Amanda peeled off heavy material as the jeep sped and bumped across the desert. She looked over at Lee and stifled a laugh at the get up he was wearing. He looked like a sheik, a tall, blonde sheik, and he was wearing a gingham tablecloth on his head. She knew it had some kind of official name, but to her it looked like the tablecloth that her mother used for picnics. He cast a sideways glance at her then a second longer look.

"What?" He asked as he turned his attention back to the sandy ruts.

"Nothing."

He glared for a second, smiled ambiguously then continued driving. Lee just prayed that this piece of scrap metal wouldn't overheat when the sun finally came up. The last thing he wanted was to be trapped in the middle of the Sahara with very little water and no one looking for them. Right now the desert was cold, but as soon as the sun rose the temperature would soar to over 110°. He hoped that the glow he saw in the distance was Vakesh.

"Hold on, Amanda!" Lee yelled over the wind and the whine of the engine.

Without a word, Amanda grabbed the roll bar with her right hand and the handle on the dash with her left. She closed her eyes and pressed herself back into the bucket seat and wished that this car had a seatbelt. Then again with no doors and no roof, that seemed to be asking an awful lot. Spitting sand, the Jeep tore across the wasteland.

"What the hell?"

Amanda opened her eyes as the Jeep slowed then skidded to a sliding stop in the loose sand. "Lee..?"

She looked out at the sand glowing in the moonlight then followed Lee's stare to a black lump off to the left of the Jeep. Grabbing the commandeered Uzi from the back Lee slid out. Amanda looked around then jumped out of the car and followed closely behind Lee. Lee came up short a bit shorter than Amanda and he glared over his shoulder at the same time he took her hand.

"Is that…?"

He nodded, "Yeah, that's Frank."

Lee knelt next to the body and felt for a pulse. He just looked up and shook his head. Amanda cringed and nodded. Lee turned Frank's body face up and frowned at the red stain that had spread across the front of his khaki shirt.

"Amanda, he's been shot."

She didn't miss the question in his voice. "If he was shot, Lee, that means…."

"Yeah, they're a lot closer than we thought. They must have thought that he was going to sell them out. Come on, let's get out of here quick. If they got him, they're going to step up their search for us and I don't think Christophe is going to put off his plans just because he doesn't know where we are."

Lee touched her arm and led her back to the jeep. The sun was just beginning to brighten the eastern sky. Lee looked towards his partner again.

"Amanda, don't take too much of that off. I don't know how far away we are, and that sun's going to be brutal in an hour. At least keep the veil on to keep the sun off your face." He paused, "I really am sorry about this Manda."

She just stared at him for a second then nodded. She resumed her death grip on the roll cage as they headed off across the sand again.

A pale, dark haired man ran towards the barracks. He hoped to gain some favor with Christophe for what he'd just done. The agent was dead. He had shot him himself and then returned on the stolen camel. Christophe had to be happy about that. Now there was no one who could ruin their plans.

"Christophe!"

The older man turned with a growl of impatience, "What is it fool? This had better be good."

"That agent, Stetson, he's dead."

Now Christophe turned his full attention to the man, "What? How do you know this? Where's the woman?"

"He wasn't with the woman. He was on a camel, headed out to Vakesh, just as you had said he might be. I caught up with him and I executed him. He won't stand in your way now."

"He wasn't with the woman? Then where is she? And where is his body?"

"I left it in the desert. No one will find it, the buzzards will take care of it."

A second man, much taller than Christophe and Jorgen ran up to them. "The traders are saying that a man and a woman stole one of their jeeps. There's clothing missing too. The agents have a head start, if they know where they were going. But the sun is going to be up in just over an hour. They won't survive the desert in that heat."

"Then who did you kill, Jorgen? Hmm? Who did you leave lying in the sand? Fools." Christophe pointed towards the tall, dark-skinned man. "Get three men and take one of the trucks. Catch them and kill Stetson. Bring the woman back to me. Do not harm her, do not touch her. Do you understand?" Christophe had his own plans for Amanda King. Without Stetson to get in the way, she would be his forever. She would learn to like it. And if she didn't, well, that wasn't really his concern.

He nodded and ran back calling into the camp for help. Christophe left Jorgen standing in the sand and sauntered over to the second hangar. He really was in no rush. He would be in the air before the sun came up and the Mareki parliament would be destroyed. Even if the agent could get back to Vakesh before Christophe was airborne, he knew that that pit of bureaucracy would keep him running in circles until well after it was too late. The MSA would get their explosion, the fools in the parliament would be dead, Mareki would return to its moral ways, and he'd get his money. With what the MSA was paying him, he could disappear forever, very comfortably. He threw open the door to the hangar and called to his Algerian assistant.

"Jean-Claude, get this plane ready to fly. I want to be in the air in half an hour. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."