“Please God, tell me it isn’t General Chun,” Jaimie muttered aloud. “It sounds like something brilliant someone sitting behind a desk would come up with.”

“It wouldn’t be so unusual,” Griffen countered.

“Nothing would put that group on alert like a surprise visit from the kid’s father.”

“What do you suggest?” Mack asked, his voice strictly neutral.

“A dinner party.”

“Excuse me?” Griffen scowled at her.

“A dinner party. I know you’ve heard of it. Coat, tie, maybe a tail or two. Open the place up. Up the security. Get tons of dogs out sniffing the grounds.”

“You’re crazy, Jaimie.” Kane scowled at her. “That will only add to the nightmare.”

Mack shook his head his slowly. “No, wait a minute, Kane. She just might have something.”

Jaimie jumped up and paced across the floor with her quick, fluid step. “Excuse me, guys, but this happens to be my area of expertise. You go out, shoot ’em up, bang, bang, but I plan for stealth, silent training if you recall. Trust me on this. If the embassy is putting on a high-profile dinner party—announced, say, now—the security will be upped like you wouldn’t believe. They won’t be able to kill those children.

They’ll have to stay tucked in that tunnel waiting until security eases a bit.”

Gideon cleared his throat. “Sergeant Major. If there’s even a small chance that the terrorists will kill the children, shouldn’t the Marines on-site go in and rescue them now? Not wait?”

“Doomsday will kill them. You know they would, Gideon,” Mack said. “You’ve seen the way they operate. At the first sign of trouble, they’ll kill the kids and try to fight their way out. The few times an operative has been close to capture, they’ve blown themselves and everyone around them up.”

Gideon nodded. “I knew you’d say that, but I had to ask.”

“I think Jaimie’s on to something,” Mack said. “Doomsday will be pinned down until we get there. They’ll keep the kids alive until after the dinner party. They’ll need to just for insurance, for bargaining chips. They’ll want fresh bodies for the optimum scandal, probably cut their throats on the embassy lawn. Hopefully the captain has kept the corporal from guard duty so he hasn’t given them the opportunity and won’t before we can get there.”

“He has,” Griffen said grimly.

Javier pulled his knife from his boot and began sharpening it. Griffen shot him a speculative look.

“You’ll have to keep your men in line, Mack,” he warned.

“My men know what to do, Top,” Mack said.

He caught Javier’s eye and shook his head. Javier sighed and put the knife away, having made his point. “Maybe we should make some fresh coffee and give ourselves time to think this through.”

“I’ll make a fresh pot,” Marc volunteered.

Javier snorted. “No way am I drinking his coffee. I’d rather go to this embassy buck na**d and armed with only water guns.”

Laughter accompanied the shudders that went around the room. Almost as one they stood up and headed for the stairs. Jaimie turned off her computers and followed.

Mack waited on the bottom stair for her, reaching for her hand.

He brought her fingers to his mouth. “We’ll do this, baby.”

“I think we have a good chance. We’ve got all the right people,” Jaimie agreed.

“You know if something goes wrong, I probably won’t be much of an asset to you.”

“You can fire a gun, Jaimie. No one’s going to ask you to shoot through a hostage.

We’re there to save them.”

She took a deep breath and let it out. “Don’t worry. Really, Mack. You know me, once I make up my mind to do something, I’m in all the way.”

That was true. She was very disciplined and methodical. She’d be a huge asset in planning how to get in and out.

It was Kane who put on a new pot of coffee while the men raided the refrigerator and cupboards, reminding Mack of locusts.

Jaimie and Mack followed Griffen to the comfortable chairs and sank into them.

Jaimie leaned toward Sergeant Major. “Put your handpicked embassy Marines at the gate, let them watch all the people going in, but don’t tell them about us. Believe me, Sergeant Major, if the guards know someone is meant to slip through, they’ll never be as alert and neither will we.”

“You have a plan?” Griffen asked.

Mack nodded. “You said the commanding officer was going to take his Marines in and clean up. How exactly?”

Griffen hesitated again.

“I need to know,” Mack said.

“We’ve got a small unit standing by. Special Ops. They’ll go in with the commander, take the sleeping terrorists to a waiting unmarked car. It will have tinted windows so no one can see in. The commander will go about his business as if nothing has transpired. The Special Ops team will take the terrorists to the North Korean embassy in Beijing. They’ll leave them right outside the gates and General Chun will be notified that they are on the way. He’ll have his men waiting. Special Ops will walk away, leaving the car and the keys for the North Koreans to just drive inside their gates.”

Mack nodded. “This Special Ops unit. Marines?”

“Of course,” Griffen replied.

“Then let’s use them to help us get inside. They have to be briefed on what’s going on, right?” Mack said. “Put them in the guard’s position on the side nearest the tunnel and tell them to stand down when we come over the fence.”

Griffen shook his head. “They don’t know about the kids. This is need-to-know only.”

“But they know someone’s going in and tranqing the terrorists. They know the cell is beneath the embassy, right?”

“Yes.”

“Put the Special Ops team in uniform and arrange for them to guard the fence near the tunnel entrance. They can know we’ll be slipping onto the grounds. Or just one of them. Tell their Top. We can make our way through the roving guards and the dogs both going in and getting out. The danger is at the fence itself, especially coming out with the children. If they know, they can let us slip over the fence with our packages.

Once we’re clear, the captain can relieve them of their duties and they can get out of uniform and carry out their orders. They can strip down in seconds.”

“I hate it when you’re right,” Griffen said.

Mack laced his fingers through Jaimie’s. “I wouldn’t mind this one over here admitting I’m right—all the time.”

“Not likely,” Jaimie said amid the laughter.

“But, damn, she does have a magnificent brain, doesn’t she?” Kane nudged Mack.

“Either that, or not one at all,” Jaimie interjected sourly. “This is crazy, you all know that, don’t you?”

“We were all born crazy,” Javier said with a cocky grin.

Griffen nodded his head. “I like it, Mack. At least it should minimize some of the risk to your team getting out. I’ll have the secretary general send you everything they have on the tunnels and the workings and security at the embassy.”

“This low-level paper pusher,” Jaimie said. “By any chance do you have pictures and data on him? If so, I’d like to see it. I’ll need everything you’ve got on all three of the traitors.”

“Already sent to you.”

“Not from Beijing?” she asked, holding her breath.

“No. The captain didn’t know who or what he could trust. He flew in to inform the secretary general.”

Jaimie let her breath out and went to her laptop, her fingers flying over the keyboard. The pictures of three men appeared, files flying across the screen, stacking up so fast Mack had no way of reading them. “Corporal David Shanty is our guard and this is his roommate, Corporal Fred Simmons. They entered the Corps in the buddy program. And Mack, this isn’t good. Simmons knows what he’s doing with computers. The captain was smart to worry that his computer might be compromised.

The third man is Chang Lui, a fourth-generation gardener. Father is Chinese, his mother American.”

“Just because this kid is good on a computer . . .” Griffen began.

“Trust me on this, Top,” Jaimie said. “If they’re in it together, Simmons is the one providing intel. His major was in computer science. He knows his stuff.”

“What do you want us to do?” Griffen asked with a small sigh.

“Have them announce the dinner party immediately. Tighten security. Put a death grip on that place. As soon as it’s locked down, ask the captain to send me everything he has. Use the encrypted program, but before he does, have them check his computer. Tell them they’re looking for a hardware keystroke logger. If they’ve compromised his computer, that’s what they’ll have used. Tell him to change his password after they’ve removed the card and then send me everything.”

“You’re certain his computer is compromised?”

“If he’s the captain, everything going on in that embassy is going to go through his office. Simmons is keeping a low profile, but he’s working in the office. He’ll have had access to the captain’s computer at some point. It would only take a couple of minutes to slip a keystroke logger into an unused PCI mini slot. He’d just have to wait for the captain to log on. His log-in information along with everything he types would be recorded. When he’s waited long enough to be certain he’s gotten everything he needs, all he has to do is wait for the captain to leave the office again and recover the card. He has total access to all the captain’s files.”

“But the captain would change his password periodically.”

“Which is why I think the card will be there. In the meantime, even if they don’t find one, have him change his password before he communicates with me, that way we’re sure no information will be compromised. If we’re going in naked, at least let’s make certain no one knows we’re coming.”

“Done,” Griffen said.

“Let’s get our gear ready, then,” Mack said. “We don’t have a lot of time. Anyone have any questions?”

“How are we getting them out of there, Mack?” Gideon asked.

The others, gathered in the kitchen, turned to listen.

“Same way we go in. No one can see us. The idea is that no one ever knows the kids were at the American embassy. We slip in and slip out.”

“Through the Marines. During a heavily guarded political dinner.”

“Yep,” Mack said.

A slow smile spread across Gideon’s face. “Just like in the old days when we were training, boss.”

“Except this time,” Jaimie pointed out, “you’ll have a couple of terrified kids who may not understand you’re there to help them.”

“We don’t know what shape they’re in,” Mack added. “Jaimie, you’re good with languages. You’ll have to do all the reassuring.”

“You’re just as capable,” she corrected.

“Yeah, but you’re a girl,” he said with a smug grin.

“Paul can monitor everything from DC,” Griffen said.

There was a small silence. Paul stood up slowly, a scowl on his face. Mack held his hand up, silencing the boy. “Paul’s a valuable member of my team. You’re not going to cripple us by breaking up the team now when this is so important.”

“You said yourself that Paul couldn’t communicate telepathically and would endanger your team,” Griffen pointed out.

“That was before I knew him. He’s a good soldier and we’ll need him and his talents. He’s a member of my team, Sergeant Major. You can’t pull him without a reason.”