“Please, keep your voice down.” Huda glanced over her shoulder. “And, no, she’s not. She’s a victim in this, like her daughter. And Khalid.”

Ally hurried on, muttering curses, and trying desperately not to panic.

“Ally, please, calm down.”

Huda reached for her arm, but Ally shied away. She needed space and time to think. The last thing she wanted was Huda’s false sympathy clouding her judgment.

“Tell me,” she said. “Exactly what have you been reporting to the mukhabarat?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, come on. You’re an informant. By the very definition, that means you’re giving them information.”

Huda’s big eyes shone with tears. Ally wondered, Was that a trick she practiced in the mirror? Did the mukhabarat give her lessons on how to fake a smile, how to make a hug feel warm even if her heart was unmoved?

“I only told them little things,” Huda stammered, “here and there.”

“Exactly what were these ‘little things’?”

“Really, it was nothing.”

“Stop it,” she hissed. “If you want me to help you, you better start telling the truth.”

Fear flickered across Huda’s face, barely visible, like a fish among the reeds.

“One time, I mentioned Barbara and Inez.”

“Barbara and Inez? What do they have to do with this?”

“Nothing, like I told you,” said Huda. “I simply reported that you did aerobics at the UN with two oil-for-food inspectors called Barbara and Inez.”

“We do jumping jacks.” Ally slapped her hand against her forehead. “We’re not trading state secrets.”

“Like I said, mostly I have nothing to report. I just provide a few details about your daily activities. It’s not like you were doing anything suspicious, until, well . . .” Huda paused. She glanced at the Tigris, like she might find an answer in its tides. “I didn’t tell them about either of your visits to Eighty-Second Street.”

“You know that I went back?” Ally felt sick. “Have you been following me?”

“No, I never, I swear. The nurseryman told me. He said he hid in the tool shed when you came.” Huda eyed her. “No Iraqi likes to talk about the dead. They’re not coming back, no matter how much we pray. It’s the living we need to think of. We need to think of Khalid and Hanan.”

Ally squinted at the perfect blue sky with its perfect fluffy clouds, and prayed this wasn’t really happening. But even as the wish formed, she knew there’d be no miracle. God wasn’t going to save her, just like he never saved Yusra. Or Huda’s brothers. What about Khalid and Hanan? Would he turn a blind eye to them too?

“Let’s be honest.” Huda leveled her gaze. “You’ve done plenty of lying too.”