Two hours later, Atwan walks through the door. His penetrating stare is enough to make people cringe. He takes the chair directly at the head of the table. Hussein and Dakham are sitting to either side of him. “Welcome back, gentlemen,” says Atwan, his expression unreadable. “How was your little – vacation?”
“For the most part, it was truly boring, if you must know,” says Hussein.
Atwan is not amused. “All right. I want to hear about every single thing you did and every single person you dealt with. Do not leave out any details. What may seem unimportant to the two of you may be very important to me.” Atwan turns on a recorder.
For the next five hours, Hussein and Dakham give Atwan an exhaustive – and exhausting – description of everything they did, saw and heard on their trip. They tell him where they ate each meal and what they ordered. They tell him about people who rode elevators with them. They try to remember every fellow passenger on a two-hour trip on the Volga. They tell him about the lousy cab driver. Both get up at one time or another, to pace the room. Atwan sits quietly, the embodiment of patience, through the entire debriefing.
Finally both men run out of details. Looking across the table at each other, Dakham asks Hussein, “Is that all?” Hussein searches the farthest reaches of his excellent memory before finally nodding.
“Good,” says Atwan, getting to his feet. “Wait here. I must speak with someone about some of the things you have just told me before we continue.”
Hussein and Dakham’s eyes lock on each other. Continue?
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