Upon the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and after five years of government-clearance battles, Second Wave exposes Al Qaeda’s plan to launch a far deadlier “dirty-bomb” sequel to the 2001 attacks. Drawing on top-secret records and his access as a Guantanamo war-crimes prosecutor, Mike Lebowitz details the heroic yet controversial race within the CIA, FBI, and Pentagon to stop the plot—and forcing readers to ask: Are we truly prepared to prevent the next one?

In 2003, just two years after 9/11, US intelligence uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda had obtained nuclear materials and was plotting to smuggle them into American ports. The nightmare scenario—codenamed the “Second Wave”—triggered one of the most urgent and secretive manhunts in US history.

Told with the cinematic intensity of Zero Dark Thirty and the psychological depth of The Looming Tower, Michael Lebowitz’s Second Wave captures the chaos and human drama of a post-9/11 world: agents risking everything to prevent another catastrophe, families torn apart, and the ethical fault lines still dividing US intelligence.

At the center of the terrorist plot was Saifullah Paracha, a wealthy Pakistani-American industrialist whose import-export business concealed ties to Al Qaeda’s leadership. When investigators discovered that Paracha had met with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—the architect of 9/11—the CIA and FBI clashed over how far they would go to stop him. Along the way, readers meet Majid Khan, a wayward Baltimore convenience-store clerk turned jihadist who mapped US targets; FBI Special Agent Janelle Miller, whose methodical interrogations broke suspects faster than any waterboard; and Charles Anteby, an Orthodox Jewish garment importer, whose betrayal of his business partner prevented large-scale disaster.

As the nation approaches the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Lebowitz’s insider account reveals a global pursuit that tested America’s moral limits, and it asks the urgent question: Is America as prepared to stop a terrorist attack now as it was then?