SEVERAL YEARS AGO
I stood in the square before the National Museum of Iraq. staring up at the two towers flanking the central archway. I knew that orders had come down from on high that we were to do everything we could to avoid engaging in a firefight where the building or its contents might be damaged, yet even so there had been excessive looting and for the most part that edict had been followed.
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO
Two thoughts immediately crossed my mind.
Your brother? followed closely on its heels by *Was?
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO
The man with his old army jacket was still standing there facing me across the back of the church. Again, briefly, I considered running. with his gun at his side like that, there was a chance I could at least make it out the front doorway before he could fire.
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO
“Where is he?” the man attached to the gun growled, a rumbling in his voice hinting at a lifetime hard and painful.
I looked up, then up again. The man was huge, taller than me by a head and a half and wide enough that he seemed to fill the doorway. The red and blue flashing I’d seen before lit the regularly lit the door frame to his either side, but I couldn’t see past him to determine his source.
PRESENT DAY
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned.”
The man on the other side of the screen was tall. I could tell that much just from the shadow he cast; and he was broad at the shoulders.
“It has been–too long–since my last confession.”