The Defense

The first installment in the Eddie Flynn series opens in New York City. Eddie Flynn, a former con artist turned criminal defense attorney, has been out of practice for nearly a year. He successfully defended stockbroker Ted Berkley on attempted kidnapping charges, only to discover afterward that Berkley had abducted and brutalized the young victim. The experience drove Eddie into severe alcohol addiction and away from the law. After completing rehab, he is ambushed at gunpoint in a diner bathroom by a scarred Eastern European man named Arturas.

Arturas forces Eddie into an overcoat fitted with plastic explosive and reveals that his employer, Olek Volchek, is head of the Russian mob. In Volchek's limousine, Eddie learns the scheme: Volchek's murder trial for ordering the killing of a man named Mario Geraldo begins that morning, and the prosecution's star witness, a hit man called Little Benny, is in FBI protective custody. Volchek orders Eddie to smuggle the bomb through courthouse security and detonate it when Benny testifies. When Eddie refuses, Arturas produces the severed head of Jack Halloran, Eddie's former law partner, who failed the same assignment. Volchek then reveals the true leverage: His men have kidnapped Eddie's 10-year-old daughter, Amy. Eddie lunges at Volchek before an enormous bodyguard named Gregor knocks him unconscious. During the scuffle, Eddie instinctively pickpockets Gregor's wallet. Eddie learned sleight of hand from his father, Pat Flynn, an Irish immigrant and con artist who raised him in Brooklyn.

At the courthouse, Volchek sets a deadline: Benny must be dead before 4:00 p.m. the next day, or Amy dies. Eddie agrees outwardly but resolves to double-cross the Russians. Security guards know Eddie well and wave him through without searching him, so the bomb passes undetected. Eddie notices an unfamiliar guard watching him intently.

The trial begins before Judge Gabriella Pike, with the prosecution led by Miriam Sullivan, a formidable district attorney. Miriam's opening reveals that a handwriting expert will testify Volchek wrote the victim's name on a torn one-ruble bill, the traditional Bratva (Russian criminal brotherhood) method of ordering a hit, in which the boss sends half a bill bearing the target's name to his assassin. Eddie delivers a brief opening statement, then manipulates Miriam into calling the expert, Dr. Irving Goldstein, first. During cross-examination, Eddie dismantles Goldstein by showing that the disputed letter construction is common and confronting him with his own academic paper that contradicts his sworn testimony. The jury turns against the witness.

That evening, Arturas takes Eddie to a nineteenth-floor office. Eddie calls Amy on Arturas's phone, hears her crying, and memorizes the phone number on the screen. As Arturas locks him in for the night, Eddie pickpockets the detonator in a staged stumble. He then escapes through a window onto a narrow ledge 19 stories up and reaches the office of Judge Harry Ford, his longtime friend and mentor who first steered him toward law school. Harry identifies the explosive as C4, but the stolen detonator turns out to be empty: Arturas carries the real one. Harry agrees to purchase specialized equipment, including a pirate cell phone for untraceable calls and an invisible chemical marker spray.

Eddie returns across the ledge seconds before the Russians reappear. From his window, he watches Arturas direct two white vans into the courthouse basement, assisted by the unfamiliar guard from the lobby. He realizes the Russians can smuggle anything through this corrupt guard, meaning they never needed Eddie to carry the bomb at all.

Eddie convinces Arturas he needs four million dollars to bribe a prosecution witness. Using the pirate phone, he secretly calls Jimmy "the Hat" Fellini, his childhood best friend and head of a New York Italian crime family, to arrange Amy's rescue. He also identifies the dirty FBI agent on Volchek's payroll as Thomas P. Levine by running a phone scam on a number from Gregor's stolen wallet. At a Brooklyn warehouse, Eddie covertly marks some of the bribe money with the invisible chemical spray. At Jimmy's restaurant, the crew traces Amy's location to a penthouse near the courthouse. Jimmy's nephew Anthony and a former marine called the Lizard lead the rescue team while Eddie races back to the Russians.

FBI Agent Bill Kennedy takes Eddie to the Hudson River, where an executed ship crew's stolen explosives have been linked to the trial. At the pier, Eddie receives a text confirming Amy's rescue but cannot reveal anything with Levine watching. The relief is short-lived: Arturas retaliates by attacking Jimmy's restaurant, killing seven people including Anthony, and recapturing Amy.

Eddie handcuffs the corrupt basement guard and confirms both vans are packed with explosives on timers. In court, prosecution witness Tony Geraldo, Mario's brother, invokes his Fifth Amendment right and refuses to testify, exactly as Eddie scripted. Tony smuggles photographs to Eddie inside a Bible. The photos reveal that Arturas has been meeting secretly with rival gang leaders and Agent Levine, and that Mario was killed for photographing these meetings.

Eddie reveals Arturas's betrayal to Volchek. Inside a Samsonite suitcase with a false bottom, they find coveralls with rappelling harnesses, MP5 assault rifles, and a remote for the courthouse's exterior scaffolding. Eddie explains the true plan: Benny and Arturas are brothers. Benny gave up only Volchek for a single murder, keeping the criminal organization intact for the brothers to seize. During a staged evacuation, Arturas planned to kill Volchek, rescue Benny, escape via the scaffolding, and blow up the courthouse to fake their deaths.

Eddie proposes a deal: a mistrial in exchange for Amy's release. He and Volchek destroy the ammunition from all four rifles, and Eddie hides the real bomb inside Arturas's coveralls. Volchek orders his nephew Uri to bring Amy to the courthouse while Eddie texts Jimmy to stand by.

During cross-examination, Eddie traps Benny into admitting he protected the organization so he and his brother could take it over, then establishes that Benny never received a death threat, contradicting Miriam's opening statement. Miriam moves for a mistrial. Judge Pike grants it. Volchek texts to release Amy, and Eddie calls Jimmy to intercept.

The bomb alarm sounds. Volchek shouts that Benny has a detonator, the fake Eddie planted on him during a scuffle at the witness stand. Kennedy and a guard shoot Benny. Arturas's men reach for the MP5s but find empty magazines. The Lizard kills bodyguard Victor, and when Levine reveals himself as a traitor by shooting Kennedy, who survives thanks to a vest, the Lizard kills Levine as well. Eddie flees through a shattered window onto the scaffolding. Arturas follows. Harry Ford appears at a window above. Eddie reveals the bomb is in Arturas's coveralls, triggers the detonator, grasps Harry's hand, and leaps for the window as the blast kills Arturas.

Eddie, Harry, the Lizard, Kennedy, and FBI Agent Coulson escape moments before the van bombs collapse the entire courthouse. Eddie wakes in the hospital with his estranged wife, Christine, and Amy at his bedside. Amy is physically unharmed but shaken. Christine tells Eddie she will never forgive him for the danger Amy faced. A month later, Eddie confronts Volchek on the street and warns him to leave the country. He then drives to a house in the Bronx and leaves nine hundred thousand dollars on the doorstep of Hanna Tublowski, the young survivor from the Berkley case. He drives away before she can see his face.