"An attack. Not an invasion. Not an army of Muslims occupying New York City-"

"Have you been to New York recently?"

"-as Christians occupied Baghdad. Your invasion proved our fears, that America wants to control the Muslim homeland."

"We invaded because you're terrorists."

"You invaded because you want our oil. Because you want the Jews to occupy our homeland. So we are fighting for our freedom with the means we have available. We do not have drones. But we do have knives."

"Which you use to behead people. You put heads on pikes, like we're living in the goddamn Game of Thrones!"

"The beheadings were meant to inspire fear. They worked. The Iraqi and Syrian armies dropped their weapons and fled when they saw the black ISIS flag because they knew what their fate would be if they fought and lost."

"Beheadings are barbaric."

"And drone missiles are not? You invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims with bombs and bullets. Why is that more civilized than beheadings? People are still dead. If you can kill, why can't we? You kill for oil. We kill for Islam. And Americans must remember that: We will kill for Islam. We will die for Islam. As Sheikh Osama so famously said, 'We love death as much as you love life.' "

"Those are words to live by."

"Those are words to die by."

"What do you people hope to achieve with all this terror?"

"To purify the Arabian Peninsula of Christians and Jews."

"You want us out?"

"Yes."

"And the Jews, how do they get out of Israel?"

He shrugged. "Planes, trains, buses ... we don't care."

"But they must leave?"

"Yes. They took our land to create their state. They must give the land back."

"Anything else?"

"The fall of America. Western civilization would be better, but we would settle for the destruction of America."

"That will never happen."

"It is happening."

Frank groaned. "Oh, yeah, end of days. What's all that nonsense about?"

Mustafa gave him a look over his reading glasses. "Nonsense, counselor?"

"Point of view."

"Better. I have studied the prophecies that tell of the end of days. The Antichrist takes over the world until the messiah returns to earth, kills the Antichrist, and conquers the infidels. The signs are present. The Antichrist is here. The end of days is upon us."

"The Antichrist is here?"

"Yes."

"Is it Putin? I've always thought he's one crazy-ass bastard."

"Ah, in your ignorance, you have stumbled upon the correct question, counselor, much as a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. But the Antichrist is not a he, it is a what."

"What?"

"America."

"America? America is the Antichrist?"

"If you want a person, then the president, the most powerful man on the planet. Did he not say America has the right to kill anyone anywhere anytime? What are those but the words of the Antichrist? And Americans cheered. So yes, counselor, America is the embodiment of the Antichrist. That is why others never saw its arrival. They were looking for a he instead of a what. Look at American culture-secular and sexual and debase. Look at American politics-selfish and avaricious and megalomaniac. Look at American foreign policy-aggressive and imperialistic and as the only super power on earth, now in control of this world. Is that not the Antichrist?"

"Have you ever been institutionalized in a mental facility? We could go with an insanity plea."

"Do be careful, counselor."

"If you think the end of days is upon us, why do you send your sons to Princeton and Harvard?"

"I could be wrong."

"The government thinks you're a bad guy. I see why."

"Your government thinks every Muslim is a bad guy because they are waging war against Islam. Thus, all Muslims are bad. When you waged World War Two, were there any good Germans or good Japanese? Americans said, 'The only good Jap is a dead Jap' ... 'The only good Kraut is a dead Kraut.' "

"They say you're the ISIS cleric. Is that true?"

"I teach Islam. The ISIS freedom fighters desire to know the truth and live pious lives in accordance with the Koran."

Frank's blood pressure spiked.

"Freedom fighters? They're fucking terrorists."

Frank fought his emotions. He was a lawyer. This asshole was his client. He had had assholes for clients before. But he had never before wanted to strangle an asshole client.

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Was it not terror to Afghans when the U.S. invaded their country to find Osama? To Iraqis when the U.S. invaded to depose Hussein?"

"ISIS targets civilians. We don't."

"How many civilians died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki when America dropped the atomic bombs? In Vietnam when America dropped napalm? In Iraq with shock and awe? You see, counselor, when America kills civilians, you call it collateral damage. When Muslims do, you call it terrorism. Because you control the media. You control the message Americans hear."

Frank had given up on establishing a human connection with his client. What he really wanted to do was pound the son of a bitch into the concrete floor. But that might constitute a conflict of interest. So he went with his standard trial strategy: the best defense was offense. He attacked.

"You know what's wrong with you, Omar? Other than the fact that you're a certifiable fucked-up loon?"

"What's that, counselor?"

"You're irrelevant. You're longing for a return to the Muslim glory days when you were relevant in the world. Today, you're one-point-six billion irrelevant fucking people. You live in the Stone Age, and you want us to live there with you. You don't build things, invent things, produce things, or do things. You just destroy things."

"We were relevant on nine-eleven. We were relevant in Paris and San Bernardino. We are relevant in presidential politics."

"Only because you kill. If you didn't commit acts of terror, no one would give a fuck about you or your fucking religion. You're like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum to get attention."

"And the world is attentive, is it not?"

"Yes. The world has to attend to assholes who commit crimes against humanity. The world attended to Hitler. We'll attend to you."

"In the meantime, counselor, can you get me out of here?"

"So you can execute the stadium plot?"

"No. So I can cheer when the stadium comes down on all those Americans just as I cheered the Paris attacks."

"You cheered innocent people dying?"

"France attacked us in Syria, so we attacked them in Paris. America attacks us; we will attack America."

"At the Super Bowl?"

"That would be glorious."

Frank stood and stared down at him. "Glorious? A hundred thousand people dying would he glorious? You're a sick fucking bastard."

"Careful, counselor. Keep your head about you."

Frank locked eyes with the Imam. "Is that a threat?"

"Advice."

"I'm the lawyer. I give advice to you."

"I am the Imam. I give life to you."

Frank walked to the far side of the cell. He needed distance from this asshole to breathe.

"I must testify."

Frank turned to Mustafa. "With what you just told me? No fucking way."

"The media will be present. I can speak directly to the American people. They will hear our message. It will be on the network news."

"You think they want to hear your crap?"

"No. But they will listen."

"Why?"

"Fear."

"You're not going to testify."

"I am not asking your permission, counselor. I am informing you."

"You're going to lie."

"I am not going to confess."

"That's perjury."

"Our little secret."

"I can't stand by while you commit perjury. I have a duty to inform the court."

"Attorney-client privilege, counselor. Punishment for violation of which is severe."

"Disbarment."

"Decapitation."

Back when he worked for the DA, Frank had prosecuted a cold-blooded killer named Benjie Boatwright. Benjie worked for the biggest drug lord in South Dallas. You crossed his boss, you died. But Benjie didn't put a bullet in your head. That was too easy of a death. He cut you to pieces, sliced you open, let you bleed out. Slowly. Painfully. Benjie Boatwright enjoyed torturing other human beings. When the jury sentenced him to death, Benjie swore he would escape and kill every juror, the judge, and Frank. Benjie died in prison before the state could execute him. Other inmates stabbed him to death in the exercise yard. When Frank learned of Benjie's death, he said a prayer of thanks. He had never again wished a man dead. Until now.

He wanted this motherfucker dead.

One hundred thousand people would die if a bomb brought Cowboys Stadium down during the Super Bowl.

Was that even possible?

Of course, no one had thought it possible to bring down the World Trade Center; but then, no one had thought it possible that terrorists could hijack four commercial jets simultaneously and fly them into office buildings and the Pentagon and but for the grace of God, the White House or the Capitol. On 9/11, the impossible had become possible.

What if a bomb brought down the stadium?

But bombings didn't happen in the United States. Americans didn't do that sort of thing. Americans were innocent ... until April 19, 1995. Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, two ex-soldiers turned anti-government losers, were outraged at the federal government over the Waco standoff with David Koresh and his followers that resulted in the deaths of seventy-six Branch Davidians, including children. They decided to exact revenge.

They bought two thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, liquid nitromethane, diesel fuel, and Tovex, an explosive that supplanted dynamite as the blasting material of choice. Total cost of the materials was less than $5,000. They mixed the fertilizer and nitromethane in nine fifty-five-gallon barrels, and the fertilizer and diesel fuel in four barrels. They added acetylene cylinders to enhance the fire from the explosion. The bomb weighed seven thousand pounds.

They placed the barrels in the back of a rental truck. On the second anniversary of Waco, McVeigh drove the truck to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. He parked the truck directly in front of the building, started the detonation sequence, and walked away. The bomb exploded and destroyed the nine-story building, damaged three hundred other buildings, killed one hundred sixty-eight people, including nineteen children, and injured eight hundred more.

America lost its innocence that day.

The FBI had always been an inside-the-box organization. It didn't pay to think outside the box. The past was inside the box; the future was outside. The FBI investigated after the fact; it did not prevent the fact. It did not anticipate. It was reactive and not proactive. It was always a step behind. Consequently, the Oklahoma City bombing shocked the country and surprised the FBI. The federal government failed the people. Six years later, on September 11, 2001, it failed the people again.