"These are the Americans I told you about," Miguel said when they were face to face. José had stared for the briefest moment, then looked past them down the chimney and asked for Amado and Hector.

"They are helping," Miguel told him in Spanish.

"Helping where?"

"They are with the police."

"The police?"

"Yes," said Miguel in Spanish. "Now it's your turn; please lead us back up."

Ten minutes later they neared the top and Hap stopped them again, asking Miguel to send José the rest of the way to see if the upper tunnel was clear and if it was safe to go the hundred yards down it to the chimney they had initially come down through and that they would use to climb out.

That had been three minutes earlier. So far he hadn't come back.

Until they stopped here conversation between them had been brief utterings, mostly commands or warnings. All of it spoken in voices barely above a whisper.

As they waited, Miguel realized something had to be addressed and soon-Hap's fear that the president had been, and might still be, afraid to trust him. It was a subject he appointed himself to resolve.

Immediately he slid back and huddled close to the president. "Cousin," he said, "Hap appreciates that under the circumstances you had no way to know who you could trust, himself included. It was the same for him as he started to learn things. It was very difficult because he wasn't even sure he could trust his own brothers in the Secret Service. He even got shot because of it."

"Shot?"

"Two bullets in the shoulder at Foxx's monastery office when he went there looking for you. We got him a doctor but he still hurts like hell. He should be in bed but instead he climbed all over and through these damned mountains to find you. So don't ever think you can't trust him."

The president turned from Miguel and looked to Hap. "You never said a word about getting shot."

"Wasn't much to say."

"You got yourself into a real mess over me."

"It's my job description."

The president smiled. "Thank you."

"Yes, sir."

The president's response-the tease, the smile, the thank-you, was everything. It meant the bond, the friendship, and the hugely necessary trust between the president and his chief protector were once again in place.

"There's something you don't know, Hap," the president said and the personal moment faded. "The vice president, secretary of defense, chief of staff, all those people present that night at Evan Byrd's house in Madrid, are planning to have the president of France and the chancellor of Germany assassinated at the Warsaw meeting. It's part of a much bigger conspiracy, one that Merriman Foxx was involved in. There has been no way for me to alert anyone without giving away my position. And you can't do it either, not now."

Hap leaned forward, "It's not Monday yet, Mr. President. My plan is to get you out of here and then down the mountain as fast as we can, to Miguel's cousin's house where the limo is. Then we're gone, out of this hot surveillance area, hopefully as far as the French border by first light. At that point we can take the chance and inform the French and German governments about Warsaw. To do that we've got to deal with what comes next.

"When they break Hector and Amado, and they will," Hap glanced at Miguel. "We had to do something, Miguel, I'm sorry." He looked back to the president. "Once they break them, they'll know for certain you're down here and alive. It won't make any difference if they find out I'm with you or not. They'll come through all these tunnels loaded for bear. Outside will be the same. More bodies brought in, more equipment. In an hour there'll be a traffic jam of air and satellite surveillance like no one on this planet has ever seen. Every road for fifty miles around will be blocked."

"And you still think we can get out."

"We have a little time before they'll know for certain where you are and the full assault begins. Still," he cautioned, "there's a major force out there right now. The thing is, they're scattered all over and concentrating on what's going on underground. With care and luck and José knowing the way, in the dark we might have a chance to slip past them. Except for one thing."

"What do you mean?"

"By now they'll have a big surveillance satellite right over us. The digital-photo aspect won't be of much use at night, but the thermal imaging will. As soon as we're out of these tunnels and on the surface we become a heat source they will immediately identify."

"Then what makes you think we can get away at all?"

"It's more hope than think, Mr. President, but with these-" Hap pulled one of the small, folded survival blankets from his jacket-"open it up and you've got a thin blanket the size of a small tent. One side is Mylar, cut a couple of eyeholes, put it over your head and belt it around you, with luck it should reflect back 'cold' to the bird's thermal sensor. If we stay low to the ground and find brush and hillsides with trees to give us cover, we might just get away with it."

Miguel grinned. "You are a very smart fellow."

"Only if it works."

The president glanced at Marten and then looked to Miguel. "How far is the Aragon resort overland from where we are?"

"Ten, twelve miles. There are trails but mostly it's rough country."

"Can we reach it on foot by daybreak?"

"Maybe. José would know how to do it."

"The Aragon resort?" Hap was incredulous. "Over mountain trails in the dark. It would take four or five hours, maybe more. Even if these blankets do work, that's too much time. There will be too many people out there, too much equipment. The chances of us getting even halfway there without being caught don't exist."

"The other way's no better, Hap," the president said. "Those roads leading to the French border are all known and, as you said, will be blocked. If we get stopped out there we have no place to go at all and no matter what I say I'll soon be in the custody of my 'friends' and Warsaw will go on as planned. We go overland by foot in wild country and in the dark, we have at least some kind of chance.

"Moreover, Aragon is more than a refuge. As you well know I was to address the New World congregation at tomorrow's sunrise service, I still plan to. No one is going to take me away in front of all those people, especially a group like that. Once I tell them the truth, the situation at Warsaw will take care of itself."

"Mr. President, the security for that convention is huge. I know, I helped set it up. Even if we get that far, we wouldn't get past it. We try and everyone who wants you out of the way will know exactly where you are. They'll order security to get you out right then. You don't know this but the chief of staff has a CIA jet waiting at a private airstrip outside Barcelona. They get you on that plane, you're finished."

For a long moment the president said nothing and it was clear he was turning everything over in his mind; finally he looked to Hap. "We're going to try for Aragon. I know you don't like it but it's my decision. As for the security, you know the layout there-the land, the buildings, the church where I was to speak. You scouted it all in advance."

"Yes, sir."

"Then somehow we'll find a way in. I will be the surprise speaker as planned. And it will be a surprise, for everyone."

There was a noise from above and José eased around the corner. He looked to Miguel. "There are patrols," he said in Spanish, "but they have passed. I don't know if there are more. For the moment it is safe."

Miguel translated and the president looked to each man in turn-Marten, Hap, Miguel, and José.

"Let's go," he said.