Chapter 3
They were in a small meeting room
designed for attorneys to meet their clients without fear of being
overheard. Dane sat behind a square
table while Nick stood with his arms folded, looking down at the boy who exuded
every form of apprehension he’d ever seen in an interview.
The door opened and Nick’s partner,
Matt McColm came in carrying a drink tray with three containers. He placed the tray on the table in front of
Dane, then removed a cup of hot chocolate and left it in front of the kid. He handed Nick his coffee, then took his own coffee
and went to the corner of the room and leaned against the wall. Matt was the enforcer, so he’d let Nick do
the heavy lifting, then move in when the time was right.
“I guess I’m having a hard time
understanding the payoff,” Nick said. “You
were going to drive into a car wash, where some guy was supposed to jump into
the passenger seat and give you the ten grand while another guy unloaded the
package in the trunk. Is that it?”
Dane put his hands around the warm
mug of hot chocolate and leaned over the steamy beverage. He stared into his cup and said, “I was drunk.”
“I’m not disputing that.”
“And they forced me.” The kid looked up searching for compassion.
Nick wasn’t there to coddle the
kid. He’d flown over from Arizona where
he was working another terrorist operation when he’d received the call. Nick was the FBI’s lead terrorist specialist,
so he prioritized his time with the most imminent danger first. And this was definitely a priority situation.
Nick took a sip of his coffee and
said, “Do you know who I am?”
Dane sat still, still staring at the
steam rising from his hot chocolate.
“Yeah, I seen you on my vine.”
Matt raised his cup and gave Nick a
mock toast, as if he’d finally made the big time. The Internet.
Dane’s eyes darted at Matt, then
back to Nick. “You’re the guys who
captured that Kharrazi guy a couple of years ago.”
Now Matt was beaming. He stuck out his chest with pride while Nick
shook his head at his partner’s antics.
“Okay,” Nick said, “then you know
we’re not here about your traffic violation.”
This time the kid looked at Nick as
if they were at the penalty phase of the interrogation. “Do my parent’s know yet?”
Nick wanted to kid to be completely
exposed. He needed Dane to experience a
sense of isolation, so he could become the kid’s surrogate. The only one who could help.
Nick pulled a chair away from the
desk and sat next to Dane. He placed his
coffee on the desk and leaned toward the kid.
“No,” was all he said.
The teenager kept his eyes glued to
Nick when he asked, “Can I call them?”
Nick had the kid dripping with
anxiety. He leaned back and said, “Tell
me about the device.”
Dane seemed insecure about this
request so he said, “The bomb?”
“Who told you it was a bomb?”
“The Mexican guy.”
“Did he have a name?”
“I think . . . Jefe?”
The Spanish word for ‘Boss.’ Nick couldn’t tell if the kid was fabricating
the answer to this one, so he forged ahead.
“And did Jefe show you the bomb?”
“No.
Just the case.”
“So you never looked inside the
case?”
Dane shook his head.
Nick gestured to the cup in front of
Dane. “Drink.”
Dane followed his instructions and a
couple of shaky hands put the cup to his lips.
“So you decided not to report this
to the police once you were inside California?”
The kid put the cup down and said,
“You make it sound like I had a choice.
There was a detonator strapped to my chest and they were watching my moves
with that camera on the dashboard.”
Nick frowned. “There was no camera on your dash. That was just the tip of a miniature
lense. There was no feed to go
anywhere. Also, there wasn’t a detonator
on your chest because there was no bomb in the trunk of your car.”
Dane’s shocked expression told Nick
everything he needed to know about the kid’s complicity with the scheme. He was just a tool.
“How could that be?” Dane
asked. Then he asked the better
question. “And why?”
“They wanted you scared and
obedient.”
Dane patted his chest. “What about the detonator?”
Nick shrugged. “You said it looked like a flash drive. It was probably a flash drive.”
Dane’s eyes grew wide. “Then what was in my trunk?”
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