‘Do you mind, sir?’ His eyes briefly straying to the ceiling, the second man removed a pile of photographs from the envelope and thrust them between Preston and Harding, cutting off the dialogue. ‘Would you look these over and see if there’s anyone you recognize?’
Eleven seconds later the task was done. ‘That’s him!’ cried Jack.
‘Believe it is,’ Dickie agreed.
‘And you’re both bonkers,’ said the first man from MI-6. ‘His name’s MacDonald and he’s a swizzling, society-boy drunk from Cairo. His wife’s father owns the company he works for—a spare parts firm—and he’s posted over here because he’s a complete ass and the second-in-command at the Cairo branch runs the show. So much for instincts at this hour of the morning. Should I ask where you two spent the night?’
‘Now, Jack, I did say you might be overreacting on rather superficial grounds—’
‘A minute, please,’ interrupted the second man from MI-6, picking up the enlarged passport photograph and studying it. ‘A year or so ago one of our military staff stationed here contacted us and wanted to set up a meeting regarding an EE problem he thought was in the making.’
‘A what?’ asked the attach้ .
‘”Equipment evaluation”; that’s to be read as espionage. He wouldn’t say much on the phone, of course, but he did remark that we’d be astonished at the suspect. “A bloated sot of an Englishman working in Cairo” or words to that effect. Could this be the man?’
‘Still,’ continued Dickie. ‘I urged Jack to follow it up, not to hold back!’
‘Now, really, old chap, you weren’t all that enthusiastic. You know, we still might make that plane you were so worried about.’
‘What happened at the meeting?’ asked the attach้ , leaning forward, his eyes riveted on the second man from MI-6.
‘It never took place. Our military man was killed on the waterfront, his throat slit outside a warehouse. They called it a robbery as nothing was left in his pockets.’
‘I do think we should catch that plane, Jack.’
‘The Mahdi?’ exclaimed Zaya Yateem, sitting behind the desk in what three weeks before had been the American ambassador’s office. ‘You are to take one of us to him in Bahrain? Tonight?’
‘As I told your brother.’ Kendrick sat in a chair next to Ahbyahd and facing the woman. ‘The instructions were probably in the letter I was to deliver to you—’
‘Yes, yes.’ Zaya spoke rapidly, impatiently. ‘He explained it to me during our few moments together. But you’re wrong, Bahrudi. I have no way of directly reaching the Mahdi—no one knows who he is.’
‘I assume you contact someone who in turn reaches him.’
‘Naturally, but it could take a day or possibly two days. The avenues to him are complicated. Five calls are made and ten times five are relayed to unlisted numbers in Bahrain, and only one of them can reach the Mahdi.’
‘What happens in an emergency?’
‘They’re not permitted,’ interrupted Azra, who was leaning against the wall by a tall sunlit window. ‘I told you that.’
‘And that, my young friend, is ridiculous. We can’t do what we do effectively without considering the unexpected.’
‘Granted.’ Zaya Yateem nodded her head, then shook it slowly. ‘However, my brother has a point. We are expected to carry on in any emergency for weeks, if we must. Otherwise, as leaders, we would not be given our assignments.’
‘Very well,’ said the congressman from the ninth district of Colorado, feeling the sweat rolling down his neck despite the cool morning breezes sweeping through the open windows. ‘Then you explain to the Mahdi why we’re not in Bahrain tonight. I’ve done my part, including, I believe, saving your brother’s life.’
‘He’s right about that, Zaya,’ agreed Azra, pushing himself away from the wall. ‘I’d be a corpse in the desert by now.’
‘For which I’m grateful, Bahrudi, but I can’t do the impossible.’
‘I think you’d better try.’ Kendrick glanced at Ahbyahd beside him, then turned back to the sister. ‘Your Mahdi went to a great deal of trouble and expense to get me here, which I assume means he has an emergency.’
‘The news of your capture would explain what happened,’ said Ahbyahd,
‘Do you really think Oman’s security forces will put out the word that they caught me only to admit I escaped?’
‘Of course not,” answered Zaya Yateem.
‘The Mahdi holds your purse strings,’ added Kendrick. ‘And he could influence mine, which I don’t like.’
‘Our supplies are low,’ broke in Ahbyahd. ‘We need the fast boats from the Emirates or everything we’ve done will be for nothing. Instead of besieging, we ourselves will be in a state of siege.’
‘There may be a way,” said Zaya, suddenly getting out of the chair, her hands on the desk, her dark eyes above the veil gazing aimlessly in thought. ‘We’ve scheduled a press conference this morning; it will be watched everywhere and certainly by the Mahdi himself. At some point in my talk I’ll mention that we are sending out an urgent message to our friends. A message that requires an immediate response.’
‘What good would that do?’ asked Azra. ‘All communications are monitored, we know that. None of the Mahdi’s people will risk getting in touch with us.’
‘They don’t have to,’ interrupted Evan, sitting forward. ‘I understand what your sister’s saying. The response need not be verbal; no communication is necessary. We’re not asking for instructions, we’re giving them. It’s what you and I talked about several hours ago, Azra. I know Bahrain. I’ll choose a place where we’ll be and let one of your contacts here in Masqat forward it, telling him that this is the urgent message your sister spoke of during the press conference.’ Kendrick turned to Yateem. ‘That is what you had in mind, isn’t it?’
‘I hadn’t refined it,’ admitted Zaya, ‘but it’s feasible. My thought was merely to speed up the process of reaching the Mahdi. It is plausible.’
‘It’s the solution!’ cried Ahbyahd. ‘Bahrudi has given it to us!’
‘Nothing is solved at this juncture,’ said the veiled woman, again sitting down. ‘There’s the problem of getting my brother and Mr. Bahrudi to Bahrain. How can it be done?’
‘It’s been taken care of,’ answered Evan, the pounding in his chest accelerating, astonished at his own control, at his casual voice. He was closer! Closer to the Mahdi! ‘I have a telephone number, which I won’t give you—can’t give you—but with a few words it will get us a plane.’
‘Just like that?’ exclaimed Ahbyahd.
‘Your benefactor here in Oman has methods you haven’t dreamed of.’
‘All phone calls in and out are intercepted,’ objected Azra.
‘What I say may be heard, but not what the person I’m calling says. I was assured of that.’
‘A scrambling device?’ asked Yateem.
‘They’re part of our kits in Europe. A simple cone pressed over the mouthpiece. The distortion is absolute except on the direct connection.’
‘Make your call,’ said Zaya, getting up and walking rapidly around the desk as Kendrick did the same, replacing her in the chair. Holding his hand over the numbers, Evan dialled.
‘Yes?’ Ahmat’s voice came on the line before the second ring.
‘A plane,’ said Kendrick. ‘Two passengers. Where? When?’
‘My God!’ exploded the young sultan of Oman. ‘Let me think… The airport, of course. There’s a turn in the road about a quarter of a mile before the cargo area. Someone will pick you up in a garrison car. Tell them it was stolen to get you past the guards.’
‘When?’
‘It will take time. The security’s heavy everywhere and arrangements have to be made. Can you give me a destination?’
‘The twenty-second letter split in two.’
‘V… split—a slanted I—Iran?’
‘No. By the numbers.’
‘Twenty-second… two. B?’
‘Yes.’
‘Bahrain!’
‘Yes.’
‘That helps. I’ll make some calls. How soon do you need it?’
‘At the height of the festivities here. We have to get out in the confusion.’
‘That would be around noon.’
‘Whatever you say. Incidentally, there’s a doctor—he has something I may need for my health.’
‘The money belt, of course. It will be slipped to you.’
‘Good.’
‘The turn before the cargo area. Be there.’
‘We will.’ Evan hung up the phone. ‘We’re to be at the airport by twelve noon.’
‘The airport?’ shouted Azra. ‘We’ll be picked up!’
‘On the road before the airport. Someone will steal a garrison car and they’ll pick us up.’
‘I’ll arrange for one of our contacts here in the city to drive you,’ said Zaya Yateem. ‘He’ll be the one to whom you will give the location in Bahrain, the meeting ground. You have at least five hours before you leave.’
‘We’ll need clothes, a shower, and some rest,’ said Azra. ‘I can’t remember when I last slept.’
I’d like to look around your operation,’ remarked Kendrick, getting out of the chair. ‘I might learn something.’
‘Whatever you wish, Amal Bahrudi,’ said Zaya Yateem, approaching Evan. ‘You saved my dear brother’s life and for that there are no adequate words to express my thanks.’