CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
7:35 p.m. Arabian Standard Time (12:35 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time)
Ibn Sina Hospital
The International Zone (aka the Green Zone)
Karkh District
Baghdad, Iraq
“You all right, Bob?” Big Daddy Bill Cronin said.
Ed Newsam looked at him. As white boys went, he was a bear of a man. Tall, with a thick body, big shoulders and arms, a bushy red beard going a little gray. He wore khaki slacks, shiny black shoes and an open-throated dress shirt. The day was over, but he looked like he was just getting started.
Ed had met Big Daddy for the first time two months ago, when the SRT came here with one mission in mind, but then ended up rescuing the president’s daughter. The man was CIA, no nonsense, about as hard as they came.
Ed had watched him do a little light torture on a
