The Inquiry
An Allies Novel
When a dedicated veteran jihadist from the United States is smuggled across the border into Canada to meet with a fledgling and entreprenurial leader of two new Canadian cells, their operation runs afoul of a joint police and military exercise involving both American and Canadian participants.
Amongst the fatalities from the resulting shootout is an American Special Forces soldier. The new Canadian Chief of Defence Staff and the Commander of the US Special Forces Command each appoint a senior officer to a joint inquiry to determine the circumstances of the incident.
The Inquiry introduces the Allies: Colonel Phil Sambrook, a veteran of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, and Colonel Kurt Richter, a former commander of Joint Task Force-2 still recovering from wounds sustained in combat. The two officers, friends and comrades for years, lead a multi-national team to track the homegrown cells operating in each of their countries.
Frustrated by Canadian police more interested in long term infiltration of the Canadian cell than in quickly identifying the American one which is bent on an imminent strike, the team joins up with CIA operatives and other Special Forces personnel to follows leads which take them from the United States and Canada to England and Germany and eventually to Pakistan.
Along the way the Inquiry explores not only the makeup and motivation of the principal characters, both government and jihadists, but also looks in detail at the threat of homegrown and international Islamist jihad to Western society.