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By Root 436 0

baseball cap. In addition to the backpack, she carried a guidebook and bottled water. She felt like a tourist-right down to the jet lag. As McCaskey looked at her, Aideen gazed longingly at the empty table behind him. She'd been able to sleep on the return flight from San Sebastián. But all the nap had done was take the edge off her exhaustion, and she knew it was just a matter of time before she crashed. She glanced behind her at the vending machines and contemplated a Diet Pepsi. She weighed the value of the caffeine against the risk that she'd have to find a bathroom before the mission was completed. That was something she'd learned to take into consideration during long, daytime stakeouts in Mexico City. Two hours could seem very, very long when you couldn't leave your post.

She decided to forgo the beverage.

McCaskey, on the other hand, looked as though he were ready to crash now. When she'd first briefed him about Martha's assassination, she remembered thinking how calm he sounded. She realized, now, that it wasn't calmness: it was focus. She doubted whether he'd shut his eyes since Martha Mackall's death. She wondered whether this reflected his determination to avenge her death, determination to punish himself, or both.

When McCaskey was finished with Aideen he turned to Colonel August. The officer was chewing gum and wearing a stubble. Sunglasses with Day-Glo green frames and reflective lenses were propped on his forehead. He was dressed in khaki-colored Massimo shorts and a wrinkled, long-sleeved white shirt with the sleeves rolled up just one turn. He looked like a very different man than the quiet, conservative soldier Aideen had met a few times back in Washington. August had a radio disguised as a Walkman to communicate with McCaskey. The volume dial was actually a condenser microphone. The colonel also carried bottled water. If it were poured onto the cassette in the Walkman, the tape-which was coated with diphenylcyanoarsine-would erupt into a cloud of tear gas. The dispenser would remain operational for nearly five minutes.

"All right," McCaskey said. "You're going to wait at the east side of the opera house. And if you get chased away?"

"We go to Calle de Arenal to the north," August replied. "We follow it east around the palace and enter the Campo del Moro. If that's blocked off, the fallback position is the Museo de Carruajes."

"If you get shooed from there?"

"We go back to the opera house," August said. "North side."

McCaskey nodded. "As soon as I hear from the spotters, I'll let you know where Amadori is. You'll consult your map and let me know which page of the playbook you're on."

McCaskey was referring to the Striker SIT'S and SAT'S "playbook"-Standard Infiltration Tactics and Standard Assault Tactics. Colonel August and Corporal Prementine had adapted these plays for the palace. There were a total of ten options in each category. Which option they selected would depend upon the time they had available as well as the amount and type of resistance they expected. However, one thing was constant in each scenario: not everyone went inside. After the death of Striker leader Lt. Col. Squires, August retooled every play to make certain there was a crew to assist with the exit strategy.

"As you know," McCaskey went on, "Aideen is going along solely to identify María and assist with her rescue. She won't be a combatant unless it becomes necessary. We've got a chopper on the roof and will be ready to move in with extra police if things get out of hand. Luis tells me that once you're inside, the only serious security problem you may face is the RSS."

"Damn," August said softly. "How does he know Amadori's got one of those?"

"The king had the system installed in all of the palaces," McCaskey said. "Bought it from the same American contractor who installed them up and down the Beltway. That's probably one of the reasons Amadori chose the palace for his headquarters."

The RSS-Remote Surveillance System-was a goggle-like visor that tapped into the video security system of a building. There was a keypad