On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in his Abbottabad, Pakistan compound. In addition to taking the slain terrorist’s body, the SEALs removed thousands of technological devices from the bin Laden home. The enormous volume of intelligence contained on computer hard drives and thumb drives necessitated that encrypted items be given priority; non-encrypted laptop and software materials were secured for later examination. Unencrypted information from one of the laptops listed three of Bin Laden’s selected targets to be destroyed upon his death.

This is the third Jeannie Loomis novel. The fourth is near completion.

As Christmas approaches, FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeannie Loomis–who continues to rehabilitate herself from a destructive lifestyle of alcohol abuse and waking up next to strange bedfellows–is investigating a planned bank robbery. Two of the suspects are Vietnam veterans trained as tunnel rats. One of the suspect’s scorned girlfriends has informed Jeannie and her team of a robbery plan in which the suspects will tunnel under a Bank of America branch vault. In my previous novel, Star Chamber, Jeannie is shot by anarchists working for a secretive court and, subsequently, loses her unborn child.

Jeannie’s second-in-command and best friend, Ismael Flores, frequently banters with her in humorous dialogue throughout the book. Together they commit an illegal search to learn the true identity of the mastermind. As the investigation advances, Homeland Security Agent, Ricky Pinheiro (cousin of Ismael Flores and Jeannie’s future love interest), attends a meeting at the NSA office in Washington. There, he learns of bin Laden’s final fatwas.