AN OATH AND A TERRORIST

It was the late 2000s and the United States government was engaged in a global hunt for Osama bin Laden.

- Al Pessin

It was potentially the most interesting story in the world. But the effort was top secret, so for a reporter covering the Pentagon, there wasn’t much I could write about it.

Then something happened that gave me an idea—not an idea for a news story, an idea for a novel.

Walking through the Pentagon’s central courtyard one day, I came upon a ceremony. White wooden folding chairs were lined up neatly in front of a stage. On the chairs were mostly civilians, ethnic clusters in traditional clothes from Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, and elsewhere. In the middle of each cluster was a military member in a dress uniform— Air Force blue, Army green, Marine Corps khaki, Navy and Coast Guard summer white.