Ed glanced that way, and Luke took the opportunity to back up. He looked to his right. Big Daddy Cronin stood there.

“Don’t make me come in there. I’ll kill you both dead.”

They stared at him.

Now he smiled.

“Nice work this morning, boys. Beautiful. Fast, clean, no collateral damage, makes us look like the good guys for a change. I like that. Even better, it opened up a previously unknown lead.”

Luke noticed that he didn’t mention Davis Cole at all.

Big Daddy held up a fist. His index finger extended from the top of it and beckoned to them.

“Come with me. We have a visitor.”

* * *

Luke and Ed followed Big Daddy through the echoing hallways. Luke was so intent on keeping his eye on Ed, that they were entering a room before he noticed that Swann and Trudy had come with them.

Big Daddy looked at Swann and Trudy in surprise.

“It’s okay, Bill,” Luke said. “They’re with me.”

They entered the room. It was a very small chamber, different from the one before, with solid stone walls.

The British intelligence agent Montgomery was here, standing in the corner.

A man sat a wooden table. He wore white robes and a black and white checkered headdress. His beard was black and gray, trending toward white, and he wore thick glasses, which made his eyes seem like fish swimming in twin fishbowls. He stood when the group entered.

He glanced at Big Daddy.

“These are the men?” he said in perfect English.

Big Daddy nodded. “Yes. These are the men who saved your nieces this morning.”

He turned to Luke and Ed and extended a hand to each of them. The man’s hands were old and frail, but had a firm grip. They stood in an awkward triangle for a moment, holding hands. The man couldn’t possibly know that Luke and Ed had just come from a fistfight in the courtyard—a fight resulting from the same mission that saved his family members.

The man squeezed their hands tightly. A tear appeared on one cheek.

“Gentlemen, this is Imam Muhammad al-Barak. He is a tribal elder and religious council leader in the city of Tikrit and the surrounding area. He came here today at great risk to himself and his family.”

“The situation is very complicated,” he said. “Many in my region are supporters of Saddam. They would like to see the Americans ousted and the government restored. Many others are extremists of the type that would like to see Saddam executed, the Americans ousted, and a Sunni religious government installed.”

Luke shrugged. The man was still gripping their hands. “Not a lot of fans of the Americans around.”

The man shook his head in all seriousness, missing the irony in Luke’s statement. “None,” he said simply. “The rabid dogs that you killed this morning did nothing to help the American cause. My sister…”