Jim Wyatt, a prominent state senator from Minnesota, is kidnapped on a visit to New York City by an Islamic human rights group who mistakenly believe he is a CIA agent. They are followers of a Muslim cleric who was convicted and imprisoned for inciting violence, and they give Jim a deadline to persuade the government to release the cleric, or else they will kill him. Convinced that the cleric is innocent, Jim tries to get him released, and while in confinement he examines his life and develops a relationship with the leader of his captors, a young woman named Zoraya.
Excerpt
“Any news?” he asked when Zoraya opened the door to his room.
“The crowds are getting bigger and bigger,” she told him. “Millions of people are demonstrating.”
“That’s great.”
“Yes. But that’s not what I came to tell you.”
“What did you come to tell me?”
“We’re going to kill Nardo.”
“Oh, no. That’s crazy.”
“Come with me.”
“No, I don’t want to witness it.”
“You’re not going to witness it. You’re going to do it.”
“What?” he said, outraged. “You know I’m against killing people.”
“Yes. I know. But you said it was okay to kill someone to save your life.”
“I didn’t say it was okay,” he told her. “I said you might have to kill someone to save your life.”
“Well, you have to kill him to save your life. Come with me.”
He went with her if only to have more time to talk her out of it. He followed her to the production room. Ramón and Manuel were standing over Nardo, who was sitting in a chair with his hands tied behind his back.
“The executioner has arrived,” Ramón said.
Nardo was obviously terrified.
“Ramón will explain,” Zoraya said, standing back from them.
“I’m going to give you the gun,” Ramón said, “and you’re going to shoot him in the back of the head. Manuel will make a video tape that will show you killing him. We’ll keep the tape to make sure that you don’t tell anyone about us.”
“You mean if they release Abdullah and you let me go.”
“That’s right. If they don’t release him, we don’t need the tape.”
“Because we’ll kill you,” Manuel said helpfully.
“Well, I’m not going to kill him.”
“If you don’t,” Ramón told him, “we’ll kill you no matter what they do.”
“You promised to release me if they released Abdullah.”
“We didn’t promise to release you. We only promised to kill you if they didn’t release Abdullah.”
“You implied that you would release me.”
“But we didn’t promise to release you.”
He looked at Zoraya, who refused to meet his eyes. Suddenly, he had a desperate idea. “Okay. Give me the gun.”
