“Ground Hog, this is Viper One,” the drawl said. “Your zone is cleared of enemy. We are on patrol above your location, and are unopposed. We have a relayed message from the King. If you are operational, then conduct your search.”

“Copy,” Luke said.

He looked at Ed.

“I told you, man,” Ed said. “These tents were a decoy.”

They walked out into the night desert air. Much of the camp was on fire. Bodies of enemy fighters lay all across the ground, many of them ripped to shreds. For a moment, Luke remembered that morning in eastern Afghanistan, but that wasn’t like this. Most of those Taliban had died in close quarter fighting and from small arms fire. Their bodies were largely intact. These men had been eviscerated by the Apaches.

A couple of the outbuildings must have been weapons storage—they had blown apart when hit by the rockets, and now black, oily smoke was pouring into the sky.

“Didn’t leave us much to search, did they?”

Luke and Ed walked to a corrugated steel hut that had barely been hit in the fighting. It was pockmarked with fist-sized holes from the mini-guns, but beyond that, it was in good shape. A padlock held the door shut.

Ed smashed the lock off with his rifle.

They slid the door back. Both Luke and Ed went to their headlamps. They shined their lights around the room inside. It took Luke’s eyes a moment to adjust to the lighting. Then he couldn’t quite believe what he was looking at.

“What is this stuff doing here?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

10:45 p.m. Central European Summer Time (4:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time)

Institut Le Rosey

Rolle, Switzerland

“Good night, babe,” Rita said, loud enough to be heard.

“Good night, babe,” Elizabeth called. “Have fun.”

“You too,” Rita said.

“Yeah,” Elizabeth said. “Fun as always.”

Elizabeth almost couldn’t believe she was going through with it.

Rita had called for the car service, and it had just passed through the front gates of the school. She was dressed and headed out the door. She wore a tight minidress that hugged her curves. Her long hair hung straight down. She wore heavy makeup with black eyeliner, black lipstick and sparkly glitter, torn stockings, and black high heels. She looked sexy, and trashy, like she was going to a monster ball.

She held up a piece of paper just before she pulled open the front door of her suite.

YOU CAN DO THIS

Then she crumbled up the paper and stuck it in her tiny, glittery purse.

“Night,” she said, and opened the door.

Elizabeth went back through the bathroom and into her own suite of rooms. She almost couldn’t breathe, she was so excited. Excited, nervous, terrified. The walls of the suite seemed to close in, then expand, almost as if the place itself was breathing.