I wouldnt have it any other way, Luke said. Make sure our people have Nassars image. If more than one convoy leaves, I want to know that, and I want best guesses as to which convoy hes in. If they need to think up a ruse to stop the trucks and see whos inside, do it. A fake checkpoint will work, it doesnt matter to me. Tell Swann to put some of his toy drones in the air, and get ready to follow multiple convoys. See how close he can get with his cameras.

Luke, theres also this. Nassar has a five-year-old daughter. The mother is Lebanese and lives here in New York. Both of them are leaving the country with him. They will probably be in his car.

Luke didnt say anything. He had a pit in his stomach at the thought of that girl in the car. Why did there always have to be something? Why couldnt anything ever be clean?

Next to him, Ed was calling the chopper back in. A moment later, Luke could already see it, a black insect in the distance, coming in fast, growing bigger by the second. He and Ed started walking toward the fire escape they had climbed down.

Dont go in with guns blazing, Trudy said. Thats what Im telling you.

I never go in with guns blazing.

No?

Luke smiled. No. I leave that kind of thing to Ed.

Chapter 29

2:35 p.m.

Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center - Bluemont, Virginia

The meeting was chaos. It had dragged out for well over an hour now.

Thomas Hayes was trying to preside over an unruly mob of frightened people. It wasnt working. These were smart, clever, inventive people for the most part, normally the best and brightest. But fear had shut down their creativity, and it was choking off their initiative. They couldnt even figure out where everybody was. Hayes could barely believe how disorganized the evacuations were.

An aide was making a report. Sir, at approximately 12:30 p.m., the Airborne Communications Command aircraft, codename Nightwatch, took off from Joint Base Andrews and flew west. It is currently over eastern Missouri, cruising at forty thousand feet.

Hayes looked across the conference table at a line of blank faces.

Who authorized that?

No one said a word. Nightwatch was only supposed to take off in the event of a nuclear war. The missile codes were on that thing.

Hayes glanced around the room. A Secret Service agent was standing near the door with a leather satchel in his hand. The bag was strapped to the mans wrist with a steel cord. Hayes knew that inside the bag was an aluminum ZERO Halliburton case. He grunted in something like mirth. ZERO Halliburton, long the manufacturer of the Presidents nuclear football, was now the wholly owned subsidiary of a Japanese luggage company. Traditions were a funny thing.

Hayes looked at the aide. Son, are we at war that we know of?

No sir.