Kiko and Maggie Perez are average citizens.
Well, Maggie certainly is. Kiko is, too, but wasn't and therein lies the situation which would get two "average" Americans involved in the fight against terrorism, both foreign religious and domestic ecological.
By average, I mean that they are not living double lives, filled to the brim with training to handle the situations they will get involved in.
Maggie is a smart, resourceful, and insightful mother of three young children. She is happy, contented, and fulfilled. She is also well enough in tune with her husband to see that he is a bit restless.
Kiko Perez is a security consultant at a major technology company and, like his wife, has become quite domesticated and happy to earn a good enough living to raise their children and provide a good home for them all. But in a previous life, Kiko had been a Special Forces operative for twenty years in the American Armed Forces and had gone places and done things in the defense of his nation that, though he cannot talk about them because they are still classified, he looks back on with pride. And he misses the excitement of being part of something bigger.
Which is why the two, on a very normal family vacation in Utah, happened to notice something that did not sit well and why they took it upon themselves to ask questions and poke deeper that most "average citizens" might and how they would end up going up against the terrorism mentioned before. Of course, having a brother-in-law like Martin, who is still very much involved in the good fight and knows people and believes in them doesn't help.