“That fellow. The escaped prisoner we were warned about a week ago. The strangler.”

“Bolognesi?”

“Fuck Bolognesi! Yoni, instead of clearing out, maybe we should try taking him, huh?”

“Knock it off!” grumbled Yonatan. “We’re not here to play cops and robbers. Let’s pick up the girls and head home. It’s time to call it a day.”

“Why not? Don’t forget, there’s three of us and only one of him. It’s a cinch if we’re smart. The main thing’s to keep him guessing. The bastard’s probably asleep in the mosque.”

“If I may make a suggestion.”

“You may not! Calm down or you go right back to the girls. How about a little action, Yoni?”

“Why not?” said Yonatan with a shrug, as though he were giving in to a foot-stomping child.

“I’ll make a dash for it first,” volunteered Azariah.

“No one’s dashing anywhere,” Udi commanded coolly. “We’re not armed. He may be. But he doesn’t know that we’re not or how many of us there are. Azariah, listen carefully. Don’t budge from here. Pick yourself a nice big rock—that one over there will do—and wait in the corner behind the wall. Don’t make a sound. If he comes running in your direction, wait till he’s past you and brain him one. Is that clear?”

“Fantastic!”

“Yoni. Take the dog and cut off his retreat on the other side of the hill. I’ll sneak up beside the door and holler at him to come out with his hands up like a good boy. And get this. The minute you hear me, make a racket. Get the dog to bark. Let him think we’re at least two platoons.”

“Fabulous!” shortled Azariah.

“If he comes out shooting, we all hit the deck and let him get away. But if he doesn’t have a gun, I’ll jump him from behind, and the two of you run to lend a hand. Ready? Let’s go.”

Why, we’re brothers, thought Azariah with a proud, wild joy. We’re blood brothers, and even if our blood is spilled, so what? Such is love, such is life! If we must die, die we must.

Enough, said Yonatan to himself. Enough. Who the hell cares anyway?

Far down the hillside, Anat and Rimona heard the long, savage shout. But whoever had been in the mosque was gone. There was nothing in its cold, damp, and dark interior but the embers of some smoking mossy twigs, a sour smell of urine, and a few freshly stubbed cigarette butts. Udi, poling about, managed to unearth a little tumulus of excrement that soon buzzed with green flies.