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His name was Maqued, although no one would have known. Educated in the United Kingdom, Maqued had mastered the King’s English. His accent was muted after years of practice—he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible. Six months earlier, he had passed his commercial over-the-road driver’s test. For a man of his distinct intelligence, truck driver’s school was a mental drain. His classmates, pure Brooklyn and Jersey Shore, teased him about his UK terminology. He’d use phrases like “get into the queue,” instead of “standing in line.” And of particular amusement to his classmates was his use of the word lorry, which to a Brit meant a small truck.
It was only a few weeks after obtaining his commercial driver’s license that he landed the job with the city of Stratford, Connecticut. His rou
