The Inside Passage (Ted Higuera Series Book 1) by Pendelton Wallace Read Free Book Online

the umpteenth time. Ahmad smelled the delightful fragrance of lamb
stew with spinach and prunes, wafting in from the kitchen.
    “What has who
done?” His father folded the paper precisely and set it in his lap.
    “The government
has finally admitted culpability.” Ahmad turned the front page section towards
his father. Now he will have to see what his beloved Canada is really like.
    “For what?”
     “Torturing Muslim
civilians. Look.” Ahmad waved the newspaper in the air. “Canada’s paying Maher
Arur ten and a half million dollars for detaining him illegally and torturing
him.”
    Visiting his
father’s neat row house had become increasingly painful. The traditional Friday
night dinner, before visiting the mosque, was a minefield of political passion.
    “It was a mistake.”
His father reached for the tea cup Ahmad’s mother faithfully kept full.
    At least Mother
still knew her place, Ahmad thought.
    “Our government
doesn’t torture people,” his father continued. “They are trying to make it
right.”
    “It’s a mistake
that they keep making over and over again.” Ahmad folded his paper and set it
aside. “In Kandahar they’ve been torturing suspected Taliban members. Beating
them with cables and giving them electric shocks.”
    “That doesn’t
concern us.” Mahmoud cleaned his glasses. “The Taliban is at war with Canada.”
    “How can you say
that?” Ahmad shifted his weight forward in his chair. “ We are at war
with them . We’re the ones going to their country to fight; they’re not
coming here. These are our people we’re fighting.”
    When his father
finally spoke to him, Ahmad felt like he was five years old again. “Ahmad, you
understand nothing. We expect people like that to make wild accusations. It’s
what they do, standard operating procedure. They have no credibility.”
    How could his
father sit there and discuss it so calmly? Where was his sense of outrage? Of
loyalty? His father had completely sold out to his adopted country.
    “Canada is guilty of war crimes.” Ahmad’s voice went up in tone and volume. “What we’re doing in
Sarpoza Prison is every bit as bad as what the Americans do at Abu Ghraib.”
    “I’ve been down
that road before.” Fire flickered in Mahmoud’s eyes. “When the Shah was in
power everyone whined that they didn’t have freedom.”
    “Father, the
Shah’s secret police, the Savak, tortured and killed people.” Ahmad’s heart was
beating so quickly he could feel it in his ears.
    His father reached
for the remote control and clicked off the soccer match. “That was nothing
compared to the Ayatollah.” His father clinched his fist every time he said the
word “Ayatollah.” “After Khomeini came to power, he put more than sixteen
hundred dissidents to death.  Our people. My friends. I spent a year in one of
his prisons. There’s a reason we fled to Canada.”
    “I don’t condone
what the Ayatollah did, but these were enemies of Islam. We had to purge all
the un-Islamic elements from our society.”
    “WE?” his father
shouted, then he paused and regained control of himself. “You’re just parroting
words.” His father waved a hand dismissively at Ahmad. “You can’t possibly
understand. You weren’t there. It’s easy to criticize from the safety of
Canadian freedom. I lost my friends, my family, my fortune. Your mother was
chased from the streets, stoned. For a few years, our entire society went mad.”
    “But look at the
outcome, father.” Ahmad spread his hands, as if he were revealing a stunning
vista to his father. “We have a perfect Islamic state.”
    “It’s only perfect
because you don’t have to live there. You don’t know what it’s like to live
under the rule of the mullahs. Canada is much better.”
    “The Canada that kills our people? The Canada that tortures its own citizens? The Canada that’s
in the American’s pocket? This is not my Canada.”
    “You take these
things too personally.”