"Have you ever tasted Metaxa?" Farid smiled at his guest. "It is a Greek cognac blended with wine. It has a smooth, yet rich flavor; very delicious; what about Becherovka from Czech? Apparently, its herbal base is good for healing whatever ails you. It tastes minty. I had an uncle one time who loved the stuff. Have you ever tasted Zivana from Cyprus? It is another wine based liquor. It is a brandy distilled from whatever isn't good enough to go into a bottle of wine. It has an excellent bouquet; very flavorful. You would enjoy it." Farid kept smiling at Malik as he prepared a dish of the leftover chicken kebab and Lakhma bread.<br/><br/>"The Muslim laws in Syria are pretty bad. You are no longer in Jerusalem my friend. All those liquors can be found in Tel Aviv or Cyprus or Athens, but not here. Damascus residents are not permitted by law to possess any alcoholic beverages at all. Foreigners like us who are only staying here in country temporarily are permitted to enter the country with two bottles. I brought two bottles of Metaxa with me. Those bottles were emptied five months ago. I admit I saw a Syrian officer a few weeks ago with a case of American Jim Beam Whiskey. I didn't taste any of that. I have no idea how he got it or where it went. I also saw a company of Syrian soldiers with three kegs of German beer. Great stuff, but again, nothing I could get."<br/><br/>"In Damascus, there are liquor stores that sell only to foreigners like us. My identification has me from Turkey as well. We can buy liquor. We can buy only two bottles of anything, once per week. I do have some liquor. You may like it, you can taste it. It is called Arak. Have you ever eaten an Italian Christmas cookie? This Arak tastes the same, but with an added kick. Both the cookie and the beverage were made from anise. It has that minty flavor like the Czech whiskey. I admit it is an acquired taste and yes, I've acquired it." After handing the plate of chicken and bread to Malik, he pulled out two glasses and poured the opaque beverage into the glasses. He passed one to Malik and sipped from the other after announcing, "alsshh!" in Arabic [tr. salud!].<br/><br/>"You can make yourself at home here. I need to go run some errands. I hope to be back in an hour, maybe two. It depends on how bad things are out there."<br/><br/>No sooner had the words left his mouth, than the sounds of mortar rounds leaving their tubes a few miles away could be heard. It was a flat hollow belching explosion. Several seconds later, the tell tale "Wump! Crump!  Wump!" could be heard less than a kilometer from where Malik and Farid stood in their Operations Center.<br/><br/>Farid stepped outside and listened to the mortars firing and landing. "That was Daesh firing on Bashir's men. Daesh is getting close. You may want to hasten your time line, my friend."