She isn't frightened to get into what she thinks is a replacement car - although she doesn't recognize the bodyguards. One is, after all, a woman. These are no bodyguards... but predatory child molesters in search of their next victim.
And this time they've chosen badly. For Mary Beth's father, James McBride, is the US ambassador to Belgium and a friend of the President. Within hours a team of FBI and CIA agents are despatched from Washington to handle the suspected kidnapping. But legal jurisdiction demands they work with Claudine Carter, the foremost psychological profiler within the European Union's own FBI, Europol.
In order to recover Mary Beth safely, Claudine has to enter the mind of the unknown woman abductor. But Claudine faces problems on her own side. She's got two members on her team she could well do without: one is a traitor and a paedophile, the other a ready-to-kill maniac about to snap. Her job is to save Mary, but can she save herself?