The storm outside ripped at the house as Don moved quietly away from her. He was soon lost in the inky blackness. Sarah heard the scuff of a foot to her right and turned, but not in time to avoid the bullet that knocked her backward beside Annie's quiet body. The noise and the pain were shocking as Sarah aimed her gun at a dark shadow moving away. She fired three times, just as the lights came on. The smell of gunfire hung heavily in the air, and she scrambled back onto one knee across Annie, gun still up. Suddenly, Don was in front of her.

"Did you get him?" Sarah could barely hear him speak as her ears rang from the shots.

"I fired. I'm not hearing very well, Don, and I think I've been shot." Sarah sank down beside Annie. "I'm sure it was a man, but check her for me. Did he shoot her too?"

a 151 a v Sarah and Don watched as Rebecca climbed into the ambulance with Annie.

"In all the things I've seen, I've never seen a person disappear like that," Don muttered grimly. He and Scott had searched the basement room while the medical technicians worked on Annie and Sarah. They had found blood where Sarah had fired, but the person had simply disappeared.

Upstairs, he and Sarah looked into the dinning room at the people sitting at the table. The most they could do with the Saudis was to hold their passports for forty-eight hours.

Sarah had her jacket back on, covering the blood. "Sarah, go to the hospital," Don said.

She shook her head. "It's just a flesh wound," she lied. "I'll go after we've finished with these people."

"We have the lab people down there now, collecting anything they can find."

"I thought of something downstairs. Let me run with this."

Nodding, Don followed her back to the dinning room. She stood at the head of the table. "We'll need DNA and fingerprints from each of you."

"No," Prince Abdel's mother responded. "Certainly you don't believe that we had anything to do with this?"

"No, not really, but it will eliminate you from any suspicion or questions about what has happened here tonight. You certainly saw Ms.

Booker."

"No, I talked with her friend, Dr. Larsen."

She looked at the prince. "How about you?"

The prince stood and looked at his mother defiantly. "I'll be happy to give you that thing, what is it? A DDA?" Sarah took a closer look at him and wondered if she'd misjudged his age.

Don spoke. "All right, we'll have our people in here in just a bit, and I appreciate your cooperation, everyone." Sarah sat across from the prince's mother.

"Thank you for your cooperation," she said, keeping her voice a 152 a low and calm. The woman gave her an angry look, and Sarah took a closer look. This close, despite the low lights, she could see that the woman was almost too young to be the prince's mother. An older sister, perhaps, but his mother? She didn't think so, and Sarah was certain she smelled a chemical odor.

"How long will this take?"

Sarah glanced at her watch. "About twenty minutes and you can go. We appreciate your patience." She reached for the coffeepot, watching her own hands shake as she poured. The liquid was hot, but she couldn't taste it. She looked up and saw the woman across from her notice her shaking hands and tried to calm herself.

"Ms. Moore," Dr. Majer said, and Sarah looked down the table.

He had taken his tie off. The top shirt button was open, and he looked tired and disheveled. "Did you find Ms. Booker?"

Sarah glanced up at Don and let him talk. She watched the others carefully as he explained where they had found Annie. With the exception of Prince Abdel and his mother, they all looked shocked when he explained that she had been found, unconscious, in the basement of the house. Sarah was sure the young prince and his mother had known where she was all along.

The idea she had in the basement found its way through her cluttered mind, and she stood. "Dr. Majer, would you and your wife come with me for just a moment?"

She led them to the bathroom and closed the door behind them.

"This is where Ms. Booker was last seen. Since there are no windows, where is the door?"

Both looked confused.

Sarah continued. "This is a large bathroom, double shower, commode, wash basin, and this door that was locked from the inside.

However, there has to be another way out of here. Would you show me, please?"

"We had this bathroom installed when we purchased the house.

It was formerly an office," Dr. Majer said, walking around the room.

Sarah walked with him and looked at his wife. She was frowning, looking at the shower.

Sarah opened the glass shower doors and looked at the tiled walls inside. "There," she said, "step inside and pull that sideways." She a 153 a looked for an indentation in the wall. Dr. Majer pushed on the wall, but nothing happened. "Move it sideways, push sideways," Sarah said, and as he did, the wall opened to reveal darkness behind.

"I've never seen this," he said, looking at Sarah. "This room is for guests only."

Sarah picked up one of the lamps on the counter, shining light into the blackness and revealing an inside wall.

"Ah," the professor said, "What is this?" He gave Sarah a puzzled look.

"I think it's a passageway, stairs leading to your basement."

Sarah believed it was the first time he'd seen this concealed door and steps. She looked at his wife. "Would you ask Agent Ahrens for his flashlight?"

v The hospital emergency room was busy when Sarah walked inside.

She had driven Annie's SUV from the house through the dark winter storm, often slowing to a crawl on the treacherous roads. She parked in a doctor's parking place and stopped at security to report the car and show her identification. Spotting Hannah Booker ahead of her, Annie spoke her name and Hannah wheeled around.

"Sarah, thank God."

"How's she doing?"

Hannah backed off a step and looked at Sarah. "They said you were shot."

"How is Annie?" Sarah repeated.

"Come with me," Hannah said, taking her hand and leading her into an office. "This is my office when I'm on call, so put your coat over there. Did you drive Annie's car?"

Sarah took off her coat and sat on a couch. "How is Annie?"

"She's going to be sleeping this off for quite a while, and she'll be sore. It looks as if she was hit, hard, on the back of the head."

"Did they do an assault kit?"

Hannah's head jerked around. "Why?"

"It's pretty much procedure."

"Let me check that out. You stay here."

Sarah leaned back and closed her eyes, heart beating heavy.

a 154 a Moments later, Hannah was back. "You were right. Procedure. They'd already done it." She shook her head. "This is why you let other doctors treat your own family. Where did you get hit?"

"On the left side. I must have moved just right. Should have hit me right between the eyes, Dr. Booker. I think he was shooting at Annie."

"It's Hannah, and let me have a look." She lifted Sarah's jacket.

"You're going to have to stand up for this, I'm sorry." She helped Sarah to her feet and tugged the shirt out of her slacks. "They've done a good job, but I want to see it better. Why don't we walk across the hall and I'll put you on the table? Can you tell me anything about what happened?"

Sarah sat on the table in the examination room, talking about the events that led up to Annie's disappearance. When she got to the shooting, she said, "I shot back and it appears I hit him, but we lost him."

"It grazed you. It's not a long wound, but it's deep," Hannah said, gently probing the track of the bullet. Sarah sucked her breath in sharply. "You're going to need a couple stitches, or it'll tear." Hannah reached for a gown and a blanket. "Here, put this on. We'll do it right now." She looked out the room and said something to a nurse. They got her shirt off, and as she lay back on the table, the room spun a bit.

"You're a psychiatrist. You do stitches?"

"We all did just about everything in Vietnam, and I've stitched up kids for years." She smiled down at Sarah. "Careful what you say. I'm the one with the needle."

A nurse peeked in the door. "Dr. Booker? Dr. Williams is asking for you."

"Tell her to come down here." She gave Sarah several shots around the wound. "Let's see what Kilie has to tell us about our girl, so listen with me, will you?"

Sarah smiled at hearing "our girl."

A slender blonde woman entered the room. "Hannah, you can see her now, but I need to talk with you first." She put a hand on Hannah's shoulder and then looked at Sarah with a question on her face.

"It's okay," Hannah said. "This is Sarah Moore, the FBI agent on the case. She was injured trying to help Annie. Sarah, this is Annie's personal physician, Dr. Kilie Williams."

a 155 a "Well, you still remember how, I see," Dr. Williams said, watching Hannah work on Sarah.

"What did you find, Kilie?" Hannah never stopped working.

"Concussion, but not severe. I put some stitches in her head, but she'll be fine once the drug wears off. Thank God they didn't re-injure her arm. Whoever it was, Hannah, they weren't trying to kill her. They wanted her alive. That's a new drug, like a synthetic chloroform." She walked to the other side of the bed. "FBI? Annie's talked to me about you." She looked at Sarah thoughtfully as she hung a stethoscope around her neck.

Hannah pulled her gloves off. "You're done, and here's what I want you to do." She put a hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Get back in here tomorrow and get these checked."

Dr. Williams smiled at her, "She did a good job, but she's right.

Have someone check these tomorrow. Here, let me give you a hand up."

Sarah found her shirt and held it up. "Well, this is shot," she said and then realized what she had just said. They laughed. Hannah went to the sink to wash up just as James Booker looked in at his wife. He raised his eyebrows at the laughter.

"Hannah," Dr. Williams said, "why don't you and James go down and see Annie first. I'll finish with Agent Moore." After they left, Dr.

Williams said, "Sarah, I work with Hannah. Why don't you come to the clinic in the morning and I'll look at your wound?"

Sarah stood, and a wave of dizziness rolled across her. Dr. Williams helped her to a chair and pulled a stool over in front of her. "Okay?"

she asked.

"I was just off balance for a minute," Sarah said.

"No, you've been shot and your body is adjusting." She took the stethoscope from around her neck and held it against Sarah's chest.

"Let's see what's going on here." After a moment's silence she draped the instrument back around her neck. "You're settling down. Need some help with the buttons?"

Sarah shook her head and began working on her shirt.

"I need to talk with you, and I promise good coffee and bagels tomorrow morning." She smiled as she stood, holding on to her as Sarah tucked her clothing back into her slacks. "Let's go see Annie."

a 156 a Rebecca was sitting on a chair pulled up to Annie's bed, her head in her hands. She didn't even look up when Sarah came in with Dr.

Williams. Sarah hesitated and then walked over and whispered her name, putting her arm around Rebecca's shoulder.

Rebecca lifted her head, tears in her eyes. "Sarah, she's asked for you." She stood and leaned over, kissing Annie's cheek. "Here, sit here.

I have to make a call. How could this happen, right in front of us? My God."

"She was conscious?" Sarah asked.

"She was mumbling, saying something about talking to you, Sarah," Rebecca said, wiping her eyes with a tissue again. She turned to leave, and Dr. Williams walked her out with an arm around her waist.

Sarah took Rebecca's chair, pressing Annie's hand to her cheek.

"Annie," she said to the still body amid the beeping machines. "I let them hurt you," she whispered.

v Sheikha locked the door behind her as Hamel stretched out on the table in the basement room of the hospital. They'd had angry words in the car as he tried to blame her for his failure with the reporter.

This time she had spoken up. She was not to blame and had done exactly as he'd instructed her. She'd taken the reporter down the steps to the basement where he'd been waiting. She had been surprised how little the woman had weighed as she'd lifted the unconscious body. She talked with her mother tonight, and now it had seemed wrong to be doing this. For the first time she felt like disobeying Hamel.

She walked to the table, pulling gloves on, and then turned, taking a suture kit from its sterile wrapping. She could feel his still-angry eyes burning holes in her back. Let him hurt, she thought. She didn't have any painkiller, so he was not going to enjoy this. She took some satisfaction from this knowledge.

Turning, she stared at him, not moving.

"Hurry up, I'm bleeding," he said, and she moved to the table, looking at the wound. She wondered if the bullet from the government woman was still lodged in the muscle in his leg. She didn't care that he screamed when she poured the disinfectant on the wound. If a 157 a he had done what he said he was going to-take the woman outside immediately-he wouldn't have been shot. She drew her hands back and stared at him.

He growled at her through clenched teeth. "I'm supposed to meet Adnan right now with the reporter. I'll be fortunate to be alive after he sees that I failed. Hurry, what are you doing?"

"Nothing," she said and put another stitch in the torn flesh, listening to him swear at her for hurting him.

a 158 a