ChAPTER SEvENTEEN.

The machines in the emergency room cubicle beeped rhythmically, almost lulling Sarah into sleep. She shook her head and got up to check the agents standing outside the curtains. After talking with them, she returned to the chair beside Annie's bed. They were going to move her to ICU until she regained consciousness.

She picked up Annie's hand again and took a deep breath.

"Dammit, I should have just taken you. To hell with Don. Screw the rules. All the rules." Her mind went back over the Majers' party, and she stopped at the memory of Annie looking at her with the prince, just before she'd walked over and introduced him. What was that look?

Fear? No, it had been shock and surprise, and she certainly had not wanted to be near him. She brought Annie's cool hand to her mouth and studied her face. With her eyes closed, it was a different face. Annie's energy was hidden.

The curtains were pulled back and Hannah came in with a tall woman dressed in jeans, stocking cap, and a big coat. Hannah introduced her oldest daughter, Molly, who immediately hugged Sarah, thanking her with typical Booker family warmth. Molly leaned over the bed, kissed Annie, and brushed the hair back from her forehead.

"Here we are again," Molly said to Hannah.

"It's been a while," Hannah answered with a quiet laugh. "The last time was rollerblading, or something with wheels. She didn't break anything, but she had a heck of a bump on her head."

"Did you get Rebecca off?" Sarah said, realizing she was still holding Annie's hand.

a 159 a "Yes, Jim gave her a ride, and she asked that you call her tomorrow."

Hannah looked at Sarah. "How are you feeling?"

"What happened?" Molly pulled her stocking cap off, revealing dark hair like Hannah's.

"She was shot," Hannah said.

"What?" Molly stopped unzipping her coat and stood very straight, alarmed. "Shot? With a gun?"

"And you should go home, Sarah. Go to bed. Those injections are going to wear off soon," Hannah said.

Sarah laid Annie's hand carefully on the bed, reluctant to let go.

"Thanks for the doctoring, Hannah. We have two agents outside, and they'll stay with her, wherever they move her. They'll make sure no one but family is here, so if anyone else is coming in, you'd better alert them."

She looked at the two women, wanting to make sure they understood, and took a deep breath. "This is serious. Remember what I said the first night, Hannah? People forget we're at war. These men are instructed to use their guns if they have to. You've met them, Hannah, and make sure Molly meets them. The hospital staff, including Dr.

Williams, has been briefed. I hate to sound so grim, but be careful."

v Sarah drove directly to her office to update the case before going to Annie's house. She turned the light on over her desk and booted up her computer. She felt restless and uneasy, the night stringing through her mind. She hadn't wanted to leave Annie. Coffee, she thought and headed to the lounge. Don Ahrens was pouring himself a cup as she walked in.

"What are you doing here? You should be at the hospital, or home in bed."

"Been to the hospital, all taken care of." Sarah reached for a cup.

"Just made coffee. No one can say I don't let my feminine side show." He grinned. "Come on, let's go into your office and you can tell me what the doctor said. Oh wait, let me pour your coffee and then you can say nice things about me when Human Resources checks me out."

Sarah could feel him try to ease her down. "How's it going with a 160 a the Majer kitchen staff?" she asked, sipping the coffee as he sat down in one of her uncomfortable chairs, across from her.

"You know, same old, same old. Language barriers, no one has their papers, and the list goes on." Don pointed at her computer with his chin. "Check out the Web site that Ms. Booker's name's on."

Sarah swiveled carefully to her computer. The injections that Hannah had given her were wearing off, just as she'd said. She raised her eyebrows and looked at Don.

"Damn, they've added names, all women. This has to be connected to that organization, the FFI."

Don had his eyes closed and opened them a bit, squinting at her.

"How's Ms. Booker?"

"She has a concussion, but the doctor said the drug that was used is new, like a synthetic chloroform. She was still out when I left, but her family is there and I met her personal doctor. Whoever did this didn't want to kill her, and they didn't re-injure her arm, thank God. Do you want to do the debriefing?"

"Let's not," Don said, dropping his feet to the floor with a thud.

"Go home, Sarah, and go to bed. This will all keep. The posted guards at the hospital are all we can do until she regains consciousness. The lab work won't be done until tomorrow, and I've got everyone assigned.

Let's meet at two o'clock. Wait, tell me again what they said about you."

"Annie's mother, Dr. Booker, put a few stitches in me, and I have an appointment with Annie's personal doctor tomorrow morning.

Maybe she'll have more information for us." She glanced across the desk at him. "Did you find anything in the basement?"

"Everything. There's box after box of material. This is exactly what we were looking for, and I have people there now. We'll work around the clock until we're done. Tax dollars at work for counter- terrorism." He studied her. "I'm going home. My God, Sarah, where did you get these chairs? They're awful."

Sarah gave him a tired smile. Who said guys were insensitive?

She turned back to her computer and began to document everything she could remember from the night. It helped, setting it all down, word by word, moment by moment. She could edit it later, but right now, during this quiet moment alone in her office, Sarah wanted it all there.

a 161 a The winter storm had moved away over Lake Michigan, but it was still snowing lightly. She hit the garage door opener at Annie's, surprised to see another car inside. She opened the door carefully, hearing women's voices. The kitchen that had been clean just a few hours ago was now cluttered. She shoved the keys in her pocket and looked again. Pots, pans, and boxes sat on the counters and the floor.

"What the hell?"

"Stop, I've called nine-one-one," a low female voice ordered her from behind. Sarah whirled in a fluid motion and dropped to a low squat with her gun drawn, pain from her side taking her breath away.

The phone fell from a blond woman's hands, clattering sideways on the hallway floor. "My God, don't shoot."

Sarah stood slowly and holstered her gun. "Mary?"

Two women stared at her with frightened faces.

"Who are you?" Mary asked.

"Sarah Moore, FBI," she answered, pulling her ID from her pocket and holding it up. "If you really did call nine-one-one, at least let me call them back and cancel. I'm staying here for a while."

"FBI? You're staying here?"

Sarah nodded, asking again if they'd called 911, and Mary answered, "No, you just scared the hell out of us. I'm Mary Iverson and this is still my house, but apparently you know that." She moved aside and introduced Meg.

"I'm sorry I frightened you two," Sarah said. "Things have been moving pretty fast, and I didn't think about you coming home. I'm here with Annie until we get this thing settled."

"That explains the clothes in the guest room, but where is Annie?

And what thing settled?"

"Just a minute," Sarah said and went into the living room to check the computer. She came back to the kitchen and eased into the closest chair. "Let me tell you what has happened."

The three women sat at the table until all the questions had been answered. Mary put her hands over her face when Sarah stopped talking.

"We haven't been here that long. I'm packing up what I have left in the kitchen. It's the last bit of anything I want to get out of here."

She stood and paced. "Damn, now she's brought the danger into the house. I can't believe she did this. God, this makes me mad." She sat a 162 a back down, looking at Meg. "We can't stay here tonight. It's not safe."

She looked at Sarah, who nodded in confirmation. "Wait, did you say something about a Saudi prince?"

Sarah nodded again.

"If it's Abdel, he's hurt her before, and I want to stop this, now."

Sarah's sat up straighter, all senses fully alert as Mary continued.

"I'm going to tell you about it. It's time someone did. We've been quiet too long."

Much later, Sarah helped the two women put boxes into Mary's car and watched them drive away. "What a night," she mumbled, trying to force her numb mind to wrap around the Majers' party. Little pieces of memory of Annie, the prince, and others kept floating around in her memory. She saw Annie lying unconscious on the cold cement floor and then the flash of gunfire. Mary and Meg appeared in her mind, and she irrationally grinned at the memory of both frightened women in front of her gun. Not very professional, she scolded herself, but wait until I tell Annie that story.

Taking a soda from the refrigerator, she drank some of it while standing under the hot shower, no longer able to keep Mary's hurtful story out of her mind. The incident in Saudi Arabia three years ago. The horrible beating.

Mary had grown quiet as the memory caught up with her. "I'm sorry," she said, "this is still hard. They beat her so badly, almost to death. Annie doesn't know that I came home and saw a therapist as well. It still hurts to talk about it." Sarah had listened, nausea creeping across her stomach. Now the words would not leave her alone as she turned the water off. Swearing aloud, she took a quick breath, tears gathering in her eyes as she leaned against the shower wall.

She was certain this was the time period Hannah had spoken of, the three months Annie had done the paintings in the clinic. No wonder Annie wanted to talk with her parents. She and Mary had stayed in Switzerland until Annie's face and body had healed, but neither had told anyone other than Rebecca and Annie's doctor. After a year with the therapist, Mary had decided to separate herself from Annie's danger, and Sarah wondered how they had made it through the last years together.

She picked up the packet of pills that Hannah had given her for pain and shook one loose in her hand. There was a place in Arizona a 163 a where she used to park her old pickup. The stars were beautiful from that mesa, and she ached for the deep peace she had always found there.

Crawling into bed, she wished she could go home, to Arizona, if just for a while and take Annie with her.

a 164 a

ChAPTER EighTEEN.

The next morning was so bright and sunny that Sarah's eyes hurt. The house seemed wrong, empty, without Annie. The pain pill and exhaustion had held her tightly for the first six hours until she'd begun to dream of Annie and the events of last night. She'd finally gotten up, disgusted, sore, her head pounding. She dressed slowly for her meeting with Dr. Kilie Williams, still thinking of her dreams.

Sarah had called the doctor as she left Annie's house. The clinic was closed for the weekend and the doctor was waiting for her at the front entryway. Sarah had immediately envied the doctor's comfortable tan shirt over a white turtleneck, jeans, and well-worn cowboy boots.

Dr. Williams first looked at Sarah's stitches and changed the dressing on the wound before doing anything else, joking that Hannah should have taken up surgery.

"How do you feel this morning?" Kilie asked. "Any more dizziness?"

"No, just a little sore, but I'm all right. Thanks for looking at the stitches."

"I don't envy you your job, Sarah."

"What do you mean?"

"Terrorism and the war. Sometimes I wonder if we understand that we're at war. It's so distant and unconventional that it seems unreal.

Our neighbors...Annie's neighbor too...just lost a daughter over there two days ago. I haven't had the heart to tell Annie, but I will." She tapped her pen on her desk. "Hannah said you're working with a local terrorist group that may tie in to Annie?"

a 165 a "Yes, a very well-organized group, and the information Annie provided may have opened it up for us. I'll know more today when I get into the office. Kilie, I don't think Americans are uncaring. I think we're confused and maybe sad that it's come to this." She was quiet for a moment. "I had a little surprise last night. Mary was at Annie's house."

"Ah," Kilie said. "With Meg?"

Sarah nodded.

"And?"

"She told me about Saudi Arabia and the prince."

"All right," Kilie said, leaning forward on her elbows, face neutral.

"Mary said you know about the attack, but Annie's mother doesn't?"

"Hannah isn't aware of any of this, and it's been difficult for me, working with her. She's going to be very angry at first. I flew to Switzerland with Jack Keegan and Bill Simpson, Annie's New York producer. That was complicated because I had to say I was going to New York City and not mention Switzerland. A lie of omission, I guess, but not a comfortable one. I'm glad I went, however. Annie was in terrible shape, and honestly, Sarah, I wasn't sure we'd ever get her back."

"Does anyone in the family know?"

Kilie shook her head. "I've known the Bookers over twenty years and this is going to be very hard on all of them. Annie has told me that she's going to tell them and asked me to be present for some of the conversation with Hannah. I'm not looking forward to this."

Sarah looked out at the sunshine on last night's fresh snow. "Dr.

Williams, the incident last night may be tied to what happened before, and the prince apologized to her in front of me. Do you know if they found any kind of physical evidence when she was in the hospital in Switzerland? We did prints and DNA last night."

Kilie Williams narrowed her eyes, thinking. "No, I don't. Why don't we find out?"

"You can access that information?"

Kilie nodded and handed several sheets of paper across the desk to Sarah. "Here, I ran this off before you got here, but I'll call the doctor now." She picked up the phone while Sarah began to read. "Sarah, give a 166 a me your information, and I'll have Dr. Hatawabe deal directly with you."

Sarah handed a card over and went back to her reading. It was all there, the nature and extent of the injuries, the name of the hospital, the dates and the doctors, even their notes on the case. "My God," she said quietly as she heard Kilie leave a message.

"She was in a session but will return my call. Ironically, when Annie came back injured this time, I called this doctor, just to touch base. That woman is extraordinary, and I will always believe she personally saved Annie. I was totally in over my head."