The Night Letter

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Conor Ward also had a promising source meeting scheduled, also with someone claiming direct placement and access to Mullah Jan. It was Talal Jamali, the Baluchi who drove as part of Mullah Jan's large transportation network. They decided to talk to him to see if he could do any better than just logistics. He unabashedly said his motivation was the money and he kept asking about it. Ward had to tell him more than once that he would get paid when he fulfilled his tasks. At first, it was difficult to pin down exactly how often or how directly he met with senior Taliban leaders but he had the potential to provide a great deal of information on the movement of troops, weapons, and drugs. Not the sort of thing they usually collected at the FOB but he could be useful to the conventional military collectors. Ward told him they were interested in information that could be immediately actioned against senior officials and the information suddenly began to flow, all of it of dubious credibility.

Talal was tallish and gangly as if from a lifetime of constant movement and under eating. He smiled nervously and often and when he did the features of his face, except for his prominent nose, disappeared in wrinkles that reminded Ward of the deimatic display of a frilled lizard. He didn't have the worst dentistry Ward had seen in country but it was pretty bad. The spaces between his teeth were dark stained as were the lower parts of his gums like in some dog breeds. Talal asked him if he was married. He felt no rapport with the source so he let him talk. Maybe that would help.

"Do you know why women are treated so differently in Islamic countries than in the West? I have given a lot of thought to this question. It is because everything in Muslim society is prescribed for us by the Qur'an and no man can violate the teachings of the Qur'an. It is hard for women sometimes, I know, but they also have hard lives in the West where they have to go out and work like prostitutes. Islam is infinitely merciful. Do you know why many of our most important buildings have screens over the windows? Many of the screens of the palaces and great mosques are wonderfully intricate, like works of art. It is so women on the inside can look out without worrying about any men looking in at them with bad intent. So you see how concerned we are with women's happiness and well being. We are not so bad as you think in the West," he said.

"What is your society's obsession with prostitutes? In the West, women are expected to marry for love. It is your society that has institutionalized prostitution in marriage. A woman is expected to marry a man she maybe has never met before and cares nothing for and who cares nothing for her and why? Material prosperity, food, survival; it's the definition of prostitution," Ward said, knowing it was always a mistake to dispute with a fool. And he was already known for engaging the sources in discussion when he should have been keeping them on task.

"Well, your society idealizes love and then destroys the reality of it. Love only comes from god, not human beings. So what happens when a woman seeking love can't find it? She becomes a whore. You are all whores," Talal said and smiled his obscene smile and Ward regretted even more engaging in the debate but now he had to end it.

"Do you know any other useful information about Mullah Jan?" He asked and Talal pursed his lips and made a show of thinking hard.

"He can eat a whole goat," he said seriously.

On his way back to the office, Ward saw Bowditch who told him there would be a fallen comrade ceremony at KAF that night. Attendance at fallen comrades ceremonies was not mandatory but strongly encouraged and there was nothing else to do, anyway. Usually when they went to KAF they helo'd over but there were too many people now and they could not get the air support so they decided to convoy. Ward liked seeing Afghanistan from the ground. He said he would attend the ceremony but he was more interested in the convoy than in the ceremony.