“So the private jet flies down from Los Angeles to a smaller airport in San Diego. An SUV drives out to meet the plane. Three brothers and two cousins pile out of the SUV. They look unassuming. Clean-shaven. Casually dressed. Except for their accents, they don’t seem out of the ordinary. They load their suitcases into the luggage compartment and climb aboard. The captain orders his fuel tanks topped off for the flight to the East Coast. But the suitcases don’t contain clothes and toiletries, they contain eighty pounds of Semtex each. Nearly half a ton in all. Once they’re airborne, they overpower the pilot and copilot and fly directly to the stadium for a sold-out Chargers football game.”

“That’s only a two minute flight from Monty.”

“Right. There’s no time to intercept the jet once it deviates from its flight plan and goes radio silent. They fly it into the stadium and detonate the Semtex a split second before the jet hits the seats. The concussive shockwave, coupled with thousands of pounds of burning jet fuel and twisted aluminum shrapnel, has catastrophic results. We estimate the death toll would be ten to fifteen thousand with double that number seriously burned and wounded. Men, women, and children.”

“Are you telling me Montez uncovered a plot like that and you prevented it?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. We took down a cell of five men and two women in Cleveland, along with half a ton of Semtex. They were planning to hit the Browns season opener. Montez wrung it out of one of the planners, whom one of my agents had captured during a joint operation with the Yemeni army. The cell was twelve weeks away from implementing the plan I just outlined.”

He shook his head. “Incredible. Did the president know about it?”

“Of course.” She softened her tone. “Nathan, you of all people know what goes on behind the scenes. None of this will ever be revealed to the public. For obvious reasons, it can’t be. We’ve also uncovered numerous locations of cells in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and elsewhere. In many of those locations IEDs and suicide vests were being manufactured. We discovered a plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Kuwait and a comprehensive plan to infiltrate the highest levels of Afghanistan’s fledgling government. We’ll never know how many civilians and service members we’ve saved over the years, but it’s thousands of lives.”

“Like I said,” Nathan told her, “I understand both sides of the enhanced interrogation argument. I get that.” And he did.