The Caliphate

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I stood here once, the day they announced my father was a martyr. The cameras filmed us, three orphaned children, and the widow of the Gatekeeper as she told them he'd given control of the ICBM's to the Ghuraba.

A guard prods me in the back with his machine gun.

"Take your hijab off. The Abu al-Ghuraba wants the people to see your face."

I unhook my face veil and turn to Nasirah.

"Don't be afraid. Adnan will protect us."

It's too bad her first trip outside since she was two is to here. I stare at the stranger who grips her arm like mouse caught in a serpent's fangs. He sure looks like my brother. Tall and gawky, the spitting image of our father. He stares into the cameras as they project his image onto the video screens which flank the execution field.

An imam ascends the