The President's Daughter: A Thriller

At 2:15 am in the Chinese Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, senior intelligence officer Jiang Lijun observes a party. The embassy also functions as a covert intelligence hub. An aide, Ling, summons Jiang to the basement operations center. After excusing himself from a Libyan tribal leader, Jiang descends to the secure facility.

There, an officer named Liu Xiaobo briefs him that two American helicopters are heading toward the Nafusa Mountains. Jiang conceals his interest and, to maintain secrecy, orders Ling to be reassigned. He then proceeds to his private office to consider the American mission and decide his next action.

At 2:30 am, the SEAL team aboard Spear One prepares for landing. Nick Zeppos recalls Al-Asheed’s brutal execution of a Syrian family. Once the helicopters land, the SEALs deploy near the target compound in the Nafusa Mountains.

Zeppos leads his assault team forward. After a breach team enters the main building, a team member radios that the house is empty. To the team’s frustration, Al-Asheed is not there.

At 7:30 pm in the White House Situation Room, President Keating watches the raid on a video screen alongside his national security team. Keating contemplates the unique strengths of each member of his team, including Vice President Pamela Barnes, who was narrowly defeated for the party’s presidential nomination when she ran against Keating’s predecessor, Martin Lovering. Keating was Lovering’s vice president and became president when Lovering died unexpectedly of an aneurysm. He chose Barnes as his own vice president to unify the party.

As the team watches, the SEALs approach the compound. Keating breaks a pen in his hand due to the stress of watching the mission. Shortly after the team enters the compound without resistance, Admiral Horace McCoy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirms that the target is not at the location.

At the Chinese Embassy at 2:35 am, Jiang Lijun reflects on his desire for revenge against America, a motivation stemming from his father’s death in the 1999 US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. To avoid leaving a digital trace, he examines a paper map of Libya.

From a locked drawer, Jiang retrieves a secure Iridium satellite phone. Intending to interfere with the American mission, he powers on the phone to make a call.

At the empty compound, Nick Zeppos prepares to order his team to exfiltrate. With the helicopters having limited fuel, the window for departure is closing. Just as he is about to give the command, he hears a faint bell in the distance.

Intrigued, Zeppos decides to investigate. He leads his team away from the compound and up a nearby path toward the sound, delaying their departure.

In the White House Situation Room, Vice President Pamela Barnes questions why the SEALs are delaying their extraction. Admiral McCoy explains that the team is investigating a new development.

The drone feed shows the SEALs approaching a second, previously unknown compound. On the rooftops, armed enemies are detected moving into position. McCoy announces that the situation is evolving, which Keating considers good news.

At the second compound, Zeppos discovers a corral of goats, explaining the bell sound. He realizes that the first location was a mapping error and that this is the correct target. A SEAL spots two armed men and engages them, initiating an assault. Zeppos kills a fighter as the team attacks.

The breach team finds the main building’s door padlocked. As they move toward a window, a massive explosion destroys the building and throws Zeppos to the ground. He gets up under heavy gunfire and returns fire but receives no response from his team members who were near the building.

In the Situation Room, President Keating and his team watch the explosion. Keating worries the raid is becoming a political disaster. Admiral McCoy reports that the explosion was an internal trap, not caused by the SEALs.

The video feed shows SEALs falling, and McCoy confirms casualties: two killed and three wounded. Keating demands to know the status of their target, Asim Al-Asheed.

Wounded, Nick Zeppos gets to his feet and resumes command. The team sniper eliminates the remaining gunmen on a nearby ridge. Another SEAL reports that the wounded are stabilized. Zeppos learns that the two team members killed are Prudhomme and Kowalski.

A search of the destroyed building reveals no intelligence, only supplies and the bodies of civilians. Realizing that the enemy knew they were coming, Zeppos orders the team to exfiltrate immediately.

Admiral McCoy confirms to President Keating that Asim Al-Asheed was not found and that the civilian casualties were Al-Asheed’s wife and three daughters. Keating orders the video feed turned off and instructs his Chief of Staff, Jack Lyon, to arrange a televised address.

Despite advice from his National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, Keating insists he will take full public responsibility for the mission’s outcome and apologize for the civilian deaths. He then ends the meeting and leaves.

At the Vice President’s residence, Pamela Barnes and her husband, Richard, a political strategist, watch President Keating’s televised apology. Richard criticizes the speech as a politically fatal mistake that makes the president appear weak.

Richard predicts that Keating’s political support will collapse, creating an opportunity for Barnes to challenge him for their party’s nomination in the next election. Barnes gives Richard her approval to begin exploring a presidential run.

At 4:05 am in the Chinese Embassy, Jiang Lijun and his subordinate, Liu Xiaobo, watch President Keating’s speech. The Keating administration has been hostile to China on trade and territorial claims. Liu expresses amazement that an American president would publicly apologize for a military action.

Jiang views the apology as a sign of American weakness and a strategic gift for China. He reflects with satisfaction on the phone call he made earlier, which tipped off Al-Asheed’s forces and led to the raid’s failure.

At eight o’clock in the morning, the terrorist Asim Al-Asheed mourns his family in a remote cave in the Nafusa Mountains. A former medical student, Al-Asheed uses a thermal blanket supplied by a Chinese ally to evade detection. He has just killed a courier for bringing unsatisfactory news.

His cousin, Faraj, arrives disguised as a European hiker. Faraj confirms that President Keating has a daughter, and Al-Asheed tells Faraj that he will consider an act of revenge, but that the time is not yet right.

The narrative shifts forward to Inauguration Day, the end of President Keating’s single term in office. Due to the political fallout from the failed raid, he lost his party’s nomination to Vice President Barnes. In the Oval Office, he poses for photos with his wife Samantha, an archaeologist, and their teenage daughter, Mel.

During the photoshoot, Samantha announces that she has accepted a professorship at Boston University. Keating plans to move with Mel to a new home in New Hampshire. The family shares a final moment before departing the Oval Office.

Ten hours after the inauguration, the Keating family arrives at Manchester Airport in New Hampshire. Matt reflects on his new life; he retains Secret Service protection but no longer has presidential authority. He is conscious of the public humiliation Mel suffered after a Saturday Night Live skit mocked her following the raid.

At the airport, Samantha says goodbye before departing for Boston. Mel discusses her acceptance to Dartmouth College and confirms she has no intention of studying political science or journalism. Matt and Mel then depart into the snow to begin their new life.