"It's not what you think, Dick," Castillo said, the response to which was another facial distortion that meant, Oh, bullshit!

"Schneider!" Kramer boomed. "Get in here, please!"

The brunette walked to the office door, her face registering mild surprise at seeing Castillo, and stopped.

"Inside, Sergeant," Kramer ordered, "and close the door."

"Yes, sir," she said and complied.

"I understand you've seen this guy before," Kramer said. "But somehow I don't think you've been properly introduced. Sergeant Betty Schneider, this is Supervisory Special Agent Castillo, of the Secret Service. Sergeant Schneider works for Captain O'Brien."

"He told me he was in the food-catering business for oil well rigs, or whatever they call them."

"And what did you tell him?"

"That I was waiting for my boyfriend," she said.

"Tell him what you were really doing. He has the commissioner's personal blessing, and, more important, mine."

"Tony Frisco and Cats Cazzaro were having a sandwich at the Warwick bar with two characters from the Coney Island Mafia:"

"That's the Russian mob, Mr. Castillo. Really nice folks," O'Brien explained.

"The table was wired. They were giving me the eye, so I made a play for: this gentleman."

"Get anything?" O'Brien asked.

She shook her head.

"You think they made you?" he asked.

She shook her head again.

"But they were antsy enough about you to worry you?" Yes, sir.

"Which means O'Brien can't use you again for a while there," Kramer said. "Right, Frank?"

O'Brien nodded. "Which makes her available to Mr. Castillo:"

"He said his name was Castle," she blurted.

"That okay with you, Frank?" Kramer asked.

"Done. Schneider, until further orders you will sit on these two gentlemen."

"Yes, sir," she said.

"There's supposed to be an unmarked car here. If it's not here already, it will be soon. Take Mr. Castillo and Special Agent Miller out to Lease-Aire at the airport and wherever else they think, or you think, they should go. Do whatever they want you to do. And don't tell anybody what you're doing."

"Can I ask what this is all about?"

"Mr. Castillo will tell you what you have to know, Sergeant," Kramer said, then asked, "This okay with you, Charley?"

"It's fine, Dutch. Thank you very much."

"And while you're out at the airport, I'll put the arm out for those other people we were talking about."

"The sooner, the better," Castillo said.

"I know," Kramer said.

"Anytime, gentlemen," Sergeant Schneider said.

Castillo and Miller followed her out of the office.

"Let me see about the car," she said and walked across the room.

When she was out of earshot, Miller said, "Put a fing padlock on your dick, Charley, please."

Captain O'Brien looked at Castillo intently but did not comment directly.

"If you can think of anything I could be doing?"

"All scraps of information gratefully received," Miller said.

[ONE]

On Interstate 95

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

0915 9 June 2005

The unmarked car Commissioner Kellogg had ordered delivered to the Counterterrorism Bureau-so far as Castillo could tell, it was identical to the commissioner's car-was moving at ten miles per hour over the speed limit as they drove I-95 along the Delaware River.

Castillo was in the backseat. Miller had elbowed him out of the way to claim the front seat.

"I really hope you can keep your mouth shut, Sergeant Schneider," Castillo said.

"You can call me Betty, if you like," she said. "And, yes, I know how to keep my mouth shut."

"I'd like that," Castillo said. "How about the boyfriend last night?"

"Jesus Christ, Charley!" Miller said.

"I want to make the point that I don't want you confiding in your boyfriend, either," Castillo said.

"I'll tell him I can't talk about this," she said. "He'll be pi: He won't like it but he'll understand. He's a cop."

"Good."

"He's a lieutenant in Highway Patrol. And he's not my boyfriend, he's my brother," Betty said.

"He was a very convincing jealous boyfriend last night," Castillo said.

"I hope the international Mafia thought so," Betty said, and then asked, "Are you now going to tell me what this is all about?"

"You'll pick up more than you have to know from listening to me on the phone," Castillo said.

"You're going to call him on your cell?" Miller asked.

"Unless you happen to know where we can find a convenient secure phone," Castillo said as he put his phone to his ear.

A moment later, he said, "I need to talk to him right now, Mrs. Kellenhamp "Where is he? "What's he doing at Camp David? "How do I call Camp David? Maybe it would be better if you called him there and asked him to call me on my cellular "You're right. It'd be better to go through the White House "If he calls, please ask him if he's talked to me, and, if he hasn't, to please call me right away. This is important."

He took the cellular phone from his ear and punched another autodial number.

"My name is Castillo. I'm Secretary Hall's executive assistant. You can verify my identity by calling Mrs. Kellenhamp at Secretary Hall's office. You have the number. He's at Camp David. Patch me through to him, please."

He took the cellular from his ear.

"They'll check," he announced. "I wonder what's going on at Camp David?"

He put the phone back to his ear and mumbled, "Guess they didn't check," then said louder, "Yes, sir. Sir, I wouldn't normally call you there but another problem has come up "Sir, the commissioner is being more than helpful, but at four-fifteen tomorrow afternoon he's going to tell the mayor what we think may happen to the Liberty Bell "Sir, he doesn't want to cause panic and he doesn't want to cry wolf. He's afraid if the mayor-the mayor's staff-hears anything at all about this, it will get leaked to the press. But he can't stall indefinitely "Yes, sir. I should have thought about this. I don't know why the hell I didn't "Yes, sir. Four-fifteen tomorrow afternoon "We're on our way to talk to the people who own Lease-Aire, sir. They gave us a sergeant and a car. And Chief Inspector Kramer, who runs their Counterterrorism Bureau, is trying to make contact with somebody-maybe more than one person-he has inside the black groups who may have heard something relative to what Pevsner was talking about "I don't know how long that will take, sir "Yes, sir, the minute I hear anything "Yes, sir. Sir, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news "Thank you, sir. When are we going to have word about Abeche? "I understand, sir."

He took the telephone from his ear and exhaled audibly.

"He says he's going to have to tell the president about the commissioner's 1615 deadline," Castillo said.

"Jesus!" Miller said.

"What is the commissioner going to tell the mayor at four-fifteen tomorrow?" Sergeant Schneider asked.

Castillo looked toward the front of the car and saw that Sergeant Schneider had adjusted the rearview mirror so that she could look at him.

He met her eyes in the mirror and thought she had eyes that were at once attractive and intelligent.

"That we think there is a possibility-operative word possibility -that a group of Somalian terrorists who call themselves the Holy Legion of Muhammad, and who may-operative word may -have stolen a Boeing 727 in Luanda may-repeat, may-try to crash it into the Liberty Bell."

"My God! You're serious!"

"I'm afraid so."

"I knew this was important when the commissioner gave you a new unmarked car," she said. "But nothing like that. The Liberty Bell? Why would they want to do that?"

"Two theories," Miller said. "One is that they think it's an important symbol to America, much more so than most of us think it is. And the second-sort of tied in with the first-is that somebody in Philadelphia told these people they should hit the Liberty Bell."