King, Queen, Knight, Bishop, and Alexander sat at the rear of the jet’s cargo hold, waiting for the drop to begin. Each was dressed in black special ops gear with night vision goggles, XM-25 assault rifles, an assortment of grenades, and blocks of C4—enough to bring down the mountain, which King was prepared to do in order to stop Ridley and save Fiona.

Knight left his seat and squatted in front of the others. He held an eight-by-ten touch-screen tablet. “Latest satellite imagery confirms our target.”

The screen showed a bird’s-eye view of a mountain range.

“This was taken a month ago.” Knight placed a thumb and index finger over a portion of the screen and opened them. The image zoomed in on a slope. Rising up the slope was a pale zigzag pattern. “The lines you see cutting across the mountain are switchback trails. But what we’re interested in is over here.” Knight zoomed in on an area above the switchbacks. The featureless dark stone appeared insignificant.

“Here’s the most recent image, taken ten minutes ago.” Knight tapped an icon in the upper left corner of the screen. The image updated, revealing the same image with different lighting and a shadow of a cloud toward the bottom. But the change in the dark stone was what interested them. Evidence of serious digging could be seen in the light-colored debris spread out in a fan shape.

King followed the trail back to the mountain wall. There was no entrance, just a wall of stone. “They sealed the mountain closed behind them.”

“We’ll never get through that without announcing our presence,” Queen said.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Knight said. “So I had them take thermal shots. Take a look.” He switched the image again. This time, the topographical photo switched to shades of light blue.

“What are we looking for?” Bishop asked.

“Cool spots,” Knight said. “There are three of them.” He pointed to three purple spots on the image. “Here, here, and here.”

“Vents,” Alexander said.

“Why are they purple?” King asked. “The ambient temperature underground is fifty-five degrees. The temperature in the mountains of Turkey in the early summer are what?”

“Weather report said sixty-five,” Queen said.

“So the vents should have appeared as dark blue spots. Not purple.” King placed his fingers on the tablet and zoomed in on one of the purple vents. “So what is heating up the inside of this mountain?”

“Descent beginning in two minutes,” the pilot’s voice said over the intercom. “Better strap in and get ready for a ride.”

“At any rate,” Knight said, “those vents are our way in.” He shut down the tablet and placed it in a wall-mounted locker. He took his seat and strapped in as the pilot gave a one-minute warning.