Page 91 of Dead Drift

“You’re from New Jersey?”

“I’m from Malaysia, but I’ve lived in New Jersey—”

“Since you were four,” Declan said in shock.

Abdul nodded.

“So you’ve lived pretty much your whole life in our country. A country of which you are an official citizen, and you still plan to aid in the launch of potentially the worst terrorist attack we’ve incurred?”

Abdul shifted.

Declan narrowed his gaze, really studying the man, his body language, his movements. He was different from the rest.

Clearing his throat, he leaned forward. “Abdul, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you joined up because”—Declan read the list of the other men’s names in the file before him—“your older brother, Amin, talked you into it.”

He straightened. “Amin doesn’t talk me into anything. I am my own man.”

“Then be your own man. Don’t go to death row because you refuse to do what you know in your conscience is right to do.”

“My loyalty is to my homeland.”

“This is your homeland.” Declan pounded the table with his fist, shaking the surface, the coffee in his cup sloshing. Sorry, he mouthed to Tanner as her coffee sloshed on her white blouse.

She winked back.

Man, he loved her.

He shifted his focus back to Abdul. “I can see you’re torn. Do as you said. Be your own man and tell us where that truck is headed, and I’ll see you are spared the death penalty.”

Abdul swallowed.

“Let us help you,” Tanner said.

Abdul shifted, his knees bouncing against the underside of the table. “If I tell you, you guarantee I won’t face the death penalty?”

“You have my word,” Declan said.

“Can you put it in writing?” Abdul asked, sweat beading on his brow.

“Absolutely.”

Declan rushed through the process as quickly as time would allow before Abdul lost his nerve, but Tanner remained with him the entire time, talking with him, soothing him as Declan watched on the video feed.

He returned and handed Abdul the signed paperwork.

Abdul’s dark eyes scanned it, his knees still bouncing, his brow dotted with sweat. He swallowed.

“I held up my end of the deal. You hold up yours.” Declan’s chest tightened. “Where is that truck headed?”

“Atlanta.”

Declan swallowed hard. “Atlanta?”

Abdul nodded. “We were to meet up with fellow brothers-in-arms. Bedan has a friend there. Someone who works somewhere high up. He was going to help us.”

Bedan’s “in” at the CDC.

“When was deployment set for?”