Al is not a mind-reader. He's just an old soldier who has learned that people don't always tell the truth, and that sometimes that can bite everybody else in the postrerior, so he's become, er, slightly adept at detecting such; could be the knack at work as well, but then again, maybe not. he knows the boy's holding something back, and eithe rhis experience or his knack is tellinghim it's for the benefit of his family, but that's about the extent of it. As I've said before, Al is slightly psychic, the way that warplane pilots of the old "seat of the pants" days tended to have to be to stay alive, but not much beyond that.
