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  His younger brother, Darion, sat across from him counting a line of hollow-point 9mm rounds. Just out of high school, Darion had traveled to America from Chechnya to visit his brother for the summer. An observant and generally mild-mannered boy, Darion looked up to his older brother and was eager to please him. His visa had expired the previous week, but he knew, as did Rasheed, that he had no intention of returning home.

  They had a job to do, a mission more important than anything his friends back home were doing. More important than going to college, chasing girls, or hanging around the soccer field. He had been told by Rasheed of an important task assigned to them. They were going to strike a fatal blow to the enemy. The news on the television continued:

  “Officials state that a wave of recently thwarted Fourth of July terror attacks have shown that the Islamic State is losing its battle to inflict terror domestically. Homeland Security Chief Ralph Wilson stated that the terror group has grown desperate and that the planned attacks show that they are clearly on their ‘last leg’ of launching domestic terror attacks. New calls to re-examine federal immigration laws in the wake of more than 500 suspected foreign ISIS sympathizers in the U.S. from a leaked FBI report, have sent Capitol Hill into a frenzy of heated political rhetoric.”

  The brothers didn’t seem distracted or bothered by the claims made by the government. They were focused and driven by the mission at hand. Darion picked up a small GoPro camera from the table and turned it on, checking the battery power. A closed MacBook sat in front of him, next to the pistol ammunition, with a USB cord connected to its side. He stuck the cord into the camera and set it down.

  Rasheed looked up. “Is it charged?”

  “Halfway,” Darion replied.

  “Keep it plugged in, then.”

  “Okay.”

  Rasheed went back to fidgeting with some wiring protruding from the second of five tubes he had on the table.

  “You know how to upload the video properly, right?”

  “Yes,” Darion said, loading pistol rounds into a magazine.

  Rasheed looked up again and dropped his screwdriver.

  “Darion, look at me.”

  Darion raised his head and was met with the familiar, unblinking stare from his older brother.

  “This is serious,” Rasheed said.

  “I know.”

  “One mistake, no matter how minor, could screw up the entire mission. Our brothers are counting on us. This is a war.”

  Darion nodded along.

  “You’re going to have a minute, maybe less to upload the footage after the attack. It has to go directly to the website I gave you. You cannot be distracted in the slightest.”

  “Of course,” Darion said.

  “And I want you to practice, all night if you have to. Shoot some footage here and upload it. The diner, as you know, has free Wi-Fi, but have you asked yourself what you’re going to do if their Wi-Fi is down?”

  Darion thought to himself. “Um.”

  Rasheed slammed his fist on the table, startling Darion.

  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about! This is not a game, dear brother. Allah willing, you will be guided by his hand, but you have to consider everything that could go wrong.”

  “Okay,” Darion said. “I will.”

  “So what are you going to do if the Wi-Fi is down in the diner?”

  “Go somewhere else and upload it?”

  “Exactly. You will have little time, so you must react quickly.”

  “No room for error,” Darion said, memorizing the slogan.

  “That’s correct. There’s a coffee shop next door. A Laundromat next door to that, and so on. I’m counting on you, Darion, and so are all of our brothers.”

  “I will not fail.”

  Rasheed’s stare lightened. He began to blink. “You know I love you, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “And I’m very proud of you.”

  “Yes.”

  “And so is our mother.”

  Darion nodded.

  “Tomorrow morning you will become one of our most honored martyrs in history.”

  Rasheed screwed the top of the tube shut and set it carefully down—five pipe bombs in all, ready to be used against the enemy.

  ***

  After the meeting with his superiors at the FBI, Craig drove home feeling defeated and frustrated. The radio was on a news station that had just gotten back from commercial break.

  “The day before the Minneapolis July Fourth parade, a van carrying 200 pounds of explosives prematurely detonated. The driver, Sayid Awad, a Syrian refugee, was killed in the blast. An investigation underway reports all individuals with links to the planned attack have been detained and held in a undisclosed location due to the sensitive nature of investigation.

  “Residents are urged to remain vigilant despite authorities’ claim of a decline in potential terror attacks. In response to the parade's success and that of celebrations all over the country, the president spoke earlier today to reaffirm his stance that terrorists are losing at home and abroad.”

  Craig turned the dial off and drove in silence from the FBI headquarters to his quaint home in the Maryland suburbs—just outside the city of Rockville. He missed his family and had been away from them the past week while conducting the investigation in Minneapolis. Being away from home was always the hardest part of the job.

  And while he'd always wanted to work for the FBI, as far back as high school, he had never been so felt quite so disillusioned with the bureau. After reuniting with them upon returning, he wanted to see his wife, Rachael, and son, Nick, again more than ever. He just hoped he could put on a happy face.

  Rachael taught seventh grade at Robert Frost Middle School, while Nick was just about to begin eighth grade at the very same school. Since leaving the FBI building, Craig hadn't called Rachael to say that he was coming home. He didn't want to dump his problems on her or anyone else. He stared ahead at the road, thinking of a solution—some kind of way around the roadblocks his superiors had placed around him.

  He came to his neighborhood street adorned with maple trees and their Crimson King-colored leaves. Upon seeing the familiar houses passing by, Craig gradually began to feel better. His home was in view on the cul-de-sac at the end of Tilford Lane—the street they had lived on for the past five and a half years. It was a one-story brick home with blue wood paneling and a garage.

  Their freshly cut lawn had a walkway and concrete steps that led to a front porch consumed with potted plants. His wife's red four-door Kia Sportage was in the driveway, a welcome sight. He pulled into the driveway, next to her car, and turned off the engine to be alone with his thoughts for one more minute.

  When Craig walked in, Rachael was in the kitchen, heating up some lasagna in the oven. Nick was nowhere in sight. Craig passed the living room. The television was on, and the evening news narrative had shifted back to terrorism.

  Images of the black flag of ISIS followed by militants riding down the streets of Iraq waving guns in the air consumed the screen. Next came a picture of hooded, uniformed men standing behind a line of prisoners on their knees in orange jumpsuits with rifles to their heads.

  “The Islamic State or Islamic State Iraq and the Levant, otherwise known as ISIS or ISIL, has spread across the Middle East at an alarming rate against most analysts' predictions. The president today concluded that the Islamic State has made troubling gains in the region, but that the long-term strategy to defeat the militant group is in fact working.”

  “Hello, dear,” Craig said, stepping into the kitchen.

  Rachael turned around from the refrigerator, startled. “It’s about time you got home.”

  She was wearing black slacks and a blue cardigan jacket. Her long black hair spilled down over her shoulders. Her tired gray eyes looked back at him. “Well, don't just stand there, give me a hug,” she said.

  Craig dropped his briefcase onto a stool by the kitchen counter and strode quickly acro
ss the tile to embrace her.

  “Where have you been all day?” she said, hugging him back.

  “I’m sorry. I just needed to clear my head about some things.”

  They pulled away, holding each other’s arms. “Well, you’re just in time for some lasagna,” she said.

  “Smells good.”

  Rachael walked over to the counter, where a pile of cut carrots rested on a cutting board. “Now go say hi to Nick while I finish this. He’s barely seen you the past couple of days.”

  Craig took off his suit coat and gave her a salute. He then turned and walked past the dining room and into the hallway where Nick's door was closed. Craig knocked.

  “Yeah. It’s open!” Nick called out from inside.

  “How ya doing, buddy?” Craig asked, opening the door.

  “Hey, Dad,” Nick said, playing his Xbox.

  “Dinner’s almost ready, so go get washed up,” Craig said.

  Nick nodded with his eyes locked on the screen. Craig looked around at the comic book posters on the wall and the magazines and dirty laundry on the floor. It was Nick’s room all right, and for Craig, it felt good to be back home.

  ***

  By dinner time, the family was seated around their circular dining room table with a tin of lasagna in the middle, a bowl of carrots, and basket of toasted garlic bread to the side. The night air was soft, drifting in from an open window. Outside, the only sounds were of crickets from the lake nearby.

  “And how was school for everyone?” Craig asked, from the head of the table.

  “It's summer, Dad,” Nick said. “We don't have school.”

  “That's right. Sorry. Well, your mom still has to be there, I see.”

  “Summer school,” Rachael said, taking a bite of lasagna.

  “Are you excited about starting the eighth grade?” Craig asked.

  “I guess so,” Nick said with a shrug.

  “You haven’t told us much about Minneapolis assignment. How’d it go?” Rachael asked.

  Craig suddenly realized he hadn’t told her much of anything yet. Nothing about the suicide bomber, the van explosion, and the sleeper cell.

  “It went fine.”

  Craig stopped there. At the sudden silence, he clasped his hands together with enthusiasm. “Hey, let’s all take a walk after dinner!”

  “Sure, honey,” Rachael said.

  Nick looked up, intrigued. “A walk?” His interest had been piqued.

  After the table was cleaned off and the dishes done, Craig led his family down the steps of their wooden deck in the back yard toward the lake at the end of their property. He was carrying a box, but didn’t say what was in it. Nick anticipated something more.

  “That's why you're taking us here, right?” he said, as they walked down the grassy hill. “Some secret FBI information?”

  “Not quite, son,” Craig said.

  They reached the darkness of the lake. The moon reflected over the calm water that slapped against the wooden dock nearby. A small motorboat, tied to the dock from the cleats at the bow and the stern, was covered under a blue tarp. It floated up and down with the small, rippling current. Once they reached the end of the dock, Craig turned around to talk.

  “I brought you both out here to discuss our plan.”

  “Plan? What plan?” Rachael asked.

  “Our emergency evacuation plan,” Craig said. “I don't have any secret information to share, just good old-fashioned intuition.”

  Nick sighed.

  “We need to be ready to leave at moment's notice,” Craig continued.

  “What's really going on, Craig? Something has been troubling you since the minute you walked in. I could see it on your face,” Rachael said.

  “I think there's going to be an attack on our country and that it's going to be big. If it happens, I want you and Nick to take our boat and hide out in our cabin until further notice.”

  Their cabin, roughly thirty miles up the lake and deep in the wilderness, was their retreat from the city, stocked with supplies and equipment.

  “Do you have any specifics?” she asked.

  “Like when and where?” Nick added.

  Craig shook his head. “Let me show you something.”

  He set the box he was holding on the dock and opened it. He grabbed two handheld radios from inside and stood up, handing them to Rachael.

  “First things first. We have to discuss communication. Cell phones are crap in emergencies. Satellite phones are a little over our budget. These are your standard two-way GMRS radios, the same kind we use at work. If something goes wrong, we need to be able to communicate with each other.”

  The news hit Rachael hard. She tried to make sense of it. “If we’re not safe here, then we need to go somewhere else. My parents’ house in Utah, for starters. Don’t you think?”

  “For now, the cabin is our most practical option,” Craig said in a frank tone.

  ***

  After their meeting by the dock, Craig sat at the foot of their bed studying the screen on his laptop. Rachael walked in from the steamy bathroom wearing a towel around her head, a white shirt, and boxers.

  “I thought you were going to bed,” she said.

  “I am. I just have to look at some things real quick,” he answered with his back to her.

  She lay next to him on the bed. “I’m confused, Craig. Scared and confused. I don’t know what to say.”

  Craig shut his laptop, turned to her, and held both her hands in his. “Something bad is in the works. I can feel it. No one is taking it seriously. And if they are, they're not doing enough to stop it. That’s why I need to investigate these sleeper cell leads.”

  Rachael sighed. “This can’t be good for Nick.”

  “He’s a tough kid, and we can’t sugarcoat things for him any longer.”

  “He’s just a child,” she said.

  Craig stared into her eyes. “He’s my son. And I’m going to do everything to make sure that the both of you are safe.”

  “Okay,” she said, with a look of understanding. “When the time comes, we'll be ready.”

  As their lips pressed together, his phone began to vibrate on the nightstand. For a moment, he ignored it, but the incessant buzzing became too distracting.

  Craig broke away, climbed off the bed, and grabbed his cell phone. It was his fifth missed call from Patterson.

  “I have to make a call,” he said, standing up. He went into their bathroom, shut the door, and swiped the screen of his smart phone, calling Patterson back.

  “Yeah, it's me,” he said, once Patterson answered.

  “Harry Houdini. Where in the hell have you been? I've been calling you all day.”

  “Family time. Look, I'm sorry. You get anything yet?”

  Patterson cleared his throat. “Well, while you've been ignoring me all day, I've been running some records on the rental van—”

  “Patterson, wait,” Craig said, interrupting.

  “What? What is it?”

  Craig looked at himself in the mirror. His disheveled hair. The bags under his eyes. His wrinkled, untucked dress shirt. His silver watch. The dark scruff building on his face from not shaving for a day. A conflicted man stared back at him.

  He hadn't told Patterson that the case had been closed and that they had been assigned elsewhere. Patterson asked what he wanted again, waiting for a response.

  “Nothing. Go on,” Craig said.

  “The van was rented under a different name, not the driver's.”

  “An alias?”

  “No alias,” Patterson said. “The name's legit. Or at least I think it's legit. And get this: whoever rented that van lives close. Like, Richmond, Virginia close.”

  “What’s the name?” Craig asked in eager anticipation.

  “Rasheed Surkov, a Chechen immigrant.”

  “What would a Chechen nationalist be doing linked up with Syrian ISIS members?” Craig asked.

  “Don't ask me. Why did Cheech team up with Chon
g? Common goals, I imagine.”

  “Or Mussolini and Hitler,” Craig muttered.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing. We need to get on this before Homeland blows us out of the water.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  Craig cracked the bathroom door open. Rachael lay in bed, staring at the TV at the foot of the bed. Some late night talk show was on. She looked unhappy. He hoped that she would understand. She usually did.

  “Where are you?” Craig asked.

  “I'm still at the office. Been here all day, no thanks to you.”

  He slowly pushed the bathroom door closed again. “I'm on my way.”

  He hung up with Patterson and took one last look in the mirror. The road ahead was uncertain, but he didn't see it any other way.

  Going Rogue

  Under the night sky, Craig's Taurus sped down the windy roads of his Rockville suburb onto the interstate toward D.C. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in ages, it seemed, but didn't feel the least bit tired. He was on edge—one hand on the steering wheel and the other clutching a large thermos of coffee to get him through the night.

  Caught between keeping the details of his investigation hidden from both the FBI and his family, he had assured Rachael that he'd be back soon. Many things were at stake, he explained, and he didn't have a choice. She understood. At least he thought she did.

  He pulled into the underground parking garage, swiped his card at the gate sensor, and shuttled into a parking lot. The clock on his dashboard said twelve forty-five. After another swig from his thermos, and Craig got out of his car and hurried to the building. The halls inside were quiet and empty. Most of the offices had their lights off. There were a few agents roaming about, and Craig tried to remain low-key and kept his head down, not making eye contact with any of them.

  He took an elevator to the second floor where he and Patterson had adjoining offices. He moved down the carpeted hallway that served a wide area of cubicles, most of them empty. During the day, it was a different story. As Craig walked in Patterson’s office, he saw his partner sitting with his head in his arms resting on the desk.

  “Snap out of that wet dream. We’ve got work to do,” he said.