Around us the locals, none too friendly at the best of times, began making threatening gestures. When our Iraqi Army interpreter, ‘Ali the ‘Terp�..., was tasked with finding out what was going on, he simply told us that Allah had determined that the infidels were to be exterminated. Details weren’t available. The imams and mullahs in the mosques were working the locals up, and we had a couple of suicide-vest bombers the second week of May. One blew up the Iraqi Army checkpoint, and the other was. .less animalistic...but they seem stuck in their path." What about using your powers?" she asked.He shook his head. "For some reason our powers are limited againstthem. Oh, we can change them physically, but not mentally. Some of mykind feels we should wipe them out so that they never pose a risk to usagain. However that is not possible...they have a purpose." What do you mean again?" she asked."I have told you too much," he said."Tell me about it, please," she asked.He smiled back. "Not today.. He told me the month and the date and the bad news was that he would definitely be unable to take a day off because he had to be away for one of his sales meetings out of the city. His wife had left him almost 2 years ago for a younger man and he had nobody else to ask for help but myself. He stressed that he knew, I was not yet married and did not have any child of my own but he said, it was only a birthday not a complicated wedding ceremony and also promised to tell his daughter to keep it a. “You hit him, not kill him,” Philip said.“Mebbe die soon,” Cook added.We walked over. I could see some blood. Philip bent down and looked at the ground.“You hit ‘im bit low. Mebbe neck. He not movin’ quick. We walk left.”We did. Philip stopped again and held up a hand. We heard noises, including hissing, grunting and coughing. “Him dying. Wait.”We did. There was another cough.“You got flashlight?” I handed it to Philip. “Turn on, please.” I did so, blinking in the light.Philip showed us a grey.