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He made a sound of disgust. And that was the problem with blown trust. Even if she one-hundred-percent kept her promise, he wouldn’t necessarily believe her.

She added soberly, “Even if you don’t believe me, we still have a crisis on our hands. And I still know more about the PHP than anybody on earth who’s not an actual member.”

He swore under his breath. She would take that as an acknowledgment that she was right. He asked heavily, “Did you find anything in the plane to indicate where it might be headed?”

“There were navigation maps of Idaho, Nevada, and southern California,” she answered. “How do those link up with what you found in the back of the plane?”

“Alarmingly,” he answered dryly. Still not going to tell her what had been under that tarp, huh? She elected not to push him for details just now. He was being pretty prickly at the moment.Maybe later, after she’d restored his trust in her, he’d tell her what he’d seen.

Maybe. He didn’t exactly strike her as the forgiving type.

Ian asked her abruptly, “Did you see anyone in the compound you didn’t recognize? Someone new?”

She thought back to the cluster of men who’d captured her and Ian. “Yes. Tall guy. Dark, full beard. Wore the black parka with the hood. I might have seen him the last time I observed the compound, but he’s the only person I don’t know by name or recognize on sight.”

“No idea who he is?”

She shook her head. “None.”

“He was the guy who frisked me,” Ian commented. “I thought he might be an ex-cop, given how efficiently he searched me. Too bad we don’t have a picture of him to run through the FBI facial recognition data base.”

She frowned. “I might have one. Last time I was in Idaho, I took a bunch of surveillance pictures of the PHP compound. I might have caught him without realizing it. If he has grown that beard in the last six months or so, I may have him on film and not even know it. I sent all those pictures to Doctors Unlimited before I left for Sudan.”

“Can you call DU? Have the pics sent to the FBI?” Ian asked tersely. “Get the boys there looking for a guy who matches our description and get an ID on him?”

“Yeah, sure.” It took her a few minutes to contact an IT guy at Doctors Unlimited and have him forward the pictures. She pocketed her phone and nodded at Ian. She, too, felt the weight of time slipping by. Somewhere, a lethal virus was incubating. Growing. Coiling like a viper getting ready to strike.

“What the hell is your family up to?” Ian growled as he paced the confines of the room.

If only she knew.Speaking of family… “Have you checked in with your brother-in-law recently? Maybe he has picked up a money trail on Yusef.”

Ian shrugged and pulled out his cell phone. He surprised her by putting it on speaker and setting it on the table between them. Alex Peters picked up on the second ring.

“Hey, Ian. I was about to call you.”

“You got something for us?” Ian replied quickly.

“Maybe. What can you tell me about El Noor? Did you ever personally see him while you were in Sudan?”

Ian glanced over at her questioningly and she shook her head in the negative. “Neither of us ever saw him. There were a lot of rumors about him, and we saw his guys plenty. They wore black berets and kicked butt whenever they showed up. Why do you ask?”

Alex’s scratchy voice replied, “I did a little digging, well, a lot of digging, actually. I’m not convinced he actually exists. Someone is paying the bills and fronting a group of thugs in Khartoum, but I don’t think there’s any such warlord living in Sudan.”

Piper’s jaw dropped.

“Who is he, then?” Ian asked, sounding as shocked as she felt.

“Good question. The money trail is as sophisticated as anything I’ve ever seen. Shell companies, accounts in tax havens, nesting corporations, the works. This guy doesn’t want anyone to know who he is or where to find him. One thing I know for certain: he’s no garden variety warlord from the slums of Khartoum.”

Piper leaned forward. “So you’re telling us that the PHP guys and Yusef Abahdi are working for someone outside of Sudan who only pretended to be El Noor in Khartoum?”

“That’s the gist of it. El Noor could be anybody. No telling who he wants to target or why.”

Ian interjected, “But we do know the guy is probably financing some sort of terrorist attack in the United States. Probably a biological attack, and probably on a good-sized city.”

Alex answered, “And we know El Noor paid for a helicopter that the PHP took delivery of.”

“What about a small, fixed wing airplane?” Ian asked. “Did El Noor buy one of those for the PHP?”