The flock blocks the road completely. The herders carry shepherd’s staffs. Their garb is hooded robes and sandals. Little boys carry leather slings like David in the Old Testament.

The Bedouin patriarch speaks to Ben-David in Arabic. Rachel has pushed forward. She stands at Ben-David’s shoulder. I shove through, beside her and Dana.

DANA

(indicates Bedouin elder)

He says a man met him on the road and gave him a message for us.

Apparently the patriarch wants money. Ben-David digs in his pockets. He hands the man several bills. The elder accepts them. He produces the note.

Ben-David indicates Manning. The Bedouin hands Manning the note. He points to the summit of the crag looming overhead.

A man stands there, a hundred feet above us, silhouetted against the burning sky.

Rachel peers.

Dana reaches for binoculars.

Manning and Ben-David squint, shielding their eyes against the glare and the churning dust.

The man is Instancer.

Every hair on my body stands up.

Instancer holds motionless. The gale booms around him, whipping his khaki shirt and military-style trousers. His hair blows sideways in the wind. He stands beside some kind of desert-rigged truck. He’s alone.

I turn instinctively to Rachel.

Her expression betrays nothing.

Dana peers at Instancer through binoculars. I see her adjust the focus knob, pulling the eyepieces deep and hard against her sockets.

I rap Dana’s shoulder, for a look.

DANA

Get your own.

I’m peering as hard as I can at Instancer. He makes no movement. Just looks down at us. Too far away to make out his expression.

Manning opens the note, scans it, and passes it to Ben-David. Rachel pushes to Ben-David’s side. He hands the paper to her.

Whatever the message says, it sobers these three completely. I see Manning meet Ben-David’s eye.

Ben-David glances toward Rachel, then back to Manning.

BEN-DAVID

(to Dana)

Lieutenant, arm your men.

Instancer holds his position directly above us.

His note is passed to me.

It’s an iPhone photo.

I squint in the sun-glare.

The pic is a close-up of the hood of a desert truck, apparently the same vehicle Instancer is standing beside now.

In the dust on the hood a finger has scrawled:

CUINHELL

Manning has crossed to Ben-David. He is speaking to him with quiet but urgent intensity. I can’t hear what they’re saying; they’re too far away. Whatever action Manning is urging, Ben-David is rejecting it.

The herders, with fresh energy, drive their flock clear of the road.

I see Manning indicate Rachel. He’s speaking with greater vehemence to Ben-David. Ben-David continues to rebuff him.

Instancer watches from the crest of the crag.

Suddenly Manning turns his back on Ben-David. He strides toward Rachel, who stands beside me on the shoulder of the road. Manning seizes her by the elbow, hauls her roughly toward the front of the column, toward Dana’s lead Humvee.

Dana herself continues staring through binoculars at Instancer.