“You have to follow her.”

  Flame’s eyes jerked to his right, locked on the new figure that had appeared there. “Mo?”

  “You need that woman, Flame.” The redhead was wearing BDU pants and a lightweight t-shirt. “She’s your only hope.”

  “But the door…”

  “It’s only a door, Flame.” Mo leaned closer, smiled. “And all doors can be opened—right?”

  Flame nodded. All doors can be opened—I learned that way back in BUDS. He took a deep breath, positioned himself and kicked at the door…

  It popped open, allowing him to fall through—and down…

  He woke when he hit the floor.

  ***

  Damn! Flame sat up on the floor of his hotel room. What did all that mean? He glanced at the clock on his bedside table. Four a.m. He shook his head.Might as well get that run in. He pushed himself upright, pulled his cross-trainers and running gear out of his overnight bag. If I take the double-loop around Central Park I can get in ten miles instead of the six or so I had planned. He nodded slowly. Yeah, ten miles. He left the room, headed down the corridor. It’ll help me get my head clear. He paused in front of Samira’s room—the webcam was still where Dana had left it and there was no tobacco smell in the air. And I think I’m going to need a clear head to figure out what’s going on.

  He pushed the elevator button and began to check the settings on his watch—he had a lot of thinking to do.

  ***

  “I think we will need about fifty grams,” Mapache said as he took a sip of his drink. “Yes, fifty grams will be enough.”

  “Fifty grams?” Antonio Calvera, the brand new Administrator of Doctor’s Hospital in Monterrey stammered in shock. “It is too much! We do not use that much Cobalt-60 in a year!”

  “You will order at least fifty grams.” Mapache finished his drink and put it on the edge of the Administrator’s desk. “More if you need some for your own use.” He leaned back. “Do this and you will be well paid—the hospital will benefit—remember that.” He smiled. “Fail and you will meet the same fate as your predecessor.” The smile widened. “Remember that, too.”

  “It will take time…”

  “You have five days.” Mapache stood up. “I will return at that time.”

  ***

  Dana woke to a knock on her door. What time is it? She glanced at the lighted clock on the bedside table. Seven a.m. She shook her head. Got to be Flame. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and grabbed her robe. Hope he remembered the bagels.

  He had.

  “Still in bed?” Flame put two big cups of coffee and a warm bag of bagels down on the big central table. “What’s the matter with you? It’s the middle of the day!”

  “Maybe for SEAL Team Six.” She picked up one of the coffees, took a long swallow and sighed. “But not for me. I got into bed late last night.”

  “Any word from State on our girl?”

  “I haven’t checked.” She pulled the laptop over, and hit the ‘Mail’ Icon. “What kind of bagels did you get?”

  “All kinds,” he passed her the bag. “Plain, onion, salt, poppy seed—you name it.” He smiled. “There’s lox and cream cheese in there too.”

  “Have you tasted them? Are they okay?” Dana pulled out a plain bagel. “Thanks, by the way.”

  “No sweat and yes, I have tasted them.” He grinned. “The bagels taste like bagels, praise God, and the cream cheese," he shrugged, “I don’t know what it tastes like—but it does taste good.”

  “Lox?”

  “Sorta like clams.” He glanced at the laptop. “Anything come in?”

  “Nothing from State.” She took a bite of the bagel. “Umm—that’s good.”

  “How about the webcam we put in the hall?”

  “Let’s see…” She brought up another window and Flame could see the doorway into Samira’s room.

  Always doorways, he thought. What is it with me and doorways?

  “I’ll run it back to see if we got anything.” She hit a control, watched as the image began to move backward in time. “There’s something…” She stopped the image and Flame could see his own figure looking down at the webcam. “What time was that?” Dana checked the time stamp. “Four-oh-five.” She looked at him. “Dreams again?”

  “You knew I was planning to get a run in.” He opened his own coffee. “What else did you get?”

  Dana raised an eyebrow to show her disbelief—then started the image moving backwards again. It slid smoothly back to just after midnight, then…

  “There’s something.” She froze the image. “Who is that?”

  “He was in the park.” Flame leaned forward to get a better look at the man coming out of Samira’s door. “Chatting with Samira in Arabic.” He nodded to himself. “I thought that looked wrong.”

  “I’ll take a screen grab and send it out—maybe we can get a name.”

  “Name or not, it’s clear that there’s something wrong with the girl.” Flame leaned back. “State’s got to know something we don’t.”

  “Don’t bet on it.” Dana finished sending the image to the agencies she thought might help. “State doesn’t employ the brightest bulbs in the box—they tend to give jobs to political hacks and sycophants.” She took another, bigger, bite of the bagel and settled down to work the net. “Maybe I can find more about Samira Potros on the internet.” She looked at Flame. “And maybe you can get a shower—you smell!”

  “Back in a few,” Flame grabbed another bagel, lathered cream cheese on it, and headed for his bedroom door.

  ***

  Dana was still working at her computer when Flame returned. “Find anything?”

  “There doesn’t seem to be a single photo of Samira anywhere on the internet.” She shook her head. “All the UN releases are print only as are the handful of news reports about her.”

  “I’ll bet you that State doesn’t have a photo either,” Flame grabbed another bagel and spread cream cheese over it. “That’s why they’re not answering you.”

  “Don’t you worry about getting fat?” Dana took another bite of her own bagel—the first one he’d handed her.

  “I ran ten miles this morning.” He took a big bite. “I don’t worry too much about gaining weight.”

  “Maybe I should start running,” she said, and pulled the belt of her robe tighter. “After yesterday, I think I could use the exercise.”

  “Speaking of exercise…” Flame had finally figured out why Dana had been naked in his dream. “Did you have your S&W with you for the whole trip?”

  “I didn’t…” Dana blushed a little. “I didn’t think I’d need it.”

  “You always carry your weapon while on a mission—and this is definitely a mission!” He looked her in the eye. “Promise me that you will always have your pistol with you from now on.”

  “I…”

  “Promise me!”

  “Okay,” Dana waved her hand in defeat. “I promise.”

  “Good.” He licked the last of the cream cheese off his fingers. “Now, what’s the plan for today?”

  Dana pulled out the list of places Samira had asked to visit, pointing to the ones she’d circled for today. “We’ll do these today—they’re all around midtown. Tomorrow, we go for her biggest wish…”

  “The Statue of Liberty.” Flame nodded. “She barely took her eyes off it on the trip here.”

  “She says it was a big deal for her when she was very young. Says she saw it in a magazine and fell in love with it.”

  “The Statue of Liberty?” Flame frowned. “In Egypt?”

  “That’s what she says.”

  “She also says she didn’t talk to anyone in Arabic.” Flame finished his coffee. “What other lies has she told us?”

  “I don’t know.” Dana took a last bite of her bagel. “I guess we’ll find out.”

  “I guess.” Flame glanced at his watch. “Well, as it’s almost time for breakfast…”

  “Breakfast!” Dana looked at the now half-full bag of bagels. “How can you even think about breakfast?!”

  “I’m a growing boy,” he grinned at her. “Now go grab a shower and get dressed.” His grin widened. “I’m buying.”

  ***

  They gave Samira’s room a call before they left, informing her that they’d be down in the coffee shop if she wanted to join them.

  She did, and arrived at their table only a few moments after they’d been seated.

  “Look at all those people!” Their table looked out over Seventh Avenue which, at this time of morning, was quite crowded. “Where are they all going?”

  “Most of them work somewhere in this area,” Dana put in. “The others are tourists from all over the world.”

  “I guess I am a tourist as well.” An odd smile crossed her face. “Even though I have a job to do here.”

  “You’re a tourist today and tomorrow.” Dana’s smile matched hers. “Then you have work to do.”

  “Where will we go today?” She looked from Dana to Flame with bright, inquisitive eyes. “Where in this great city?!”

  “First we will go to the top of the Empire State Building,” Dana had worked out a route that would allow them to see many of the sights Samira had listed in just one day. “Then to the Freedom Tower…”

  “The building that replaced your World Trade Center.” Samira nodded. “Yes, I want to see that!”

  “From there we will take the subway uptown to the Museum of Natural History.”

  “The place where the so-called dinosaurs are displayed.” Samira nodded quickly.

  “So-called?”

  “The book tells us how old the Earth is.” Samira shrugged. “At least that is what my father taught me.” She looked Dana in the eye. “And there are no ‘dinosaurs’ mentioned anywhere.”

  “How about Leviathan?” Flame interjected.

  “Perhaps,” Samira smiled. “It will be interesting to see these ‘dinosaur’ bones in any case.” She turned back to Dana. “What do we do after seeing this museum?”

  “I thought we’d get a quick meal somewhere in midtown followed by a Broadway Play.” Dana caught the girl’s eye. “I got tickets for The Lion King.”

  “Perfect!” The girl’s smile lit up the little booth the three of them shared. “And tomorrow, the Statue of Liberty!” She smiled. “It will be the trip of a lifetime!”

  The waiter chose that moment to bring their food, which, for Flame and Samira, pretty much ended the conversation.

  Dana, nursing a cup of tea, watched as the others wolfed down eggs (Flame said that his tasted like rice), toast, fresh melon, and, in Flame’s case, two large cups of coffee. How does he do it? she asked herself. How does he burn off all those calories?

  Then she remembered the kind of things he and his comrades did on a regular basis—and knew the answer to that question.

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, the three of them were walking down Seventh Avenue. Dana had suggested a taxi but Samira had told her it was a fine day and she wanted to look at all the wonderful shop windows they would pass along the way.

  They reached Herald Square about an hour later and took a few moments to walk through Macy’s, Dana kicking herself for not thinking to put it on their itinerary. Soon they were in the lobby of the Empire State Building, Samira marveling at the art deco fixtures that were such a big part of its decoration. Later, on the observation platform 102 stories above Fifth Avenue, Dana and the girl looked out over the city while Flame kept an eye on the people around them.

  “It is truly beautiful,” Samira said wistfully. “Far more so than Cairo…”

  “You can see the park from here,” Dana led her to the northern side of the platform and pointed at the green rectangle. “And our hotel right alongside.”

  “Where is the Statue of Liberty?”

  “You should be able to see it from this side.” They moved to the south. “There it is,” Dana pointed. “Out there in the harbor.”

  “And we will be there tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Good.” Samira smiled. “I so look forward to that.” She stared out over the city. “I can’t tell you how important it is to me…”

  Dana studied the girl’s face as she looked out over the harbor. Flame’s right, she decided. She seems genuine enough but there’s something there, something deep under the surface…

  She sighed. We should call in the FBI, hand her over to them. That, of course, would seriously embarrass the mighty State Department who had brought this girl—no matter what she might turn out to be—into the country. We’d never get another job from anyone in government, Dana knew. We’d be out of business.She glanced back at the girl’s eager face. Still, it would be the safe thing to do.

  Dana smiled. I’ve always done the safe thing—the proper thing. Look where it’s gotten me. She glanced at Flame, saw his eyes flicker over the crowd. It’s time to do things his way—plunge in and take things as they come. Her face hardened as she touched the pistol in her handbag. Just make sure you’re ready to do whatever’s necessary from then on.

  ***

  The rest of the day went smoothly enough. Samira was unimpressed by the Freedom Tower—the barbed wire-tipped fence around the still-under-construction second building confused her.

  “I thought America was a free country,” she said. “Why do you have such a barrier around a building that is supposed to represent that freedom?”

  Dana tried to explain vandalism and petty theft, comparing what would happen here without the fences to what did happen to the Egyptian pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings—but it did no good. Samira left the Tower with a sour taste in her mouth.

  One shared by Dana and Flame.

  Her spirits quickly returned, however, when they took her to the subway. She was thrilled by the bustle and excitement of the station and amazed by the speed and comfort of the E train as they went uptown.

  They changed at 42nd Street, giving the girl a wide-eyed look at a really busy station, then took the C train uptown to the American Museum of Natural History where all three of them spent the rest of the day roaming through halls devoted to the history of the people of Earth and the creatures that roamed the Earth before man.

  Only once did Samira ask a question that seemed unusual. They were in the Cultural Halls—an area filled with various displays of clothing, weapons and goods that had been part of the museum for more than a hundred years. Samira stopped in front of an exhibit case full of tribal costumes and weapons. “How did they get all the things that are on display here?”

  “The museum sent expeditions to all kinds of places in the early part of the twentieth century,” Dana told her. “They brought back samples of everything they could find.”

  “They didn’t steal them?”

  “I don’t think so,” Dana was confused by the question. “Why do you ask?”

  “No reason,” the girl shrugged. “I’ve been wondering where the big skeletons we saw upstairs really came from.” She looked at Dana. “Who made them?”

  “Nobody made them.” Dana showed a touch of confusion. “They came out of the ground in places like Montana and Utah…”

  “But how is that possible? As I told you, there is no record of them in the great books of the world.”

  “They lived long before humans—millions of years ago.”

  “If you say so,” Samira’s mouth turned up in a quirky, disbelieving smile. “Can we look at the gemstones now? I have never seen an emerald or a star sapphire and this book,” she held up the museum guide, “says there are examples of both in the Hall of Minerals.”

  “Of course.” Dana led the way out of the Cultural Hall, noting the look Flame threw her and headed through the remainder of the Hall of Human Origins and into the Ross Hall of Meteorites.

  “Wait!” Samira stopped and read the plaque at the entrance. “There are meteors—fallen stars—in this hall?”

  “That’s what it says.”

  “I would like to see.” She walked into the hall. “I have always wanted to see the Haram al-Sharif—but was never able to get there. Perhaps these rocks are similar…”

  They spent the next thirty minutes studying the jagged nickel-iron rocks that lined the hall, then another hour looking over the gemstones and carved treasures in the Guggenheim Hall of Minerals.

  “These are magnificent.” Samira looked over some of the larger stones. “Fit for the emperor of the world.” She smiled. “Or a president—whichever.”

  “I don’t know,” Dana smiled as she looked over some of the emeralds and jade carvings. “Some of these are a little over the top—don’t you think?”

  “Perhaps.” Samira shrugged and looked at her wristwatch. “I am suddenly very tired. Could we go back to the hotel so I can rest a little before we see The Lion King?”

  “Sure.” Dana stepped closer. “Do you want to go back on the train or would you rather we take a cab?”

  “Do you think we might take one of your cabs?” Samira smiled. “I would like that.”

  “Okay,” Dana led them to the side exit and out the 77th Street exit where a cab was pulled up on the access circle. They climbed in and headed back to the hotel.

  The cab, Dana soon realized, reeked of cigarette smoke. She glanced at Flame who showed no concern at all although she could see his hand was resting on the butt of his Browning 9mm. She thought of reaching for her own weapon but decided, instead, to examine the cabbie’s license mounted on the back window.

  Budayl Al Hakam Samaha, Dana memorized the name as the cab moved down Eighth Avenue. I’ll check it when we get to the hotel. She saw Flame’s stiff figure out of the corner of her eye. If we get to the hotel!

  Samira was oddly quiet throughout the trip, her eyes fixed on the front window of the cab and, perhaps, the mirror mounted above it.