Abducted by militants and taken to a fetid bunker deep in the mountains of North Waziristan, a journalist meets a dying holy man who saddles him with an ominous obligation. The obligation is unclear and Devrim Reis knows the man will expire within hours, freeing him from responsibility. He does nothing and tries to forget, but six months later, when he learns the cleric died during a secret raid in Abbottabad – hundreds of miles from the bunker – he realizes he must act. The problem is he doesn't know where to start... Jonathan Lake, former Marine Force Recon officer and now with the CIA's Special Activities Division, has led paramilitary operations in Kuwait, Iraq, Bosnia, Sudan, and Pakistan. An alleged affair with a married Muslim woman gets him transferred from Islamabad to Kabul and then out to Orgun-E, where he trains a guerrilla army in the restive Pakistan border regions. One night, he receives a curious parcel and a dangerous – but tempting – invitation. Three years from retirement, he must decide if it's worth the risks. To make his decision, he must first meet a scarred and murderous Al Qaeda operator who demands he come alone. Lake accepts, and what he finds in Waziristan will bring the American government to its knees... A section leader at the Counter Terrorism Center in Langley, she has hunted Osama bin Laden for five years, chasing every lead that might spur his capture. Gladys Forsythe is the best the agency has, but her energy and dedication alienate lesser colleagues, some of whom she suspects are leaking information. When she overhears a conversation in a nearby coffee shop, she worries that her identity and her position have been compromised. Her fears are confirmed when she receives an anonymous phone call on a secure line at her townhouse. What she learns will take her from Langley to Guantanamo Bay to the Oval Office, embroil her in a questionable special operations mission, and put her on a collision course with her lover... Reis, Lake, Forsythe, a Russian military attache, a Navy SEAL sniper, an Al Qaeda informant, and a grizzled detective all possess pieces of a sinister puzzle, yet none of them know it. Discovering each piece and what it means will throw the characters on a roller coaster ride of lies, betrayal, diamonds, and death. If they survive, the puzzle is complete, the ones behind the most heinous deceit in American history will be unmasked, and the world will learn what really happened in Abbottabad...