Throughout the novel Doctorow never actually tells who the terrorists are, and he never tells us if the DHS actually does catch the real bombers. He strays away from the fact that the real terrorists are still out there. We can come up with a few thoughts and ideas as to whom the actual terrorists were. Although these are thoughts, we can still evaluate we can still evaluate the methods of terror used and their effectiveness. The terrorist could range from something like Al Qaeda to a San Franciscan who is fed up with the slowness of the Bay Bridge and the BART train that runs under it. We can also look at the desired effects from the terrorist attacks, and how plausible they are. Although Doctorow doesn’t tell us who the terrorists are and their motives, this does tell us that he is not concerned with the actual act, but with the possible consequences that could happen afterwards.