Publisher's Synopsis
Washington, D.C. lawyer Jason Wells is a seasoned litigator, fast-tracked for a seat on the Federal bench. At one time he had been a respected professor of law and a champion of the underprivileged-but a botched case that still haunts him has sent him into corporate law. Now he is being pressured to defend one more case and a Federal judgeship is all but his. His client: Islamic religious leader Bashir Omar (the Imam) who, with his cousin Jamaal Shakr, runs an Islamic center in the back streets of San Diego that the government believes funneled money from abroad to operate a terrorist cell. Bashir has been captured, but the dangerous and elusive Jamaal is on the run. Not certain of his client's guilt, Jason teams up with the person responsible for Bashir's capture, FBI agent Charlotte (Charlie) Lowry. Charlie has her own agenda: Jamaal escaped on her watch. After weeks of a relentless manhunt, the New York branch of the Bureau has a reliable report that Jamaal is in the city. While Charlie is in New York for Thanksgiving with her family, she watches the TV with horror as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade turns into deathtrap when a series of detonations erupt along the parade route. Jamaal has left his calling card. Charlie is intent on stopping Jamaal, yet she discovers that her own agency is using tactics that she cannot condone. The atrocity at the parade was just the first phase of Jamaal's plan to destabilize America. He enlists the aid of an unsuspecting drug lord to smuggle critical items from abroad that, along with funds supporting his activities, come from a sole benefactor in Saudi Arabia. Jamaal unleashes the second wave of his assault as his soldiers randomly deliver package bombs on both coasts that appear to come from major online retailers. A phone call from an influential senator ends any hopes Jason may have harbored for the judgeship, and his firm cuts him loose amid protests from clients. Jason agrees to resign after negotiating a hefty settlement, but is still left to handle the Bashir case. Jamaal sends a special package to Jason that contains a death threat if Jason fails in his defense of Bashir. With nothing left, Jason must rely on Charlie and friends from his past to uncover the truth about his client and to hunt down a psychopath who has declared war on America. In the process, he is forced to face some demons of his own.