Doctorow depicts a scene towards the end of the novel in which Marcus is water boarded by the DHS, and when can assume a few things from how it is described. Throughout the novel Doctorow presents with the idea that DHS is almost evil because of the different actions that they make. In America, we are taught be the media, and by our teachers to see terrorists as an evil force. Because this Doctorow allows us to already start thinking of the DHS as terrorists. Along with the actual torturing, Marcus also mentions how unbelievably scared he was, and the amount of fear that he had. Because of this Doctorow would agree with Friedland, in the idea that the fear installed in Marcus was a form of terrorism. By depicting the scene in such a way Doctorow would lead us to believe that the DHS are terrorists when looking at their torture of Marcus. Ironically the DHS uses water boarding to catch terrorists, when from Doctorow’s point of view they would themselves be the terrorists.