The place was jammed with young people all in various stages of self-conversation: texting, head phones on, listening to music in worlds of their own, or on computers, reading or writing.

Nazir took the sleeve off the cup and slipped it over four of his fingers.

Taliq chuckled. “More interested in that than the tea?”

“It’s not very good.”

“You expected something like home?” Taliq said with a grin. “I understand. You’ll not find much of that here.”

Nazir slipped the sleeve off his fingers and back onto the cup. He watched the people outside. A parade of well-dressed men and women. He chuckled and leaned into Taliq.

“Are you afraid to enter paradise?”

“I’m sorry if my question disturbed you, Nazir.”

“Are you?”

“We shouldn’t be talking about this here.”

“Look. No one’s listening. No one cares.”

“We don’t have to be friends, brother. We don’t even have to like each other. But I’m as concerned as you as to why Hashim has come here. I’d like to help you find him.”

“I don’t need help.”

“Sarif believes you do. You blew off the other three with a wave of judgment, dismissing them before you got to know what they’re capable of.”

“I don’t need to live with them to know what they’re capable of.”

“Fair enough. But whether you like it or not, Sarif has ordered me to work with you. This ‘tea,’ as misconstrued an idea as it is, was an attempt to get to know each other a bit.”

“Do you know me any more now than you did?”

“I know you speak English much better than I thought you would.”

“Thanks for the tea.”

Nazir got up and left.

Taliq waited until Nazir was out of sight. He took out a burner phone, dialed a number, and waited until someone answered.

“I made contact,” Taliq said. “It’s not going to be easy to work together, but Sarif will convince him. I’m sure of it.” He ended the call.

He grabbed the two cups of tea off the table and dropped them into the trash bin. His eyes probed the room, as they always did, to make certain no one cared or was suspicious about these two dark men who looked like people they feared. No one did.

37

37

Catherine was startled awake in the middle of the night. Her connection to Hashim had grabbed her so deep she was being bombarded with images of people and places he’d talked about. She grabbed a sheet of paper and sketched her remote dream.

Nazir had arrived in D.C.

She walked tentatively, across the creaky floorboards on the second floor of her cottage.

She knocked on the door to the room where Hashim slept.

When he opened the door he was dressed. He looked better. The fever had broken.

Catherine showed him the drawing.

“He’s arrived?”