"No, she isn't," said McCaskey. "I left her in her room with Deputy Ambassador Gawal from the American embassy. They're on the phone with my friend Luis at Interpol, discussing security measures if you decide to keep us here. Like I said, she's pretty worked up and I wanted her to have time to settle down a little. But I also didn't want her to feel left out of the process."

"Good thinking," Hood said. "Darrell, are you sure you feel up to talking now?"

"It's got to be done," McCaskey said, "and I'd rather do it now. I'm sure I'll feel a lot lower when all of this sinks in."

Liz gave Hood a thumbs-up.

Herbert nodded. He knew the feeling.

"Very good," Hood said. "Darrell, we were just discussing the idea of you two staying. How do you feel about that-and what's the problem with Deputy Serrador?"

"Frankly," McCaskey said, "I'd feel fine about staying. Only the problem isn't me. Aideen and I just came from Serrador's office. He's made it pretty clear that he doesn't want to continue."

"Why?" Hood asked.

"Cold feet," Herbert suggested.

"No, Bob, I don't think it's that," McCaskey said. "Deputy Serrador told us that he wants to talk to the investigators and to his colleagues before he decides whether to proceed with our talks. But it seemed to me-and this is only a former G-man's hunch-that that was bull. Aideen had the same feeling. I think he wanted to shut us down."

"Darrell, this is Ron Plummer. Deputy Serrador was the one who initiated these exploratory talks through Ambassador Neville. What does he possibly gain by terminating them?"

"Terminating them?" Herbert muttered. "The son of a bitch didn't even start them!"

Hood motioned the intelligence chief to silence.

"I'm not sure what he gains, Ron," McCaskey replied. "But I think that what Bob just said-that was you grumbling. Bob, wasn't it?"

"Who else?"

"I think that what he said is significant," McCaskey said. "From the time Av Lincoln first put Serrador in touch with Martha-at Serrador's request, remember-the deputy has insisted that he only wanted to talk with Martha. She's murdered and now Serrador doesn't want to talk. One conclusion, the obvious conclusion, is that someone who has access to Serrador's political agenda-as well as his calendar-killed her to intimidate him."

"Not just to intimidate him," Plummer pointed out, "but to shut down everyone who's a member of his pronationalism team."

"That's right," said McCaskey. "Also, by attacking Martha, they send a message to our diplomats to stay out of this matter. But I still feel that those are the things we're supposed to think. I don't believe that they're the real reason behind the killing."

"Mr. McCaskey, this is Carol Lanning with State." Her voice was composed, though just barely. "I'm coming in a little late on all of this. What else is going on here? What does somebody want our diplomats to stay out of?"