Mexico, the desire to seek revenge against the "gringos" by a radical group of students at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the problem of keeping faith with constitutional and human values brought on by the 911 tragedy in New York, and the relationship between federal and local authorities. The deadly anthrax powder, the masked celebrations of Halloween, and the lingering American concern about communism played out in a threat designed to kill more than 500 Americans on this joyous holiday of fun and merriment. An excessive governmental effort to deport Dr. Alejandro Alvarez, the highly respected head of three generations of the Alejandro Alvarez and his wife, undocumented immigrants, who had lived in the United States for fifty years served to radicalize students at the University of Nebraska. The threat to deport the senior Alvarez's accompanied by a vicious and humiliating physical attack on Dr. Alvarez by officers of Homeland Security Department contributed directly to the planned attack on Americans, old and young. Grandpa Niall was a visiting professor at the University of Nebraska for that year. Through a stroke of fate, he found himself involved in the case when Brooks, the oldest of the B.E.A.Wares, who was attending the University and a close friend of Juan Alvarez, grandson of Alejandro, sought his advice on how to avoid the disaster which threatened to kill so many people.

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