Code of Honor

Kamran begins to panic, realizing how far he is from home—more than 2,000 miles. He also realizes the severity of the situation: “I knew things were serious [...] but not this big time. Not fly-Kamran-Smith-to-Washington-and-detain-him-in-the-Department-of-Homeland-Security-Headquarters kind of serious” (138). Kamran continues to flee, ducking behind cars as the guards chase him. He gets up to run toward a patch of woods, but the African-American soldier Kamran had hit in the face with the metal tray is standing in front of him. He tries to point the gun, but the soldier gets it out of his hands and puts Kamran in a headlock: “And just like that, it was all over. I was caught” (139).

Kamran is dragged by the burly African-American soldier into a white van that pulls up to the sidewalk. He’s thrown inside, where it takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He sees a sandy-haired driver, and a tall, thin shadowy figure on a back bench. Suddenly, a familiar voice speaks. It is Hagan. Kamran is shocked, and begins asking questions. Hagan laughs, and after fielding a call from the government in which he feigns innocence, reveals his plan.

After the government refused to consider the possibility of a more serious attack that included Darius’s presence in America, Hagan made a plan to break Kamran out of the facility. He, of course, lied to Kamran as a cover-up, to avoid suspicion when Kamran finally did escape. Kamran had thrown a kink in the plan by attacking Dane, the African-American soldier, a friend of Hagan's and a former Green Beret. The driver, an infectiously happy man named Jimmy, was the tech guy who had opened the door to the fourteenth floor after Kamran mashed the buttons. Hagan explains that he had always believed Kamran, and Kamran feels a sense of relief: “I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. I'd been so convinced I was alone” (141). The van suddenly pulls over to pick up a “hitch-hiker” (143). The beautiful woman Kamran met in the elevator climbs into the passenger seat.

Aaliyah Sayid, the woman from the elevator, smiles at Kamran. Hagan introduces her as a CIA operative and counterterrorism specialist. Hagan had asked Sayid to be in the building in case trouble arose; she had then led Kamran down to the mail room, in order to help him escape. Kamran realizes his idiocy, not realizing how three guardian angels had helped him break out. Hagan then tells Kamran a fable about a man who asks God for help during a flood. He climbs to his roof, and each time someone comes to save him—in a rowboat, a motorboat, and finally a helicopter, he rejects them, telling them that God will help him. Finally, he drowns, and goes to Heaven, where he asks God what happened, and why he wasn't saved. God says, “I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat, and a helicopter [...] What more do you want?” (145). Kamran asks if Hagan got everyone together just to break him out. Hagan then reveals their ultimate motive—they are going to Arizona to find Darius, and stop a terrorist attack.