The President's Daughter: A Thriller

In a cell in Northwestern New Hampshire, Mel is awakened by her younger captor, Faraj, who offers to make her favorite breakfast. She requests pancakes, a choice that reminds her of family. Faraj reveals that his own father was killed in Libya’s Abu Salim prison, telling Mel she is lucky by comparison.

After Faraj brings the meal, Mel eats and is overcome with exhaustion, suggesting her food was drugged. Remembering SERE training advice from Agent Stahl, she removes her gold family ring. She grips the ring, inscribed with “FROM ST TO KM 12/10/41” (229), and prepares to hide it as a clue.

At eight o’clock in the morning, in the Oval Office, four hours before the ransom deadline, President Pamela Barnes meets with FBI Director Lisa Blair and Homeland Security Secretary Paul Charles. Director Blair details the extensive search efforts but notes they have been complicated by a press leak about the kidnappers’ vehicle.

When Secretary Charles raises the subject of the ransom, President Barnes states that the United States does not pay ransoms to terrorists. Later, alone with her husband Richard, she expresses private doubts. Richard reassures her, deflecting blame onto Keating for failing to protect his daughter.