Melig Petsche, a ruthless, pleasure-driven psychopath, seeks satisfaction not only from torture and killing but through daily, self-administered head stings from honeybees, gathered from the chaparral and stored in glass jars within his pit. He is one of a group of radical terrorists who, after years of planning and millions of dollars, infiltrate the small American town of Crest. They follow The Plan, a strategy to murder and brutalize the town's residents, proving that no American is insulated from world terrorism. The plan considers all contingencies except two, a change of heart by Astul, one of the terrorists' best operatives, and a devastating, chaparral fire, started by a plane shot down by the terrorists' own surface-to-air missile. The residents fight back in creative and unusual ways. Fire & Terror is an account of their incredible stories and of a local detective, Jack Carnes, who is determined to help them and to pursue the vicious Melig Petsche who plans to escape into nearby Mexico.