Code of Honor

Kamran gets on his computer and clicks through his West Point application before looking at the videos of Darius that the news has been showing all weekend. Kamran knows he should be almost done by now, but there is a big red “X” where a green box used to be. He discovers that the representative that had recommended him for West Point has figured out who he was and rescinded her nomination: “So that was it. I was out. It was over. No West Point for me” (42).

Kamran angrily kicks his trash can and other objects in his disheveled room before sighing and calming himself down. He realizes that in order to clear his own name, he has to focus on Darius first.

Kamran watches the first video, which was played pretty much in its entirety on the news. In the second video, however, where Darius is talking into the camera about the goals of al-Qaeda and attacks on innocent Muslims, Darius says something strange: “Like Rostam in the cave of the Sith Lord, we will emerge triumphant” (44). Kamran stops and replays this scene, shocked. Darius couldn't have meant Sith Lord, he thinks—only he would understand that reference.