PROLOGUE

From his deep recesses of sleep, he vaguely registered a distant ringing sound. It was his alarm clock.

Groaning, the man reached out from under his bed covers for the offending device on the bedside table. He felt around, fumbling and nearly dropping the clock.

The noise woke his roommate. "Is it already time to wake up?"

"Yeah," came the hoarse reply, still full of sleep. "Get up."

The second man groaned loudly into his pillow, unwilling to leave slumber land and face the real world. "Give me another five minutes."

"Can't do," said the first man, sitting up in his bed and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "We have a flight to catch."

He got up from the bed, walking to the interconnecting door that linked this room to the one next door, where their friends were.

As the door swung open, he announced loudly, "Rise and shine sleepyheads!"

All he was greeted with was the frightened and stunned looks of the other room's occupants, bound and gagged on the floor.

The masked man standing over them with a gun turned to face the newcomer, and the man felt his heart sink.

They were never going to make the flight on time.