The President's Daughter: A Thriller

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. As Director Blair leaves, she briefly recalls that Keating appointed her to her position.

In a suite at the Saunders Hotel, Keating learns from his chief of staff, Madeline Perry, that the prisoners demanded in the ransom have not been moved, indicating that the White House is not preparing to negotiate. Angered, Keating calls the White House and argues with Richard Barnes, who dismisses his concerns.

Furious, Keating bypasses the chain of command and calls FBI Director Blair on her private cell phone. After a tense exchange, Blair reveals that her team has a credible lead and may have pinpointed Mel’s location.

At a temporary FBI command post in a New Hampshire high school, coordination between the FBI, NSA, and Air Force is underway. Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) leader Ross Faulkner receives a tip from a local police officer who saw the wanted terrorist Al-Asheed at an isolated vacation home.

The intelligence is corroborated by NSA representative Claire Boone, who confirms an unusual spike in the home’s electricity usage. An Air Force drone provides thermal imaging, revealing three heat signatures: two on the main floor and a third in the basement. Convinced the person in the basement is Mel, Faulkner orders his teams to prepare for a raid.

FBI Director Blair arrives at the Keatings’ hotel suite with a team of agents, including Secret Service Special Agent in Charge David Stahl, to establish a mobile command post. She briefs Keating and Samantha on the new intelligence and displays the live thermal drone feed on a monitor, identifying the basement heat signature as their daughter’s likely location.

Ross Faulkner is patched in via speakerphone and confirms that his assault teams are moving into position. Watching the snipers approach, Keating puts his arm around Samantha and tells her they are about to get Mel back.

In the woods surrounding the target residence, HRT sniper Chris Whitney and his teammates take their positions. The snipers share a pact to kill Al-Asheed on sight as revenge for a fallen comrade. They confirm that the terrorists’ black Escalade is in the garage.

As the noon ransom deadline arrives, the six-man assault team emerges from the tree line and splits into two groups to breach the house. Through his rifle scope, Whitney watches the approach, waiting for a target.

From the White House Situation Room, President Barnes and Richard watch the raid on live video. FBI Deputy Director Gary Reynolds provides commentary. Feeling vindicated for her decision not to pay the ransom, Barnes listens as Richard complains about Director Blair’s absence and plans how to use the rescue for political gain. As the HRT breaches the house, President Barnes smiles, confident the crisis will become a political triumph.

In their hotel suite, Keating, Samantha, and Director Blair watch as the HRT team breaches the house. They feel relief when Ross Faulkner reports that two men are in custody. However, the relief vanishes as the team moves into the basement. The team leader reports that the third individual is also a male and confirms Mel is not in the house.

Keating notes that the time is 12:15 pm, 15 minutes past the ransom deadline. Believing her daughter has been executed, Samantha collapses.

At the raided residence, Ross Faulkner confronts the three captured men: college students Bruce Hardy, Gus Millet, and Lenny Atkins. The students explain that they were lured to the house with money for a supposed free vacation, confirming that they were used as decoys.

Elsewhere on the property, an HRT member discovers the body of the female police officer who reported the initial sighting; her throat has been slit. Faulkner reports to Director Blair that while they have evidence Al-Asheed was at the location, Mel’s whereabouts are unknown.

In the Keatings’ hotel suite, a guilt-ridden Agent Stahl urges Director Blair to have the HRT conduct a more thorough search of the basement cell. A flashback reveals that years earlier, Stahl had advised Mel to always leave a personal item behind as a clue if she were kidnapped.

Acting on Stahl’s intuition, Faulkner’s team searches the room again and finds a small gold ring. Samantha identifies the ring by its inscription as a family heirloom she gave to Mel. The discovery confirms that Mel was held at the house and was thinking clearly, but her current location remains a mystery.

In the White House, Richard Barnes informs President Barnes that Al-Asheed has closed the ransom’s bitcoin account. Lamenting the lost political opportunity, Barnes concocts a false narrative to leak to the press to protect her administration from the failed raid.

She instructs Richard to tell a reporter that the mission failed due to an “intelligence failure” by the FBI and Homeland Security. The fabricated story will also claim that she was prepared to pay the ransom but was dissuaded by her advisors.

That evening in the hotel suite, Samantha studies images of the safe house and an adjacent pond. She suddenly recalls a past archaeological trip during which she accessed a remote site via floatplane.

She realizes that the pond is long enough to serve as a runway. Based on her knowledge of a Cessna T206’s takeoff requirements, she deduces that Al-Asheed and Mel escaped by air, bypassing all roadblocks. Director Blair and Agent Stahl immediately act on this new intelligence, redirecting the search.

Late into the night, witness reports confirm that a floatplane was seen near the safe house, though accounts of its direction conflict. Keating makes a difficult call to Bill and Laura Kenyon, the parents of Mel’s murdered boyfriend, Tim. Bill expresses bitterness that the media has forgotten his son.

After hours of waiting, Keating is woken at two o’clock in the morning by an agent, who informs him that Al-Asheed is about to release a video statement.

Around two o’clock in the morning, President Barnes is awakened in the White House by her Deputy Chief of Staff, Felicia Taft. Taft informs her that Al-Asheed is about to release a statement through Al Jazeera.

Barnes wakes Richard and tells him they need to go to the Situation Room. When Richard asks what she thinks the video will contain, Barnes grimly predicts that the news will be horrible and bloody.

Just before three o’clock in the morning, Director Blair and her team set up a direct video feed from Al Jazeera in the Keatings’ hotel suite. The network airs a live, unvetted video from Al-Asheed. On screen, Al-Asheed addresses the Keatings and President Barnes, justifying his actions as revenge for his family’s death. He mocks the failed FBI raid and the government’s refusal to negotiate.

The camera then pulls back to reveal that Mel is alive, bound and kneeling beside him.

In his home office in New York City, Chinese intelligence officer Jiang Lijun watches Asim’s broadcast. A flashback reveals their prior relationship: Four years earlier in Libya, Jiang hired Al-Asheed to brutally suppress opposition to a Chinese oil pipeline by executing villagers.

As Jiang watches, Li Baodong calls and chides him for failing to control their former asset. Feeling a private satisfaction at the chaos, Jiang tells his boss they are about to see what Al-Asheed will do next.

In the White House Situation Room, President Barnes watches the video with Richard and her Deputy National Security Advisor, Sarah Palumbo. Palumbo relays the CIA’s latest analysis, which concludes that Al-Asheed is a narcissist who will most likely add new demands rather than harm his hostage.

Moments later, the camera reveals Mel kneeling next to Al-Asheed. Al-Asheed then raises a long saber, proving the CIA’s profile to be catastrophically wrong.

In the hotel suite, Keating watches in horror as Al-Asheed raises the saber over Mel. He experiences flashbacks of his daughter’s life. Just before the sword falls, Mel opens her eyes and yells, “Mommy, don’t look!” Keating immediately pulls Samantha’s head into his shoulder, shielding her from the sight.

Asim beheads Mel on camera, and blood splatters the lens. Forcing himself to watch, Keating sees the camera refocus on Mel’s body, her severed head, and her eyeglasses on a rock nearby.