HIS THIRD AND LAST DEFENSE

first time then space and now he felt another thing entirely as place began to change ... as if the tavern room were moving through time and space both so quickly that the room itself began to change its substance ... as they moved from place to place by way of the open wall and the narrative thread of the lawyer's story he told them tales of kings and philosophers of plain old men and ladies with the authority of sages or the wisdom of folly ... but he didn't tell one story that didn't have its motto ... or as once we used to say its moral ... and as the hours lengthened and morning drew near they must enter the dead of night and the voice of the lawyer became distant and the night of the wall exploded in battle ... fulio in a foxhole in the middle of the room cried out in despair ... on a mattress in a ward in a hypo of blue 88 ... it was better to be brave than a coward he confessed ... king jihad or crusader ... or better still was the fortitude to bear up hourly the burden and the fear for god's sake and the mission to go on ... for god's sake in the bombed-out buildings it surely had to go on ... the church in the center ... its roof open to the morning

blue 88: truth serum, named for the color of the pill and the enemy's most effective artillery