"Just keep the rest of the world as far away as possible. And please, tell her as little as you can get away with."

"Gabe, our marriage just doesn't work like that."

"I understand. Do what feels right. Remember, the person we need to be frightened of could just as easily be one of Carol's connections as one of yours. Now, what we need most of all is a place we can escape to where the minimum number of people, if any at all, will get a look at you. Specifically, I'm looking for a place within, say, a hundred miles of Camp David."

"What?"

"Camp David. Tomorrow afternoon or maybe evening, we're going to escape from Camp David."

"It can't be done."

"Maybe not, but maybe so. I'll go over the details with you and then see what you think. But first, we need a place."

"Within a hundred miles of Camp David."

"More or less. I'm actually wondering how Sharon Turner's house would work out, back here in D.C."

"I don't want to put her or her family in harm's way," Stoddard said, "and as neat as that woman sounds, there aren't many who could go without saying to some friend or relative, 'Oh, by the way, guess who's staying over at the house for a couple of days?' "

"Ferendelli's brownstone?"

"That would be one of the first places the Secret Service would look. As investigators those guys are the best. Hopefully you'll see that when they set out to find Alison." Stoddard hesitated, a resigned expression on his face. "I know of a place we can go to," he said almost reluctantly. "It's in Berkeley County in West Virginia about thirty miles west of—"

"Hagerstown," Gabe said. "I know the area. I spent a year of my life there, much of the time studying maps against the day when I reached the end of my rope and decided to make a break for it."

"Oh, God, I'm sorry for not being more sensitive, Gabe. I'm really sorry."

"No need to be. There just happened to be a prison there, and I just happened to be in it. What have you got in mind?"

"The place is called The Aerie. It's a castle, a real medieval castle, complete with moat, set on the top of a high hill, or maybe you could call it a low mountain, right in the middle of some of the wildest, densest forest this country has. It was built by my grandfather—my father's father."

"So it's secluded."

"Nobody goes there anymore, but it's still in the family. There's like some sort of family trust, but it only meets every couple of years and hardly anyone comes. I think someone comes in every month or two to do battle with the cobwebs and dust off my grandfather's collection of armor and weapons. I don't know for sure. But I am a trustee, and I do have a key."

"Electricity?"