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Bailey, sir.”
    Jake nodded, as though taking the news in deep, giving it value. Then back to the sergeant. “I need use of your eyes and your ears, Sergeant. Yours and your men’s.”
    Back to the measuring gaze. “This a formal requisition, Colonel?”
    â€œIf it is,” Jake replied, “then no matter how tight I try to keep it, sooner or later it’s going to become common knowledge. Two days here, and I’m already aware of that.”
    A single chop of a nod in agreement. “The political officer appears to be a guy who doesn’t leave a paper trail.”
    â€œYou want me to let somebody else know we’ve talked,” Jake said, understanding him, and taking great comfort from the fact that he had suggested Barry Edders. “I don’t have any trouble with that at all. Tomorrow I’ll lay it out.” He let a little of his fatigue and his desperation show through. “I’ve got to find some people I can trust, Sergeant. And fast. I’m not asking for anything in particular. Just to keep watch and let me know what’s on the up and up.”
    â€œHelp you find the bear traps and the land mines,” the sergeant offered.
    â€œThat’s it exactly.”
    The sergeant glanced at the soldier standing duty. “I don’t see as how I’ve got a problem with that. What about you, Bailey?”
    â€œIt’d be an honor, sir. I’m sure I can speak for all the guys. A genuine honor.”
    Jake dropped his eyes in an attempt to mask the relief he felt. But he looked to find the sergeant’s steady gaze looking deep and had to say, “You don’t know what that means, finding somebody I can rely on. My back is truly to the wall.”
    The leatherneck broke the hardness of his face enough tooffer a quick thin-lipped smile. “Any chance of some action, Colonel? This guard duty starts to weigh heavy after a while.”
    â€œI would say there is a good chance of that,” Jake replied, and then was struck with an idea. “How’d you like me to see if the consul general would assign one of you fellows to travel up country with me? Could be dangerous, though.”
    That brought a reaction so strong Jake felt he was watching the sun appear from behind heavy cloud cover. “You just said the magic words, Colonel. Travel and danger.”
    â€œI’ll speak with somebody first thing tomorrow morning,” Jake promised. He nodded at their crisp salutes, the sergeant’s now as snappy as the corporal’s. Then he turned back to the corridor. “And thanks.”
    He walked over to where the bearded man sat slouched upon the bench. The eyes did not rise at Jake’s approach. Jake slowed, took the time to inspect the man more closely. His black suit, shiny with age, hung limply upon his bony frame. The scraggly beard was laced with gray threads. A battered and dusty fedora rested in the man’s lap.
    Jake sat down on the bench, watched as the man emerged slowly from his stooped reverie and lifted hollowed cheeks and dark eyes to stare back. Then for a moment Jake found himself unable to speak. The sight of that ever-hungry gaze drew him back to another time, when he had stood outside a barbed-wire compound and watched the haggard faces of war stare back. He swallowed, managed, “They told me all the applicants had been seen.”
    The man continued to watch him for a moment, then replied in softly accented English, “It is the way of people such as your Mr. Ahmet. They will grant me entry, then leave me seated here for as long as I am willing to remain and endure the silent humiliation. Then, you see, they are able to claim that they have never practiced discrimination. It is a most Turkish of solutions.”
    Jake nodded slowly, “You are Jewish?”
    â€œI am.” The steady gaze faltered, and one pale hand liftedto cover his eyes. “Forgive me. I should not have spoken as I