"That's what you want," Hood said. He had raised his voice and lowered it quickly. "Have you asked them what they want? Does that matter?"

"Of course it matters," she said. "They want their father. And so do I. But if we can't have him, then maybe we ought to settle that now instead of letting this drag on."

Herbert turned back toward the office. His lips were pursed and his eyebrows were raised. Whatever he had was important. As Herbert turned back around. Hood found himself wishing that he could start everything over again. The day, the year, his entire life.

"Don't go up there," Hood said. "Please. We'll figure something out as soon as the situation is under control."

"I figured you'd say that," Sharon replied. Her voice wasn't hard, just final. "If you want to figure it out, Paul, you know where we'll be. I love you-and I'll talk to you, okay?"

She hung up. Hood was still looking out the door at the backs of the heads of his subordinates. He had always regarded Bob and Mike and Darrell in particular as a special kind of family. Now, suddenly, they were his only family. And it wasn't enough.

He hung up the phone. Bob heard it and turned. He wheeled in followed by the others. His eyes were on Hood.

"Everything okay?" Herbert asked.

It suddenly hit him. His wife had just left their home and taken the kids with her. He half had it in mind to send someone to the airport to stop them. But Sharon would never forgive him for muscling her. He wasn't sure he'd be able to forgive himself.

"We'll talk later," Hood said. "What've you got?"

"A major crapstorm, as they say back in my hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi. I've just got to make sure you still want Darrell and Aideen in the middle of it."

"Paul," Ann said, tapping her notebook in her open hand, "if I could just steal a minute I can be out of here."

Hood looked at Herbert.

The intelligence chief nodded. "Okay if I stay?"

Ann nodded.

"Okay," Hood said to Ann.

"Thanks," she said.

Hood's eyes dropped briefly to Ann's fine-boned fingers under the notepad. The long, red fingernails seemed very feminine. He looked away. He was angry at Sharon and was drawn to Ann, who wanted him. He hated feeling that way but he didn't know what to do about it.

"I've just had a call from the BBC," Ann said. "They obtained a tourist's videotape of the scene around the Congress of Deputies in Madrid. It shows Martha's body being removed-"

"Freakin" ghouls," Herbert complained.

"They're newspeople," Ann countered, "and whether we like it or not, this is news."

"Then they're ghoulish newspeople," Herbert said.

"Let it go. Bob," Hood said. He wasn't in the mood for another family squabble. "What's the bottom line, Ann?"