“How long before Elizabeth is killed?” Baylor said.

The general glanced at his watch. “A little over seventeen hours. But I caution you, Mr. President, not to take the word of terrorists as bond. Elizabeth could be dead even now.”

“And where are we with the prisoner release?”

An aide whispered in Stark’s ear.

Stark shook his head. “For reasons I can’t get into here, there are numerous people on that prisoner list who we cannot even consider releasing. Some of them are among the most dangerous men on Earth. There are others we have no control over whether they’ll be released or not, because we’re not the ones holding them. The horse trading involved, for example, in getting terrorists released from prison in Egypt, Tunisia, or Malaysia would be long, protracted, and probably not worth our while in terms of what we would have to give. I’m sorry to say that as far as the intelligence community and the Pentagon are concerned, trading prisoner releases for Elizabeth’s life is a non-starter.”

There were a few quiet gasps around the room at that pronouncement.

Baylor only nodded.

“Are you saying that we are forfeiting Elizabeth’s life?”

The general shook his head. “I’m saying that we are in a very difficult position, and our longstanding policy is not to negotiate with terrorists.”

Baylor took a deep breath and then sighed.

“Here’s what I want,” he said. “I want a list of the five or six most likely countries or territories where Elizabeth could be held. Then I want to know how we can apply the most amount of pressure to the populations who might be harboring the terrorists.”

“Pressure, sir?” General Stark said. “On the civilian populations?”

“General, you seem to believe that David Barrett’s daughter Elizabeth is going to die, and there isn’t much we can do about it,” Baylor said. “Would you say that’s an accurate assessment of your position?”

“I wouldn’t necessarily phrase it that way, sir.”

“How would you phrase it, General?”

“I would phrase it that Elizabeth is very likely to die, and we are doing everything in our—”

“I’m not interested in semantics, General. What I want after this meeting is a menu of options available to us. If Elizabeth dies, I want the people who harbor terrorists—their mothers and fathers, their neighbors, their children and loved ones, their entire communities—to feel our collective pain.”

* * *

“What are your ideas, General Stark?” Mark Baylor said.

The men were standing in the Oval Office. Lawrence Keller was there, along with a few others. The tall blue drapes were pulled, shutting out the natural daylight. Two big Secret Service men stood by the door. David Barrett was nowhere to be found. There was no sign of him. It was almost like he had never existed in the first place.