Izzy followed them. Jenk was behind him again, too.

"Yeah," Sophia scoffed. "Shhh. You don't want to talk about this, because you know I'm right. You should have started running as soon as I started distracting them. I'm telling Tom on you."

"Kind of hard to do," Dave commented, "considering you killed him."

"But now I have more than just losing Lindsey and killing Tom on my resume," Sophia said. "I've got two SEAL notches on my belt. Well, I would if I were wearing a belt..."

Jenk was tugging on his sleeve, so Izzy turned. Losing Lindsey, Jenk mouthed. "Is she saying...?"

Izzy put his finger to his lips, not because they might be overheard-no chance of that with the way these two chattered. But Sophia was speaking again.

"We should split up," she said. "We need to get that message to Alyssa. Why don't you give me the radio, and I'll go to a higher elevation and-"

"I'm not leaving you alone out here," Dave said.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said.

Dave was climbing, his intention obvious-to try that radio he was clutching like it was his favorite teddy bear.

Sophia scrambled after him.

"Okay," Dave said, "wait, wait..." He moved even higher, slipping the headphones over both his ears. "Yes!"

"Finally!" Sophia said.

"Yes," Dave said into the microphone. "Malkoff here, with an important message for Alyssa Locke, over."

"Just broadcast it," Sophia said. "Because if the radio goes out again..."

Dave held up his hand in an attempt to quiet her. "Yes," he said. "We'll need to change the plan drastically. The enemy's taken the hostage. Repeat, the SEALs have Lindsey, over."

"Tell 'em it was my fault," Sophia said.

Dave said something to her that Izzy missed, because Jenk was not just tugging on his sleeve, but flat-out hauling him backwards.

"We don't have Lindsey," he told Izzy.

"What? How do you know?"

"Our radio's working now, too," Jenk informed him grimly. "I just spoke to the senior chief. We do not have Lindsey."

LOCATION: UNKNOWN.

DATE: UNCERTAIN.

The putrid smell of blood was making her sick.

Five had vomited, all night long, until her stomach was empty, until there was nothing left to purge, and still she'd heaved and coughed.

The darkness surrounded her, sometimes heavy and hot, sometimes brittle and cold, as she alternately shivered and sweated.

Number Four came, as she often did when he left her alone and the night went on and on and endlessly on, but this time she still had all of her face. This time, she sobbed and begged, "Finish me, please, finish me," as her blood seeped through her fingers, onto the concrete basement floor. "Don't let him take me upstairs!"

"I didn't know," Five tried to tell her, tried to explain.

But then she was gone, and the light was up even brighter, glistening off of Connie Smith's golden hair, flashing off that knife blade as it slashed Five's arm.

And then she was on the floor, her blood oozing through her fingers, as Connie Smith advanced.

But Connie's eyes filled with fear before she could move any closer. They filled with sheer terror and shock and hurt-how could you? And then they glazed as her life sprayed, warm and wet across Five's face and arms.

Her mouth moved, small and tight above that giant gaping grin. How could you?

"I couldn't," Five gasped as her body spasmed with the endless wrenching pain, "let him take you upstairs."

EAST OF SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.

THURSDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 8, 2005.

Jenk went Rambo.

Izzy had seen it happen among the SEALs of Team Sixteen only a few times before, and of course one of the times he himself had been the guilty party, but he'd never in his wildest dreams imagined that Marky-Mark would ever do it.

But he did.

He just took off in the same direction that Sophia and Dave had gone, as if Izzy didn't exist. He didn't mention a plan, he didn't even say good-bye. He didn't try to be quiet, he didn't try to conceal himself. He just elephanted up the trail.

Of course, Starsky and Hutch were too busy yakking about their deep innermost feelings to notice an elephant attack, so it probably didn't matter. Except for the fact that there was going to be an unavoidable point of contact.

And what then, Marky-Mark, huh?

Izzy loped after him, staying far enough back to be able to dive for cover, but close enough to watch the action unfold.

Not that there was more than about two seconds of action.

Dave heard Jenk coming just as Jenk shouted, "Hey!" breaking war-gaming rule number three: Never engage the enemy with a shout calling yourself to their attention.

Sophia and Dave both turned, but Sophia managed to mess Dave up. She was too close to him, making it impossible for him to sweep his weapon into firing position.

And Jenk-WTF, M?-just blasted them. Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat.

Sophia and Dave looked at each other, looked at the now-black stripes on their sleeves, looked back at Jenk, who was still running toward them, still talking to them.

"Where did you lose Lindsey?"

They looked at each other again, like, who did Jenk think he was, Haley Joel Osment? "We're dead," Dave said.

"Fuck that. Excuse me, ma'am. I heard your radio transmission," Jenk said, "I know your team doesn't have Lindsey. We don't have her, either."

"You don't?" Sophia said.

Dave was sitting down, and he tugged on the bottom edge of Sophia's jacket, trying to get her to sit, too. "The rules state-"

"Fuck the rules," Jenk said. "Excuse me, ma'am. Look, I've come to know Lindsey a little bit over the past week, and this would be something she'd definitely do. Try to escape on her own. But the desert is very different from the streets of LA. There are dangers she may not even know about. Bobcats, coyotes, wild dogs-"

Izzy came closer. "Dude, she has a better chance of being abducted by aliens than attacked by wild dogs or coyotes. They just don't go after people-"

"Yeah, the attacks I've heard about have all been children," Jenk said. "But Lindsey's tiny-"

"She's also a competent, trained police officer-"

"Who is currently unarmed." Whoa. Jenk was seriously, ferociously worried.

"I'm sure she's all right," Dave tried to reassure him. "You know, I shouldn't be telling you anything, but Decker is tracking her. I'm sure he's found her by now."

"Decker's dead," Izzy told them. "Sophia killed him when she iced Lopez and Gillman."

"What?" She was indignant. "I did not."

"Yeah, you did," Jenk confirmed.

She turned her intensity onto Dave. "Did you know...?"

"No." He was shaking his head. "I didn't. Honest."

"We were following him. He didn't find Lindsey," Izzy said.

"Yeah," Jenk said, "but maybe he knows where she is."

"He's dead," Izzy reminded him-like that was going to stop Jenk-bo.

He was already striding back to where they'd seen Decker die. Sophia was following.

"We're dead," Dave reminded her.

"Fuck dead," Sophia said, in a damn good imitation of Jenkins. "I'm helping Mark find Lindsey."

"I tried to pick up her trail," Decker said. "But there was nothing there."

"She's still out there somewhere." Lieutenant MacInnough was convinced of this. The big burly SEAL officer had been in charge of setting up a perimeter and containing the "terrorists" to one area. "She didn't get past my men."

Tom and Commander Koehl had called a halt to the exercise, using the radios they all wore to send a "game over" message, asking everyone to gather down by the parking lot near the Quonset hut-both the living and the dead.

Although, Dave noticed, a rather large percentage of participants on both sides of the exercise had black stripes on their sleeves. Usually, in an exercise like this, it was easy to identify the winners from the losers. Here, however, they were all losers, since the main goal was possession of the hostage.

And no one knew where that hostage was.

Jenkins was a pit bull. He wanted to bring searchlights back to the place where Lindsey had last been seen, to check the area more carefully. He wanted to call in a helicopter and do an infrared search from the air. He wanted to bring in loudspeakers, so they could make an announcement telling Lindsey to come in. He wanted his own head, on a platter, for sending Lindsey out without a radio of her own.

He wanted to do anything besides stand around and talk. Especially not in this faintly party atmosphere, where both mistakes and triumphs were being discussed and-quite often-laughed about.

Sophia was surrounded by her fan club-including the two SEALs she'd killed. Dave knew that, as usual, she was keenly aware of Decker. She kept glancing in his direction. But despite that, Dave could hear her laughing, which still felt like a miracle. He was never going to forget the look on her face when he'd had her penned in, in that cave. He was still kicking himself for putting her in that situation, for forgetting just how terribly vulnerable she was.

She was vulnerable, and fragile, and courageous as hell, simply for getting out of bed each morning. Forget about participating in an exercise like this one.

Dave wandered back over to Jenk, who looked ready to grab one of the weapons and kill them, all over again.

Alyssa Locke beat him over there. She was trying-like everyone else-to reassure Jenk. "I know it's hard for you, coming from the boys-only atmosphere of the SEALs, but Lindsey can take care of herself. Tom had her dress like a bar bunny for a reason-so that you and your teammates would underestimate her."

"I'm not underestimating her," Jenk insisted.

"She's nothing like Tracy," Alyssa pointed out. "If it were Tracy out here, then I'd be worried."

"Yeah." Jenk was seriously distracted. The moon had risen, and he was looking out at the variety of cars and trucks in the parking lot. "Excuse me, ma'am, I'm sorry, do you know-did Lindsey drive here?"

"I'm not sure," Alyssa said.

"Yeah, she did," Dave volunteered. "When we first got here, she told me about stopping for dinner, and how this cop asked to see her driver's license because he thought she'd stolen her mother's car and..."

Jenk was gone.

He was running down the rows of cars. Dave followed, curious. Izzy was right behind him.

"What's he up to now?" Izzy asked.

"I think he's checking to see if Lindsey's car is still here," Dave told him.

"Yo, she drives a white hybrid," Izzy shouted.

"I know," Jenk shouted back. "It's not here. Throw me your keys."

Izzy fished in his pocket, tossed a key ring over to him.