The Price of Liberty - A Novel

09/11/01

A beautiful, late summer's morning. People going about their lives - going to work, going to school. Taking commercial airline flights. In a word: serene.

Suddenly, in a moment of incomprehensible violence, that serenity was shattered, along with the lives of thousands of innocents, and our country's sense of invulnerability. For the rest of our lives, all Americans will remember where they were - and what they were doing - on that terrible Tuesday.

As a nation, we all stood in shock and horror, and watched as the unbelievable events unfolded before our very eyes. First the Towers were hit. A short while later, we would watch in stunned disbelief as they came crashing down. Then came the Pentagon. And finally, a lonely field in Pennsylvania.

But we are AMERICANS! We never give up, and we NEVER quit.

Soon, the individual stories of tragedy - and of triumph - began to emerge. A former Israeli commando dies trying to stop the takeover of American Airlines Flight 11. The brave flight attendants who did their jobs, and did their best to comfort their frightened passengers, in the midst of utter chaos. The pilots and passengers who tragically lost their lives. The poor people trapped in the burning buildings - and those who chose the manner of their own death by leaping from the flames. The courage at the Pentagon.

We all shed tears of pride - and of rage - when we learned how the courageous passengers of United Flight 93 fought back against their killers. After that day, those brave souls would be counted among the pantheon of America's heroes. We will never forget them - nor the thousands of others who perished on that fateful day.

Now, nearly a decade later, the question remains: Could it happen again? Is Al Qaeda planning an encore? Sadly, the likely answer is "Yes." Our enemies have unfinished business with The Great Satan, and they are relentless.

What form might this "second" 9/11 take? What would be the targets? Don't believe it could happen again?

Then you must read The Price of Liberty - A Novel:

On September 11th, 2001, TransAmerican Airlines Captain Thomas Jackson “T.J.” McQuaid,an African-American, ex-naval aviator/ex-Navy SEAL, and his co-pilot are flying to New York’s La Guardia Airport, when they watch United Airlines Flight 175 strike the South Tower.

While they divert to Hartford, Connecticut, 300 miles to the south T.J.’s estranged wife, Lisa Harrison McQuaid - a DOD lawyer working in the Pentagon office of the deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Logistics - has just returned to her office, a few minutes before American Airlines Flight 77 hits. Throughout the day, while he and some buddies drive back home to the Washington, D.C. area, T.J. will attempt to contact his wife via cell-phone - but to no avail.

At 0942 that morning, after the FAA issues its unprecedented, nation-wide ground-stop, stuck on a taxiway at Philadelphia International Airport, five Middle-Eastern men are onboard a Delta Airlines 767, originally bound for San Francisco.

When the aircraft finally makes it back to the gate, the five men – four typically Middle-Eastern in appearance, dark hair and dark complexions, one blonde with blue eyes - disappear into the crowd.

Only two of them, the blonde man, known as Jibril Sayf Al Din Al Luddi, The Sword of the Faith, (born Gabriel Giorgiopolis, former Jordanian Air Force pilot), and his childhood friend, Tariq Gallati, Lebanese/Jordanian, (also a former Jordanian Air Force pilot), will make it back to Afghanistan alive. They are then reunited with Osama Bin Laden, and the Egyptian doctor, Ayman Al Zawihiri, on the night before the Al Qaeda leaders flee their Tora Bora sanctuary.

That night they are introduced to a young, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Bosnian, Samir Pejanovic, a survivor of the July 1995 Srebrenica Massacre.

On the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, this troika of evil will attempt to finish the job started by Mohammed Atta, Marwan Al Shehi, and the other original 9/11 hijackers. Unlike the first 9/11, however, this second 9/11 - the “Final Option,” as Bin Laden dubs it - will be an “inside job.”

The grandson of a Tuskegee Airman, and the son of an F-4 pilot lost in Vietnam, T.J. must battle his deranged co-pilot – as well as his own personal demons – in order to save our nation’s precious symbols, and the lives of countless additional innocents.

In The Price of Liberty - A Novel, you'll learn the answers to the following questions:

Does Lisa survive the crash of American Airlines Flight 77?

What turns Gabriel Giorgiopolis - former Jordanian fighter pilot, and Greek Orthodox son of a successful jewelry merchant - into the cold-blooded, Islamic terrorist, Jibril Sayf Al Din - The Sword of the Faith? What are the terrible family secrets that connect him to the shadowy Palestinian terrorist known only as Nikolai?

How do Jibril and his fellow, would-be 9/11 terrorists, manage to flee the United States? Why does Jibril and only one other make it safely back to Afghanistan? How will Jibril carry out Osama Bin Laden's Final Option? Will he succeed?

Who is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Bosnian, and how does he come to the attention of Osama Bin Laden?

What does T.J. do in the wake of the first 9/11 that will forever impact his life - and the lives of his loved ones? Will T.J. be able to prevent the tragedy of a second 9/11? What are the personal demons he will have to overcome, in order to do so?

In The Price of Liberty - A Novel, you'll get a front-row seat to the events of that terrible Tuesday, the events that led up to it, and what COULD happen in the future, if we don't remain vigilant.

The Price of Liberty - A Novel.

Available at: http://www.amazon.com/