"They have their own -"

"I know that. Call them anyway. Never assume anything in this business, okay?"

"Yes, sir. Anything else?"

"Yeah, send me about four hours' more sleep." Ryan set the phone down.

"Jack was that -" Cathy was sitting up. She'd just caught the replay.

"It sure was, babe."

"What's it mean?"

"It means the Arabs just figured out how to destroy Israel," Unless we can save the place.

Ninety minutes later, Ryan turned on the West Bend drip machine behind his desk before running over the notes from the night duty staff. It would be a day for coffee. He'd shaved in the car on the way in, and a look at the mirror showed that he'd not done a very good job of it. Jack waited until he had a full cup before marching into the Director's office. Charles Alden was there with Cabot.

"Good morning," the National Security Advisor said.

"Yeah," the Deputy Director replied in a husky voice. "What do you suppose is good about it? The President know yet?"

"No, I didn't want to disturb him until we know something. I'll talk to him when he wakes up - sixish. Marcus, what do you think of your Israeli friends now?"

"Have we developed anything else, Jack?" Director Cabot asked his subordinate.

"The shooter is a police captain, according to the insignia. No name on him yet, no background. The Israelis have him in the jug somewhere and they're not saying anything. From the tape it looks like two definitely dead, probably a few more with minor injuries. Chief of Station has nothing he can report to us except that it really happened, and we have that on tape. Nobody seems to know where the TV crew is. We did not have any assets at the site when all this happened, so we're going exclusively from the news coverage." Again, Ryan didn't add. The morning was bad enough. Temple Mount is shut down, guarded by their army now, nobody in or out, and they've closed access to the Wailing Wall also. That may be a first. Our embassy over there has not said anything, they're waiting for instructions from here. Same story for the others. No official reaction from Europe yet, but I expect that to change within the hour. They're at work already, and they got the same pictures from their Sky News service."

It's almost four," Alden said, wearily checking his watch. "In three hours people are going to have their breakfast upset and what a hell of a thing to see in the morning. Gentlemen, I think this one's going to be big. Ryan, you called it. I remember what you said last month."

"Sooner or later, the Arabs had to wise up," Jack said. Alden nodded agreement. It was gracious of him, Jack noted. He'd said the same thing in one of his books several years earlier.

"I think Israel can weather this, they always have -" Jack cut his Director off.