It started with a trip to the Dulles International Airport in Virginia, which quickly turned into a living nightmare when a group of former United States soldiers hijacked the air traffic control systems with guns blazing. They cut the power to the runway lights of IAD and every airport in the vicinity, leaving only an hour for negotiators to meet their demands until the stranded planes, trapped overhead by a massive blizzard, began to run out of fuel and crashed.

Even the police could do nothing to help after Colonel William Stuart's men issued an ultimatum: they wanted the deposed despot Ramon Esperanza in exchange for all those lives. Meanwhile, these American mercenaries seized a traveler from the skywalk annex, using their hostage as a human shield when gunfights with SWAT ensued.

Now they were barricaded in a cargo hangar containing the Boeing 747 that Stuart commandeered as an escape vehicle. One of the captors, dressed in a stolen white maintenance suit, had sustained a shoulder wound during the last shootout. A few loose strands of chestnut hair fell across his sweat-slicked forehead while he bandaged himself and waited for news on Esperanza.

"Just sit there and shut up!" O'Reilly barked furiously at the captive. Then he turned to his comrades, who stood at the loading ramp as armed guards. "Stay close. Keep your heads in the game."

There were fifty-eight minutes left. His hand clutched a Glock 17 as if it were a lifeline. Finally, the brunet commando turned to their hostage again, glaring with icy blue eyes that could strike fear into even the bravest heart. This could only end in one of two ways. Success or failure. Life or death.

"Why do you keep staring at me? Even if you beg and plead, I ain't gonna set you free," he scoffed. "Do I need to put a blindfold on you next?"

There it was again: another doe-eyed stare, like that would get through to him. Unfortunately, he was unflinching and merciless. The Irish-American rebel didn't respond at first, but against his better judgement, O'Reilly let out a defeated sigh and walked over to the corner. "Not even afraid, and yet that look's killing me."