"Marten, my God!" The president turned and was heading toward them. Hap caught him and turned him back.

"Dammit! No! Mr. President, we're going! Now!"

"The other girl?" The president's eyes were still on Marten.

Marten shook his head as he moved them forward. His hair was singed, his face and hands burned and blackened. José was much the same.

Now they were at the door. Hap held them up, then opened it cautiously. A half second later he stepped out alone, lifted the BlackBerry, and sent the rescue message to Woody.

• 9:30 A.M.

Hap turned to go back inside. His intention was to hold them all just inside the door for the six to eight minutes it would take for Woody to arrive with the chopper. He'd barely gone two paces when he heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter starting up at the front of the church. Immediately came the high whine of a second helo firing up. He glanced at the door, then turned back and went up on the knoll he'd climbed when they first came in for a better view. Forty yards away he saw Marine Two and its identical companion helicopter, their doors open, in pre-preparation for take-off. Beyond them evening clothes-clad members of the New World Institute were streaming from the church and heading for the black buses. Spanish Secret Service were everywhere. He wished he knew what was going on in the church, if the gas jets had been shut off and the stage lowered away and out of sight in favor of the building's original floor. And what about the other woman, Cristina? From Marten's expression and shake of his head she had to be dead. What happened to her body? And what role would the monks play in this now? Were the church vans parked here at the back of the church theirs? Was that how they had arrived? If so, at any moment they would be coming down the stairs inside the church toward the door where the president and the others were huddled.

Suddenly he caught sight of Roley Sandoval, special agent in charge of the vice-presidential detail, leading a group of U.S. Secret Service agents hastily escorting Vice President Rogers, the secretaries of state and defense, and the rest of Rogers's elite entourage which now included Congresswoman Jane Dee Baker toward Marine Two.

Whatever had happened, whatever was going on, and if it hadn't been before, time now had suddenly become everything. The monks aside, the moment the helos left and the buses were loaded, the Spanish Secret Service would sweep the building and then secure it. It meant they had nowhere to hide until Woody arrived, except maybe among the trees that surrounded the parking area.

The doors closed on both helos. There was a deafening roar as Marine Two lifted off, gained altitude, then flew away, heading due south. Immediately the second Marine helo followed. In seconds both machines disappeared from view.

• 9:34 A.M.

Hap looked to the buses. People were already boarding them. How much longer would it be before the monks came down and the Spanish Secret Service went inside and began their sweep? He wanted to keep the president inside and out of sight but that was no longer an option. He had to get them out of the building and into the cover of the trees or risk a firefight with the monks or capture by the Spanish Secret Service or both.

Decision made, he was turning to go back inside when there was a thundering roar and a Spanish CNP helicopter passed overhead at treetop level. A half second later it reversed course and came back. Hap dove for the cover of a big tree and watched the CNP helo approach and then slow. Suddenly it stopped to hover directly over the parking lot. He could see the pilot looking down and talking first with his first officer and then animatedly into his headset. Seconds later the machine pulled up to two hundred feet and held there, hovering where it was.

Hap looked up and past it. Where the hell was Woody? Did he not get the message? Or had he gotten it and alerted the CNP and that's why the police chopper was there now? Behind him he could see the string of sleek black buses begin to pull away.

"Damn it," he breathed, "damn it." There was nothing he could do without exposing himself to the CNP chopper and by doing so give away the president's location. On the other hand, he couldn't wait until either the monks or the Spanish Secret Service reached the corridor where the president and the others hid.

He looked at his watch. It was nearly 9:35. Where the hell was Woody? Was he coming at all?

The timer Beck had set in the control room clicked down to an even five minutes.

Then to 4:59.

The gas had already filled the church's lower chambers and was quickly rising. It, like that in Foxx's dirty lab, was natural gas that was primarily methane but, by Foxx's design, did not have the organic chemical mercaptan added to give it odor. As a result anyone still inside the building would be wholly unaware that lethal fumes were present.

• 4:58

A CNP chopper lifted off from the resort's golf course, Captain Belinda Diaz riding shotgun in the copilot's seat. In seats behind her were six members of Bill Strait's U.S. Secret Service detail. Seconds later another CNP helo took off with a dozen more U.S. Secret Service agents aboard. At a hundred feet the Diaz helo spun left and flew toward the church. The second chopper followed.

"This is Captain Diaz," she said into her headset in Spanish. She was plugged into the broadcast frequency of every Spanish police unit and the security detail of the Spanish Secret Service. "Objectives believed to be at back entrance to La Iglesia de Santa Maria. CNP units seven through twelve respond. Secret Service on scene respond at will and with caution."

Machine pistol concealed under his shirt, Hap left the cover of the tree and walked slowly toward the church, glancing up once at the CNP helo hovering overhead, then pausing to pick up the rake José had used to clean the leaves from the flower beds and put it in the back of the electric cart.

"You, groundskeeper!" the helo's loudspeaker hailed in Spanish. "Police! Stop where you are!"

Hap's boldness had come from the sudden realization that he, like José, Marten, and the president, still wore the resort's groundskeeper uniforms. By now it was possible, if not probable, that the uniforms or the electric cart or both had been discovered missing from the maintenance buildings. If that were the case the CNP, and most probably Bill Strait and his hundreds of Secret Service and CIA operatives, knew about it and were frantically searching the resort's vast acreage for the cart and/or groundskeepers. If he was right, then he was purposely making it easy for them. He was also buying time. Hoping that at any second Woody would arrive in the attack helicopter and set it down in the parking lot. The action itself confusing everyone and giving them the seconds they needed to get aboard it.

Hap looked up, raised his hands, and then pointed toward the church door where the president and the others were. As quickly he lowered his hands and walked calmly to it. As he did he saw a half dozen police SUVs racing tailpipe to tailpipe up the hill toward the church.

In the control room Beck's manually set timer continued its countdown:

4:08

4:07

Hap entered the church quickly, expecting the president, Marten, José, and Demi, no matter her psychological state, to be ready to go right then. They weren't. José was on the floor, semiconscious, his shirt torn open, and Marten was over him, working on his chest; blood was everywhere. The president held a still-sobbing, near hysterical Demi several feet away, giving Marten room to work.