Harvath hesitated as he searched for the right words. He was about to walk onto the very thin ice of discussing top-secret information with someone who didn’t have proper clearance, but Lawlor and the president had both said they trusted him to say the right thing and so he offered, “Do you remember when the president was kidnapped last winter?”

“Of course. Who wouldn’t? It was everywhere,” replied Meg.

“Well, what wasn’t reported was that I was the leader of the presidential advance team on that trip. The president’s security, as well as that of everyone around him, was my responsibility. The day the kidnapping took place, I was skiing with the president’s daughter and just narrowly saved her life.”

“That was you?”

“Yes, that was me. Out of all the immediate protective detail agents, I was the only one lucky enough to survive.”

“That must have been an incredible thing to deal with.”

“It was and it still is. The men that died were my responsibility. Many of them were good friends of mine. I made them a promise that day that I wouldn’t let their deaths go unpunished.”

“And does the hijacking and the man who attacked me have something to do with the president’s kidnapping?”

“We believe Hashim Nidal is behind the killing of several American operatives involved in the search for the president, as well as several brutal terrorist attacks around the world which have resulted in hundreds more people being killed. He has to be stopped.”

“You mean by killing him?”

“If necessary, yes.”

“Scot, I’m going to ask you a stupid question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Have you ever killed someone?”

Harvath was silent.

“Of course you have. You’ve obviously been trained to do it. I haven’t, and I hate it. I hate that I took someone else’s life.”

“But you did it in self-defense.”

“That still doesn’t make it any easier.”

“Meg, you did what you had to do. It was your life or theirs. Don’t you see that?”

Meg turned her eyes away from Harvath and focused on her menu. “You talk like this is something people face on a daily basis.”

“In the world I live in, they do. Listen, there are people like me, or better yet, as much as I don’t care for him, Rick Morrell, who do face the decision to kill or be killed on a frighteningly regular basis. They do it so that the rest of the people in this country can live their lives without ever having to make that kind of decision. In a perfect world, you never would have been drawn into this. Your flight never would have been hijacked and you never would have been called on to make that terrible decision. You made a choice, though, the right choice, and because of it you and hundreds of other people are alive.”

“But it didn’t end there,” said Meg, looking up. “I can’t walk away from it. I can’t just put it behind me like I did the-” She broke off and was silent again.

“The last time?”

Meg locked eyes with Harvath. “What are you talking about?”

“I know, Meg.”

“Know what?”

“I know about the man who attacked you while you were jogging that night in Lincoln Park. I know you fought for your life and as a result, he lost his. I know you didn’t ask to be attacked, just like you didn’t ask to be on a plane that was hijacked. It was late, it was dark, and you must have been scared as hell. Your instincts took over, and because of you, other women were saved from being subjected to the same horror or even worse.”

Meg searched Scot’s eyes for an explanation of how he possessed knowledge of her most closely guarded secret. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but who told you?”

“I can’t say,” he replied.

“Yes, you can. My own government trusts me enough to join the CIA, but not enough to tell me how they discovered something I thought had been buried long ago where no one would ever find it?”

“The government knows nothing about this, and as far as I’m concerned they never have to. It was self-defense.”

“You’re goddamn right it was,” said Meg, the anger evident in her voice. “Do you know what I have had to live with since that attack? Can you imagine the guilt? The fear? Feeling that I was responsible for everything that happened? The only consolation I had was that the man who had attacked me was gone and nobody would ever know what happened that night.”

“Nobody does know.”

“Hello? Are we having the same conversation here? You know.”

“Meg, your secret’s safe with me.”

“My secret is anything but safe. If you know, how many other people know?”

“I promise you. No one else will know. I will personally see to it that the source is plugged up for good, okay? You can trust me.”

“Trust you? I don’t even know you. I don’t know any of you. As a matter of fact, I have half a mind to press charges for going public about me and almost getting me killed at the hospital in Cairo.”

“Wait a second,” said Harvath, a hint of indignation creeping into his voice. “Don’t lump me in with Morrell and the rest of his team. I don’t blame you for being upset-”

“How sweet of you.”

Harvath ignored her sarcasm and continued. “I did not for one moment like how those guys handled things.”

“So why didn’t you do something about it?”

“First of all,” said Harvath leaning across the table, “this has been the CIA’s ball game from the start, and secondly, I did do something-twice!”

“Twice?”

“I can assure you that it’s not standard operating procedure to storm a plane alone, but while those guys were standing there trying to figure out what to do next, I took the initiative and breached that plane from the rear, on my own.”

“I had no idea-”

“I was also the one that rushed to the Anglo-American Hospital the minute I saw the CIA’s hastily conceived press conference. I didn’t like the fact that they were telegraphing your whereabouts to the surviving hijackers. I’m also the guy that told Morrell to jump in the lake when he wanted to question you right after the hijacking and I thought you needed medical attention. So, don’t put me in the same category as those clowns.”

Meg was quiet for a moment as she thought about what Harvath had said to her. “I’m sorry,” she replied. “You really don’t care for them, do you?”

“Not much, but they’re the ones in charge and I have to abide by the president’s wishes.”

“Does that mean they call the shots?”

“In a sense.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that the president has asked me to cooperate with them, but if I disagree, I’m doing what I think is best.”

“Why bother working with them at all?” asked Meg as the waitress arrived with their food.

Scot waited for the waitress to disappear again before continuing. “What I want is results. To get those results, I have to work with Morrell and his people. The CIA is the best-equipped agency to handle this operation. The man we’re looking for is very dangerous-”

“No kidding,” said Meg as she speared a piece of melon with her fork.

“That’s right no kidding. Meg, this guy has been able to unite numerous terrorist organizations around the world under one banner. Whatever his reach might have been originally, it’s been increased a hundredfold, and so has his capacity to hurt people. I won’t sit back and let another innocent life be lost. This guy has got to be stopped, and if it means I have to work with Rick Morrell and the CIA to do it, then I will.”

“Why do I have to become part of all of this?” asked Meg, though she knew the answer.

“You already are part of it. You’ve seen Hashim Nidal’s face.”

“And I gave the CIA a full description.”

“But that’s not enough. You’re the only person who can positively ID him, Meg.”

“Can’t you just send some people wherever you think he is, do what you have to do, and then let me identify him from photos once it’s all over?”

“I wish we could, but we can’t. For all we know, there might be a hundred or more people with Nidal when we track down his whereabouts. We can’t just fire missiles at them, wait until the smoke clears, and then whip out the camcorder. There could be nothing left of him to ID. What’s more, this is going to be a covert surgical-strike team that needs to get in and out fast. If there were any other way to do it, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now having breakfast with you.”