Trial of Silence

She was waiting, reading the Times article about the famous TV Anchor's kidnapped sons."Iris, what would you do if someone kidnapped one, or two, of your children?""What would you?" She was discovering advantages to Kyle's answering questions with questions."I don't have children.""Gee, try adoption." The smart mouth was hers.He followed. "What would you do, Ms. Stuart?"How embarrassing One week with the Junta and she gets caught on the steps of HQ by the reporter everyone avoids. Feeling warm and squishy about her twins, she stopped, turned and stared: he knew she had children--well-guarded info--knew there were two and could guess they were twins. The warm squishy metamorphosed into green-ice. "Well? He said."Is he bothering you?""Yes." The reply was automatic although Iris had not heard her husband's approach.The Whatever I had to was to herself. Reynard's hostile eyes followed the reporter's retreat.The man disappeared from UN radar.