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with it.”
    Malone checked it, then tucked it in under his belt. “No promises.”

5
    “You’re probably wondering why we brought you here.”
    “The question did pop up,” Khoury said.
    Their captor ignored the remark. “It has to do with your work. You see, we need you to come up with a new idea. A new plot. Something … epic.”
    Khoury and Berry looked at each other with evident confusion.
    Khoury asked, “You’re, what—a rival publisher?”
    “It’s not for a book.”
    “A TV show then, or,” Khoury’s eyes lit up, “a movie?”
    “Either way, you really need to go through our agents,” Berry offered. “That’s the way it’s usually done.”
    “Yeah, I mean, look, we’re flattered, we appreciate your putting up this whole song and dance to impress us, but, seriously—”
    The man twirled his gun playfully before letting it settle with its barrel lined up on the author’s face.
    Khoury lost his grin. “Maybe I should let you tell us some more.”
    “It’s not for a movie or a television show. It’s for us to do. In real life.” He paused, clearly wanting to watch the confusion on his prisoners’ faces morph into fear.
    “‘To do?’” Berry asked. “You mean—”
    “I mean I want you to come up with a great plot, something really bad that we can do to cause a lot of death and suffering.” His tone took on a dark, messianic fervor. “Something spectacular, something that hasn’t been done before. Something that will bring America to its knees and shake the whole world. Something that will never be forgotten.”
    Berry and Khoury were speechless.
    The man seemed to be enjoying the effect of his words on them.
    Berry asked, “You want us to plan something for you?”
    “Exactly.”
    Berry considered his reply for a moment, then calmly added, “Why us?”
    “Because we keep getting caught. Every time we try something, every plan my brothers out there come up has failed. Since 9/11, every time one of our groups has tried to attack America, it’s ended in disaster.” His eyes narrowed. “We need you to come up with something foolproof. Something unexpected, but that will work. Because you’ll have thought of everything that can go wrong and planned around it. In this story, you’ll make the bad guys win.”
    “That’s a twist, for sure, but … why us?” Khoury asked.
    “You’re writers,” the man said. “You do this every day.”
    “Yeah, but I mean, why us, why me and Steve? The kind of thing you’re talking about, terrorist-counter-terrorist stuff—it’s not really what we do. You need someone like, I don’t know, Brad Thor. Or Kyle Mills. They’d be your best bet.”
    Berry added, “Or Terry Hayes. Have you read I Am Pilgrim ? He’d be perfect.”
    “Or maybe someone like Howard Gordon. He did 24 . And Homeland . What you’re talking about is right up his alley.”
    “No,” the man barked angrily. “No dirty bombs, no suitcase nukes, no viruses. I want something original. Something … unique.” His eyes tightened, along with his jaw muscles. “Something that will make me even bigger than Bin Laden.”
    Khoury thought for a second, then said, “Have you considered Dan Brown?”
    “Or Lee Child,” Berry suggested. “He’s really twisted, and he’s in town. The stories I could tell you.”
    The man’s face broke into a narrow, sadistic smile as he shook his head slowly. “Sorry, my friends. You’re it.”
    “Look, this is nuts,” Berry protested. “You can’t seriously expect us to come up with a way for you to kill people.”
    “Oh, I do expect you to, believe me,” the man countered. “Right now, it’s only the two of you. But it wouldn’t be hard for us to grab your families. If you need more … inspiration.”
    Berry looked over to Khoury, whose expression now mirrored his own growing sense of doom.
    Khoury asked, “This is insane. Whose brilliant idea was this anyway? Yours?”
    The man smiled. “Actually, your government