A Hologram for the King Chapter 27 Summary

  • Alan decides to take a walk in the village the next morning. Without telling anybody. He takes pictures of the landscape.
  • Soon, a local man stops in his pickup truck to question Alan. Why is he taking pictures while American? Is he CIA?
  • Alan stupidly decides this is the time for a joke and implies that he is doing some freelance work for the agency.
  • It occurs to him later that this was a boneheaded move. He decides not to tell Yousef about this encounter. This is also a bad idea.
  • Yousef and Alan take out some of the guns to do some target shooting. Alan makes a pretty good showing.
  • It's at this moment that the guy in the pickup truck appears and begins to argue with Yousef about Alan.
  • Yousef is pretty annoyed with Alan when he learns of his remark about the CIA. But a bigger problem now is trust.
  • It's okay for now, but Alan realizes that things have gotten dicey between Yousef and himself.
  • Yousef takes Alan and Salem to see the village and surrounding areas. The village is small and none of them can imagine living in such humble circumstances.
  • As they view the valley, Alan marvels at how anyone could live in such harsh terrain. He sees Nature as "red in tooth and claw," always ready to kill stuff. All the time.
  • On the way home, Alan decides to stop and help a couple of workmen build a stone wall. He feels the work is both noble and useful. His friends think he's bonkers.
  • He has a good time at first, but then realizes what a pain in the butt the work is, especially when he can't communicate with his co-workers.
  • Yousef tells Alan later that the villagers are organizing a wolf hunt. A pesky local wolf is eating the sheep.
  • Alan sees this as the manliest of adventures, and can't wait to join them.