State of Terror

President Williams is horrified as Ellen explains Shah’s plot to detonate nuclear bombs in the United States on behalf of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The president wants to torture Whitehead to learn more, but Ellen recommends that they search Whitehead’s home office instead. Ellen accompanies the search team. During the car ride, she worries about why she has not heard from Katherine. At Whitehead’s house, the search team sacks Whitehead’s house as Whitehead’s wife and daughter are interrogated. Ellen talks to Mrs. Whitehead alone, who reveals that Whitehead has a secret safe for his papers. Ellen finds nothing in the safe but leaves the house with a book written by Mrs. Whitehead about the English poet John Donne, whose work Whitehead has been quoting in recent days.

As soon as he can, Gil messages his mother to say that he is safe and then heads to the airport. He is still several hours away.

Zahara and Anahita return to the caves to find Farhad’s car keys while Katherine and Boynton wait by the vehicle. They are seen by the Russians and run back to the car. Katherine drives away as Boynton uses the last of his telephone battery to send a detailed message to Ellen about everything they learned from Farhad. The Russians chase them as they try and find a way to safety.

When Ellen receives the messages, she returns to the White House. She tells Gil to meet Katherine at the Pakistan border. As Boynton’s phone runs out of battery, he realizes that he did not tell Ellen that Farhad’s last words were “White House.”

Ellen tells the president the location of Shah’s nuclear facility. While the president plots a raid, Ellen wants to go to Pakistan. When the president denies her request, she reminds him of his refusal to help during Gil’s kidnapping. The president apologizes. Ellen reveals her plan to provide a distraction in Pakistan while the raid on Shah’s factory takes place. She also wants to talk to former President Eric Dunn. She believes that Whitehead’s mention of John Donne’s poetry is a hint that Dunn may know something. On the way to the airport, Ellen stops at Tim Beecham’s house. He is away in London and his family are on vacation. Ellen wonders why Whitehead would have remained in Washington if he knew the city was potentially about to be struck by a nuclear terrorist attack. On the plane, Ellen joins the meeting in the Situation Room to plot the Special Forces raid on the abandoned factory where Shah produces nuclear weapons. The head of Special Forces mentions that Whitehead is an expert in the region and Ellen wonders whether Whitehead’s time in Afghanistan “is where it had begun” (218).

Security guards point a gun at Katherine while she tries to cross over the border from Iran into Pakistan. She convinces the guards to allow her, Boynton, Anahita, and Zahara to pass. Katherine sees the car filled with Russian mobsters approaching. They head to the meeting with Gil.

Ellen arrives at former President Dunn’s Florida home. Dunn has already delivered a press conference accusing Gil of being involved in the bombings and criticizing the current government run by “the radicals, the socialists, the terrorists, the abortionists, the traitors and morons” (221). Dunn makes Ellen wait for a long time and then she is ushered through his lavish mansion. While trying to hide her palpable dislike for Dunn, Ellen asks him about Whitehead and Shah. Dunn admits that he has talked to Shah, who he calls “a genius and entrepreneur” (225). He personally approved the release of Shah from house arrest after being flattered by the Pakistani government. Dunn reveals that he arranged for Shah to come to the United States but that Shah is now gone. He laughs at the idea that Shah might be involved in a terrorist plot. After Ellen delivers a somber warning, however, he gives them Shah’s former address.

Pete Hamilton sits in a bar and listens to the gossip around him. He recognizes Barb Stenhauser’s assistant. She smiles at him.

President Williams plans the Special Forces raid in the Situation Room. With so little time available, the military advisors are pessimistic about the raid’s success. The president suggests that they create a distraction 10 kilometers away. He calls the British Prime Minister to help with the distraction. He receives Shah’s former address from Ellen and dispatches a security team to search the premises.

Ellen flies to Pakistan while the Special Forces team prepares for the raid. Betsy shows Ellen a cryptic message from Hamilton. She believes “HLI” (230) to be a typo, but he has not responded to her request for clarification. Ellen disembarks her plane while the Special Forces begin the distraction 10 kilometers from Shah’s weapons factory. She meets with Dr. Ali Awan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan. At dinner, Ellen adopts an aura of naivety. She asks blunt questions about Bashir Shah and makes deliberate errors. She knows that the Pakistani officials hope to turn Afghanistan into “another province of Pakistan” (235) and have partnered with the Shah, the Russian mafia, and Al-Qaeda to make this a reality. Ellen hopes that, by making herself appear naïve and malleable, she will lure Awan into making a mistake.

Boynton is still dwelling on Farhad’s dying words as he enters a rundown apartment in a remote Pakistani village with Katherine, Zahara, and Anahita. They meet Gil and Boynton uses Gil’s telephone to send the phrase “White House” (233) to Ellen.

A Chinook helicopter crashes to serve as a distraction during the Special Forces raid. The Taliban attacks and the soldiers engage in a fierce firefight. Ten kilometers away, the other team drops from a helicopter into the factory. The president and the generals in the Situation Room watch the assault via video. To their surprise, the facility is undefended. The Special Forces team finds the dead bodies of scientists. They have been executed and piled in a corner. Shah executed his scientists, the president realizes, because “their usefulness was at an end” (244). The soldiers search for any helpful information. They find nothing. The president orders their withdrawal.

At the dinner table, Shah disguises himself as a waiter and slips a note into Ellen’s pocket. He revels in his power over her. Ellen does not recognize him. She is too busy trying to outsmart Awan while also worrying about the raid. Their dinner is interrupted by the news that British soldiers are planning to attack a Taliban stronghold. Ellen, unaware of the president’s distraction, is genuinely surprised. She denies all knowledge and then an aide shows her the message from Boynton. To her, Farhad’s dying words suggest that there is a traitor in the White House.

Two Secret Service agents search for Pete Hamilton. They check his apartment and find him dead.

Ellen and Betsy receive news of Hamilton’s murder and excuse themselves from the dinner table. As they talk, Ellen receives news about the failed raid on Shah’s factory. A sudden sense of dread overwhelms them.

Ellen tells Betsy that she has decoded Hamilton’s final cryptic message. HLI refers to an online conspiracy theory about a high-level informant who passes state secrets to far-right groups. She plans to look further into whether the conspiracy theory was based on anything substantial. Outside the restroom, Ellen is confronted by an angry Awan. She bluntly explains the Special Forces raid on Shah’s facility and accuses him of being responsible for aiding and abetting Shah. She pushes him into the restroom and demands information. Awan seems sincerely appalled when told about Shah’s actions. He confesses that his military leader, General Lakhani, is deeply involved with Shah, Al-Qaeda, and the Russian mafia. Awan also explains that the Russian mafia are directly linked to the ruthless Russian President, Maxim Ivanov.

President Williams receives Ellen’s message, telling him of Ivanov’s likely involvement. He has already ordered that the White House evacuated because he knows it is a target for the nuclear bombs. He calls Ivanov to ask him to meet with Ellen, who is currently heading to Moscow.

On her way to the airport, Ellen finds the note from Shah in her pocket. Written on the note are the numbers “3 10 1600” (255). She realizes that Shah posed as the waiter and diverts her car to Shah’s home in Islamabad. On the way, she speaks to Prime Minister Awan, who admits that he cannot locate Shah or General Lakhani. He gives her permission to enter Shah’s home and hints that 1600 is the address of the White House. However, Betsy and Ellen cannot find an obvious meaning behind Shah’s cryptic message. Ellen sends a photograph to Anahita to decrypt and warns the president about Shah.

Gil and Anahita talk but she is reluctant to allow herself to fall in love with him again. She has “learned the limit of his interest in her” (258). Gil receives the photograph of Shah’s note to Ellen and shows it to Anahita. While she works on the note, Gil admonishes himself for not expressing his sincere love for her. Anahita shows the code to Katherine and Zahara. They conclude that Shah may be trying to distract their attention from his clients, the people purchasing and planting the bombs Shah sells.

Ellen oversees the raid on Shah’s house in Islamabad. When she sees that there are no guards, she assumes that the house will be as abandoned as the factory. They find General Lakhani’s body in the basement, wired with explosives. Ellen abandons the search and travels to Moscow, all while searching for Hamilton’s HLI.

Ellen’s plane lands in Moscow. Though she requested that the meeting be private, a swarm of journalists wait for her at the airport. Everything seems carefully orchestrated by President Ivanov to make her life more difficult. She worries that the Russian President’s fascistic tendencies are creeping into American politics via former President Dunn. Betsy writes to a journalist who once worked on the High-Level Informant conspiracy theory for one of Ellen’s media outlets. Now he has retired to Canada and changed his name; he is too scared to discuss the conspiracy theory with anyone.

President Williams refuses to leave the White House, even though the Secret Service are worried that a bomb is located inside. He encourages them to leave him. He does not mention that an unnamed General is hidden inside his private bathroom. When the Secret Service agents leave him alone in the Oval Office, he and the General share a joke. As time to the potential bomb detonation ticks down, the president and the General share a drink and await the arrival of Tim Beecham.

Ellen meets with Ivanov, whom she regards as the “ruthless tyrant” (268) that Dunn aspires to be. As soon as she can spare a moment, she goes to a restroom and calls President Williams. If the coded message from the Shah suggested that the bomb would detonate at 3:10am, then he has mere seconds left. She talks to him as the timer reaches zero. However, nothing happens. The president and the general are relieved that they still have time to search for the bombs.

Anahita announces that she has cracked Shah’s code. She believes that the numbers refer to the exact time of Osama Bin Laden’s execution by American soldiers.

Ellen and Betsy devise a plan to reach out to the journalist who investigated the High-Level Informant conspiracy. Ellen meets with Ivanov. She tells him that her journalist son is about to release a story accusing Ivanov of pedophilia. She shows him doctored images on her phone which will be released. If he does not give her the information she wants, Ellen explains, the story will run in the international press. The threat infuriates Ivanov, who shouts at Ellen and throws her phone against the wall. Ellen demands to know the location of the bombs. Instead, Ivanov gives them Shah’s location: the house of former President Dunn.