The Rockets' Red Glare

On a quiet weekend in June, five men, al Qaeda recruits all, gain access to a commercial plant and steal 60,000 curies of radioactive cesium, enough to make any city into a mini-Chernobyl. But their plan is much more sinister than that. They have allied with the domestic terror group calling themselves the White Aryan Resistance, WAR, to launch a deadly fireworks display over twelve American cities on the 4th of July.
While the might of American law enforcement focuses on al Qaeda, the soldiers of WAR are free to move about undetected and set up their cataclysmic scheme. Two men think they know the truth, but no one believes them. Cal Bellotta is a DHS consultant, pulled into the investigation to apply his "war games" knowledge to figuring out what the terrorists' intentions are. And Ray Nassiri is himself a Muslim, a civilian computer genius at the Army's Information Dominance Center.

As the evidence of an al Qaeda plot piles up, these two must prove that it is all a diversion, and it's working. Dirty bombs are scattered around the country and on the move. Homeland security is desperate to find them, but the task is too great. Now it's down to the last three bombs, and nobody knows where they are except Cal and Ray. On July 3rd, they finally convince the FBI that the bombs are in Washington and ready to go off tomorrow.

The chase is on. In Whitefish, Montana, the WAR leadership has holed up in its remote and fortified compound. In Venezuela, al Qaeda partner has taken refuge where they can't be touched. In Washington, Cal and Ray are racing to find the bombs. And from North Dakota, drones are flying, ready to do whatever is necessary to make sure this unholy alliance is crushed, and to make sure Independence Day doesn't become Doomsday.