Before attempting to find out what Kyle and the NSA knew before the attacks, he needed to know more details about the attacks themselves—who was responsible and what effects these attacks would have on the nation. The last major attacks helped lead to the creation of Homeland Security, two wars, and the Great Recession that left America with major scars.

The attacks were conducted nearly simultaneously in three separate countries. It started in Chicago, where one of the best medical facilities in the U.S. was struck down to its foundations by three women pretending to be pregnant, but were really concealing powerful explosives. With the women stationed on separate floors of the hospital, the explosions ripped through the floors as if the hospital was made of flesh. Thousands of people died. The final death toll of the people in and around the area of the hospital numbered 1,757. Many of the dead were doctors, nurses, and patients. First responders were also included on the list, as they attempted to rescue people from the unsteady building that threatened to crumble to its foundations. Eventually it did, and just like the twin towers, it took all the first responders inside of the building with them—along with those who needed rescuing.

There I go again, Daniel thought. Making comparisons. We will not repeat the same mistakes—not if I can help it.

There have been calls from representatives and senators to enact laws to allow police officers and counter-terror units to carry new, state of the art x-ray guns. These guns could be used to scan people to see if they were carrying any firearms or explosives in the streets. It could also check to make sure if a pregnant woman was actually pregnant. CNN conducted a poll asking Americans if they would support the usage of x-ray guns by law enforcement. In light of the day's attacks, over 90% of Americans were in favor, 2% opposed, and 8% were unsure.

Daniel found himself questioning whether or not police officers carrying x-ray guns would be safe, considering the side effects of cancer and organ failure that could result from repeated dosage of x-ray radiation—especially on pregnant women. This could lead to stunted growth in newborn babies, stillbirths, or low-mental-capacity children being born. Furthermore, he expected the babies and women that would suffer these health effects to be on the—minority side of the racial spectrum.

Yet Daniel also wanted to prevent another attack like this. If law enforcement had these x-ray guns, then none of this would've happened—right?

Daniel remembered hearing something about this back at college. He recalled taking a media studies class where he learned a topic called technological utopianism. It's the idea that technology can solve all of society's problems. Americans are accustomed to using technology to solve their problems. For example, back in the 2010s many unarmed, young, black men were being gunned down by police officers. So, what did the technological utopists claim would make this stop? Body cameras. If you outfit every police officer with body cameras, it would deter the police officer from pulling that trigger. In reality, it won't stop him from pulling the trigger at all—it'll only catch him on tape. Sure he may be arrested, but cases have shown that even video evidence wasn't enough to convict a murderer. Just look at Eric Garner. [7]

Seeing is not believing. Daniel knew this. He remembered hearing one of the many lectures by Father Ryan when his parents used to force him to go to church. People would ask, why doesn't Jesus show himself, or why doesn't miracles ever get captured on tape. Father Ryan would explain how Jesus would perform miracles in front of thousands of people—raising men from the dead, turning water into wine, curing the sick—yet people still did not believe in him.

Seeing is not believing. Well if a person cannot believe what he or she has just seen—then what can a person believe in? If Jesus were to have come down today, instead of 2,000 years ago, and performed all his miracles and preached his message, sure it may be captured on video and spread across the world a whole lot quicker; but that doesn't mean the whole world would drop their faith systems and become instantly Christian. They'll find some excuse to doubt what they were seeing. They'll explain that his miracles were computer generated and are just the illusion of Hollywood special effects. The masses would analyze his preachings and say he's too liberal or too conservative or a communist. So no, if Jesus came down today, hell, if he came down right now and were about to enact his second judgment, there would still be doubters.

Seeing is not believing. How can we ever know the truth then? We are so dependent on our vision. Yet, Daniel couldn't help but recall the Greek tragedies he read in his high school English classes. The one that stuck out the most was Oedipus Rex, where the blind seer, Tiresias, saw more than King Oedipus—and was even able to foresee the King's downfall. Hell, he could think of a more recent example—Daredevil. [8] Daredevil showed how sight can actually cloud one's vision. He relied on all his other senses to perceive his environment and save his city. Is sight a crutch we have come to rely too much on to the point that it distorts our reasoning—our vision?

Daniel had to snap himself out of his mindless trance. He had these moments often—when he simply escaped into deep thought and imagination—where a simple 'what if' question caused an avalanche of sequences that led his mind wandering away from the subject-matter that was at hand.

The attacks—that was what he needed to focus on. London was hit after Chicago—about five minutes after Chicago. Another seven minutes after that, Madrid was hit. Again, the two men in the party chat on the Omega Video Game console knew where the targets would be at—Big Ben and the Royal Palace. Even with top security in these places, they were not prepared for pregnant women to start blowing themselves up. Similar measures were being put forward to begin using x-ray guns to scan people, specifically pregnant and bigger women, to see if they were concealing any weapons. The death tolls in London numbered 1,232 and over 1,024 in Madrid. With these day one preliminary reports, nearly 4,000 people were killed across three separate nations all by one organization.

The Kabish.

That's all he needed was a name—something to jump start his research. It didn't take him long to find every intelligence he had access to as a NSA employee—conversations, text messages, emails, video chats etc. Sifting through the junk would take him years, but he knows the Kabish—or at least thinks he knows how they operate. They are sporadic and chaotic. They don't plan things more than a couple of months ahead—even a plan like this. If two men playing a game on the Omega system knew about the plot, then nearly every man in the Kabish organization had to know about it.

Surprisingly they didn't, and these two men were shrouded in a veil of mystery. Apparently special forces in both countries tracked them down to their houses and found that the leads led to a dead end. These houses were occupied by upstanding citizens, both of whom had lost some family members in the attacks. So either these two men playing video games up and fled, or they were pulling off a very elaborate cover up. Daniel believed it was the latter.

But it doesn't matter, because after several hours of searching through whatever the database had to offer on the Kabish over the past year, he finally found the silver bullet. It was a simple text message from three months ago, something that would and should have raised eyebrows by the system. It was a translated text message between two unknown users on a prepaid phone that has since been disconnected. It listed three locations—the three that were struck in today's terror attacks.

"Scouted out areas. Chicago N.E. Memorial Hosp. London B.B. and Madrid R.P. Let's make it happen."

That should have raised eyebrows and warranted a red flag from the system. In fact, it was not only flagged by the system, but read over by a human user, not just in the NSA—but also in the FBI and the CIA.

Yes, it may still seem like a weak evidential lead to work with in order to figure out who was planning to do what at a certain time, but it was enough to provide ample warning to step up security, even if the warning had to be under the table as not to turn heads. But no alert was made to our allies or to our own city. [9] Why?

Daniel noticed that the reviewers from the internal agencies commented on the message. The message was, however, encoded and secured. But Daniel had a few tricks up his sleeves—he did study computer science at one of the best technical schools in the nation.

Within a couple of minutes he has decoded the email and was reading what it said:

To: Josh Longman

CC: Argent Keating

Subject: Stand Down

We have been instructed not to pursue this lead. It is in the nation's best interests that the cogs in the gears are not disrupted. Our war machine may make it to Yemen after all.

- George

Daniel at first couldn't understand what he was reading. But he had one more code to decrypt, one minor detail that he left out, that took an extra few taps on the keyboard and a push of a button. Next appeared on his screen a simple addition to the email.

BCC: Kyle Hendricks

So his supervisor knew about this all along. Not only did he know about it, but he was in contact with the CIA and the FBI about it, who told him basically to let the lead go, and ignore the possible evidence to a potential attack that would take away the lives of over 4,000 people.

Why?

Daniel zeroed in on the last sentence: Our war machine may make it to Yemen after all.

Was all of this allowed in order to pave the path to war with another Middle Eastern country? Have we not learned from the previous three that fighting terrorists on the battlefield only made things worse, especially when these groups of killers are stationed across multiple nations, including our own? All those dead people—and for what? Another war?

This isn't right. This isn't right. This isn't fucking right!

Daniel slammed his laptop shut and punched his wooden desk as he sat fuming in his study. The sun was almost rising on the day after the terror attacks that would set the world on course for what looked like another crazy roller coaster. Daniel received a notification on his phone. It was his daily This Day in History email that he received. He had been neglecting reading these emails for weeks now. He decided he needed something to take his mind off of the frustration and treason he had just uncovered, at least until he could figure out what to do about it. 

He scrolled down to the latest email he hadn't read and started from there. It remarked the ending of the Iran Contra Scandal by Reagan after failed attempts by President Jimmy Carter. The article seemed to focus mainly on Carter's administration's failure to handle the scandal successfully.

There appeared a link to quotes by Jimmy Carter that Daniel clicked on within the article. Many quotes popped up that were credited to Jimmy Carter, yet a couple stuck out to Daniel.

"We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war."

"We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

"We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles."

That last one summed up all the rest. Daniel came to work with the NSA to make a difference. He wanted to keep his fellow Americans safe and prevent another catastrophic event that would affect his life and the lives of many Americans. He had failed at this, not because of his own doing, but for believing that he had to join a certain organization in order to accomplish his goal. He hadn't even thought to realize that the organization that he had joined was what was wrong with America—what made America lose sight of its founding principles.

Sorry Jimmy Carter—in changing times, we have modified our American principles.

Daniel opened up his laptop, in the heart of the moment, and decided to correct the wrongdoing that this nation had done onto its own people. He knew that what he was about to do will make him a criminal. Sure some people may praise him as a hero, but many others will loathe him as a traitor. Whatever the case, he would relinquish his home and his life here in America.

"We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles."

I'll adjust, Daniel promised. But I won't let these bastards change my country's principles.

Footnotes:

[7] Eric Garner was an African American male who was killed by Daniel Pantaleo, an NYPD police officer, on July 17, 2014 in Staten Island. Pantaleo put Garner in a chokehold after he was approached for selling single cigarettes from packs. The medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide; yet, on December 3, 2014, the Richmond County grand jury ruled not to indict Pantaleo, even with video evidence showing the aggressive chokehold Garner suffered at the hands of Pantaleo.

[8] Daniel is making reference to a television series entitled Daredevil, which was released on the video-streaming platform Netflix starting in 2015. Daredevil was a superhero who was blind, yet his other senses were enhanced, enabling him to visualize his surroundings even without eyesight.

[9] Allies = United Kingdom and Spain; "Our own city" = Chicago.