"What do you mean, Nancy? Are you saying that your sources have nothing? NOTHING?" Jed was upset over the fact that his whole Security Council had had over four hours to tap their sources and they had come up with absolutely nothing. The entire Security Council visibly cringed at the tone of the Presidential voice.

Leo shot the President a glance, trying to get him to calm down a little bit, but he knew it was probably useless.

The President took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Sorry. This is my wife we are talking about. The First Lady of the United States. The mother of my children. She's been gone now, what, six hours, and nobody has heard anything? No ransom messages, no one taking responsibility, nothing. I find that real hard to believe. The usual suspects would be bragging to the world by now who they had abducted. Hell, it would be almost like abducting me. They would be so proud they would want the world to know about their success."

Nancy knew how upset the President was. And he had every right to be. But she dealt with facts, And the fact was there had been no chatter at all about Mrs. Bartlet's abduction. None at all. If she had been taken by anyone from the Middle East or China someone would have taken responsibility by now. The First Lady was too big a prize not to brag about it.

"Mr. President, because we haven't heard anything, it is our conclusion that the First Lady was taken by a previously unknown group who maybe isn't one that does this on a routine basis. And as such, doesn't operate by the standard, shall I say, terror group methodology. And, if I can say so without a presidential dress down, that makes them even more dangerous. Without knowing their methodology, it makes that more difficult to guess what actions they would take."

"Nancy, what are you trying to tell me in your roundabout way?"

"Sir, with known terror groups, we can guess what their actions will be. If we do A, then usually we can predict they will do B. But with an unknown group, if we do A, we have no idea if they will do B or T or Z, or even what those actions are. So basically, right now, until we know more about who took the First Lady, we can't make even the most basic hypothesis about what's going on and how to resolve it."

"Can we rule out which groups they are not?"

"I think for the most part we already have. Which leaves us with nothing."

Jed was silent. He hated that the best intelligence minds in the country had nothing, knew nothing. He wanted Abbey back. Of course, they wanted her back as well, but not as much as he did. But until they had information to make plans on, it wouldn't happen. He stood up.

"Okay. Keep trying. The minute you find even the slightest bit of information that could possibly identify who took my wife let me know immediately."

"Of course, Mr. President."

With that statement, Jed and Leo stood and exited the Situation Room. As they made their way back to the Oval Office, Margaret slipped a note into Leo's hand. He read it as he walked with Jed into the Oval.

"Well, one piece of good news."

"What is it?"

"Zoey's plane has taken off from RAF Northholt and will land at Andrews at midnight our time."

"Great. Did I hear you say that Lord John is the owner of that plane?"

"Yes, Sir. And he's checking his sources in Great Britain. That man is extremely well connected and if Abbey is still there, he'll find her."

"I don't know, Leo. There's been plenty of time for her to be placed on a plane and flown elsewhere in the world by now. She could be anywhere. She could be dead by now."

"Jed, stop thinking like that. You, of all people, have to have faith that she will be found. You have to be strong for your daughters and strong for yourself. Until you have more facts that say otherwise, you can't give into your doubts. They'll eat you alive if you let that happen. Are you listening to me?"

Jed raised his face, Leo noting tears running down his cheeks. "I'm trying. But it's so hard. Especially without facts that proves she's alive."

"But you don't have facts that she's dead either. So, let's take the positive facts and believe them until they are proven wrong."

Jed grabbed a tissue and wiped his face. "Okay. You're right. I have to be strong at least for the girls. Abbey would want that." He stared into space for a minute, thinking about what was possibly going on with his wife at that very minute, but then came back to reality. "What's next?"