"Mr. Coffey? If it's any help. Striker can always pull a Lone Ranger on the Pakistanis."

"Meaning what. Colonel?" Coffey asked.

"We can drop them off then ride into the sunset before they can even thank or ID us," August said.

Herbert smiled. Hood did, too, but inside. His face was frozen by the weight of the decision he would have to make.

"We'll get back to you later on all of this," Hood said.

"Colonel, I want to thank you."

"For what? Doing my job?"

"For your enthusiasm and courage," Hood said.

"They raise the bar for all of us."

"Thank you, sir," August said.

"Get some rest," Hood said. He clicked off the phone and looked across the table.

"Bob, I want you to make sure we've got someone at the NRO watching the Pakistani border. If a chopper does come looking for the cell we have to be able to give Striker advance warning. I don't want them to be mistaken for a hostile force and cut down."

Herbert nodded.

"Lowell, find me some legal grounds for doing this," Hood went on.

The attorney shook his head.

"There isn't anything," Coffey said.

"At least, nothing that will hold up in an international court."

"I don't need anything that will work in court," Hood said.

"I need a reason to keep Striker from being extradited if it comes to that."

"Like claiming they were on a mission of mercy," Coffey said.

"Yeah," Herbert interjected.

"I'll bet we can find some UN peacekeeping status bullshit that would qualify."

"Without informing the United Nations?" Coffey said.

"You know, Lowell, Bob may have something," Hood said.

"The secretary-general has emergency trusteeship powers that allow her to declare a region 'at risk' in the event of an apparent and overwhelming military threat. That gives her the right to send a Security Council team to the region to investigate."

"I'm missing how that helps us," Coffey said.

"The team does not have to consist of sitting Security Council personnel," Hood said.

"Just agents of Security Council nations." "Maybe," Coffey said.

"But no one will accept the presence of a team consisting solely of Americans."

"It won't," Hood said.

"India's a member of the Security Council. And there are Indians out there."

"Captain Nazir and Nanda Kumar," Herbert said.

"Her own countrymen."

"Exactly," Hood replied.

"Even if she's a hostile observer, at least she's present."

"Yeah. Since when does the Security Council agree on anything?" Liz pointed out.

"We may have to bring Secretary-General Chatterjee in on this once Striker is on the ground," Hood said.

"Then we'll tell her what we know."

"And what if she refuses to invoke her trusteeship powers?"

Coffey asked.

"She won't," Hood said.

"How can you be sure?" Coffey asked.

"Because we still have a press department," Hood said.