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minute.”
    “How do you mean?” Paulson said.
    “Look at Jared Long,” Grace said. “Father, husband, owns a house in Wheaton, Maryland. Doesn’t look or sound like a terrorist. I don’t think there’s any chance he was. What he was, though, was a decorated officer and a devoted family man. But what if shortly before he’s on assignment for the State of the Union he gets contacted and his family is threatened. He’s told to start shooting or his wife and daughter die. What would you do?”
    “Report it immediately to my commanding officer,” Director Leighton said.
    “Right, but what if you don’t know if you can trust your CO?” Grace said. “What if you’re told you’re being watched, and if you don’t shoot, you’ll be shot then your family will still die?”
    Arrington nodded and spoke. “All it would take is a small percentage of them to start shooting, even just one in the right scenario, then the others fire back to protect themselves and the president. With highly trained officers, all experts with their weapons, you have a bloodbath on your hands in seconds and you never had to train one person.”
    “Insta-terrorist,” Grace said. “Lethal. Disposable.”
    “Brilliant,” Arrington said. “But we can’t be sure.”
    “That’s why I have Ben and his team going through phone records for all of the officers and agents in the Capitol,” Grace said “We need something linking them.”
     

CHAPTER 11
    The screens around the room displayed the live satellite imagery over the United States Capitol. The sun was still down and the video was grainy. Flashing lights surround the building where police and military vehicles were stationed.
    “We don’t have SEAL Team Four anymore,” Grace said.
    “What about Special Forces?” Arrington said.
    “The 1 st battalion out of Fort Bragg landed over an hour ago,” Darby said. “And the 3 rd out of Birmingham should be on the ground anytime. We can get troops from Kentucky activated and in the air.”
    “That gives us roughly a thousand troops,” Grace said. “We’re going to need every last one of them for the recovery effort, but that’s way too many for first strike.”
    Grace drew on a wireless tablet that sent his drawing to the screens above. He began making marks around the Capitol.
    “I think we put as many men as we have ready on the ground, but the primary contact will be made by six-man teams of Special Forces,” Grace said. “One team at each of the four main entry points.”
    “What if we come from below?” Leighton said.
    “The tunnels?” Arrington said.
    “Exactly,” Leighton said. “They connect the Capitol to all of the congressional office buildings, the Supreme Court and even the Library of Congress.”
    “But that’s putting all of our men in an enclosed space,” Darby said. “If they’ve thought about that it could already be wired with explosives or have armed guards down there.”
    Grace continued drawing as he thought about the layout of Capitol Hill. “It’s not one or the other, it’s both,” Grace said. “But one is only a diversion.”
    He turned to see if he had their attention then pointed up to his scribbles.
    “We send in Special Forces on the ground, in a full circle around the building and the breach teams at the doors,” Grace said. “This should draw out most of the enemy gunmen to prepare for battle. We put helicopters in the air. Anything we can do for a distraction. Then we have small groups come in through the tunnels from each direction. Fewer troops will be able to better watch for booby traps and explosives than sending hundreds of men through there.”
    “Draw them to the doors then attack from below,” Arrington said. “It could work.”
    “It could also get every last one of them killed, including the president,” Grace said. “We don’t even know who we’re dealing with here yet. If we knew it was Al Qaeda, we know how they work, how they plan. If it’s the