Code of Honor

Prologue-Chapter 19

Reading Check

1. West Point (Chapter 1)

2. The Army as “a United States soldier” (Chapter 4)

3. Fear (Chapter 6)

4. A ticket to the Super Bowl (Chapter 8)

5. “TERRORISTS” (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. In Chapters 1-3, Kamran is at the Homecoming dance with his girlfriend, Julia. After a classmate makes a derogatory remark about his brother Darius, Kamran beats him up and is promptly sent to the principal’s office. (Chapters 1-3)

2. Kamran and his family learn that Darius is the prime suspect in a recent terrorist attack by al-Qaeda on the US embassy in Turkey. Kamran is in disbelief and believes his brother is brainwashed, as his brother swore an oath to protect the US after graduating from West Point; however, Darius releases a video that confirms everyone’s worst suspicions: he led the attacks. (Chapters 4-5)

3. His peers assume that he is also involved in terrorist activity. Additionally, they think he is Arab and Muslim; however, as an Iranian, he is Persian, and his family does not practice religion. (Chapter 7)

4. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) visits Kamran’s house to question the family and search the house for proof of terrorist activity. Kamran struggles with his feelings regarding his brother, but after the DHS visit, he decides to “clear Darius’s name.” (Chapters 9-10)

5. Kamran realizes that Darius is trying to tell him a secret message through the videos; however, his parents do not think it is possible. (Chapter 13)

6. In the middle of the night, Kamran is kidnapped by US government agents and taken to a secret facility where two officials interrogate him about his family. During his interrogation, he reveals to the agents that Darius is communicating with him in a secret code in the videos. The agents, in turn, question Darius’s concept of loyalty, instead suggesting to Kamran that his brother was indeed a loyal terrorist who had become Muslim. (Chapters 16-18).

Chapter 20-42

Reading Check

1. That he also does not believe that Darius is a terrorist (Chapter 22)

2. “That Darius was going to die.” (Chapter 25)

3. China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the US, and the UK (Chapter 26)

4. By looking at the address on the pizza box (Chapter 27)

5. His gun (Chapter 33)

6. The mail room on level four (Chapter 42)

Short Answer

1. As they rewatch the videos, they see that Darius leaves coded messages by moving his finger. Agent Hagan and Kamran delve back into the stories the brothers told as children to decipher Darius’s movements in his videos and discover that he was trying to send a warning that a museum in Iraq would be robbed. (Chapters 22-24)

2. They decipher that a bomb will be set off at the Women’s World Cup in Canada, and Darius will be the one to wear/detonate it. (Chapters 25-26)

3. After rewatching the videos on mute, Kamran realizes that Darius’s videos are filmed in Arizona. Although Agent Hagan is not convinced, Kamran comes to this conclusion based on the topography and flora he can see in the background. (Chapter 28)

4. After Kamran becomes convinced that Darius is filming the videos from the US, Agent Hagan says he has done all he can and stops visiting Kamran in his cell. He begins to doubt the truthfulness of Agent Hagan’s words and decides that he needs to escape his cell. (Chapters 30-31)

5. Kamran decides to escape his cell in the government facility. After hitting the guards with a tray, he can maneuver through the detention cells and finally to an office building floor with cubicles, disguising himself as a mail clerk. As he tries to leave from the ground floor, he realizes this is a heavily guarded government facility. (Chapters 32-40)

Chapters 43-67

Reading Check

1. Washington, D.C. (Chapter 43)

2. An Iraqi terrorist who is a part of al-Qaeda (Chapter 47)

3. A phone number to use only as a last resort (Chapter 47)

4. Because he is “a Ranger. Rangers don’t quit, and they don’t turn.” (Chapter 53)

5. That one of the team members is a traitor (Chapter 61)

6. On horseback (Chapter 67)

Short Answer

1. After picking him up in a vehicle, Agent Hagan reveals to Kamran that he always meant to help him escape. Hagan notes that he pretended to act insecure around Kamran so he would not be a suspect in Kamran’s escape and that he asked his friend Dane, an ex-Green Beret, to assist in the escape, along with a tech expert named Jimmy and the woman who helped him in the elevator, Aaliyah Sayid. (Chapter 44)

2. After learning about Ansari’s preference for misdirection, Kamran can decipher from Darius’s new video that they are planning on attacking the Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona, most likely the food services as a form of delivering the weapon. (Chapters 50-54)

3. On the way to Arizona, Dane teaches Kamran how to defend himself if he ever has a gun held to his face. He tries to use his knowledge against one of the attackers at Kendall Food Services distribution center but fails. (Chapters 54 and 60)

4. Aaliyah, Dane, Jimmy, and Kamran infiltrate Kendall’s Food Services to determine if Ansari is using this company to deliver the weapons to the Super Bowl. Dane discovers there are C-4 plastic explosives in the hot dog boxes. (Chapters 55-57)

5. PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a common disorder relating to unpredictable behavior for those who have experienced a traumatic situation, particularly in the military. To cope with his PTSD, Dane began to steal medication, ultimately leading to his “other-than-honorable discharge.” (Chapter 66)

Chapters 68-92

Reading Check

1. If he could shoot Darius if necessary (Chapter 69)

2. Jimmy is the traitor. (Chapter 76)

3. Her voice sounds familiar. (Chapters 73-85)

4. Emily Reed (Chapter 85)

5. Because the cameraman secretly records Kamran’s confrontation with the Black Widow/Emily Reed at the Super Bowl (Chapter 89)

6. A recommendation from the Vice-President of the United States for his West Point admission (Chapter 91)

Short Answer

1. Kamran notes that in similar military interventions that he sees in the movies, “the heroes shot the bad guys [and] they dropped like bowling pins.” This is unlike reality, which “was messy. Scary. Dark.” (Chapter 72)

2. Kamran and his team find Darius in a locked room. After they hug, Darius apologizes and grabs the gun to turn it on Kamran. Dane is shot by a woman who turns out to be Ansari’s widow. She has been masquerading as Ansari for several years after her husband’s death to enact revenge on the government that killed her husband. (Chapters 73-74)

3. The Black Widow says she knows Darius’s allegiance is false, so she uses him to spread “false information” through his videos. (Chapter 78)

4. They find themselves bound and gagged under the stage at the Super Bowl Halftime show. Darius uses the secret code to communicate that they should both lie still so they can untie each other and escape. (Chapters 79-80)

5. After escaping from under the stage, they alert a security guard, who is immediately shot by one of the attackers. While people are screaming and trying to find safety, Kamran calls the phone number Agent Hagan gave him to send a warning about the explosives. (Chapters 80-84)

6. Agent Hagan visits Kamran at his house, telling him that Dane has posthumously been granted “general discharge” status, as the official record is that Dane, as opposed to Agent Hagan, set up the team to stop the terrorist attack. He also advises him not to judge his peers too harshly for believing he is a terrorist since he even doubted Darius. (Chapters 90-91)