Khalil said, "Don't touch the telephone."

She looked back at her husband, who said, "Call the police." General Waycliff took a step toward the intruder.

Khalil drew the automatic pistol from his jacket.

Gail Waycliff gasped.

General Waycliff let out a sound of surprise and stopped in his tracks.

Khalil said, "This is actually your gun, General." He held it up as though examining it and said, "It's very beautiful. It has, I believe, a nickel or silver plating, ivory handles, and your name inscribed on it."

General Waycliff did not reply.

Khalil looked back at the General and said, "It is my understanding that there were no medals issued for the Libyan raid. Is that true?" He looked at Waycliff, and for the first time saw fear in the man's eyes.

Khalil continued, "I'm speaking of the April fifteen, nineteen eighty-six, raid. Or was it nineteen eighty-seven?"

The General glanced at his wife, who was staring at him. They both knew where this was headed now. Gail Waycliff moved across the kitchen and stood beside her husband.

Khalil appreciated her bravery in the face of death.

No one spoke for a full minute. Khalil relished the moment and took pleasure at the sight of the Americans waiting for their death.

But Asad Khalil wasn't quite finished. He said to the General, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were Remit Twenty-two. Yes?"

The General didn't reply.

Khalil said, "Your flight of four F-llls attacked Al Azziziyah. Correct?"

Again, the General said nothing.

"And you're wondering how I discovered this secret."

General Waycliff cleared his throat and said, "Yes. I am."

Khalil smiled and said, "If I tell you, then I have to kill you." He laughed.

The General managed to say, "That's what you're going to do anyway."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not."

Gail Waycliff asked Khalil, "Where is Rosa?"

"What a good mistress you are to worry about your servant."

Mrs. Waycliff snapped, "Where is she?"

"She is where you know she is."

"You bastard."

Asad Khalil was not used to being spoken to that way by anyone, least of all a woman. He would have shot her right then, but he controlled himself and said, "In fact, I am not a bastard. I had a mother and father who were married to each other. My father was murdered by your allies, the Israelis. My mother was killed in your bombing raid on Al Azziziyah. And so were my two brothers and my two sisters." He looked at Gail Waycliff and said, "And it's quite possible that it was one of your husband's bombs, Mrs. Waycliff, that killed them. So, what have you to say to that?"

Gail Waycliff took a deep breath and replied, "Then all I can say is that I'm sorry. We're both sorry for you."

"Yes? Well, thank you for your sympathy."

General Waycliff looked directly at Khalil and said in an angry tone, "I'm not at all sorry. Your leader, Gadhafi, is an international terrorist. He's murdered dozens of innocent men, women, and children. The base at Al Azziziyah was a command center for international terrorism, and it was Gadhafi who put the civilians in harm's way by housing them in a military target. And if you know so much, you also know that only military targets were bombed all over Libya, and the few civilian casualties were accidental. You know that, so don't pretend that murdering anyone in cold blood is justified."

Khalil stared at General Waycliff and actually seemed to be considering his words. Finally, he said, "And the bomb that was dropped on Colonel Gadhafi's house in Al Azziziyah? You know, General-the one that killed his daughter and wounded his wife and injured his two sons. Was that an accident? Did your smart bombs go astray? Answer me."

"I have nothing more to say to you."

Khalil shook his head and said, "No, you do not." He raised his pistol and pointed it at General Waycliff. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment."

The General stepped in front of his wife and said, "Let her go."

"Ridiculous. My only regret is that your children are not home."

"Bastard!" The General sprang forward and lunged at Khalil.

Khalil fired a single shot into the General's service ribbons on his left breast.

The force of the low-velocity blunt-nosed.45 bullet stopped the General's forward motion and lifted him off his feet. He fell backwards onto the tile floor with a thud.

Gail Waycliff screamed and ran toward her husband.

Khalil held his fire and let her kneel beside her dying husband. She was stroking his forehead and sobbing. Blood foamed out of the bullet hole, and Khalil saw that he had missed the man's heart and hit the lung, which was good. The General would drown slowly in his own blood.

Gail Waycliff pushed the palm of her hand over the wound, and Khalil had the impression she was trained to recognize and treat a sucking chest wound. But perhaps, he thought, it was just instinct.

He watched for a half minute, interested, but disinterested.

The General was very much alive and was trying to speak, though he was choking on his blood.

Khalil stepped closer and looked at the General's face. Their eyes met.

Khalil said, "I could have killed you with an ax, the way I killed Colonel Hambrecht. But you were very brave and I respect that. So, you will not suffer much longer. I can't promise the same for your other squadron mates."

General Waycliff tried to speak, but pink, foamy blood erupted from his mouth. Finally, he managed to say to his weeping wife, "Gail…"

Khalil put the muzzle of the automatic to the side of Gail Waycliff's head, above her ear, and fired a shot through the skull and brain.

She toppled over beside her husband.

General Waycliff's hand reached out to touch his wife, then he picked his head up to look at her.

Khalil watched for a few seconds, then said to General Waycliff, "She died in far less pain than my mother."

General Waycliff turned his head and looked at Asad Khalil. Terrance Waycliff's eyes were wide open and blood frothed at his lips. He said, "Enough…" He coughed. "… enough killing… go back…"

"I'm not finished here. I'll go home when your friends are all dead."

The General lay on the floor, but said nothing further. His hand found his wife's hand, and he squeezed it.

Khalil waited, but the man was taking his time dying. Finally, Khalil crouched beside the couple and removed the General's watch and his Air Force Academy ring, then found the General's wallet in his hip pocket. He also took Mrs. Waycliff's watch and rings, then ripped her pearl necklace off.

He remained crouched beside them, then put his fingers over the General's chest wound where the blood covered his service ribbons. Khalil took his hand away and put his fingers to his lips, licking the blood off, savoring the blood and the moment.

General Waycliff's eyes moved, and he watched in horror as the man licked the blood from his fingers. He tried to speak, but began coughing again, spitting up more blood.

Khalil kept his eyes fixed on the General's eyes, and they stared at each other. Finally, the General began breathing in short, wheezing spasms. Then, the breathing stopped. Khalil felt the man's heart, then his wrist, then the artery in his neck. Satisfied that General Terrance Waycliff was finally dead, Khalil stood and looked down at both bodies. He said, "May you burn in hell."