“Okay,” Newsam said. “That’s fine. But how do the big guy and I infiltrate?”

Big guy. Newsam was trying to be a comedian. Luke didn’t like comedians.

“Easy enough,” Trudy said. “There’s an informant. I don’t have his identity because that’s protected information. He was detained and arrested by a squad of Marines at a checkpoint outside of the city of Fallujah. He was riding in a Range Rover with three young Iraqi women. It wasn’t clear how an American came to be riding with three Iraqi women, but they were apparently in some distress. What little understanding I have of the situation is that the girls were teenagers, and he may have bought them, from their families or possibly from someone else, for a nominal amount of money.”

“He’s a pimp,” Newsam said.

Trudy was noncommittal. “I don’t have any information on what he was doing or intended to do. All we know is whoever he is, he was with Parr up until very recently. He is now in the custody of the CIA, and has been interrogated by Bill Cronin.”

Luke inwardly winced at the idea of someone being interrogated by Bill Cronin. The guy who got picked up probably had a rough night with Bill. Well, good for him. People like Bill Cronin existed for a reason, and they didn’t come to see you unless you had strayed way off the path.

“He is a cooperating witness now,” Trudy said, telling Luke something he already knew. Men in the custody of Big Daddy Cronin were invariably cooperating witnesses. If they were still alive, they were eager to cooperate. “He is on Parr’s team, and the plan is that he will take you back into Sunni-controlled territory and lead you directly to Parr.”

“How long has he been in custody?” Luke said.

She referred to a sheet of paper. “Uh, approximately seventy-two hours as of this moment. By the time he leads you back to Parr’s hideout, figure more like four days.”

“So they’re going to be suspicious of him,” Luke said.

She nodded. “Probably. The story goes that he was picked up by a patrol, spent a few days in jail, then was released with the two of you.”

Ed Newsam shook his head. “That story is going to last exactly—”

“It only needs to last long enough to get you to Parr’s hideout and in the door,” Trudy said.

“Then what?” Newsam said.

“Then you arrest him.”

Newsam stared at her, the faintest echo of a grin on his face. But he didn’t say anything. Luke silently commended him for that. When Trudy had first pitched Luke the idea for this mission, he hadn’t been able to keep quiet about it.