9.
 Jarlid grinned. “Something wonderful, my friend. Have no fear. If at heart you are a just and honest man, the clock will beat for you. If you are not, it will beat against you—it will beat you, no matter how clever you think you are. You have to go with its program.”
“Do I still have a choice?” Arthur wanted the clock, which was ornate and beautiful—he’d seen pictures on line—but he wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Do you know, Latchloose, I have no idea what I said next. Perhaps I fainted. The last I saw of him was his grin and the strange, hard glitter of his very black eyes. I could swear—he seemed to just sort of dissolve into a million golden slivers of light that slowly faded in midair.
“When I came to my senses, I lay in a military hospital bed near Baghdad, on a sunny day with a nice breeze coming in the window and the sounds of traffic and then of course the ever-haunting river of prayer that flows from the minarets and mosques in a flood of praise to Allah. That sound of the muezzin at prayer stays in the mind. It flows like traffic and wraps itself around one’s heart and soul. Have you ever been there, Latchloose?”
Arthur admitted he had not. “I have seen it on the evening news,” he allowed. “I was lucky enough to serve my Army days in a warm, cozy office looking out the window whenever the urge pressed me. I have been to Rome and Paris and London, mainly to buy old things. I wanted to visit Egypt and Mesopotamia, but those places always seem so far and dangerous.”
“Ah yes,” the major said in a faint, weak voice. “Nobody who has been there comes back the same as he went.” He pointed to the watch in Arthur’s hand. “Keep that in your pocket at all times.” He added: “I am dying. I need cash very badly to fly across country to be with family, and I have no possible further use for the clock or that watch. All I need from you was five grand, and it’s all yours.”
“Very well then,” Arthur said. “I’m in the game. Like you, I have nothing to lose.” Cautiously, he entertained second thoughts of waiting. Maybe he should hire an escrow company, as with any other major purchase. Escrow served as middleman (or middlewoman), a neutral party holding the seller’s goods, and the buyer’s money, until transfer was completed in a fair, safe, and orderly manner.
Jarlid said: “The clock has chosen its next owner well. I am just the messenger.” They drove along the snowy streets in silence, and the city fell behind them as they crept into the suburbs at the edge of town.
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Copyright © 2014 by Jean-Thomas Cullen, Clocktower Books. All Rights Reserved.
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