Synopsis
Mustafa al-Khalid is the spoiled only child of a very wealthy Turkish family, the source of whose wealth is alcohol. They own the largest brewery in Turkey. His ostracism pushes him to study Islam where he meets and proposes to Jasmine, the only person he has ever loved. At their engagement party Jasmine, her family and most of his family are killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a U.S. Navy drone. Mustafa didn’t know that Jasmine’s father was the head of the Muslim Brotherhood. Five other members of the Brotherhood’s high council were present and also killed.
As Mustafa slowly recovers from his own serious wounds, the Brotherhood make an easy convert of him. But he’s not going to waste himself or his money on suicide bombings or even massive attacks like 9/11. Instead, he is going to create the ultimate act of terrorism, the ultimate form of suicide: he is going to end the world!
As he learns the tradecraft of terrorism, he recruits radical German scientists, sells the Turkish brewery, and buys one in Russia from some generals who command tactical nuclear forces. His team buys a nuclear warhead from two Russian colonels. They smuggle the bomb into the US with the help of a County Sheriff in New York. They recruit a park ranger in Yellowstone who needs money for his dying sister and a new identity for himself.
This crisis lands on the desk of Agent Michael Cornell of the FBI. All he has to go on are reports from their Russian counterpart, the FSB. Nothing made sense.
As the days tolled, Agent Cornell found himself working with the 43-year old Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Molly McNamara. Molly made her name in the Navy when she was a communications officer on a destroyer during a war game that her team was losing. She took out her laptop and shut off all of the electrical systems on the other team’s flagship, the USS Nimitz. Rather than court-martialing her, the Navy promoted her. Fifteen years later she is a 43-year old, 4-star admiral and the Chief of Naval Operations. She is the “father” of the Cyber Navy. Together Agent Cornell and Admiral McNamara sweep the North Atlantic looking for the ship carrying the bomb.
The U.S. Geological Survey and all of the best counter-terrorism and law enforcement minds in the country – all except Agent Michael Cornell - are certain that the bomb is destined for San Francisco where it would not only flatten the city but would also set off a massive earthquake along the San Andreas fault, killing tens of millions of people.
When the team is certain the bomb has reached the U.S., they are about to put a plan into effect to protect San Francisco when they are overruled by the White House!
“Are you telling me, sir, that an atomic bomb in Wyoming – in September – after the tourist season – will kill more people than a noonday blast in downtown San Francisco?” Says an incredulous senior FBI executive to the Vice President of the United States. “Sir, you have no idea.” The VP responds. “It will set off the Yellowstone volcano, which could end the world.”
The Yellowstone caldera is 55 miles across – the distance between Annapolis and Washington! It is over 1700 square miles – about one and a half times the size of Rhode Island! Detonating the device in the Yellowstone Volcano wouldn’t just kill millions, it would kill billions of people.
The plan switches to Yellowstone. Agent Cornell recruits a former volcanology student of the Vice President working at the Yellowstone Volcanic Observatory (YVO). She got her Ph.D. on a NROTC scholarship. She is a dead shot with a pistol, winning an Olympic Silver Medal while on active duty with the Navy. Agent Cornell is unaware she is the traitor’s girlfriend. She is unaware her boyfriend – a Park Ranger - is the traitor. The terrorists arrive with the bomb. Everyone, including the 388th Fighter Wing, prepared for an air strike, converges on the YVO borehole drilled into the volcano’s caldera…
About the Author
Michael Curley is a lawyer and currently a Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute in DC. He teaches and writes books about environmental law and finance. When he’s not doing that, he is building clean water and basic sanitation systems for the rural poor in Central America and writing a book about how to do this with colleagues from Johns Hopkins University. And when he’s not doing that, he’s writing thrillers…..
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