Four men stood in a rounded room of polished stone. As much as they spoke just above whispers, their voices seemed to echo off the walls. Big Daddy Bill Cronin was there, in dress slacks, suspenders, and a dress shirt with sleeves rolled to the forearms. Mark Swann was there in jeans and a T-shirt, ponytail pulled tight to his head. Ed and Luke were there, still dirty and rumpled and scuffed up from combat.

Both Ed and Luke were like the Pig Pen character from the old Peanuts cartoons. They were walking dirt hills.

Big Daddy looked at Luke.

“Yeah?” he said.

Luke nodded. “It seemed that way to me. Every time we went somewhere, they knew we were coming. That SAS guy got chewed up… But those were his own guys. I don’t think he would…”

He shook his head.

Big Daddy nodded. “Yeah, he’s been acting a little weird the past couple of months. I wouldn’t put anything past anyone. It’s a temptation over here. There’s a lot of money floating around. You’ve seen it.”

No one said the word, but they were all talking about the same man: Montgomery.

“Now he’s been shipped back home,” Ed said. “He’s out of reach. There’s no evidence he did anything. What are we supposed to do?”

Suddenly the door opened with a bang. The person didn’t even knock.

It was Trudy.

“Luke, I’ve been looking all over for you. I just got off the phone with Don Morris. Your wife went into labor thirty minutes ago. Don sent the SRT chopper to your house to pick her up and bring her to Fairfax. They can land at the hospital. He says you should come home right now. You might get lucky. Sometimes these first labors take—”

Luke was already up and headed for the door.

“Oh, man. It’s fifteen hours in the air. There’s a stopover in Germany. I’m never going to—”

“There’s a State Department Lear jet fueling up at the Baghdad Airport. It’s waiting for you. Direct flight to DC.”

Luke was nearly out the door. He looked back at Big Daddy.

“What about…”

Big Daddy shook his head and waved Luke on. “Monty? Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to him.”

Luke looked at Ed and Swann.

“See you guys around.”

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

6:05 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time

Camp David

Catoctin Mountain Park

Thurmont, Maryland

“It’s a beautiful morning.”

Lawrence Keller walked the quiet, wooded path with David Barrett in the first light of day. The sky was pale blue, with shades of pink and yellow where the sun was rising. There was a slight chill in the air, which would soon burn off. It was shaping up to be a very nice day. Somewhere, a crow cackled, and further away, another one answered.