London Bridges

grounds, which was in a separate building from the cellblocks. I wasn’t given his name. Nor was I told very much about him, except that he had important information about the Wolf.
    I met with the prisoner inside a “quiet room,” an isolation cell with mattresses on the walls and no windows. Two small chairs had been brought into the room for the purpose of the interview.
    “I’ve told the others everything I know,” he said to me in very good English. “I thought that we made a deal for my release. I was promised as much two days ago. Everybody here lies. So who are
you?
”
    “I was sent down here from Washington to listen to your story. Just tell me everything again. This can only help you. It can’t hurt.”
    The prisoner nodded wearily. “No, nothing can hurt me anymore. It’s true. You know, I have been here two hundred and twenty-seven days. I did not do anything wrong. Not a single thing. I was teaching high school in Newark, New Jersey. I have never been charged with anything. What do you think of that?”
    “I think you have a way out of here now. Just tell me what you know about the Russian who goes by the name Wolf.”
    “And
why
do I talk to you? I think I may have missed that part. Who are you, again?”
    I shrugged. I’d been told not to reveal who I was to the prisoner. “You have everything to gain, nothing to lose. You want to get out of here, and I can help you achieve your goal.”
    “But will you, sir?”
    “I will help you if I can.”
    So the man talked to me. In fact, he went on for over an hour and a half. His life had been interesting. He had worked in security for the royal family in Saudi Arabia, sometimes traveling with them in the United States. He liked what he saw here and decided to stay, but he still had friends back home who worked in security.
    “They spoke to me about a Russian who had talks with dissident royal family members, of whom there are many. This Russian was looking for capital to finance a big operation that would seriously hurt the United States as well as certain countries in Western Europe. A doomsday scenario was discussed, though I don’t have specifics.”
    “Do you have a name for the Russian? Where was the man from? What country, what city?”
    “This is the most interesting thing,” said the prisoner. “The Russian—it is my impression it was a woman, not a man. I am confident about my information. The code name or whatever was definitely Wolf.
    “Now what?” the prisoner asked when he was finished talking. “Will you help me?”
    “No, now you
repeat
your story,” I said. “From the top.”
    “It will be the same,” he said.
“Because it is the truth.”
    Late that night I left Gitmo for Washington. Although it was very late, I had to report on my interview with the prisoner. I met with Director Burns and Tony Woods in the director’s small conference room. Burns wanted to know my bottom line on the Saudi’s credibility. Had we learned something useful about the Wolf? Was he negotiating in the Middle East?
    “I think we should let the prisoner go,” I told Burns.
    “So you believe him?”
    I shook my head. “I think he was given information, for whatever reason. I don’t know if the information is accurate. Neither does he. I think that either we charge him or we set him free.”
    “Alex, was the Wolf in Saudi Arabia? Is it possible the Wolf is a
woman?
”
    I repeated myself. “I think he told us what
he
was told. Let the schoolteacher go home to Newark.”
    And Burns snapped at me, “I heard you the first time.”
    He let out a long sigh. “I was with the president today, his advisers. They don’t see how we can make a deal with these bastards. It’s their position that we won’t.” Burns stared at me. “Somehow, we have to find the Wolf. In the next two days.”

Chapter 44
    IT’S EXTRAORDINARILY BAD to be waiting for something devastating to happen and not be able to do a damn thing to prevent it. I was up at five the next morning and I had breakfast with Nana. “We have to talk about you and the kids,” I said as I sat at the kitchen table with coffee and a slice of unbuttered cinnamon toast. “You awake for this?”
    “I’m fully awake, Alex. How about you?” she said. “You ready to match wits with me?”
    I nodded, and bit my tongue. Nana had something to say to me, and I was supposed to listen. I’ve learned that no matter how old you get, to some extent you always remain a child in the eyes