Wouldn't that be great? Jack thought behind painfully closed eyes. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service testifies in Federal District Court.

"Not many people know this. I'll get back to you."

"I am so pleased to hear that you restrict sensitive information to such trustworthy people, Jack." The line went dead. Ryan depressed the switch and punched up another number from memory.

"Murray."

"Ryan. Dan, I need you here in a hurry." Jack's next call was to Scott Adler. Then he walked off again toward the President's office. The positive news he had to report, Ryan supposed, was that the other side had used important information clumsily. Yamata again, he was sure, acting like a businessman rather than a professional spook. He hadn't even troubled himself to disguise the information he had, not caring that it would also reveal its source. The man didn't know his limitations. Sooner or later he'd pay dearly for that weakness.

Jackson's last set of orders before heading off to the Pacific had involved ordering twelve B-1B bombers of the 384th Bomb Wing to fly east from their base in southern Kansas, first to Lajes in the Azores, staging on from there toward Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The flight of ten thousand miles took more than a day, and when the aircraft arrived at the base farthest from America of any, the crews were thoroughly exhausted. The three KC-10's that brought along ground crewmen and support equipment landed soon thereafter, and the entire assembly of people was soon asleep.

"What do you mean?" Yamata demanded. It was a chilling thought. His own home had been invaded. By whom? "I mean Koga has disappeared and Kaneda is dead. One of your security people is still alive, but all he saw was two or three gaijin. They disabled him and he doesn't even know how."

"What is being done?"

"It's being handled as a police matter," Kazuo Taoka told his boss. "Of course I didn't tell them about Koga."

"He must be found, and quickly." Yamata looked out the window. Luck was still with him. The call, after all, had caught him at home.

"I don't know—"

"I do. Thank you for the information." Yamata killed the line, then placed another call.