Code of Honor

The blast knocks Kamran off his feet; when he comes to, his head is ringing and he is dizzy and disoriented. He looks around to see shards of metal and realizes that the unique retractable field has been blown to smithereens, and the shards of metal from the rollers beneath litter the ground around him. He realizes, too, that Darius was inside the stage, and the stage is gone. Darius is dead. Kamran begins shouting for his brother, but then sees Emily Reed get up, disoriented and dizzy. She takes a gun from a security guard and shoots at Kamran. Kamran is on top of her, and Emily points the gun at him. He holds his arms up, sure he can’t fight her in his current condition. She shoots and misses before taking off across the field. Kamran tracks her, and they shout at each other; Emily is enraged that her plot has been foiled, screaming that she “worked for years to avenge the murder of [her] husband!” (259). She shoots at Kamran over her back; Kamran catches up to her and tackles her. The fall disorients him further, and Reed/Ansari kicks him in the head and continues her escape. Just when Kamran thinks she will get away, he sees a figure; Darius stands at the ready, prepared to intercept Bashira Ansari. 

Kamran is shocked that Darius is alive, but there is no time for Darius to explain. He begins to fight Ansari, and though Darius is a good fighter, Ansari is desperate, and scrappier than him. Darius then shouts out a code about Lex Luther from their childhood days, which signals to Kamran to crawl up behind Ansari. Darius pushes her, and she falls backward, tripping over Kamran and tumbling down a flight of concrete steps. She lands at the bottom, mangled and with broken limbs but alive. Darius explains that the bomb was impossible to disarm, so Hagan got him out of there just in time. Police flood the stadium, putting both brothers under arrest. Kamran remembers that they are both wanted terrorists. As they are handcuffed, the brothers smile at each other and recite the Code of Honor: “Be the strongest of the strong [...] the bravest of the brave [...] Never give up” (261). 

Kamran tells his story to the FBI, CIA, and DHS dozens of times over, until they begin to believe him. In return, he is told the story of Bashira Ansari, who became radicalized after her husband, Haydar Ansari, was killed by a government drone strike. Bashira left her daughter behind and moved to America with a false passport. Once stateside, she trained to be a news anchor in order to find a place for herself within American circles of power and influence, all while plotting to kill millions of people as an act of revenge.

Kamran is released, though Darius is kept a bit longer. He lovingly reunites with his mother and father. They return home to find news crews outside their house yet again. Kamran prepares for the onslaught of criticism they experienced as a family before Darius was rescued. Instead, he is called a hero and asked to be interviewed, which he declines. He goes inside to discover that footage of his accusations of Emily Reed, or Bashira Ansari, went live on TV, and that he has been absolved of his guilt by the general public. His friends, including Adam and Julia, were interviewed, and defended him.

After being released, Kamran prepares to go back to school, upset by the idea that his friends will embrace him as a hero after the poor treatment he received prior to proving Darius’s innocence. A knock comes at the door and Kamran, thinking it’s Adam, tells his mother to send the visitor away. The visitor is actually Mickey Hagan; he commends Kamran on a job well done. They discuss the story that Kamran made up for the CIA, FBI, and DHS, all of which have absolved Hagan of any involvement in the case and put the responsibility on Dane. As a result, Hagan still has his job, and Dane’s discharge status has been upgraded to honorable, making his ex-wife and daughter eligible to receive his military pension. Kamran asks about Jimmy; Hagan reveals that Jimmy is still on the run. 

Hagan and Kamran continue talking, this time switching the conversation to Kamran’s return to school. Kamran expresses his lack of desire to forgive his friends for what he sees as their betrayal of both him and Darius. Hagan reminds Kamran that even he also doubted his own brother, given the evidence, and recommends Kamran cut his friends some slack, if only to be the bigger man, and not end up friendless and alone during his final year of high school.

Kamran talks about how hard it is to forgive them and move forward, and also how much he misses the excitement of combat. Hagan replies, “And it always will be [hard] [...] some people will always think less of you for the color of your skin, for the country of your mother's birth […] [w]hich means you always have to be the better man” (272). Hagan reminds Kamran that his difficulties will only continue at West Point. Hagan then produces a letter of recommendation from the Vice President of the United States from his pocket. Kamran is thrilled. Adding to this good news, Hagan tells Kamran that he has been put in charge of a counterintelligence team that includes Aaliyah Sayid. Hagan invites Kamran to join the team. The two leave together, so that Kamran can meet his new combat trainer.

When they walk into the living room, Kamran finds Darius, clean-shaven and looking emaciated, but otherwise healthy, on the couch between his parents. Hagan reveals that he has recruited Darius to be Kamran’s tactical trainer: Darius will be training Kamran to fight. Darius and Kamran go outside to talk and end up apologizing to each other—Kamran for doubting his brother, and Darius for putting Kamran in harm’s way. They check in with each other, and Darius reveals that combat has had him searching for a spiritual outlet: “I'm not going to apologize for being Muslim. And I shouldn't have to just because some terrorists somewhere twist Islam to fit their own awful agenda” (276). Kamran agrees. Darius talks about seeing a counselor to cope with PTSD. Kamran is still haunted by the face of the terrorist he killed, and agrees to see a counselor, too. Kamran’s mother interrupts to say that Adam is on the phone. Kamran makes the decision to take the call.