‘Dear Evan,’ broke in the Arab wife, as firmly as Kendrick had ever heard her speak. He turned, several papers in his hands. ‘Those articles will offend you,’ she continued, her dark eyes levelled at his, ‘and to speak truthfully there were parts that offended Sabri and myself.’
‘I see,’ said Kendrick quietly, studying her. ‘All Arabs are terrorists. I’m sure it’s here in very bold print.’
‘Very pointedly, yes.’
‘But that’s not your point.’
‘No. I said you would be offended, but the word is not strong enough. You will be incensed, but before you do anything you cannot take back, please listen to me.’
‘For God’s sake what is it, Kashi?’
‘Thanks to you, my husband and I have attended numerous sessions of your Senate and your House of Representatives. Also, because of you, we’ve been privileged to witness legal arguments before the justices of your Supreme Court.’
‘They’re not all exclusively mine. So?’
‘What we saw and heard was remarkable. Issues of state, even laws, openly debated, not by simple petitioners but by learned men… You see the bad side, the evil side, and no doubt what you say has truth, but isn’t there another truth? We’ve watched many impassioned men and women stand up for what they believe without fear of being shunned or silenced—’
‘Shunned they can be, not silenced. Ever.’
‘Still, they do take risks for their causes, often profound risks?’
‘Hell, yes. They go public.’
‘For their beliefs?’
‘Yes…’ Kendrick let the word evaporate into the air. Kashi Hassan’s point was clear; it was also a warning to him in his moment of self-consuming fury.
‘Then there are good people in what you called “a pretty damn good system”. Please remember that, Evan. Please do not diminish them.’
‘Don’t what?’
‘I express myself poorly. Forgive me. I must go.’ Kashi walked rapidly to the door, then turned. ‘I beg you, ya sahbee, if in your anger you feel you must do something drastic, in the name of Allah, call my husband first, or if you wish, Emmanuel… However, without prejudice, for I love our Jewish brother as I love you, but my husband might be somewhat more composed.’
‘You can count on it.’
Kashi went out the door and Kendrick literally pounced on the newspapers, turning each over on the bed, their front pages in succeeding rows, the headlines visible.
If a primal scream could have lessened the pain, his voice would have shattered the glass of the suffocating cabin’s windows.
New York Times New York, Tuesday, 12 October
CONGRESSMAN EVAN KENDRICK OF COLORADO SAID TO HAVE BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN OMAN CRISIS
Outwitted Arab Terrorists, Secret Memorandum Indicates
Washington Post Washington, DC, Tuesday, 12 October
KENDRICK OF COLORADO REVEALED AS US SECRET WEAPON IN OMAN
Tracked Down Arab Terrorists $ Connection
Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Tuesday, 12 October
DECLASSIFIED RECORDS SHOW KENDRICK, COLORADO REP, KEY TO OMAN SOLUTION
Palestinian Terrorists Had Arab Backing. Still Classified
Chicago Tribune Chicago, Tuesday, 12 October
CAPITALIST KENDRICK CUT SHACKLES OFF HOSTAGES HELD BY COMMUNIST TERRORISTS
Killer Arabs Everywhere in Disarray over Revelations
New York Post New York, Tuesday, 12 October
EVAN, THE MENSCH OF OMAN, STUCK IT TO THE ARABS!
Move in Jerusalem to Make Him Honorary Citizen of Israel! New York Demands a Parade!
USA Today Wednesday, 13 October
‘COMMANDO’ KENDRICK DID IT! Arab Terrorists Want His Head! We Want a Statue!
Kendrick stood over the bed, his downcast eyes shifting rapidly from one black-lettered headline to another, his mind drained of all thought but a single question. Why? And as the answer eluded him, another question gradually came into focus. Who?
* * *
Chapter 21
If there was an answer to either question, neither would be found in the newspapers. They were packed with ‘authoritative’ and ‘highly placed’ and even ‘confidential’ sources, most countered by ‘no comment’ and ‘we have nothing to say at this time’ and ‘the events in question are being analysed’, all of which were evasive statements of confirmation.
What had started the furore was a maximum-classified inter-division memorandum under the letterhead of the Department of State. It had surfaced, unsigned, from buried files and was presumably leaked by an employee or employees who felt a great injustice had been done to a man under the unreasonable strictures of national security, paranoid fear of terrorist reprisals undoubtedly heading the list. Copies of the memorandum had been sent out in concert to the newspapers, wire services and TV networks, all arriving between 5:00 and 6:00 am, Eastern Daylight time. Accompanying each memorandum were three different photographs of the congressman in Masqat. Deniabihty denied.
It was planned, thought Evan. The timing was chosen to startle the nation as it woke up across the country, bulletins mandatory throughout the day.
Why?
What was remarkable were the facts revealed—as remarkable for what they omitted as for those they paraded. They were astonishingly accurate, down to such points as his having been flown to Oman under deep cover and spirited out of the airport in Masqat by intelligence agents who had provided him with Arab garments and even the skin-darkening gel that made his features compatible with the ‘area of operations’. Christ! Area of operations!
There were sketchy, often hypothesized details of contacts he made with men he had known in the past, the names scissored out—black spaces in the memorandum for obvious reasons. There was a paragraph dealing with his voluntary internment in a terrorist compound where he nearly lost his life, but where he learned the names he had to know in order to trace the men behind the Palestinian fanatics at the embassy, specifically one name—name scissored out, a black space in the copy. He had tracked down that man—scissored out, a black space—and forced him to dismantle the terrorist cadre occupying the embassy in Masqat. That pivotal man was shot—details scissored out, a black paragraph— and Evan Kendrick, representative from the ninth district of Colorado, was returned under protective cover to the United States.
Experts had been summoned to examine the photographs. Each print was subjected to spectrographic analysis for authenticity with respect to the age of the negative and the possibility of laboratory alterations. Everything was confirmed, even down to the day and the date extracted from 20 X magnification of a newspaper carried by a pedestrian in the streets of Masqat. The more responsible papers noted the lack of alternative sources that might or might not lend credibility to the facts as they were sketchily presented, but none could question the photographs or the identity of the man in them. And that man, Congressman Evan Kendrick, was nowhere to be found to confirm or deny the incredible story. The New York Times and the Washington Post unearthed what few friends and neighbours they could find in the capital as well as in Virginia and Colorado. None could recall having seen or heard from the congressman during the period in question fourteen months ago—not that they would necessarily have expected to, which in itself meant that they probably would have remembered if he had been in touch with them.
The Los Angeles Times went further and, without revealing its sources, ran a telephone check on Mr. Kendrick. Apart from calls to various local shops and a certain James Olsen, a gardener, only five possibly relevant calls were made from the congressman’s residence in Virginia over a four-week period. Three were to the Arabian Studies departments at Georgetown and Princeton universities, one to a diplomat from the Arab Emirate of Dubai, who had returned home seven months before, and the fifth to an attorney in Washington, who refused to talk to the press. Relevance be damned, the bird dogs were pointing even though the quarry had disappeared.
The less responsible papers, which meant most of those without the resources to finance extensive investigations, and all of the tabloids, which did not care a whit about verification, if they could spell it, had a pseudo-journalistic field day. They took the exposed maximum-classified memorandum and used it as a springboard for the wild waters of heroic speculation, knowing their issues would be grabbed by their unsceptical readership. Words in print are more often than not words of truth to the uninformed—a patronizing judgment, to be sure, but all too true.
What was missing in every one of the stones, however, were truths, deep truths, that went beyond the astonishingly accurate revelations. There was no mention of a brave young sultan of Oman, who had risked his life and lineage to help him. Or of the Omanis who had guarded him both at the airport and in the back streets of Masqat. Or of a strange and strikingly professional woman who had rescued him in a congested concourse of another airport in Bahrain after he had been nearly killed, who had found him sanctuary and a doctor who ministered to his wounds. Above all, there was not a word about the Israeli unit, led by a Mossad officer, who had saved him from a death that still made him shiver in horror. Or even of another American, an elderly architect from the Bronx, without whom he would have been dead a year ago, his remains expunged by the sharks of Qatar.