'Be quiet, darling. He is a marvel.'
'He broke his leg jumping out of the truck with us above the Jabal Sham,' said Kendrick, staring down at the unconscious young man strapped to the bed. 'He's only a kid.'
'But your ID's positive?' asked the CIA officer standing beside Emmanuel Weingrass. 'He was with you in Oman, there's no doubt about it?'
'None at all. I'll never forget him There was a fire in him you're not likely to find in many teenagers over here… except maybe in the urban rot.'
'Let's go out of the back door and into the garage.'
'That's Yosef,' said Evan, closing his eyes. 'His mother was a Jew—and for a few hours he was my friend. He protected me… oh, Christ.'
'Stop it!' shouted Manny. 'He came here to kill you!'
'Of course he did. Why not? I pretended to be one of them in their goddamned holy cause… They shaved his mother's head, can you imagine that?'
'He shouted that at me when he tried to kill me,' said Weingrass simply. 'If it makes you feel better,. I didn't want to kill him. I wanted to take anyone I could alive.'
'Knowing Yosef, you didn't have a choice.'
'I didn't.'
'These other two,' interrupted the impatient CIA officer, lifting up the sheets. 'Do you recognize them?'
'Yes. They were both in the compound, but I never knew their names. The one on the right had soiled trousers; the other, long ragged hair and stared like he had some kind of messianic complex—I reckoned he was psychotic. That's all I can tell you.'
'You've already told us what we have to know. All these men that you've identified were with you in Oman.'
'Yes, I knew each one… They wanted their revenge, and if I were them, I'm not sure I'd feel so differently.'
'You're not a terrorist, Congressman.'
'What separates a terrorist from a “freedom fighter”?'
'For starters, sir, terrorists make it a point to kill innocent people. Ordinary men and women who just happened to be there, kids with backpacks, employees—young and old alike—simply doing their jobs. Where's your case, sir?'
Kendrick studied the field agent, suddenly jolted, remembering Fairfax and the Hassans. 'I apologize for a stupid and fatuous remark. I regret it deeply.'
'What the hell,' said the CIA man, shrugging off his momentary anger. 'We're all stretched and too damned many labels are thrown around anyway.'
They returned to the house, where Khalehla was speaking to the nurses on the porch. Whatever she was saying she had the rapt attention of the three women; they sat motionless in their chairs, their intelligent eyes riveted on 'the representative from the State Department'. Evan and Manny walked in and crossed quietly to the bar while the CIA officer went to the guest room to check on a colleague and the prisoner.
'I've explained everything, Congressman Kendrick,' said Khalehla, her voice official, 'as far as I'm permitted to, of course, and these ladies have agreed to co-operate. One had a visitor arriving tomorrow, but she'll call and tell him there's a medical emergency and not to come.'
'Thanks a lot,' muttered Weingrass, pouring himself a drink under Kendrick's watchful gaze. 'Now I'm a corpse.'
'Thank you, Manny,' remarked the nurse in question drily.
'I want to thank all of you,' said Evan quickly. 'Washington's convinced this is an isolated incident, a young lunatic on the loose—’
'So was Sirhan-Sirhan,' broke in the nurse who had driven into Mesa Verde to reach Gonzalez, 'and the description didn't change the results.'
'I've told them the prisoner is being transferred back east under cover tonight and not to be concerned if they hear noises in the grounds or the garage.'
