On the screen is a building, a tower, black smoke billowing from its top floors.
Tariq says something to Sayeed and Sayeed is in mid-reply when a plane appears from the corner of the screen.
It crashes into the adjacent tower, exploding into a fireball that dwarfs any ball of fire that Laila has ever seen.
A collective yelp rises from everyone in the lobby.
In less than two hours, both towers have collapsed. Soon all the TV stations are talking about Afghanistan and the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.
“Did you hear what the Taliban said?” Tariq asks. “About bin Laden?”
Aziza is sitting across from him on the bed, considering the board. Tariq has taught her to play chess.
She is frowning and tapping her lower lip now, mimicking the body language her father assumes when he's deciding on a move.
Zalmai's cold is a little better. He is asleep, and Laila is rubbing Vicks on his chest. “I heard,” she says.
The Taliban have announced that they won't relinquish bin Laden because he is a mehman, a guest,
who has found sanctuary in Afghanistan and it is against the Pashtunwali code of ethics to turn over a guest.
Tariq chuckles bitterly, and Laila hears in his chuckle that he is revolted by this distortion of an honorable Pashtun custom,
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