The President's Daughter: A Thriller

That afternoon, in Libya’s Nafusa Mountains, Jiang Lijun travels with Walid Ali Osman to recover Mel. Faraj stops their vehicle. Jiang exits to negotiate Mel’s release, not realizing that Faraj is the cousin of her captor.

Faraj pretends to consider the offer before signaling his hidden fighters. A rocket-propelled grenade destroys the Land Rover, and gunfire erupts, killing Walid’s men. Faraj disarms Jiang and informs him he will be taken to see his cousin, Al-Asheed.

At Al-Asheed’s compound, Mel Keating exercises under guard, observing the layout of six buildings, satellite dishes, and trucks. Al-Asheed approaches and taunts her about a previous escape attempt.

They hear a distant explosion and gunfire, and Mel feels a brief hope for a rescue. Al-Asheed crushes it, informing her that a Chinese rescue attempt has failed. As he escorts her back to her cell, he tells her to accept her fate, as she will be with him “forever.”

At the Sfax-Thyna Air Base, Keating is furious about the loss of SEAL support and orders Nick to find transportation. Nick scans the airfield and spots two Tunisian Air Force Black Hawk helicopters.

Nick recognizes the pilot as Captain Youssef “Joe” Zbidi, an officer he met during a joint training exercise. He approaches Joe to ask for help, but the captain is initially hostile, remembering how Nick insulted his flying skills during their previous encounter.

While the team prepares their gear, Claire alerts them to an imminent live video broadcast from Al-Asheed. They watch as a girl resembling Mel holds up a current newspaper. In a voiceover, Al-Asheed taunts Keating, declaring that the girl is now his daughter as compensation for his own family’s death. He warns that any attack on the compound will result in her death.

Immediately after, Matt receives a call on a burner phone. The caller is Danny Cohen, a Mossad agent, who reports that his agency has tracked the video’s transmission source and found Mel’s location.

That evening, in a cell inside Al-Asheed’s compound, Jiang is chained to a chair. Al-Asheed confronts him and rejects any offer for Mel’s release. After Al-Asheed leaves, his cousin Faraj enters and asks Jiang to detail his original offer: €20 million and a new identity for Mel’s safe return.

Faraj, claiming he is tired of the jihad, agrees to accept the deal. To force Jiang’s cooperation, Faraj threatens to tell Al-Asheed that Jiang, not the Americans, was responsible for murdering Al-Asheed’s family three years prior.

At the air base, Danny Cohen provides Keating with coordinates for Mel’s location, traced from the video broadcast. Shortly after, Nick returns with Captain Zbidi, who has agreed to fly the mission. Just then, Keating’s phone rings again. On the line is Ahmad Bin Nayef from Saudi intelligence, who provides completely different coordinates obtained from an interrogated courier.

Claire plots both locations on a map, revealing that they are 20 kilometers apart. The team faces a critical decision, as they have only one chance and must decide which intelligence to trust.

In the cell, Faraj reveals to Jiang how he knows the truth about the death of Al-Asheed’s family. An engineer determined that the explosion had come from inside their house, triggered by a device in a shipment of mortars that Jiang had supplied. Faraj outlines his plan: He will kill Al-Asheed, Jiang will arrange payment, and they will release Mel. Faraj warns that if Jiang betrays him, he will expose Jiang’s role in the murder.

Mel sees that her new prison cell lacks a bed or latrine and concludes that her captors plan to kill her soon. After eating crackers and a cherry snack that stains her fingers, she attempts to bribe her two guards with promises of money and asylum. The guards only mock her, leaving her feeling defeated. She realizes she must find a way to escape on her own.

In the maintenance facility, Keating learns that the Saudi intelligence source is dead and cannot be re-questioned. Forced to choose, Keating asks Claire to replay the proof-of-life video. Drawing on his poker experience, he studies the girl’s eyes and spots a “tell.” He notices that she lacks the subtle difference in pupil size caused by Mel’s corrective lenses and realizes she is a body double. David Stahl confirms the observation. Keating deduces that the video was a decoy and that Mel must be at the location the Saudis identified.

Later that night, in her cell, Mel feels a draft. She investigates and discovers a weak spot in the wall. Remembering her father’s lessons on resilience, she breaks a shelf and uses a jagged piece of wood as a shovel. She begins digging at what appears to be a sealed-off chimney, determined to create an escape route.

Keating asks Claire for satellite imagery, but the only available maps are outdated. Claire uses a satellite phone to call Josh, an NSA analyst, and convinces him to redirect a surveillance satellite for their operation. A live night-vision feed of the compound appears on her laptop. As the team analyzes the imagery, Keating spots an arrow scraped into the dirt, pointing at the largest building. He recognizes it as a signal from Mel, confirming her location.

Two hours after sunset, the team—Keating, Nick Zeppos, Alejandro Lopez, Stahl, and Claire—boards the Black Hawk. Keating finalizes the rules of engagement: Rescue Mel and kill all hostiles. As they prepare for takeoff, a Tunisian colonel runs onto the tarmac to halt the unauthorized flight. Joe, the pilot, feigns a communications problem, ignores the order, and takes off, flying into Libyan airspace.

Working frantically in her cell, Mel continues to dig her escape tunnel. She hears voices outside and freezes, but they recede. With renewed effort, she breaks through to the outside, and cold night air rushes in. As she pushes through, she falls and aggravates an ankle injury but ignores the pain, continuing to widen the opening.

The Black Hawk lands in a dry riverbed in the Nafusa Mountains. Keating sends Nick and Alejandro ahead to eliminate two sentries guarding the road to the compound. After waiting 10 minutes, the rest of the team moves forward. Nick radios that he has neutralized his target, but a long silence follows from Alejandro. Keating’s repeated calls go unanswered.

Inside the compound, Faraj frees Jiang and reveals that Al-Asheed plans to execute Mel that night. As they walk to the central building, Al-Asheed greets them calmly. He then reveals that he overheard their entire conversation and knows of Faraj’s betrayal. Before either man can react, Al-Asheed swiftly stabs his cousin in the chest with a knife.

On the compound’s perimeter, Alejandro finally responds. He explains that his target had moved, delaying the kill, but has now been eliminated. With both sentries down, the team moves to their final positions overlooking the compound, setting up an L-shaped ambush. Stahl and Claire establish an overwatch position. Keating watches the armed men and prepares to give the signal.

Mel gets stuck while squeezing through the hole she dug. She desperately claws at the opening to widen it. Just as she finishes, she hears her cell door being unlocked. With no time to spare, she scrambles up into the tunnel as her captors enter the room below.

Al-Asheed leads Jiang to Mel’s cell, intending for the Chinese agent to witness her execution. He finds the door blocked. A guard helps force it open, revealing that a piece of wood had jammed it shut. Al-Asheed storms into the empty cell. Looking at a pile of dirt, he sees Mel’s feet disappearing up through a hole in the ceiling.

Mel pulls herself onto the roof of the main building. She assesses her escape routes, deciding against a steep cliff and the exposed main road. She chooses to run toward a large boulder field that offers cover. Crawling to the edge, she lowers herself down, lands on her good foot, and begins running across the open compound.

As Al-Asheed tries to grab Mel’s feet, Jiang pulls a hidden single-shot weapon and kills the guard beside him. Al-Asheed draws a knife, but Jiang strikes him in the head with the dead guard’s AK-47, incapacitating him. Jiang then flees the building. Once outside, he uses a night-vision monocular to spot Mel running toward the rocks and begins his own pursuit.

Keating gives the order to attack. In a synchronized ambush, the team eliminates seven hostiles. Alejandro breaches the main building’s door, and the team clears the corridor, killing one more guard. They find Mel’s empty cell and the dead body of a man. On a rock, Alejandro spots “MK 603” written in red. Matt recognizes his daughter’s initials and their area code—a message she left using cherry juice. Realizing Mel that has just escaped, he orders the team to search the compound.