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“No,” Rapp called out. “They were transporting me and I jumped from the vehicle. Allah didn’t bring me back from the dead. But He guided me through the forest to your nephew.”
“Is this true?”
“It’s true, Uncle. He just wants to talk. Please come out. And don’t throw any more stones.”
The man appeared a moment later, completely naked, with a foot-long beard, and sun-damaged skin blotched with dried mud. His cautious approach was preceded by a powerful stench.
His name was Kadir, but he didn’t introduce himself and he didn’t seem to want to get too close. Instead he turned north, waving for themto follow. Akhil took the lead, while Rapp hung back, trying to stay well upwind.
Eventually they arrived at a stacked stone house with a roof ingeniously constructed of tarps and tree branches. Kadir took a seat at a firepit and indicated for them to sit on the other side. He was perched on a small log, but Rapp and Akhil had to settle onto the bare ground. For obvious reasons, the man wasn’t set up for visitors.
“I went to prison for helping my people fight for their freedom,” he said. “I built and repaired weapons. Shored up damaged buildings. Fixed power and water infrastructure…” He seemed to lose his train of thought and fell silent.
“Because you’re an engineer,” Rapp prompted.
“Yes. An engineer. I worked at a university. I was a man of respect. I had a family. A wife. Two daughters. They’re dead now.”
His eyes took in everything but his two guests. In a war like Syria’s a man like him would have quickly done and seen too much. But his behavior didn’t suggest PTSD.
“They took you to the facility,” Rapp said, trying to get him back on track.
“Facility?” Kadir finally met his eye.
“The Russians took you out of prison and to the old hospital in the desert.”
He nodded. “Were you there?”
“I was,” Rapp said. “I escaped.”
The man’s gaze shifted again. “I didn’t.”
“But you came back from the dead. Isn’t that true? Allah saved you.”
“But why? My family is gone. My life. I have nothing.”
“Allah always has a purpose,” Rapp said. “We’re just His instruments.”
“Yes!” he shouted, jumping to his feet suddenly enough to startle even Akhil. “Come! I’ll show you.”
Rapp motioned for the boy to stay and followed the man into thestructure he’d made his home. It was strewn with broken furniture, rusted cans, and small projects that seemed to have been abandoned before they could become identifiable.
Kadir reached into an old trunk and came up with an improvised explosive device that looked sufficient to blow them into the goat corral. Rapp took a cautious step back as the man shook it violently. “They did this to me! And I’m going to make them pay. I’m going to destroy them. That’s my purpose. That’s what Allah has tasked me with.”
“Maybe you should put that down, Kadir. It—”
“They took everything!” he shouted. “My life. My family. And then they stole from me who I am. Who I was. They made me dependent on their drugs. I knew what they were doing. I saw their experiments. But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t fight them. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for their pills. I knew what they were doing, though. I knew. The others didn’t. But I could see it. I could feel it.”
“That they were trying to addict you?”
“At first, yes. But that was easy. I’m a scientist. I understand. Once we stopped resisting, why keep us there? I discovered it. I discovered why. They were destroying our minds. Some of us died. Some of us were murdered. Some of us went insane.”
“I don’t understand,” Rapp said, keeping his eye on the IED that the man had forgotten he was holding.
“I used to be an engineer. I had a family. But at the end, I couldn’t think. I couldn’t control myself. Look at me! Look at how I live! When they were done with me, they took me into the desert. They took us all there. They made us kneel and cut our throats. Like animals. But Allah brought me back. I was in the sand. With the others. But I got out. Here. You can see.”
Rapp tensed when the man dropped the explosive and pointed to a thick scar on his neck.
“I went back to the village where I was born. My home. I still had people there. Like Akhil. But I wasn’t who I was before. Do youunderstand?” Tears began flowing down his face, creating trails through the sweat-caked dust. “I harmed a child. A child! Because she was crying. I had two daughters. I never lifted a hand to them. Never. But the crying… The sound…” He fell silent for a moment, lost in the memory. “They said I couldn’t live there anymore. That I had to leave. And they were right.”
