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Carol Lanning looked away and shut her eyes. Herbert's hands were still folded on his waist and he glanced down at his thumbs. Before Herbert had attended Op-Center's annual sensitivity training seminar, he would have thought nothing about leaning over and putting his arms around the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. Now if he wanted to comfort her, all he was supposed to do was ask if she wanted anything.

Hood beat him to it. "Ms. Lanning," he asked, "would you care for some water?"

The woman opened her eyes. "No, thank you. I'll be all right. I want to get on with this."

There was a surprising edge in her voice. Herbert snuck a glance at her. Carol's lips were straight now, her eyes narrow. To him, it didn't look like she wanted water. What Carol Lanning seemed to crave was blood. Herbert knew exactly how she felt. After the Beirut embassy bombing, he would have had no trouble nuking the entire city just to get the bastards who killed his wife. Grief was not a merciful emotion.

Hood looked at his watch. He sat back in his chair. "Darrell will be calling in five minutes." He looked at Plummer. "Ron, what do we do about the mission? Is Aideen qualified to continue?"

Plummer leaned forward and Herbert looked at him. Plummer was a short man with thinning brown hair and wide eyes. He wore thick, black-framed glasses on a large hooked nose. He had on a dark gray suit badly in need of dry cleaning and scuffed black shoes. The tops of his socks were falling over his ankles. Herbert hadn't had many dealings with the former CIA intelligence analyst for Western Europe. But Plummer had to be good. No one who dressed so carelessly could get by on anything but talent. Besides, Herbert had had a look at the psych workup Liz Gordon had done of Plummer before he was hired. Herbert and Plummer had both detested the CIA director Plummer had worked under. That was enough of a character endorsement for Herbert.

"I can't answer for Aideen's state of mind," Plummer said, with a nod to Liz Gordon. "But apart from that I'd say that Aideen is very capable of continuing the mission."

"According to her file," Carol said, "she hasn't had a great deal of diplomatic experience."

"That's very true," Plummer said. "Ms. Marley's methods are rather less diplomatic than Martha's were. But you know what? That just may be what's needed now."

"I like the sound of that," Herbert said. He looked at Paul. "Have you decided to continue the mission?"

"I won't decide that until I talk to Darrell," Hood said. "But my inclination is to keep them over there."

"Why?" Liz Gordon asked.

Herbert couldn't decide whether it was a question or a challenge. Liz's manner could be intimidating.

"Because we may not have a choice," Hood said. "If the shooting was random-and we can't dismiss that possibility, since Aideen is alive and a Madrid postal worker was the other victim-then the killing was tragic but not directed at the discussions. If that's the case, there's no reason not to keep the talks online. But even if the shooting was directed at us we can't afford to back down."

"Not back down," Liz said, "but wouldn't it be wise to step back until we're sure?"

"American foreign policy is determined by the Administration, not by the barrel of a gun," Lanning said. "I agree with Mr. Hood."

"Darrell can arrange for security with his people at Interpol," Hood said. "This won't happen again."

"Paul," Liz pressed, "the reason I mention this has nothing to do with logistics. There's one thing you need to consider before deciding whether Aideen should be a part of this process."

"What's that?" asked Hood.

"Right about now she's probably coming out of the first stage of alarm reaction, which is shock," Liz told him. "That's going to be followed almost immediately by countershock, a quick increase in the adrenocortical hormones-steroid hormones. She's going to be pumped."

"That's good, no?" Herbert asked.

"No, it isn't," Liz replied. "After countershock, a resistance