boone’s plan is absolutely brilliant, but don’t tell him I said that. I’m still ticked off at him for leaving you and Q alone on the highway.” Malak stood up. “I better check on Bethany.”

“Is she okay?” I asked, thinking it might be all right for me to butt in now. “She’s been unconscious for a long time.”

“She’s as conscious as you are,” Malak said. “She woke up at the rest area. She’s doing something called deep yoga breathing to make everyone think that she’s out. That girl has more grit than her dad, and that’s saying something. The point of this exercise is to video the president’s daughter, striking terror into everyone’s hearts. We’re not going to give them that chance.”

She went into the cabin.

“What do you think?” Angela asked.

“I think your mom’s pretty cool. I think she’s right about your and her situation being complicated. I think I’m going to be able to get the video Boone needs, but I don’t think it was necessary.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think Boone and Croc are already on the island and know exactly what the setup is there.”

“If he’s already there, why doesn’t he just shoot the video and send it to John?”

“Because he doesn’t want to turn his cell phone on. It’s being tracked. How can he explain traveling over open water at the speed of light? Remember when he turned his cell phone off in D.C.?”

Angela nodded.

“I thought he did it because he wanted to be off the grid, but that wasn’t it. He turned his cell off so he wouldn’t have to explain how his signal went from point A to point B in a millisecond.”

“Who do you think Tyrone Boone really is?”

“A better question might be what is Tyrone Boone? And the answer is, I don’t know. I’m just glad he’s on our side.”

Malak came back a few minutes later and sat down next to us. “We’ll be there in about five minutes. I just got a call from the man on the island. This is how it’s going to go down. We’ll carry Bethany up to the house on the stretcher and put her in the room to the right. You two will be going into the room to the left. Ariel and her team will exit the house and set up their perimeter outside. When everyone is gone, the man will make his appearance.”

“He doesn’t want anyone to see what he looks like except you,” Angela said.

“Exactly,” Malak said, looking at me. “The point is that you might not have a lot of time to get the video Boone needs. I’ll have Ariel’s team take the stretcher, and we’ll follow behind, which should give you a chance to get some shots. But even though they’re in front, you’ll need to be careful. The man will be watching us closely as we approach the house.”

“He won’t see the camera,” I said.

The boat started to slow. Fifty feet in front of us was a long dock.

“The actual raid will happen very quickly,” Malak said. “By quickly I mean it will be over within a minute or two. Bethany is the president’s daughter. They’ll treat her as if the threat is still active, even if the bad guys are all dead. Their immediate priority will be to get her off the island to a secure location. With some luck, I’ll be gone before she leaves.” She looked at Angela and hesitated. “What I’m saying is this is it. I love you. Stay away from the doors and windows when the shooting starts. I’ll be in touch when I think it’s safe. Tell Boone thanks, but I’m still mad at him.”

We were ten feet from the dock.

“I hope the hunt ends soon,” Angela said.

“I do too,” Malak said.

The House

“Tie up with the bow facing the bay,” Malak said. “We may have to get out of here quickly.”

The man on the bridge swung the boat around and eased it into the dock next to a second boat that was smaller than ours, but looked a lot faster.

Ariel and another man jumped to the dock and fixed the lines fore and aft to cleats. It was a nice dock. It looked like it was made out of solid teak or some other expensive wood.

Ariel pointed at a couple of her men and told them to take the stretcher.

“Negative,” Malak said. “I want one person on each corner.”

“It’s not that heavy,” Ariel said.

“That’s not the point,” Malak snapped. “I don’t want her jostled. I don’t want her awake until we have her inside.” She looked at each terrorist in turn. “Do you understand?”

They all nodded, but it was pretty clear they didn’t like Malak ordering them around.

“What about the kids?” Ariel asked.

“I can handle two kids,” Malak said. “We’ll be right behind you. Let’s go.”

We waited in the boat until they had the stretcher out and had started up the dock.

“Let’s go,” Malak said to us, waving her gun for the benefit of anyone who might be watching. I was shoulder to shoulder with Angela. Malak was two steps behind us. I started the camera rolling, moving it to the left and right, but mostly focusing the tiny lens on the house. The house was a two-story log A-frame set back into the trees about fifty feet from the dock. A set of steep stairs led up to a porch that ran the length of the house. It looked like the front door was wide open. I figured the guy would be upstairs looking out the window but standing back a ways so nobody could see him. Malak hadn’t mentioned it, but I also figured that he had binoculars or a spotting scope. I would have in his place. This meant he could see us like we were standing a foot away from him.

A magic trick is all about diversion. You get them to look at your left hand so they don’t see what you’re doing with your right hand. How was I going to keep this guy’s attention off my right hand, where I had the phone? Simple. I started picking my nose with my left hand. It’s a perfect diversion. People have two fundamental reactions to nose picking. They are either so grossed out they can’t look at you at all, or they are kind of fascinated by the process and can’t take their eyes off of it, especially if they think you can’t see them. If they’re nose-picking lookers I guarantee they’re not watching the hand that isn’t digging. And I had a lot to dig because of the bloody nose Ariel had given me.

Apparently Angela was not a looker. She glanced at me once, saw my busy index finger, and didn’t look at me again all the way into the house.

The house was magnificent. It looked like they’d knocked down an entire old-growth forest to build it. Inside, it was nicely furnished and it smelled like pine. Stuffed animal heads were sticking out of the log walls. Polar bear, moose, lion, wildebeest, rhino, and several animals I didn’t recognize. On the floor were zebra-skin and tiger-skin rugs. Directly across from the front door was a wide staircase leading up to an open balcony running all the way around the top of the A. There were rooms on the front side of the house and on the back side. I figured the guy that was watching us was in one of the upstairs rooms in the front. I also figured that he didn’t own this place and probably had no connection to it whatsoever. No one would kidnap the president’s daughter and take her to his own house.

Malak pointed to the door on the far right of the lower level. “Take her in there,” she said. “Lay the stretcher on the bed.”

She gave me another second to video the interior of the house, then she pushed us toward an open doorway on the left side of the house. As soon as we were inside, she slammed the door behind us.

Croc was stretched out on the king-sized bed with his brown eye open and his blue eye closed.

Even though I had predicted he was going to get to the island before us, I was shocked to see him.

Angela looked shocked too, but she stayed on task. “The video,” she said.

“Right.”

There wasn’t time to see if what I’d shot was any good. I attached the file to an e-mail to John and hit the send button. Within a second the e-mail was gone.

“That was fast,” I said.

“Where do you think Boone is?” Angela asked.

“Close by.”

I checked out the walk-in closet, then went into the attached bathroom. I didn’t expect to find Boone that close by, but I had to look. The bathroom window was open. I looked out. It was at least a fifteen-foot drop to the ground in back. If Croc had come through the window, he would have had to have flown. There were bushes and trees in back of the house. A lot of places for Navy SEALs to sneak up on terrorists without being seen. One of the terrorists came around the corner and took up a position behind a tree. He wasn’t paying any attention to the house, so I shot a short video of him and sent it to John with a note telling him where I had taken it.

When I came back out, Angela was sitting on the edge of the bed scratching Croc’s ears. She was crying. I sat down next to her, wondering if I should give her a hug, or take her hand, or put my arm around her. I wasn’t clear on what new stepbrothers should do in a situation like this. I ran back into the bathroom and grabbed the box of tissues. I handed it to her. She gave me a little smile, pulled a tissue out, and wiped her eyes.

“Thanks, Q.”

“Sure. I know this thing with your mom is really hard.”

“I’ll be okay. It’s just that I thought it was going to be over today.”

“I did too.”

She went into the bathroom. I could hear the faucet come on.

I walked over to the window. I wanted to see if the terrorist was in the same spot. He was. And that’s when I saw Boone. He appeared right behind the guy, held up three fingers to the window, then he was gone. The guy turned his head, but of course there was nothing for him to see.

Angela came out of the bathroom.

“I just saw Boone.”

“Where?”

“Out back. We have three minutes.”

Three Minutes

Malak watched out the front window as Ariel settled into her position at the front of the house. Four sides to a house. Four positions. It was a logical configuration and one that Boone’s team would have no problem anticipating. She went into Bethany’s bedroom, leaned close to her ear, and whispered, “This will be over soon. Do not move.”

“How is she doing?” a deep voice asked behind her.

She had expected him, but had not heard him approach. He moves like a ghost. He had waited for Ariel to show up out front before coming out of hiding. She turned to face him.

He was standing in the doorway. He was shorter than she thought he would be. Five foot eight. He had black hair graying at the temples. He was wearing pressed jeans, a gray sweatshirt, and deck shoes without socks. He was lean, but not thin. He was fit for a man in his mid-fifties. But the most important thing she noticed about him was that he was not armed. He did not look like a terrorist, but people in the ghost cell rarely did. He looked like what he was supposed to be. A successful businessman spending the weekend at his extravagant man lodge in Kitty Hawk Bay.

“She will be fine,” Malak said. “I think she’ll be awake in two or three hours.”

“Excellent.” He stepped into the room. “That will give us time to talk, but before we do, please remove the hood. I want to see her face, and she will probably be able to breath easier with it off.”

Malak knew the man was not interested in Bethany’s comfort. He wanted proof that it was the president’s daughter lying on the bed. She gently removed the hood, hoping Bethany could continue her yoga breathing under this kind of scrutiny.

The man walked over to the bed and stared down at her for several seconds. Bethany’s breathing was deep and regular, making Malak wonder if she actually was asleep or unconscious.

“She is a beautiful young woman,” the man finally said. “We will let her sleep. Let’s go talk. I’m sure you have many questions for me.”

She followed him into the big room, closing Bethany’s door behind her with a huge sense of relief.

So far so good.

“Can I get you anything?” the man asked. “I can make coffee or tea. You must be hungry after your uncomfortable journey, but I’m afraid there isn’t much to eat in the kitchen. Did you bring supplies?”

“In the boat,” Malak said. “I’ll go down to get them in a moment.”

The man smiled. “Talk before eating. Of course. Please sit down.”

She sat facing the window trying to anticipate how the raid would go down, wondering how soon it would happen. She needed to be in position. She needed to be close to the man regardless of when it happened. He sat down in a chair directly across from her, not four feet away.

“Interesting house,” she said.

“A hunter’s house. He is currently in Alaska fishing, according to the caretaker, who is one of ours.”

“The caretaker is here?”

“Of course not. He is actually driving to Texas in one of the SUVs you saw at the rest area. The owner of the house is not due back for several days. We have someone watching his house on the mainland in case he returns early, which I doubt. And according to our person in Alaska, the owner is having a wonderful time. The fish are biting. But I’m being rude. I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Paul Smailes.”

“Glad to meet you face-to-face,” Malak said.

“Ah yes, our meeting in Virginia. A necessary threat, I’m afraid. There were suspicions about you because of Elise and Amun’s deaths. Your adopted mother, my sister, my son, all dead in an instant. I am sad they are gone, but life and our mission moves on, does it not? You have certainly proven yourself worthy of the Five.”

Time to test the waters. To find out if I’m actually one of the Five.

“What’s the caretaker doing in Texas?” Malak asked.

“A car bomb,” Paul answered immediately, as if the question didn’t bother him in the least. “He’s with three others. We haven’t quite decided where to place the bomb as of yet, or if we will even detonate it. Now that you are one of the Five, you will be in on that decision.”

“Why wouldn’t we detonate it?” Malak asked.

“We’ve had some timer problems. At least that’s what we think. Three of the vehicles last night were carrying bombs. Not the vehicle you and Bethany were in, of course. We do not have our best assets drive bombs around.” He gave her a small smile. “The car bombs were meant as a diversion to draw police away from the route you were taking down here.”

“What happened?”

“One exploded on I-95 killing everyone inside and a pedestrian that had stopped to help them when their car broke down. The second vehicle exploded two hours early. Our target was a naval admiral in Norfolk who jogs along the waterfront every morning at the exact same time. We’ve been clocking his daily run for months. The time and route never varies. This morning he was to be jogging with a senator on the Armed Services Committee. The bomb was placed at the U.S.S. Cole memorial.”

“Fitting,” Malak said. “What happened?”

“The bomb went off prematurely, destroying the memorial, but sadly missing our primary targets by several hours.”

“Too bad,” Malak said. “Maybe we should turn the bomb heading to Texas around and try again.”

“That is a possibility, but first we have to have the timer examined. We have someone meeting the Tahoe in Texas. He is very good. If it is faulty, he will be able to repair it. The third vehicle was our roving bomb. We usually have one. Sometimes we use it, sometimes we don’t. We had one in the D.C. bombings. It’s still there waiting for a target.”

“Smart,” Malak said. She would have to find out where it was parked so she could have it disarmed. “When will we decide on the targets?”

“Within a few days. You and I will be traveling to Texas after we finish our business with Bethany Culpepper and the children.”

Malak did not react even though he was talking about killing Bethany, Angela, and Q. The ghost cell did not keep hostages for very long. Hostages were used, then disposed of. Keeping them caused too much exposure.

“I wanted to ask you about the children,” Malak said calmly.

“Yes. Quest Munoz and Angela Tucker. I understand you know them.”

“I saw them at the White House. Why were they taken?”

“A target of opportunity.”

“Perhaps I’m overstepping my bounds as a new member of the Five, but taking them was stupid.”

She watched Paul’s reaction to this very carefully. He frowned and nodded. “I voted against it.”

“Voted?”

“You’ll be meeting the others in Texas, and all of this will be explained in detail. We don’t often get together because it’s too dangerous for us to be in the same place at the same time. One of the exceptions is when a new member joins the Five. Two of the five were already going to be in Texas, so it seemed the best place to meet.”

Malak nodded, relishing the idea of having them all in the same room at the same time.

“Of course Ariel will be running security for us while we’re in Texas,” he said.

No she won’t. She and her team will be dead in a few minutes.

“Of course,” Malak said. “Can we get back to why the children were taken and the voting?”

It’s time to plant the seeds of sedition among the Five.

“It’s simple really,” Paul said. “We have five members and each of us has a vote, but the votes are skewed. My position among the five is number four. I have one half vote. You have taken Elise’s position at number five. You also have one half vote. Position number three has a full vote. Position number two had two votes. Position number one has three votes.”

“So the person in position number one is really in charge,” Malak said.

Paul shook his head. “Not really. If you add the votes together there are a total of seven. If number one wants to launch an operation that the other four disagree with, than he loses by four votes to three. There is no lobbying by the other members. The operational ideas are floated completely anonymously. Take the kidnapping of Q and Angela, for instance. It was discovered that Tyrone Boone had placed a tracking device on the Tahoe, and we’re following it. Obviously he is not who he appears to be. He needed to be removed. The first idea was to simply have Ariel take him and the children out. That was my idea. I’ve been watching this Tyrone Boone for several weeks and I believe he’s a major player, but I’m not exactly clear what team he is playing for.”

It wasn’t easy to keep her face neutral as this monster talked so casually about giving the order to have Angela assassinated.

“What happened?”

“The vote was unanimous. Six and a half votes, because you were not yet onboard. But then one of the five added what we call a change order. The children’s parents are famous and very popular right now. The idea was floated that we should kidnap the children and video them along with the president’s daughter. I voted against this. I thought it was too big of a risk to the current mission. I did not prevail. The vote was two and a half to four. When Boone wasn’t in the car, Ariel wanted to leave one of her men behind to wait for him. I voted for that, but again I was voted down.”

“For what it’s worth,” Malak said. “I would have voted with you. I don’t know who this Tyrone Boone is, but I don’t like the fact that he’s …”

The front door burst open. Malak’s shock and surprise were genuine. She hadn’t expected them so soon. Boone must have figured out the destination before they arrived. Eben Lavi was the first through the door. As she pushed Paul down to the floor, she shot Eben in the chest. He flew backward and hit a wall.

“The president’s daughter!” Paul shouted.

“No time!” She pulled him to his feet. “There are more of them. We need to get out of here. The boats!”

She dragged him through the front door.

Ziv was waiting for them. He put a bullet in Paul’s shoulder. Paul screamed and went down. Malak shot Ziv twice, knocking him off the porch. She yanked Paul back up again.

He grimaced in pain. “Maybe there were only …”

The windows on either side of the door shattered in an explosion of glass.

She pulled Paul down the steps. Silenced bullets zipped by their heads. They ran past Ariel, who was slumped forward with her weapon still in her hands, a bullet hole in her head.

“Are your keys in your boat?” Malak shouted.

“Yes,” Paul answered, breathlessly clutching his shoulder.

“I’ll cut the lines, you start the engine!”

They ran along the dock as bullets splintered the wood around them. Malak pulled her knife and flipped open the blade one-handed. Paul jumped into the boat. Malak cut the lines. The engine roared to life.

“Go! Go! Go!” she shouted, diving over the gunwale.

The boat nearly capsized with the surge of power he had given it. Malak crawled forward and took over the controls. Paul slumped to the deck. Blood oozed between his fingers. His face had gone pale.

“Who were they?” he asked weakly.

“The first man through was Eben Lavi.”

“Mossad,” Paul said.

Number Five nodded and headed for open water.

Silence

We heard a crash, three shots, two more crashes, then silence.

“Is it over?” Angela asked.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem possible it could be over that quickly. It hasn’t been a minute since we heard the first shot.”

We were hiding behind the bed staring at the door. If there was going to be trouble, it was going to come through there. Croc was still sprawled out on the expensive bedspread, but both of his eyes were open and his head was up.

The doorknob started to turn. I held my breath. Croc started scratching his ear with his hind foot. I knew we were safe. He would have growled otherwise. Boone opened the door.

“You two okay?”

We stood up.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“That’s it,” Boone said. “These things happen a lot faster than they do in the movies.”

“My mother’s safe?”

“Yep,” Boone said. “She got away. Leopards are hard to catch.”

“It happened a lot sooner than I thought it would,” I said.

“The team was here within two minutes after you arrived.”

“And you and Croc were here before us,” I said under my breath.

Boone ignored the comment. “Come on out. Someone wants to talk to you before they leave. And they’re in a hurry to get her out of here.”

We stepped out of the bedroom. Bethany Culpepper was standing in the living room surrounded by two heavily armed men. I recognized John Masters from the video inside his SUV.

“We have a chopper coming in for the evac,” he said. “ETA less than a minute.”

Bethany looked at us and smiled, then took Angela’s hand. “I just want you to know that your mother is the bravest person I’ve ever met. This country owes her a huge debt of gratitude for her sacrifices, which can never be repaid. If there is anything I can ever do for you …” She tapped the watch around Angela’s wrist. “I’m ten digits away.” She looked at me. “That goes for you too, Q.”

The roar of the helicopter came through the shattered windows.

“You coming with us?” John asked Boone.

Boone shook his head. “We have our own ride. I’ll call J.R. and tell him you’re on your way. Thanks for your help. It was good working with you again.”

They shook hands.

“Another chopper is on its way to clean up the mess,” one of the SEALs said.

By mess, I assumed he meant Ariel and her team. There were two men in front of the house zipping something into a large bag.

John and the other SEAL escorted Bethany out the door to the waiting helicopter. We stepped out onto the porch. Eben was sitting on the steps, looking tired and battered. Sitting next to him was Ziv. We hadn’t seen him since Philadelphia, where he was posing as a policeman outside Independence Hall. Angela hadn’t seen him since she had discovered that he was her grandfather, which I guess made him my step-grandfather.

“Are you all right?” Boone asked them.

“We will live,” Ziv said.

“Next time someone else needs to get shot,” Eben said.

“Quit your complaining,” Ziv said. “The Leopard shot me twice, and she’s my daughter.” He looked at Angela. “We have a few minutes before the second helicopter arrives. Perhaps we should go for a walk.”

“I’d like that,” Angela said quietly.

Ziv got stiffly to his feet.

Bethany climbed into the helicopter. As soon as she was in, it took off and headed out across the water.

“Shall we go?” Ziv asked. “We have very little time. Eben and I will be on the second helicopter. I do not want your mother to get too far ahead of us.” He used Angela’s shoulder to steady himself as they walked down the stairs.

I turned to Boone. “I have some questions.”

“I’m sure you do,” Boone said. “But right now I need to talk to the president.”

The second helicopter was coming in for a landing.

“After you get off the phone?” I asked.

“We’ll be leaving as soon as I finish the conversation. We’ll have plenty of time for questions later. Felix is waiting for us in the coach at the cemetery. I need to get you and Angela to San Antonio.”

“Are we taking the boat or the helicopter?”

“We’ll take the boat.”

“Where’s Croc?” I hadn’t seen him since we left the bedroom.

“He’s at the cemetery,” Boone said.

“That’s what I thought.”

Boone smiled and called the president.

On the Road Again

Felix was driving. Croc was in the passenger seat. Boone and Angela and I were sitting at the dining table.

“Kill Devil Hills,” Angela said, pointing out the window.

“Odd name,” I said.

“Back in the colonial days when a ship foundered, locals would scavenge what they could of the ship’s cargo before it sank,” Miss Travelogue said. “Sometimes they found rum aboard the ships and they buried it in the sand dunes along here. Back then, rum was called Kill Devil.”

That was actually kind of interesting. I felt something vibrating in my pocket. Angela’s phone. It was her dad.

I handed it to her. “It’s for you.”

“Hi Dad … Just a second. It’s for both of us.” She put it on speaker phone.

My mom came on. “Where are you?”

“Kitty Hawk,” I said. “Well, actually Kill Devil Hills.”

“What are you doing way over there?” Roger asked “I thought you were on your way to Texas.”

“We are,” Angela said. “Boone figured we had enough time for this detour.”

“Wasn’t there a hurricane there last night?” Mom asked.

“We got here long after it hit. We’re fine.”

“I called your phone,” Mom said. “You didn’t answer.”

“I ran out of juice and haven’t gotten around to charging it.”

“Well, get it charged.”

“Will do. How’s everything there?”

“Good.” Mom said. “We’re exhausted, of course, after last night’s concert, but we’re recovering. The president postponed the press conference, so we’re just hanging at the White House.”

“The press conference is scheduled for this afternoon,” Roger said. “We’ll head to Texas as soon as it’s over.”

“I wish you’d stayed so you could ride on Air Force One,” Mom said.

“We probably should have,” I said. “But it’s been interesting down here. Have you seen the president today?”

“We just had a late breakfast with him and P.K.,” Roger said. “They said to say hello to you.”

“Tell them hello from us too,” Angela said.

“We will,” Roger said.

“I guess we better let you go,” Mom said. “Love you. Plug in your phone!”

“Okay,” I said. As soon as I get another phone.

“I love you, sweetheart,” Roger said to Angela.

“I love you,” Angela answered, and ended the call.

“I wonder if Bethany will show up at the press conference,” she said to us.

“That’s why the press conference was delayed,” Boone said. “J.R. wanted to make sure she was there so the ghost cell would know they had failed.”

We passed a McDonalds, which reminded me that I was starving.

“I need to get something to eat,” I said.

“And we need gas,” Felix said from the driver’s seat. “I also want to stop at the Big and Tall Shop. It wasn’t open yet when I drove by earlier.”

He did need a new set of clothes. The ones he had on were in ruins and smelled worse than Croc.

Felix pulled into a gas station next to an outlet mall.

Boone stood. “I’ll fill it up.”

“I’ll do it,” Felix said, getting out of the driver’s seat. “I need to stretch my legs.”

He and Croc stepped out of the coach.

“Where do you want to eat breakfast?” Boone asked.

“Mc—”

“Forget it!” Angela and Boone said in unison.

“It was just an idea,” I said. “I don’t care where we eat.”

“Are you okay?” Angela asked with a grin.

I looked at Boone. “Yes, but I have some questions. How about answering some of them now that we’re alone?”

But we weren’t alone.

Roger and Mom’s bedroom door opened.

Peter “Speed” Paulsen walked out, stifling a yawn.

“Did someone say something about breakfast?” he asked.