CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
9:45 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The National Mall, Washington DC
“Not everything is what it appears to be,” the tall elderly man said. “Many things are, but many others are not.”
The man wore a long leather coat, a duster, a style for a much younger man. The man’s hair was so white it almost seemed to reflect the rays of the sun back into deep space. He didn’t face Luke directly.
Instead, he faced away from him, one person among many looking at the glassy black stone of the memorial wall—seeing the names, yes, but also seeing their own reflection. The man held a sheet of heavy sketch paper in one hand, and a thick graphite pencil in the other.
The wall stretched far to their left and their right, etched with the names of more than 58
