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Ellen tried not to bristle at the patronizing tone, though she admitted that all British accents sounded patronizing to her American ear. When they spoke, she heard an implied You idiot.
“I can tell you one thing, Secretary Adams. From my experience, the greater the silence, the greater the goal.”
The true nature of terror is the unknown. The truly terrible thrives in silence.”
Certainly no one with the name Anahita Dahir. “Dahir.” From “dabir.” Arabic meaning “tutor.” “Teacher.” And “Anahita,” from the Persian, for “healer.” For “wisdom.” But it was no use telling them that. They’d stop listening after “Persian.” Which translated into “Iranian.” Which meant enemy.
“Just one more question, Mr. Dahir. What’s the Secretary’s Dilemma?” “It’s a mathematical problem, Madame Secretary.” “What sort of problem?” She sat in Frankfurt and looked at him on the monitor. “It’s about when to stop,” said Irfan. “Stop what?” “Stop looking for a house, a spouse, a job. A secretary,” he said. “Knowing when you’ve found the right one. The best one. Or do you always question if a better one is out there? As long as you’re doing that, no progress is possible. A decision must be made, even if it’s imperfect. When I was in Tehran, during the revolution, I saw too much. Too
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The President of the United States’ unhappy face was on the secure phone in her hand. It felt, for a giddy moment, as though she held him in the palm of her hand.
The only red flag is that she seems quite religious.” “I’m quite religious,” said President Williams. “Is that a cause for suspicion?” “In Iran it is, sir.”
entente
Buddhist nun Thubten Chodron’s advice: “Don’t believe everything you think.”
‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’ ”
He was experienced enough to know that the weak blustered, denied, lied, and struck out wildly. The powerful admitted a mistake, thereby robbing it of its hold on them.
Einstein had said: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
‘Now I am become Death…’ ” Under her breath she muttered the words of Robert Oppenheimer, quoting from the Bhagavad Gita. “ ‘The destroyer of worlds.’ ”
Ellen, who’d been appalled by the brutality of “enhanced interrogations,” now found within herself a deep well of situational ethics.
As they pulled away, they heard him mutter, “Fucking Americans.” But it was without rancor, and almost with admiration. Almost.
For Christmas that year, Betsy had given her a copy of the latest work by her favorite poet, Ruth Zardo. The slim volume was called I’m F.I.N.E. It stood for “Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Egotistical.”
Noli timere, Armand thought as he hit send. Be not afraid.
“While you were looking outward, scanning the horizon for threats,” he continued, “you missed what was happening in your own backyard. What was taking root right here, on American soil. In your towns, your shops, in your heartland. Among your friends, in your families. The sensible conservatives moving to the right. The right moving far right. The far right becoming alt-right. Becoming, in their rage and frustration, radicalized thanks to an internet filled with crazy theories, false ‘facts,’ and smug politicians allowed to spew lies.
Time and patience, time and patience. Tolstoy said those are the strongest of warriors, and he was right.
“Henri, it must be admitted,” said the man beside Whitehead, “keeps very little in his head. It’s really only there to support his ears. Everything important, he keeps in his heart.”
Noli Timere. Be not afraid.
Finally, this is a work of fiction but the story it tells is all too timely. It’s up to us to make sure its plot stays fictional.
