Page 122 of Whisper

Kris stamped out his cigarette. “Then we need to get started. It’s after zero two hundred already.”

Slowly, David nodded.

Kris led them in. He’d been the lead interrogator for the strike team, picking apart low-level fighters and senior commanders, breaking them down one by one. Mousa was the most senior commander of Saqqaf’s they had captured alive.

He moved behind Mousa. Gripped his hood. Waited.

David stood in front, feet spread, arms crossed. He nodded at Kris.

Kris ripped the hood off.

Mousa’s dark eyes shone with hatred, with pure, wretched fury.

David was stuck in Mousa’s stare, pulled in like gravity, falling into a black hole. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t look away. Couldn’t escape the clawing dread rising through him, a wave trying to pull him under—

Revulsion, like acid, tried to drench him, drown him. He wanted to gouge Mousa’s eyes out. He wanted to grab him and throw him down, punch him until he bled, until he choked on his blood, his tears. He wanted Mousa to feel one ounce of what he’d made so many others feel, taste the fear, the helplessness, he’d help unleash upon the world.

Twenty-six years. It had been twenty-six years since he’d felt that same touch of evil, wave after wave of hatred and despair. The raw whisper of twisted darkness reaching for him, grabbing onto his soul.

David clenched his hands into fists, dug his fingernails into his skin.

Mousa spat at David’s feet. “Kufir,” he hissed. “Traitor. You pretend to be Arab, yet you’re only a dog for the Americans. The blood of Muslims is on your hands. Hell awaits you, my brother.” He grinned, savage. “The abyss ofal-Nar, the fires, awaits you and all hypocrites. All who have turned against the Prophet,salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and Allah.”

“Have you heard of the Amman message?”

“Do notspeakto me, infidel—”

“The Prophet,salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, said, ‘Myummah, the nation of Islam, will not agree upon an error.’ Do you know of this hadith?”

“Do not speak his blessed words, infidel! Your tongue is not worthy to speak his sayings!”

“Five hundred Islamic scholars and imams from over fifty countries have condemned your butchery. They have issued a binding ruling, a fatwa, against you. Theummahhas spoken.”

“Lies, from a hypocrite. True Muslims know what we’re creating and believe in the struggle for our Caliphate.”

“Muslims around the world gag against your savagery, your barbarism. You do not speak for theummah. The scholars have defined who a Muslim is, who a believer and follower of the Prophet,salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, is. I have news for you, Mousa. It’s not you.”

“Do not dare accuse me of apostasy!”

“You have no idea what it means to be a Muslim. What it means to follow Allah, and to worship Him.”

Mousa sneered. “TheAmmanmessage. The Hashemite King of Jordan is an American puppet and a CIA spy! He has Muslim blood on his hands, too! He aligns himself with the infidels and allows Muslim blood to soak the world! He istakfir! A hypocrite and unbeliever! He will join you inal-Nar!” Mousa’s bellows bounced off the cell walls, physical blows that hit David in the center of his chest. “The Sheikh is the future, the head of the Caliphate!”

“The imams have turned against you. Muslims are disgusted by you. Before Saqqaf, no Iraqi cared about Shia or Sunni. Friends and families joined together. There was harmony—”

“The innovators, the bastard Shia, should be wiped from the earth with their apostasy!”

“Your Islamic State has no Shura council. No religious guidance. Your ‘Sheikh of the Slaughters’ isn’t even literate. He pulls lines from the Quran without understanding their meaning, their context. He has no idea what he’s saying. He sounds like an idiot, Mousa.”

“Lies!” Mousa tried to lunge at David. “The Sheikh has a guide. Anallamah, a high scholar! He reads the signs of the end times! Guides the Sheikh’s designs!”

Behind Mousa, standing out of sight in the shadows, Kris stiffened. David kept his face impassive, tried to look bored, even. “And who is thisallamah? This learned scholar?”

“He is known as Sheikh Jandal.” Mousa hocked spit at David’s feet. “Because he will bring the death of the infidels, the disbelievers, and thekufirsLike you!”

“You disgust Muslims. No one wants you, or your death cult.”

“We areloved!”