"You saved my life," she managed to gasp.

He eyed Sean and saw the blood pouring down his arm. He ripped off one of his shirtsleeves and fashioned a rough tourniquet above the wound. As he drew back, Sean saw the lines burned into the man's arm. He looked questioningly at Michelle. She'd seen it too.

Sean suddenly became as rigid as a statue. "Where're the kids?"

Quarry and Michelle stared all around.

She called out, "Willa? Gabriel?"

Quarry, however, was already looking at the mine entrance. "They're still in there." He turned and raced back through the door just as another explosion rocked the mine.

Sean jumped up to follow.

"Sean, don't!" yelled Michelle as she clutched at his arm. "Don't go back in there. The whole mountain's about to come down."

He pulled her hand free. "I was the one who got Gabriel to go in there. I promised his mother I'd bring him back."

The tears were streaming down Michelle's dirty face. She tried to say something but it wouldn't come out. He turned and ran toward the mine.

She pulled herself to her feet, tried to go after them, but collapsed, grabbing her fractured ankle.

Quarry was ahead of Sean and moving fast with the energy of panic. But Sean ran like he had never run before and quickly caught up to the older man.

They both screamed out, "Gabriel! Willa!"

To his left, they heard something. They turned down that shaft just as a charge leveled another part of the mine. Everything was creaking and groaning with sections of rock giving way. Soon, even without any more explosions, it all was going to go.

They found them, huddled together next to a mound of collapsed ceiling. Sean lifted Willa up while Sam grabbed Gabriel's hand and headed back. They sprinted to the entrance.

Another charge, not more than fifty feet away, knocked them all down again. They sat up sputtering and spitting up dust, eardrums screaming, their bodies battered to near physical failure. Getting to their feet, they somehow staggered on. The entrance was in sight. They could see the shaft of daylight. Sean suddenly ran harder than he ever had, holding Willa tight against his chest. His heart felt like it was going to burst with the effort.

Then they were through the entrance and Sean put Willa down. "Run, honey, run to Michelle."

The little girl sprinted toward Michelle, who had managed to stagger up by holding on to an outcrop of rock.

Back inside the mine, Quarry, always so surefooted, but now fatigued beyond belief, tripped and fell over a chunk of rock. Gabriel stopped and turned back.

"Go, Gabriel, go!"

Gabriel didn't go. He came back and helped Quarry up.

They ran right at the door. Right at the sunlight. The Alabama sky was beautiful, the sun rising high and warming.

Sean was heading back in. He saw them. "Come on," he roared. "Come on." He grabbed Gabriel's hand, pulled the boy along.

Michelle and Willa watched from a distance. In the darkness of the shaft they could make out the images of the two men and the boy running with all they had left.

"Come on!" screamed Willa.

Michelle added, "Sean, run!"

Two feet.

Then one precious foot.

Sean cleared the entrance.

The last charge detonated.

A flood of dirt and smoke poured out of the mountain as the mineshaft completely collapsed.

When it finally all cleared away, Sean King lay sprawled on his back covered in dirt and rock.

On top of him was Gabriel, still breathing.

However, there was no sign of Sam Quarry. He was still in the mine, under tons of rock.

CHAPTER 84

DAN COX had been educated at some of the country's best schools. He'd been successful at just about everything he'd attempted. As president he was as well versed in foreign policy matters as he was in domestic issues. There weren't many holes in his intellectual armor. Yet with all that, the people who knew the First Couple well would have agreed, at least in private, that Jane Cox was probably smarter than her husband. Or at least more cunning.

As she was flying over rural Alabama in a chopper she demonstrated the validity of this opinion. Dan Cox's plan would not work, she decided. This matter could not simply be spun, or blamed on terrorists. There were things they didn't know, that they simply had to know, to make an informed judgment about what to do.

She stared out the window of the chopper and saw the large house down below. She had been looking out the window all this time, in fact. This was the first home they had passed. The chances were very good, she felt, that whoever owned this house also owned the building she had almost died in. She pointed to it.

"Who owns that property?"

A young agent glanced past her, out the window. "I don't know, ma'am."

That was the other thing that Jane had subtly orchestrated without seeming to. Larry Foster and Chuck Waters were flying with her husband. She had banished the veteran Aaron Betack to that chopper as well. She had done it simply with one penetrating look, and the man had fled to the safety of Marine One. She had done the same with Agent Waters. The security detail she had with her was relatively young. The two HRT members were just gun jockeys. She knew how to deal with them.

"I want to go to that house."

"Ma'am?" said the confused agent.

"Tell the pilot to put down in front of that house."

"But my orders-"

"I've just been through a terrible ordeal. I was almost killed. I don't feel very well and I want to get off this chopper before I throw up. Do I make myself clear? Because if I don't I will take it up with the president when I get back to Washington and I am sure he will make it very clear to your superiors."

The HRT guys glanced at each other but didn't say a word. They just stayed hidden behind their big guns. The other agents arrayed around the First Lady stared at the floor of the chopper, unwilling to make eye contact with the woman.

The agent next to Jane said, "Walt, take us down to that house."

It landed a minute later and Jane stepped off the chopper and walked toward Atlee.

The young agent sprinted ahead of her. "Ma'am, can I ask where you're going?"

"I'm going in that house, get some water, and lie down for a bit. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, ma'am, of course not, but let me just get the place checked out first."

She looked at him disdainfully. "Do you really think there are criminals or terrorists hiding inside that old house?"

"We've got protocols to follow, ma'am. Just let me check things out."

Jane simply marched past him, forcing the team of agents and the HRT snipers to rush ahead of her and build an impromptu protection bubble around the woman.

The door opened and Ruth Ann stood there with a kitchen apron on. When she saw who had just pressed her doorbell, her mouth gaped.

"May I trouble you for some water and a place to lie down, Miss-" Jane said.

When Ruth Ann found her voice she said, "I'm Ruth Ann. You, you come on in, ma'am. You just come right on in. I get your water."

After fetching a glass, Ruth Ann started to leave, but Jane beckoned her to remain in the small front room.

Ruth Ann sat down across from her looking about as nervous as a person could look without actually passing out.

Jane said to the detail leader, "Can you wait out in the hall? I believe that you're making our friend here extremely nervous."

"Ma'am," the agent began.

"Thank you," she said, turning away from him.

"Do you live here alone?" Jane asked after the agent had retreated into the hall.

"No, ma'am. I live here with my son. And Mr. Sam. It's his house."

"Sam?"

"Sam Quarry."

"I know that name. He has a daughter, doesn't he? Tippi?"