"I know, but I thought that status would've changed by now. You're with the president and you don't know where you're going?"

"Everything's screwed up. We're flying blind here, stomping on every rule and protocol in the Secret Service manual. Larry Foster is the detail chief and he's about to have a coronary. But after that confrontation in the Oval Office the next thing we know we're in Alabama taking a chopper to a set of map coordinates."

"Aaron, that's nuts. You could be walking right into a trap."

"Tell me something I don't know. You think the Service is happy about this? But he's the president, man."

"You're telling me the director of the Secret Service is letting this happen? Or the president's senior advisors? How about the vice president?"

"You know it's all a balancing act. He's the commander in chief and we're his serfs. But we've worked our butts off behind the scenes, called in support from the FBI and the military, and we think we have a decent protection bubble set up even given the crummy circumstances."

Waters looked over and motioned for Betack to give him the phone.

"King? This is Chuck Waters."

"Hey, Chuck, I left you a message."

"What the hell are you doing?"

"If I told you, Chuck, you wouldn't believe me. Aaron filled me in on what's going on there. You guys could be heading into an ambush."

"Yeah, but what the president doesn't know is that we've got two choppers full of HRT riding ahead of us. By the time we land, and before the president steps one foot off his bird, they'll have scoped the area and set up a perimeter that not even an ant could get through. Then if we still don't like what we see, we're out of here, president or not."

"But what if they shoot you out of the sky?"

"We got that covered too. Each of the choppers is equipped with the latest air-to-air and ground-to-air countermeasures. Plus we got military birds all over the place riding shotgun over us. And a battalion of Apache gunships is moving outward grid-by-grid from the ground zero coordinates we were given, looking for any threat. And, man, you see an Apache heading your way you either surrender, shit your pants, or both."

"Okay, but we found something that you need to know about. Maybe an Achilles' heel." Sean explained about the metal cylinders.

"Where'd you find them?"

"I'll explain later. I hope you got something to counter it."

"I'll see what I can do. Where are you now?"

"Headed to an abandoned mine with a little boy named Gabriel."

"Gabriel? And why a mine?"

"Because I think there might be a little girl there."

"Willa?"

"Hoping and praying, Chuck. Let's keep in touch. And good luck."

CHAPTER 79

SAM QUARRY stared down so intently at the improvised SAT phone in his hand it was like he was cradling a poisonous snake. It wasn't nearly time for Carlos to be calling him but a part of him wanted the call to have already come. He wanted this over.

He checked with Daryl to make sure everything was ready and then headed to Willa's room. When he entered, she and Diane were huddled around the table. He'd decided that on this day, this last day, the two women should be together. They looked up when he walked in and closed the door behind him.

He leaned against a wall and lit up a cigarette.

"What's going on?" Willa said in a trembling voice. She had never been the same since she'd discovered it was possible something had happened to her family.

"It's just about over," said Quarry. "At least I'm hoping it is."

"Hoping?" said Diane, her face weary and her voice equally tired.

"Yeah, hoping," said Quarry. "And praying."

"And what if your hopes don't turn out?" asked Willa.

"Yeah, tell us. Mr. Sam," said Diane coldly. "What then?"

He ignored her and looked at Willa. "I brought my daughter home. The sick one."

"Why'd you do that?"

He shrugged. "It was time. Said my goodbyes and all. It's all good."

"Your goodbyes?" asked Willa in a fearful voice.

"See, whichever way this turns out, things are over for me. All done. Ain't gonna see anybody anymore."

"Are you going to kill yourself?" said Diane, with a hopeful edge to her voice.

Quarry's lips eased into a smile. "Can't kill a man who's already dead."

Diane merely looked away, but Willa said, "Who'll take care of your daughter if you can't?"

Diane looked back over with a curious expression. It was obvious that she had not even considered this issue.

Quarry shrugged. "It'll be okay for her."

"But-"

He moved to the door. "You two just sit tight."

He left.

Diane drew close. "It's not going to be okay, Willa."

Willa just stared at the door.

"Willa, do you hear me?"

Apparently Willa didn't hear her. She just kept staring at the door. The plane hadn't been there so Michelle was driving hard. Gabriel was next to her feeding directions and Sean was in the backseat looking at the sky and checking for a chopper carrying a president and a First Lady who had much to answer for.

"Turn there, left," said Gabriel.

Michelle cut a hard left that flung Sean across the backseat.

"If we die before we get there, it will really be counterproductive," he said sharply as he struggled to sit back up and slipped on his safety harness.

"How much further, Gabriel?" said Michelle.

"Another hour," he said. "Mr. Sam can make it there a lot faster in the plane. I've never been on a plane before, have you?"

Michelle was studying the road ahead. Every time they came to a straightway she would floor it, but as they moved up into hilly ground the straight roads were rapidly disappearing. "Yeah, I've been on a plane." She jerked her head in Sean's direction. "He's been on Air Force One with the president."

Gabriel turned to stare in awe at Sean. "You met the president?"

Sean nodded. "But remember, he puts his pants on the same way you and I do. Only when he has his on he can push a button and blow up the world."

Michelle turned around and gave him a "what the hell?" look before saying, "If you want to go on a plane ride one day, Gabriel, we can arrange it."

"That'd be cool. You go right at the next road."

"What road?" said Sean as another jarring bump nearly unseated him. "You mean this obstacle course we've been on for the last ten miles?"

As she made the turn and the road grew steeper, Michelle engaged her four-wheel drive and they bumped along.

"Tell us about the mine, Gabriel," said Michelle.

"Like what?"

"One entrance in or more?"

"Just the one I know about. Got a grassy runway Mr. Sam put in. I came up here in the truck with him sometimes and we'd mow the grass flat."

"Keep going," Michelle said encouragingly. "The more we know the better we'll be prepared."

He explained about the shafts and the rooms Quarry had built inside.

"Why did he do all that?" asked Sean

"He said if the world was coming to an end that we'd all go up there and stay. He has food, water, lanterns, stuff like that."

"And guns," said Michelle.

"And guns," agreed Gabriel. "Probably lots of them."

Sean pulled out his own nine millimeter along with two extra mags he always carried.

Two pistols, a few extra mags, a little boy, two potential hostages, and going into a dark mine where the other side was armed to the teeth, knew every crevice, and you didn't. He caught Michelle's gaze in the rearview mirror.

She was obviously thinking the same thing he was because she mouthed, "I know."

Sean's eyes went to the side window. The terrain here was growing ever steeper. Even as the warming sun came up, it seemed dark and cold. He thought back to the room at Atlee. To a story on a wall that had probably taken Sam Quarry years to construct. Then he thought back to that night in Georgia, walking down that street, seeing the young lady on top of the future president, falling out of the car with her panties dangling around her ankles. The man had a beautiful, intelligent wife at home waiting for him. He'd just been elected to the U.S. Senate. And he was getting balled by some twenty-year-old chick in a car?