what you have to do. i also need to know as co-general of this team."

"i respect your position on the team, d, but how about respecting the fact that i don't want my wife and baby traumatized, all right?" he looked at her hard."how about if i wanted you to get one good damned night of sleep. to let you eat one meal that ain't been tainted or poisoned."

"i know that," she said softly, trying to pour balm on his shattered nerves. "and i love you for that . . . respect the hell out of you for doing that. but the only thing that will truly traumatize me is having something happen to you while i am blindsided. please don't shut me out of our future, carlos." she'd made her voice as tender as shecould, knowing that to fight him like she had in her old ways and days would just make the panther roar louder, when the objective was unity.

when he didn't immediately respond, she touched his arm and looked at him deeply. "i know the weight of the world is literally on your shoulders right now in a way that, as a woman, i probably can't imagine. but as your woman, let me have your back by helping you dissect this threat so we can come up with a serious strategy as one. would you trust me, baby? i'm not demanding . . . i'm asking you, as your wife, to let me in."

he stood and walked over to the sliding-glass doors and stretched out both arms to bracehimself against them. she heard him let out a hard breath and watched the thick muscles in his shoulder blades knot with tension.

"damn, i loved thishouse, d . . . wasn't trying to move again. not in this lifetime.pisses me off!"

within seconds she saw plumes of smoke and fire lines decimating the landscape. the relentless sound of chopper blades beating the air made it appear like a scene out of an old vietnam war movie. everything as far as she could see was being consumed by a fast-moving, glowing red carpet as though hell had vomited itself topside like napalm. a quick, unimpeded scan sent the deafening roar of new fires exploding, gobbling up land like a moving freight train at her. that sudden, intense sound, followed by a blast-furnace of heat almost knocked her off her stool.

fire planes crisscrossed the horizon, dropping plumes of ochre-colored flame retardant. yet as she scanned she could feel the unnatural heat within the flames, could see the metal alloy in car hubcaps turn to molten, liquid amalgam as it leaked down blistered streets. a sickening awareness then hit her; the national guard ranks were all deployed in iraq-culled down in numbers so critically low at home that the local human population didn't stand a chance against natural disasters at home now.

it took everything in her not to yell at her husband for keeping this from her while she'd slept or to jump up and run hollering through the house for an emergency team meeting. instead, she stared out at the surreal scene and took another bite of lumpy oatmeal from her spoon and then quickly shoved several pieces of cut banana into her mouth with it. five more minutes wasn't going to change what was happening, and she needed to use that time to chill carlos out.

yeah . . . to keep him chilled out, she needed to remain chilled out. that was the only way they could pull it together and think. the third biblical seal had been broken on the beach in the greek isles, breaking the economy with it. the black horse was riding hard, devastating industry, crops, tanking the insurance industry, screwing with jobs, thus the housing market-this fire, not unlike the billions being plowed into the war, would have a long-term economic impact that she couldn't even fathom.

damali briefly closed her eyes. revelations 6:6 entered her mind as a black scale flashed through her second-sight."a ration of corn for a day's wages, and three rations of barley for a day's wages." but the oil industry and the pharmaceutical industry, known then asthe wine , would not be hurt.

panic was unacceptable. panic was deadly.futile. but at the moment, there were simply no words.