Well, they’d be in their car and out of the city in thirty minutes.

He surveyed the hotel suite. They had not brought much with them – two suitcases each. Billy and Joshua had moved all the heavier equipment and supplies ahead of time.

‘Let’s go.’

‘A prayer?’ Joshua offered.

‘No fucking time,’ Matthew snapped.

Clutching and wheeling their satchels, the three of them stepped into the corridor.

The good news about using a hotel as a safe house for an operation of this sort was that you didn’t have to sweep it down afterward, Billy’s Commandments had reported – the hotel politely and conveniently supplied a staff of folks to do that for you, disgusting illegals though they undoubtedly were.

Ironically, though, having had that thought, Matthew noted that the two women on the cleaning staff near the elevators, chatting beside their carts, were of the white race.

God bless them.

With Joshua behind them, the husband and wife walked down the corridor. ‘What we’ll do is head north,’ Matthew explained in a whisper. ‘I’ve studied the map. We’ll avoid the tunnels.’

‘Roadblocks?’

‘What would they be looking for?’ Matthew snapped, pushing the elevator button. ‘They don’t know us, don’t know anything about us.’

Though this turned out not to be the case.

As Matthew stabbed impatiently at the elevator button, which refused to illuminate, the two God Bless Them They’re White maids reached into their baskets, pulled out machine guns and pointed them at the family.

One, a pretty blonde, screamed, ‘Police! Down! Down on the floor! If we don’t see your hands at all times, we will fire.’

Josh began to cry. Harriet and Matthew exchanged glances.

‘On the ground!’

‘Now!’

Other officers were moving in from the doors. More guns, more screaming.

My Lord, they were loud.

After a moment, Matthew lay down.

Harriet, though, seemed to be debating.

What the hell is she doing? Matthew wondered. ‘Lie down, woman!’

The officers were screaming at her to do the same.

She looked at him with cold eyes.

He raged, ‘I command you to lie down!’

She was going to get shot. Four muzzles were pointed her way, four fingers were curled around triggers.

With a look of disgust, she lowered herself to the carpet, dropping her purse. Matthew lifted an eyebrow when he noted a gun fall out. He wasn’t sure what disappointed him the most – that she had been carrying a gun without his permission, or that she’d bought a Glock, an okay weapon, but one that had been made in a foreign country.

CHAPTER 67

Mention the word ‘terrorism’ and many Americans, perhaps most, think of radicalized Islamists targeting the country for its shady self-indulgent values and support of Israel.