Showdown at the OK Corral...Part 1

I emerged from the Shadow in the small stone circle at the community house that Ravyn ran in the suburbs of Chicago. It was a dark night, so the transition had been exceptionally easy.

I was carrying the duffle bag that I had taken from that house in Jordan. It was still packed full, although the contents had been adjusted somewhat since I had left Jordan for the Merlin’s place in that other world with Zenni Al Farhan in my arms. I was returning alone, well, at least as far as any observer could tell anyway.

I made my way from the circle to the back door that I knew would be unlocked-- Ravyn wasn’t too worried about unwanted intruders-- plus this was a center of a lot of activity in any event.

I found Ravyn in the library that she had first brought me into more than 6 months ago. It was a comforting sight to see her relaxing on one of those enormous sofas reading a book. It was a rare thing to find her taking time for herself anymore.

There were a couple of other students in the room when I entered, but they quickly decided to seek their answers elsewhere when I entered the room. I moved to a sofa across from where she was stretched out and set the duffle bag down and took a seat.

Like a cat woken from a nap, she stretched and yawned as she put the book down and sat up, looking at me without speaking. Her eyes drank in all of the details of my appearance, like she could deduce where I had been and what I had been doing from the dust and dirt on my clothes.

We sat in silence for a few moments, before I finally spoke. “You look well rested. I take it the spa was good?”

She smiled, that kind of cat-that-caught-the-canary-grin, but as quick as it came, it disappeared behind a sterner look. “It was good. I finally feel like a human being again.”

“Glad to hear that.”

The pleasantries were over that quick. She turned all business. “It’s almost time for the Conclave, where have you been all of this time?”

I sighed. “Well, that’s a long story.”

“I’m ready to listen.”

I gave her a brief summary of the events that had taken place, starting with my meeting with the spirit of Alexa’s mother at Yggsdrasil and ending with the events of my last post. She sat silently through the story, her jaw tightening at various points when describing what had happened to Mrs. Al Farhan while in the custody of Daniel Bernstein.

When I finished, she stated, “I don’t know how I will be able to work with that man again. I can’t believe he had been so cruel to that woman.”

“He’s still here?”

She looked away in disgust. “Yes, he’s pretty much healed up from the physical wounds. I don’t think he has regained any of his memories that you took from him though. He has the mental maturity of a teen-ager, but the body of a middle aged man. He’s been helping out with some janitorial work and has been raiding the library here every night, taking book after book to read.”

“I can take him elsewhere if you would like.”

“We’ll see, Rusty. I hate what he did to that woman, but I know that we can’t let him go in good conscience. Who knows what Drake will do to him if he finds him. I doubt that Drake will believe that his memories are completely gone. I’m not even sure I believe it either.”

It was my turn to look away for a moment. But I looked back at her when she finished. “Speaking of Drake, I need a favor.”

Her eyes became suddenly fiery, flashing in anger. “What about him? What kind of favor?”

“I’m going to reach out to Drake. I need to make a deal with him.”

“What?!?!?! Have you gone insane????”

“I know. It sounds crazy, but it has to be done. I need to do it for Alexa’s sake.”

“How can you even think of dealing with that man again? Hasn’t he screwed with you and your family enough? How can you trust him to follow through on any agreement? And how can you expect any meeting not to be a trap?”

I leaned forward, patted the duffle bag at my feet. “I don’t trust that...man...at all. But I finally have some things that he wants, needs even, more than he wants to fuck with me and my family. I finally have some leverage and I intend to use it.”

“What was in those containers? Are you going to tell him about this Zenni woman as well? By the way, where is she?”

I smiled, sat back a little bit. I had left out the details as to what was in those containers. “Well, I can’t tell you everything just yet. But I can tell you that Mrs. Al Farhan is safe, she will not be part of any deal with Drake.”

“You’re damn right she won’t be!” Her anger was up again. As fast it rose, however, it cooled down again. “So what exactly is this favor you want from me?”

It was right as that question came out that the other entity with me chose that moment to grow restless. The duffle bag gave off a puff of thick dust as it shifted inside. A muffled squeak from inside accompanied the movement, causing Ravyn to just about jump out of her skin.

“What did you bring with you in there?” Her bare feet had been pulled back from the now rustling bag, up onto the sofa with the rest of her, but her right hand was extended in a familiar gesture that I knew meant that she was ready to ‘throw fire’.

I held out my hand. “Wait a minute. It’s nothing bad. I brought someone for you to meet.”

“You have someone in that bag?”

“Yes, his name is Bobinaximantheral, Bob for short.” I was reaching down slowly to loose the clasp on the bag. “He’s a little impatient, he’s a youngling among his kind, and was very curious to meet you.”

I opened the bag and a bright light spilled forth as ‘Bob’ leaped out into the air, spinning and circling happily as he squeaked in joy at being let loose from that dark, nasty bag.

Ravyn’s shriek of surprise turned into a cry of joy. “Rusty, you remembered!”

The Orb known as ‘Bob’ continued to circle around her head. It was obvious that he enjoyed her as much as she would enjoy being around him.

“Like I was saying, his name is Bob. He’s young for his kind, I think he’s only a thousand of our years old, and he’s been very eager to meet the ‘Fire Lady’ I had been telling him about while I was at the Merlin’s. He would like to know if he can stay with you for a while and experience our world...which I knew you’d be more than willing to accommodate.”

If she was hearing anything I was saying, I couldn’t be sure. She was entranced with him. She reached out one hand into the air. Bob slowed down and floated near it. He seemed to get slightly brighter as he approached her fingers, almost like he was a pet, sniffing to see if she was ‘ok’.

When he touched her, she didn’t flinch. Her eyes were transfixed on the softly glowing orb that was actually a living being. “He’s so warm to the touch!”

Soft cooing sounds were coming from the pair as they examined each other. I couldn’t tell if it was her or him.

Bob floated downward along her arm. I could see goose pimples raise on her arm is he came down and floated in front of her eyes. She reached out with both hands, gingerly touching him on opposite sides. They seemed to be communicating on a number of levels.

After a few moments she nodded and pulled her hands away, he bobbed in the air and zipped up towards the ceiling rafters of the library.

I watched him settle up in the shadows above, dimming as he did so to the approximate brightness of a candle, he was probably recharging a bit after the excitement. I was just about to close the duffle bag back up when Ravyn bounded off of her sofa and wrapped me in one of her trademark bear hugs.

“Thank you.” She whispered, sounding like she was choking up a bit. “You have just made me very happy!”

As she let me go and settled back onto the sofa, I closed up the bag to keep anything else from spilling out. “I’m glad to hear that. Now, about that favor I need from you...”

I had to duck a flung cushion....

Decisions, Decisions...

We sat there for a few moments in silence.

“What if I were to take you back to your family in Iraq? Those thugs won’t be after you anymore and Dr. Bernstein will no longer have any interest in you, that I can guarantee.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, streaked down her dirt-smeared cheeks. She looked down at the ground, sobbing, before she gained the strength to speak again. “I...I...I wish that were possible. But those evil men killed my husband and the members of his family that we were staying with after the war.”

I wanted to reach out and offer some form of human comfort, but something stopped me. Instead, I asked, “What about other family members, perhaps any adult children, cousins, your side of the family?”

She looked back up at me, shoulders still wracked with sobs. “I have no children. I have never been able to have any. No, I have no one else left in Iraq. Because of my ties to the former regime, I have enemies who will be glad to make an example of me. My parents died in the Iran/Iraq war. I was an only child, so I have no brothers or sisters. The only living relative I have...is your mortal enemy.”

“Damn, I was afraid of that.”

My choices were not very good. I could take her back to Ravyn’s farm, but there were a great number of problems with that. First, she would come face to face with Daniel again and there was no way of telling what would happen with that! Second, she still had some reasons to hold tight to her loyalty to Drake, so that could be like inviting the fox into the chicken coop. Finally, how happy would Ravyn be with another injured foundling dropped off at her doorstep?

So, taking her to Ravyn’s was pretty much out of the question. I certainly couldn’t leave her here in this place and I couldn’t kill her, it’s just not in my nature to do so.

I ran through all of the other options I could come up with on short notice...

The Professor was taking care of Alexa, so I couldn’t take her there...

The Frau and Cerrydwen were helping the Professor, so they were out...

Everyone else I knew in the ORC’s would be in danger if I left her with them, given Drake’s talent at finding out things you didn’t want him to know...

I couldn’t turn her over to the government, they would see her past involvement in the Baath party and her service in the Mukhbarat as potential threats and probably send her off to Gitmo...

I certainly couldn’t turn her over Drake, even if I could locate him, after using her Talent on me, she knew too many secrets that I didn’t want him to know, and I certainly wasn’t going to turn over this money or these artifacts him either...

She needed to have a chance to heal up, to recover from her wounds and her losses while also being beyond the reach of Drake.

So, after looking at and discarding all of these other options, I decided that it was time to take her on a visit to a place I had been taken when I needed a chance to heal...to the Merlin, if he would take her...

Further Discoveries...

“Knowing what you must about know about Drake, why have you helped him in his search?”

She hesitated before answering, but she did not look away. “That is not an easy answer to give. When you get to ‘know’ people in the way that I do when I use my Talent, you learn that nearly everyone is more complex than they seem. When I first met Drake Kampmann, I knew him only as a wealthy foreign scientist who was looking into the same field that I wanted to go into, the ancient past, into the very origins of human society. It wasn’t until I touched him though, that I got that first glance into incredible complexities of a person who was ALIVE at that time. I couldn’t believe my own senses and thought that I must have been dreaming when I received the first images of his youth and the incredible drive that had kept him...alive, in some way until the present.”

As she spoke, she seemed to come alive herself in a way that neither I, nor Daniel, had seen since he had first ravaged her. I wanted to ask more questions, to get the answers I truly wanted, but I felt it was more important to let her keep talking...

“It wasn’t until the second time I touched him that I discovered that he was actually a direct ancestor of mine. He was probably the first person I had ever touched that could sense what was happening when I touched him, but he was definitely the first to have the ability to shield things from me that he didn’t want me to know, at least after the first time anyway.”

I couldn’t restrain myself at that point. “But surely, you must have seen the evil that he has done throughout his...existence?”

She sighed. “When you have the ability to know the deepest, darkest secrets of everyone around you for all of your life, and you get to relive them every time you touch someone, you come to know that we all carry the seeds of both our own destruction and our redemption within. Yes, I could see much of the evil he had made within this world, but I could also see that there is goodness in there as well.

“When I touched you, Mr. Bones, I sense that you contain within you the seed of a great Evil, the remnants of a being so ancient and so powerful that I fear that one day your humanity will no longer be able to hold it back. But I can also feel that for now, you have found ways of coping with and containing that Evil.”

It was my turn to look away for a moment, to collect my own thoughts. She had learned so much in one momentary touch!

“The man you call Drake is your enemy, he started the process to create what you have become, but it is you who have taken that beginning and become so much more than even he could have imagined. But that man is my ancestor, my patron, the one who taught me that there are other people in the world who have strange talents like I do, people who use those skills for good and bad. He was the first person who I felt safe with all of the secrets I had been keeping. You see, there are many taboos in this part of the world against people with powers like I possess. People with unexplainable powers get stoned to death here, if they are discovered.

“Drake taught me that I could use my powers in small, secret ways to further my career. It was he who convinced me to use my abilities to become an archaelogist and an agent within the Mukhbarat.”

“Why would you serve in that agency, as an agent of Saddam Hussein’s government?”

“It’s simple, really. As an agent I could keep other archaelogists from selling away Iraq’s heritage to the highest bidder, but I could also control which secrets I actually revealed to the other, more enforcement minded agents. I could get information from suspects with no harm being done to them, and I could protect the secrets of those who truly needed and deserved protection because I had such a reputation for finding the truth.”

“You know, you really aren’t making my decision any easier.”

“In the faith of my people, Shaitan, there are no choices, but the will of Allah.”

“Well, if there is an Allah, then he has left you in the hands of a pissed off dead man with an axe to grind with your damn ancestor...”

“Hopefully, that is better than being in the hands of living rapist who had an axe to grind with my damn ancestor.”

M.A.D--Mutually Assured Discovery

The Shadow engulfed us and took me to that familiar place, the plateau that I had taken Daniel to within the World of Shadow.

It was not a comforting place to take Mrs. Al Farhan to, but I didn’t want to comfort her just yet. We had some...issues...to work out first.

You see, one of the secrets that I had learned from Daniel, though by no means the most explosive or the most important, was that Mrs. Al Farhan was a direct descendant of Drake’s. She had discovered this strange fact by accidentally touching his skin with her bare fingers back when she had worked with him on that archaelogical dig in southern Iraq.

Ever since that time, she and Drake had become as close as Drake allowed anyone to be with him. She had assisted him in searching for those items he had so desperately wanted from the ancient and buried ruins near Ur, while he did everything he could to assist and protect her with his extensive contacts within Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Of course, this relationship was the very reason that Daniel did the vile things he had done to her, and was the reason that he had her seized again by the band of thugs I had just disposed of. She was to be his last bargaining chip in the event that the negotiations between Drake and him broke down...until I screwed that up for him.

I had been careful in picking her up so as to not present her an opportunity to touch my skin with her fingertips, since I knew that was how she accessed her own Talent. This plan had worked fine up to this point, but fell apart as I tried to put her down in a way so as to not cause further harm to her damaged body.

As I knelt to put her down, the duffle bag shifted awkwardly, forcing me to catch myself from falling on her. This provided her an opportunity to reach out with one small hand and touch the leather like skin of my face.

Her Talent was powerful, irresistible. For the briefest of moments, I felt the sheer terror of having my most private self being laid bare...just as Daniel had felt when he realized what I had been doing to him. But unlike Daniel, I had the power and the Will to close off that portal, although not before she was able to gain significant insight into who, and what, I was.

Realizing that I had cut off her access to that knowledge, she took her fingers from my face, keeping her eyes locked on mine. I finished setting her down before placing the bag down and then settling to a seated position right in front of her.

We sat there in silence for many minutes, each assessing the other. Having only spoken a few sentences between us, we already knew more about each other than most married couples learned in a lifetime.

It was an awkward way to begin a conversation.

She broke the silence first. “You are sworn to kill him.”

It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “Yes.”

“Yet, you saved me from those animals. Why did you come for me?”

“Once I learned those crimes were still taking place, I couldn’t let them continue. This is the place, right here on this very rock, where Daniel Bernstein paid for those and many other crimes.”

She looked away for a moment, surveyed the small barren plateau, and picked up one of the expended glowsticks. She looked back me, tears flowing down her now wet cheeks. “Thank you.”

We sat in silence for a few more moments while she wiped her face dry with one sleeve of her tattered robe. She then took a moment to remove her hijab, which surprised me. Her hair was unkempt and dirty from what looked like at least a week without washing. She ran her fingers through her long, dark hair, seeking in vain to smooth the tangles.

When she gave up on making her hair presentable she looked at the equally dirty and tattered hijab and sighed, setting it aside. She looked back at me with a strength and a resolution that I found surprising and asked, “So, what will you do with me now?”

...To The Other Side

As the last of the cold-blooded killers collapsed into a gurgling heap, I wiped both Herlinda and Diego down on his desert camouflaged jacket. They weren’t truly clean, but I would have time for that later.

I sheathed the blades before searching out for the one survivor among the mercenary band. Luckily, the one Mrs. Al Farhan called Andrew was one of the first I had encountered in the fray, I had been able to pummel him into unconsciousness before I got too caught up in battle to be particular about who died.

It worked out well, since I now had a prisoner to question as to the whereabouts of the things I had come for.

I picked him up by the front of his uniform with one hand and half carried, half dragged him to the kitchen area. I propped him up into an armchair and splashed water on across his bruised face. With the third pan full of cold water, he came sputtering to.

“Who are you...?” He managed to spit out a semi-coherent question.

I was not in a very charitable mood, so I quickly set the ground rules. “It is not your place to be asking the questions here, boy. I ask, you answer. If I am satisfied with your answers, you will live. Is that clear?”

He wasn’t restrained physically from acting in any way, but his eyes showed that he understood that I didn’t consider him a threat. He nodded.

“Good. Then let’s begin.”

After a few moments of polite conversation, I had all of the information I needed from him.

I left him sittng in that chair still as I calmly gathered up the items I needed from the various rooms where they were kept. I found the briefcase full of bundles of cash, in the form of $100 bills and high denomination euro notes that the group was using for their operating capital in the leaders room. I recovered the two sealed, bowling ball sized cannisters from the room Andrew stayed in, placing them in the heavy duty duffle bag that he had used to lug them around. Finally, I used the keys that Andrew had to unlock the room that they had kept Mrs. Al Farhan in.

She looked out miserably from the corner where she had been curled up in as the door opened. She blinked at the sudden light from the outer room.

“Can you walk?” This time I spoke to her in English, a language that I knew that she was fluent in from Daniel’s memories.

She shook her head, then futilely tried to pull her hijab back over her unkempt hair, a small attempt at modesty despite her wretched condition. “No.”

“Then I will carry you. I will be back in a moment.”

I turned to return to the kitchen, only to face Andrew staring at me down the length of a fully loaded automatic rifle. “I don’t know what kind of monster you are, but you will not hurt her!”

I looked from him, back into the cell, and back to him. “I think your chivalry is a little late, boy. I did not come here to harm this woman, but to save her from the likes of your comrades. Put down the gun and leave this place alive, while you still can.”

He stared me down for almost a minute. I could see him sweating as he gauged whether or not he thought the gun would even harm me and whether or not he could finally help the woman he had watched his comrades ravage, time and again. His face was anguished, the guilt of a thousand ‘should haves’ washing over it in visible waves as each memory flashed through his mind.

Finally, he backed away slowly, still pointing the gun in my direction.

As he backed up, I walked over to the kitchen table where the duffle bag and briefcase waited. The barrel of the rifle followed me, but remained as silent as we did.

I snapped the briefcase open and pulled out stack of euros that was probably worth about $10,000 and tossed it at his feet before putting the rest of the money into the duffle back with the cannisters. His eyes stayed on me as I said, “Take that and go home. You’ve done all you can here. I will take her to safety. Dr. Bernstein will no longer require your services.”

He looked down at the money on the floor and paled as he noted the blood pooled up nearby from one of his former comrades. He shook his head and swallowed hard. “No. I will not take that money. I will not leave her in your hands either. How do I know you won’t harm her?”

I was losing my patience with the boy. I zipped the duffle bag closed and hoisted it onto my shoulder. “You can stay if you like, but I’m leaving and I’m taking her with me.”

He made a move to step between me and the cell door, holding the gun like a club than a firearm, like he thought it might be more useful that way. He didn’t say anything as I walked right up to him.

“I admire your bravery boy, however misguided it might be. You are only alive right now because she asked me not to kill you. If you don’t get out my way, you will have wasted the grace that she has granted you, despite your inability to keep her safe from your comrades. Trying to stop me from helping her is not going to be your redemption. You will only find that through a lifetime of service to those in true need.”

He still hesitated, his face torn with grief and despair.

Looking deep into his eyes, I made one last appeal. “You have a good soul, boy, and a unique talent to bring solace and comfort to those who are suffering. This path of the soldier, the warrior, is not for you. Stand aside, and you will have the chance to develop that talent and help many others. The choice is yours, die now, a participant and a witness to rape, torture and blackmail. Or live and have a chance to give succor and to heal.”

His shoulders slumped, the gun clattered to the floor.

“Good choice.” I pushed past him and moved to the bruised and battered woman he had failed to protect until now. I bent over and gently scooped her frail form into my arms. I looked back as I began to gather the shadow about us, I could see the poor kid sobbing in the doorway.

Maybe he would use this second life to become something better. Maybe.

Breaking through...

After hours of replaying this and other reprehensible memory sequences from his time in Iraq, I was able to unravel enough clues to crack open that damnable wall.

Pushing in the last of the nearly invisible keys, the steel wall melted away like a stick of butter in a searing hot pan. Despite all of the time and energy I had spent trying to get to the secrets behind this wall, I was completely unprepared for the mother-lode of information I was about to receive. It also took me a while to get my mind around the enormity of the secrets that he had been keeping not only from Drake, but also from himself....but before I discuss these, I needed to take care of some ‘bidness’...

The other mindblowing revelation was that Daniel had been running a sting operation of sorts on Drake, having hired a band of mercenary thugs in Iraq (westernized contractor types) who were even now (at least as recent as a week before I snatched these memories from him) holding Mrs. Al Farhan, and Drake’s precious artifacts as well, hostage in an attempt to extort money from Drake.

At first, I couldn’t actually believe that he had pulled this off against Drake, but the more I analyzed the now complete set of memories from this...weasel...the more I came to the conclusion that I had been giving him way too much fucking credit for being under Drake’s sway.

Daniel Bernstein had his own agenda in all of this...and he was more than willing to let Drake take the fall for being the main ‘bad guy’ and play at being an innocent scientist caught up in the swirl of something larger than himself.

Once things snapped into place, I found myself flying back to my body at a breakneck speed through the Spirit World.

As I settled into my body, I was already galvanized for action.

From Daniel’s memories, I knew that his team of hired thugs and killers was currently hiding out in a small, unmapped village in the deserts of Jordan, not far from the Iraqi border. The last thing Daniel knew, they had recently returned from southern Iraq with Mrs. Al Farhan as a captive again, she was intended to be Daniel’s last bargaining chip with Drake.

This was going to end, and end now.

I gathered my weapons and summoned the Shadow, slipping easily into that world where my powers over darkness and my senses were the strongest. Once there, I called forth everything I could of Mrs. Al Farhan’s aura from what little senstitivity Daniel had. Luckily, it was just enough.

I slipped from the world of Shadow into the dark room where she was kept. She lay in fetal position, whimpering in a corner, her clothes torn. Even though the room was dark, I could see her clearly. As soon as I appeared and turned towards her, I could hear the crying stop.

In between ragged gasps for breath, she whispered her question in Arabic, “Shaitan? Have you come to avenge me?”

Seeing that she had clearly been ravaged even further by these mercenaries, I gave her a one word answer in that same language (a language, mind you, that I did not remember either speaking or understanding until then-more on that in future posts), “Yes.”

A sharp intake of her breath preceded her reply, “Good. Then I can die.”

“No. Thou shall not perish this evening, that fate falls to these others for their crimes.” Sorry, but that was the literal translation, it turns out that my knowledge of that language was rather archaic.

I turned from where she now was sitting up and moved towards the door. Before I could get any further, her whispered cry halted me in my tracks. “Shaitan?”

I turned my head back towards her, saw her flinch as she saw my fiery eyes again. I must have looked very much like the crazed killer I would soon become. “Aye?”

“There is a young man out there, his name is Andrew, he is the tall, red headed one with the sweet face. Please,...spare him. He is the only one who has been...kind to me, and he is good at heart.”

“If he is wise and lucky...he will live, but I make no promises.”

In the darkness of that room, I was able to expand my senses and get a feel for the rest of the building. It was night, but I could feel that all ten of the men in the fortified house were awake and active. Good. I wanted them to know what was coming. I did feel that one of the men seemed to be more than a little different than the rest. A kinder, gentler soul among a gathering of tainted, darker souls that would not normally be found outside of a prison. I marked where that one was.

Drawing the Shadow about me, I stepped from the cell into the midst of some very startled men.

“What the fu..!”

“Who the Hell are...!”

“Sonovabit...”

The shouts all ended in brief screams or gurgled grunts. I was quick, efficient and absolutely ruthless. It was over in a matter of moments...

Unclean Memories

I have meditated on this post for several days now. I have wrestled with issues great and small in deciding how to proceed from where I last left off.

There is no good way to describe the events that transpired with Zenni Al Farhan at the hands of Daniel Bernstein. Even knowing the reasons that Daniel used to convince himself that he was justified in taking the actions he took, I cannot comprehend how a man can do the things that he did.

I have always hated rapists more than just about any other kind of criminal. As a cop, I have confronted more than my share of such criminals, always taking great pleasure from arresting those scumbags and putting them behind bars. Usually after making sure they have a few more bumps and bruises than I found them with.

Having these memories in my head made me feel unclean, made me feel like a participant in his crime. Worse yet, I had to replay them more than once to learn the clues to solving the puzzle he had created inside his own head. The information he learned from Zenni Al Farhan, and the objects he recovered using that information were so dangerous to his own survival that he had to create a maze within his own memories to shield those secrets from accidental disclosure.

So, in order to discover the key to unlocking what those secrets might be, I had to relive this experience more than once in order to move forward.

I will conclude this short post by saying that Mrs. Al Farhan did survive that night, but Daniel’s actions that night left her broken and disabled to such an extent that he felt that she was no longer a danger of revealing her secrets to anyone else.

I vowed to exact some measure of vengeance on Daniel, on those who eventually helped him to perpetrate those crimes against Mrs. Al Farhan, and of course, ultimately on Drake, who, in the end, is the root the cause of so much evil in this world.

I also vowed to see if Mrs. Al Farhan still lived and to see if there was any aid that I could bring to help her heal from these wounds.