SYNOPSIS:

An old Arab woman is tortured and killed in her Washington, D.C. rooming house. Her son Reza, a preppie buttoned down law professor from the Midwest, flies into town. He reluctantly hires Shanny, a street tough wise cracking private eye to hunt down his mother's killer. Pursuing clues the cops missed, Shanny follows the evidence to Qusay, the cunning and deadly leader of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell operating in D.C. Piecing together the old lady's final hours, Shanny and Reza locate Qusay's luggage which went missing at the rooming house and was found stashed at a national monument. Shanny shows the suitcase to Nicky, a pawnbroker-cum-arms dealer. Nicky shocks Shanny by revealing the suitcase is a Soviet-made portable nuclear bomb from the 1960s. Nicky boasts he can sell the baby nuke on the black market for millions. Shanny tells Nicky to forget it. Pissed off about losing the deal, Nicky sells Shanny out to Qusay. With the power line cut, Shanny is ambushed in her darkened brownstone. Qusay steals the suitcase and kills Vivian, Shanny's long time lesbian lover. At the funeral Shanny blames Reza for Vivian's murder and quits. Later Shanny is busted for assault at a gay bar. Posing as a high dollar attorney Reza convinces Shanny's sparring partner to drop all of the charges. Now feeling indebted to Reza, Shanny resumes the hunt for his mother's killer. Shanny and Reza pick up Qusay's trail at a Virginia mansion. Using surveillance equipment, they overhear Qusay changing the date of a terrorist attack to 9/11. Discovered snooping, Shanny and Reza come under machine-gun fire. Shanny is blinded by flying glass. Reza takes Shanny and speeds off in her souped-up pickup. Qusay gives chase at hair raising speeds on the Capital Beltway. Reza loses control and flips the truck violently. Whizzing by the carnage, Qusay leaves Shanny and Reza for dead. Physically and emotionally a wreck, Shanny recuperates in Reza's hotel suite. One night Shanny breaks down and seeks comfort from Reza. Caught up in the moment, Shanny and Reza make love. The following day Reza's wife Joanna arrives into town unannounced. Her birthday surprise for Reza escalates into a knock-down-drag-out with Shanny. Eventually realizing Shanny is blind and usually gay, Joanna manages to forgive her husband's infidelity. Accompanying Reza and Joanna to Dulles airport to catch a flight home, Reza unexpectedly spots Qusay. He and Shanny corner him in the men's room. The three of them throw down in a nasty street fight. With Reza knocked cold, Shanny tears away the bandages from her eyes. Her vision blurred, Shanny once again accosts Qusay and steals the deadly suitcase back. Airport security shows up. Desperate and out of time, Qusay abandons the suitcase bomb and forces his way on board his departing flight. With Shanny and Reza in custody, they learn that American Airlines Flight 77, the very plane Reza and Joanna were supposed to be on, crashed into the Pentagon and exploded. Authorities inform Shanny and Reza that the tragedy could have been worse. The nuclear bomb could have been aboard the doomed flight.

CHASING LUCIFER