Being called a father was not a first for Salomon.
Whenever he traveled through war-ravaged places like Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan between handling official duties, he often disguised himself as a teacher, doctor, or traveler. Using methods appropriate to his current identity, he fulfilled the modest wishes of people whose lives had been shattered by war. He had delivered children, treated infectious diseases and physical injuries, taught science and reason to teenagers, and been driven away more than once by superstitious local religious leaders—usually tribal elders. Yet the next time, he would return openly with grain, meat, vegetables, candy, and books, forcing those who made a living selling war scrap, such as shell casings, to bow their heads and welcome him.
Some of that food was used to buy children. Salomon would send children under ten, sometimes along with their mothers, into the City of Immortals for education. The places he visited generally had no young or middle-aged adults left alive. As for the books, many were atheist works forbidden by tribal elders, so he could only secretly distribute them to his temporary students together with candy.
But not every child had been bought from those places. Some older children chose to leave with him of their own accord, boys and girls alike. Some could speak only local dialects; some could recognize a few English words. Some had all their limbs intact; others were mutilated. Some had witnessed their families being brutally slaughtered in the chaos of war and suffered severe psychological torment; some had even endured unimaginably cruel abuse themselves. Salomon had once seen a twelve-year-old girl wandering with her disabled younger brother, carrying on her back a child born of violence. They could only survive by dismantling NATO landmines and selling shell casings and other war scrap.
He