State of Terror

At the consulate, Ellen hosts a video meeting with her international counterparts. Research has found that each of the targeted buses contained a Pakistani nuclear physicist. Others want to know how Ellen knew about the bomb beforehand, she does not want to share any information about her sources or Bashir Shah just yet.

Ellen asks General Whitehead about Shah and is reminded of the unsigned notes she receives in English and Urdu each year since the Shah documentary aired that wish her “long life” (75). She also received a note of condolence in the same style on the day of her husband Quinn’s sudden death. Since then, Ellen has believed that Shah killed her husband.

Whitehead explains to her that Shah is considered one of the geniuses behind Pakistan’s nuclear arms program, but that Shah has become a “one-stop shop” (77) for weapons and sells materials and technology to the highest bidder. Shah and the Pakistan government share a desire to keep the region destabilized, to gain advantage over their locals’ rivals India, and to undermine the West. Pakistan, Whitehead explains, may nominally be allied with the United States but they also support and protect extremists and terrorists, many of whom are supplied by Shah. So far, infighting, disorganization, and Western interference have prevented these groups from obtaining an operational nuclear weapon. Whitehead is shocked that the previous administration would agree to Shah’s release from house arrest.

Ellen tells her foreign counterparts that her son’s sources gave her warning about the Frankfurt bomb. When she says that he will not reveal his sources, the French official points out that Gil emerged unscathed after being kidnapped by the Pathan. In the wake of the kidnapping, the man continues, Gil converted to Islam. The French official drops all pretense and, as others protest, demands to know whether Gil was part of the terrorist plot. Ellen responds angrily, but she does not have a solid answer. She once harbored similar suspicions and her relationship with Gil became fractured after his escape and conversion. The issue had also caused conflict with President Williams when he was still a Senator.

Needing to give her counterparts something, Ellen mentions Shah’s name. Shah, she explains, was released with the previous administration’s permission in the wake of the recent election. Ellen loathes the previous administration and begins to suspect that Tim Beecham, Director of National Intelligence and a holdover from the previous administration, may be untrustworthy. The counterparts ask Ellen to obtain more information from Gil.

Betsy flies back to the US at Ellen’s request. She reads a letter from Ellen and wonders how she will deal with her friend’s request.

After her meeting, Ellen talks with Anahita. Ellen grills Anahita about her life, convinced that “there’s more” (84) to her life story than she wants to reveal. Under pressure, Anahita admits that she copied the message because she thought it might be from Gil. She admits that she and Gil were romantically involved when she was stationed in Islamabad; he would send her short messages telling her when to meet him. Ellen sympathizes with Anahita, remembering her love for Gil’s father, Cal. Anahita explains that Shah’s name terrified her because she remembered the way he was talked about in Pakistan, as “one of the gods of war” (86). When Anahita leaves the meeting, she realizes that she has lied to Ellen again.

Betsy notices a man who has followed her from Frankfurt to Washington. She wonders whether Ellen sent him to protect her. Betsy and Ellen have been friends since the age of five and Betsy is one of the only people Ellen can trust to investigate Tim Beecham’s background.

Ellen plans to fly to Pakistan in search of answers about the bombings. Despite pleading with Gil, he refused to give up his source. Gil aspired to be a journalist from an early age and follow in his father’s footsteps. His father had always been the typical idealistic journalist, while his mother was the “bureaucrat who ran the empire” (90).

Though Gil would not give up his source, he hinted there might be another way to find out Shah’s plan. Before leaving for her plane, Ellen also talked to German Intelligence. Using CCTV footage, they told her that the main suspect in the Frankfurt bombing was professional, not the fanatical, radicalized suicide bomber that they first expected. To Ellen, the young man seemed as though he wanted to be recognized and she detected a hit of fear, sadness, or regret in his expression. She wondered whether the young man was even meant to survive, so she wants to find him before the terrorists do.

Before leaving for her flight to Pakistan, Ellen was informed by Tim Beecham that the coded message sent to Anahita originated from Iran. They tracked the message to a computer in Tehran belonging to a nuclear physicist named Professor Behnam Ahmadi. Ellen cannot understand why an extreme and resolute man like Ahmadi would try to prevent the explosions, nor why the Iranians would try to protect Pakistani physicists. Beecham also told Ellen that Anahita’s father was an economist from Iran, rather than Lebanon. Furthermore, he changed his name on arriving in the United States. His original name was Ahmadi; he is the brother of Behnam Ahmadi.

The suspected bomber is identified as Aram Wani, and a police unit is sent to check on his family home in a small town in Bavaria. Wani travels from Frankfurt to Bavaria on a bus, desperately thinking about how he will get his German wife and 18-month-old baby out of the country. He fears the police, Shah, and the Russians.

At the State Department offices, General Whitehead sends an Army Ranger named Captain Denise Phelan to assist Betsy; she slips a burner phone into Betsy’s pocket. In the offices, Betsy uses Boynton’s computer and credentials to research Tim Beecham. Her investigation is interrupted by the arrival of Barb Stenhauser. Betsy explains her presence in the United States by saying she and Ellen had an argument. Stenhauser guesses that this argument was about Gil’s kidnapping, and Betsy plays along though the idea dredges up traumatic memories from the past. Betsy knows that Ellen never forgave then-Senator Williams for his refusal to negotiate for Gil’s release, and Betsy knows that Boynton was appointed by Stenhauser to have an insider in Ellen’s office. Later, she realizes that Stenhauser has also tried to access Boynton’s computer; however, the use of Boynton’s credentials means that she will not associate the research into Beecham with Betsy. As she reflects on the lack of information about Beecham available on the computer, she realizes that the man following her was not sent by Ellen.

Anahita is questioned in the Frankfurt consulate. Ellen and Boynton are in the room, while Beecham and others connect via video. Ellen asks about Anahita’s father, but she is reluctant to say anything. Keeping his identity secret is “the one thing her parents had asked of her” (108). She knows that her father fled Iran after his family was killed by the hardline government and she is worried that he will be sent back to Iran if the truth is revealed. Beecham notices Anahita’s silence and demands that she be arrested. Ellen takes a forceful approach, and Anahita lets her father’s secret slip out but denies having any uncle or family in Iran. Beecham announces that he is going to her parents’ house in Bethesda.

Anahita calls her father as Ellen and the others listen in. She greets him in Arabic, their coded message which signals that something is wrong. Seeing a black car pull into the driveway, he immediately understands and tells his daughter that he loves her. Over the phone, they hear Beecham’s armed men violently arrest Anahita’s mother and father. Eventually, a camera is set up linking Frankfurt to the home in Bethesda. Beecham interrogates Anahita’s parents and demands to know about Behnam Ahmadi. Anahita’s father confesses that he has a sister and brother who are “loyal to the regime” (115). Beecham accuses him of being equally as loyal, pointing to a photograph of him alongside his brother.

Betsy sits in a café and watches the man who is following her. She uses her own phone to call General Whitehead, confirming that the burner phone was sent by him. She arranges to meet him in a bar.

Betsy talks with General Whitehead. She tells him about the man following her, and Whitehead calmly but firmly escorts the man from the bar. When he returns, he says the man was sent by Beecham. Betsy tells Whitehead about Ellen’s request that she uncover information about Beecham; Whitehead acknowledges the lack of information on the files and reveals that Beecham was one of the previous administration’s primary proponents of pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and giving the Iranians “free rein” (118). Whitehead suggests that the real beneficiaries are the Russians and the previous President, Eric Dunn, who wants to return to power. The General explains that “there are elements inside the United States unhappy with the direction the country is moving in” (119) and they wish to use Dunn to halt “the erosion of the American way” (119) because he can be easily manipulated. A potential terrorist attack on American soil, he suggests, would be excellent political fodder to return a former President to power. The people manipulating Dunn are “as radicalized as Al-Qaeda” (120), according to Whitehead, in their efforts to preserve an idealized, racially homogenous, reactionary version of America. Tim Beecham is involved somehow, Whitehead suspects, in that he may have orchestrated the release of Bashir Shah as part of a secret deal with Pakistan to maintain order in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the United States military from the region. Whitehead believes Beecham is involved in the conspiracy, though Beecham may only be a puppet of more insidious forces.

Aram Wani returns to his family home to find his wife and baby murdered. When he spots a CIA agent approaching the house with a gun, he runs.

Anahita’s father explains to his interrogators how he became disillusioned with Islam and the Iranian government. He discusses a mathematical problem named the Secretary’s Dilemma, a formula which helps a person to know “when to stop” (125). Then, he is led away by Beecham’s men. Ellen turns to Anahita; she does not believe everything the young woman says, but she also does not believe that Anahita wants to hurt anyone. Beecham messages Ellen, revealing that Behnam Ahmadi has a daughter named Zahara who is notably “less hard-line” (126) than her father. Beecham suggests that Zahara may have sent the message to Anahita. Ellen suspects that Zahara may be Gil’s source, so she plans to use Anahita to contact Zahara.

Bashir Shah reflects on the bombing attacks. He views them as a success, though a “bit messier” (127) than he intended. Two mistakes were made, however, as both Aram Wani and Gil Bahar were not killed as planned. An aide hesitantly reveals that Ellen Adams knows that the nuclear physicists were working for Shah. Much to the aide’s surprise, Shah is not angry. Instead, Shah walks around the pool at the house in Palm Beach where he is a guest of an unnamed friend.

Ellen talks with Beecham and the president. She updates the president about Zahara, a student in the field of statistical mechanics and a member of a progressive, pro-Western student organization. She is, Ellen notes, quite religious. Ellen believes that the Iranians were behind the bus bombs and Zahara tried to warn the Americans, though Ellen struggles to explain why she would do so. Ellen wants to change her flight from Pakistan to Iran. She wants to meet with the Iranian Foreign Minister face-to-face and hopes that she might be able to get Zahara out of Iran. The president relents but insists that she meet with the Iranians in neutral territory. He suggests Oman. In the meantime, Ellen and Beecham are ordered to work together to contact Zahara. When she leaves the meeting, however, she learns that Aram Wani and the CIA agents pursing him have all been shot and killed.

Betsy receives a call from an exhausted and dispirited Ellen. She updates Ellen on Whitehead’s theory that “the Pakistanis, supported by the Russians, convinced former President Dunn to agree to the release of Shah as part of a deal” (131) to ensure stability in Afghanistan, all as part of a plot by certain people within the United States to return Dunn to power. Ellen is not shocked. She tells Betsy about her plan to meet with the Iranian Foreign Minister; she says the idea to meet in Tehran was a ploy to confirm Beecham’s belief that she is an “idiot” (132). Ellen also plans to take Katherine and Anahita to Oman, even though she is not convinced that she can trust Anahita.

In the meantime, the CIA have a plan to approach Zahara. Hours later, the schedule for the meeting in Oman is set. On the way to the airport, Ellen visits Gil. He says that he plans to try and contact his source, but still will not tell her the source’s identity. Onboard the plane, Ellen finds a vase filled with her favorite flowers. Her initial appreciation gives way to horror when she reads the attached note: a scan of the private letter she wrote to Betsy, asking her to investigate Beecham. She knows the message is from Shah.