The man really is a horrible liar.“Now, why don’t I believe that?” Matt grabbed Anderson’s shoulder in a strong grip and squeezed.
“I don’t know.” The older man’s voice became strained as his knees buckled and he attempted to pull away. “Walker never told me his name.”
“But you know it, anyway.” Matt could see it in the man’s eyes. “Come on, Sloane. We’ve come this far. Walker had to have said it at least once.”
When Anderson remained tight-lipped, Matt went back to his earlier tactic. Pointing his pistol at the man’s bare foot, he began counting down from five.
“Five. Four. Three…”
“I don’t know!”
“Two…”
“I swear, I don’t—”
“One.” Matt’s finger slid to the trigger right as Anderson hollered out.
“Okay! Okay!”
Matt moved his finger back to its safe position. “You were saying?”
“He’ll kill me if he finds out I told you.” Anderson’s entire body began to shake so badly, if he’d had any shit in his bowels, he probably would’ve let go of that, too.
Thank God for small favors.
“What do you think I’m going to do to you, if you don’t?”
Anderson looked back at him with a fear Matt welcomed. “I-I may have overheard Walker talking to him once while we were on the phone. I thought I heard him say ‘Rajif’.”
Matt’s eyes flew to Gabe’s. “Bukhari?”
Gabe shifted his gaze to Anderson. “Did you ever hear Walker say the name ‘Bukhari’?”
“No.” Anderson shook his head vehemently. “I swear. I heard Rajif that one time. That was it.”
Gabe stepped closer to Matt, putting his mouth right next to his ear he whispered, “If Bukhari’s involved, this shit’s a hell of a lot bigger than we thought.”
Matt nodded his head to show his team leader he agreed. “We need to call Ryker.”
“I’m on it.” Gabe pulled his phone from his thigh pocket and called the Homeland Security agent’s personal cell.
When Ryker picked up, Matt heard Gabe tell him, “You need to get to the office.” There was a slight pause before Bravo’s team leader said, “Because we’re bringing you a present. Homeland’s Christmas came early this year.”
Chapter 15
After grabbing some clean pants for Anderson to change into—because no one on the team wanted to smell old man piss while driving to Dallas’s Homeland facility—they’d used their plastic cuffs to secure their prisoner for transport.
Having transferred him into their custody, Agent Ryker had instructed them to go back to Gabe’s place and wait for him. Hours later, as dawn was beginning to break, the four men were in Gabe’s living room, drinking some much-needed coffee when there was a knock on the door.
Jason Ryker had shown up, as promised, his hands full of thick manila folders. One for each man present.
Passing them out, as he spoke, Ryker began filling them in on what he knew. “As of an hour ago, Sloane Anderson has officially been charged with treason. Now, we move on to the big fish.”
“Bukhari?” Matt assumed.
Ryker went to the table and grabbed the back of one of the wooden chairs before dragging it into the living room. Sitting down, he shared what he knew.
“As you know, Rajif Bukhari has been considered a high value target to the U.S. government for several years. Until now, he’s been untouchable. Too many politics in play. As head of Iran’s most lethal military faction, Bukhari knows how to work the system and has a fuck-ton of people on his payroll. Government officials, local law enforcement…you name it.”
