"What are you?" Annie asked Rebecca. "Psychic?"

"Just dial 1-888-"

"Shut up, moron."

"I'm off today, but my kids are in school. Yes! I have about one hour before I have to take my mom shopping. What are you up to?

Your message last night was kind of cryptic. I thought maybe someone died."

"That's not funny, Rebecca." Annie's voice shook as she sat down in a chair, surprised to find tears in her eyes.

"Wait a minute, are you crying? I'll be right there." Rebecca hung up.

Annie sat for a moment and then went for the coffeepot, wiping her eyes. "What's going on with me?" she muttered, then thought of yesterday and last night. Stress and hormones came to mind.

"Come here." Annie didn't even say hello when Rebecca walked in her back door. She just grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway in front of the guest bedroom.

a 233 a "Holy shit," Rebecca said, looking at the shattered wall and hallway. "Is that blood?"

Annie tightened her jaw. "I shot someone here yesterday. Sarah did too, and the FBI killed a man on the deck."

Rebecca stared. "What? Damn. Who?"

"The people who were following me were the people who hurt me in Saudi Arabia, and I think it's finally over."

Rebecca put her arms around her, tugging her away from the ruined area. "Come on, let's get out of here. I need coffee."

She poured them both coffee, getting Annie settled in the kitchen.

"Start from the beginning, I want to hear it all." Twenty minutes later, Rebecca sighed, going for more coffee. "Like I said, your life scares me to death."

Someone knocked on her kitchen door, and Annie's dad poked his head inside. Annie walked over and hugged him. He pushed her back a bit and then hugged her again.

"You have to quit this, you know," he said. "You're scaring your mother and me to death."

Annie swallowed hard. "I know, and I'm going to stop." She took his hand and led him down the hall. He whistled softly. "Annie, damn,"

he said, staring at the damage. "All right, let me get the boys in here.

We'll take care of this."

Annie covered the painting as her dad's crew came inside. She looked up at Rebecca. "You know what, Slider? It's my life and I can change it." She picked up the phone, calling Bill Simpson in New York City. Rebecca smiled for the first time.

"All right, first step taken. Now let's talk about that gorgeous FBI agent you're hanging out with." Rebecca had a smug grin on her face.

"By the way, I couldn't help but notice that painting. My God, Annie.

Whew!"

"Isn't she yummy?"

Rebecca gave a quick laugh. "She looks like a model. My God, that silver suit at the party. But you noticed that, I'm sure."

"Of course. My head just got beat up. My eyes haven't died.

Anyway, I'm-"

"Engaged?" Rebecca finished her sentence.

"Idiot." Annie actually giggled.

"Finish what you were saying, what are you?"

a 234 a "Smitten."

Rebecca pumped her fist in the air. "Yes! I knew it when I saw you two at the party. Wait until I talk with your mom."

"Too late. She's already caught me leering, more than once."

Annie felt her face heat up. "Isn't she delicious?"

"Ha!" Rebecca said with a laugh. "I don't believe it, Annie. I wish I had a camera. You're blushing. All right, let's have all the details, and do you realize you're describing her as food?"

"Remember the problem I mentioned at your house? Intimacy?"

Rebecca's eyebrows shot up.

"Finally," Annie said, "but it's different. It's like I'm starting from the beginning." She couldn't put a word to it. "I think my life's just a little too public and too fast for her."

"Listen to yourself. You're on national TV, and you spend most of your time in some godforsaken land. I mean, why on earth would that unnerve the average person, even an FBI agent?"

"I know, but I'm not sure what to do. I'm not going back to Iraq. I know that, but I'm not sure what I want to do."

"How about becoming a stay-at-home college professor?"

Annie felt around in her mind for the right words. "Sarah is a first for me, in so many ways. I actually get butterflies when she puts her arms around me, and I can't remember that happening to me before."

Rebecca grinned. "It's about time."

a 235 a a 236 a

ChAPTER TWENTy-SEvEN.

The lake had taken the snow back, and the sun was fighting to shine by the time Sarah reached her office. Sarah booted her computer and went to her case site, working on Annie's information until it was complete. "Case done," she said. "Debrief. Pack up my clothes and things at Annie's house." Damn, that was a lonely thought.

She decided what she was going to do, at least about work, and began straightening her office. Sarah looked at the photos of Annie taped above her desk. A memory of last night and Annie hovering above her, slender and naked, swept through her mind. "Hot," she said and sat down suddenly. "That second time was just plain hot." She had loved that sexy slow seduction. She jammed papers into her briefcase. I may have to pack up tonight, but I'm not going to give up .

Thirty minutes later she opened the door of the conference room after a meeting with the HR office. Eleven people were at Don's table, and Sarah took the chair next to him. "Let's get this side of the case done with first," Don said and started the recap of two years' progress regarding illegal Iraqis.

"I think this is about it," Don said finally. "It's going to take them a long time to reorganize and become this efficient again. They've taken to the back roads on us, hand-delivering messages and information via bicycles or cars, resorting to computers and airplanes only when they have to. That means they're slower. We've arrested over two hundred people in the city alone. A special unit is on its way from Virginia now.

They finished in Detroit last month and found enough evidence with our group to come here. Sarah, you and Sam will be debriefed by them a 237 a when they arrive." Sam Coates, Sarah's counterpart on the immigration side of the case, nodded at Don, but Sarah shook her head. Don raised his eyebrows but continued talking. "Have we gotten through all the boxes that we found at the Majers'?" He looked at Sam.

"No. It's enormous in its scope, and some of it will go out to other cities that are involved. It was much bigger than we first thought, and, Sarah, you might tell Ms. Booker that she wasn't the only journalist that they caught in their little scheme. It was a good one." Sam slid a piece of paper across the table to Sarah. "Give that to her and tell her there are more. I've notified their local offices, and they'll follow up with them, just as we have with Ms. Booker."

"I think Majer was in charge, unless there's new information?"

Don said.

"Yes, in the Midwest, in this four-state area. But the Atlanta task force reported a similar situation last month. I think we've just got the tip of the iceberg. They must have thought, because Milwaukee is a relatively small city, that we would give up and concentrate on the Chicago group. Actually, we were about to when Ms. Booker's case came up."

"All right, now let's get the Booker thing sorted out," Don said.

"Hell, I remember when the worst thing we had to deal with was the mob or the guys in Florida." He shook his head. "The Jaish al-Basca Web site from Baghdad got us involved in the beginning, but the two cases came together when Sarah and I looked into some names that Ms.

Booker gave us. One of them was Dr. Atoli Majer, a respected professor of Islamic religions here at the university."

"Anything new?" Sarah asked.

"Only that, much to my shock, Prince Abdel didn't lie to us. For those of you that weren't involved, let me tell you about Dr. Majer's family." Don placed a huge file box on the table. "This file may become the primer on these families as they struggle to survive over there.

"Majer came here, got himself established at the university after nine-eleven, and began to filter Iraqis into the country. He had a sister still in Baghdad, a professor who taught English, among other things.

Her husband, an engineer, fled Iraq with their two adult children when things began to get rough. She stayed in Baghdad with their two young girls and steered Iraqis to her brother here in Milwaukee. Her husband a 238 a was killed, but the two adult children, a man and a woman, stayed and were trained in Afghanistan. The son, Hamel, began a human trafficking trade. Majer wanted them here, to help him smuggle illegals into our country, but Hamel refused. Worse, he picked up a silent partner in Iraq, the anti-American cleric Amer al-Sadr, a powerful man that the new Iraqi government wants to shut down."

Don pointed out each person on the plasma screen on the conference room wall. "The Iraqi government is going to love our information.

This may be enough to prosecute Amer, something they've been trying very hard to do for quite a while."

He walked back to the table. "At the beginning, Hamel grabbed one of Prince Abdel's sisters, married her in Paris, and then attempted to extort her family as well. He also managed to get another of her sisters into his little den and got away with it for a while, but it didn't take Abdel's family long to sever those ties. But they didn't count on their younger sons, Abdel and his brothers, trying to save their sisters.

Hamel's older sister, Sheikha, ran his operations over here, and after we went through her apartment this morning, we may be able to help the prince find his sisters. Also, Sarah, you might want to know that Hamel was tracking Annie's car through her GPS system on his laptop."

"How did you get all this information?" someone asked.

"From the prince, the Majers, and Ms. Booker," Don answered, taking a drink of coffee. "Dr. Majer's niece, Sheikha, came in illegally, and he got her into one of the hospitals here as a nurse. According to the people who hired her at the hospital, she was good. The State Department will take it from here."

He walked down the table. "Ms. Booker got us into a party at the Majers', Hamel and his sister attempted to abduct Ms. Booker, and you all know what happened there. That was also the first time we met the prince. The next day, Sarah and I talked with the prince at his hotel, and while we were there, Hamel came in. We were able to match the fingerprints from the hotel with those in Majer's basement."

Don shuffled some paper on the table. "To cut to the chase on all of this, Majer's nephew and niece, Hamel and his sister, broke into Ms.

Booker's house yesterday, and both Ms. Booker and Sarah had to shoot her. Scott Frazier killed Hamel outside of the house as he abandoned his sister and tried to get away. Sarah had gone inside and Scott had a 239 a taken the perimeter. At this point, we couldn't legally keep the prince in the country, and it was Ms. Booker's suggestion that she interview him at the airport. She maintained it was something the prince would never turn down, and she was right."

Sarah spoke up. "We were getting ready to take her up north yesterday when the shooting occurred. Just for the record, Ms.

Booker predicted they'd move faster than we anticipated. Her years of experience were right on the money."

Don nodded. "There is no doubt in my mind that Majer's niece would have killed both Sarah and Ms. Booker, as would her brother.

She is recovering in the hospital, and it appears she's going to be a valuable source of information. She's already told us that Hamel was after the photos that Ms. Booker found and gave to us. State will take Majer's sister's case, along with her injured daughter, but we'll run with the charges against Dr. Majer."

Don cleared his throat. "Ms. Booker isn't the first citizen to help us, but remember they have many skills and know their specific fields very well. Hell, we take people in the National Guard every day, away from their jobs in the private sector, train them, and sometimes kill them in Iraq. They do a wonderful job, just as Ms. Booker did hers, something not one of us in this room could have done the way she did.

Because of her, Abdel willingly cooperated with us."

He stopped and looked out at the group. "Any questions?"

"Sarah, what about Jaish al-Basca?" Sam asked.

"It's in the hands of New York City and Josh Palmer now, but honestly, Sam, I don't think it's connected. The group is fundamentalist in nature, and it appears they don't get out of Iraq. However, when she goes back there, it'll be something she'll have to watch. As Don said, if they hadn't threatened Ms. Booker in the first place, we wouldn't have been with her and been able to follow through."

Sam smiled. "We're learning as we go."

Don ended the meeting and asked Sarah to wait a minute.

"What now?" he asked, sitting beside her as the room cleared.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, nice job on the case. As Sam said, we're learning. The postmortem showed that it was Hamel that traded shots with you in Majer's basement, and speaking of learning, Dr. Majer lied to us about a 240 a that door. He lied about a lot of things, didn't he? He showed the prince and Hamel the door. You and I were wrong about that." He took a floor plan from the display on the wall. "Didn't you wonder where Hamel went after you shot him? We already had the house sealed. Think about it." He laid the floor plan in front of her. It showed a diagram of the Majers' basement. "Look at this, another hidden room. Well, not so much hidden, just a pocket." He stabbed the paper with his finger.

"According to Majer, it was designed just for moments like we were involved in, and all the time we were looking for him, he was just on the other side of this wall."

"Hamel tried to kill Annie because she survived his attack three years ago and then threw it in his face by going back to Iraq," Sarah said. "He needed the photos Jack Keegan gave to Annie, but those men don't like women who can't take a hint, do they? His sister tried to help him, and she was almost killed doing it." She shook her head. "People never change. We're still dying over ego. What makes me mad is that they hide it in religion or culture."

Don nodded. "Don't forget that both of you have to give a formal statement. Set it up and come in tomorrow. The locals are satisfied with the statements you gave yesterday. What's next?"

"Are you talking about my job or Annie?"

"Both."

"I am going to take some of the mountain of vacation I have piled up. I already got it approved, and that's why I won't be here when the special unit comes in. And Annie? I don't know." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to have dinner at her house tonight and we'll see what happens." She sat up straighter and fiddled with the pen he had laid down.

He looked at his watch. "And for another four hours, I am still technically your direct superior, so what's stopping you?" He grabbed the pen from her hand. "You're going to stab me. I can see it coming."

Sarah laughed. "Do I look that nervous? That's why I'm taking some time off. I want to go home, see my family, play some golf, and maybe fish a bit. I'll do that, no matter what happens."

"Is she going to continue on the job? The network will fight to keep her and you know it."

"They should, she's excellent."