another dozen in Western
Germany, fifty in the United States-“
“It’s possible,” Steven agreed.
“So that Caliph could very easily have arranged the kidnapping of
Melissa-Jane through another of his chain in this country.”
“You must believe I had nothing to do with it, Peter.” Peter dismissed this new protestation impatiently, and went on thinking out aloud.
“It is still possible that Caliph is a committee of the founder members not one man at all.”
“I don’t think so—” Steven hesitated.
I had a very strong impression that it all was one man. I do not think a committee would be capable of such swift and determined action.” He shook his head, trying to cast his mind back for the exact words which had formed his impressions. You must remember that I have only discussed Caliph with one other person, the man who recruited me.
However, you can be certain that we discussed it in depth and over an extended period. I was not about to put out five million on something that didn’t satisfy me entirely. No, it was one man who would make the decision for all of us but the decisions would be in the interest of all.”
“Yet there was no guarantee that any individual member of the chain would be informed of every decision?”
“No. Of course not. That would have been madness.
Security was the key to success.”
“You could trust somebody you had never met, whose identity was hidden from you you could trust him with vast sums of money, and the destiny of the world as we know it?”
Steven hesitated again as if seeking the right words.
“Caliph has an aura that seems to envelop all of us. The man who recruited me-” Steven seemed reluctant to repeat the name again, proof to Peter of the influence that Caliph exerted is a man whose judgement
I respect tremendously. He was convinced, and this helped to convince me.”
“What do you think now?” Peter asked abruptly. “Are you still convinced?” Steven drained the whisky glass, and then smoothed his mustache with a little nervous gesture.
“Come on, Steven,” Peter encouraged him.
“I still think Caliph had the right idea ” he said reluctantly.
The rules have changed, Peter. We were fighting for survival of the world as we know it. We were merely playing to the new morality-” He crossed to the silver tray on the corner of his desk and refilled the whisky glass.
Up to now we have had one hand tied behind our backs, while the
Reds and the extreme left and the members of the Third World have had both hands to fight with and a dagger in each one. All Caliph did was to take off our shackles.”
“What has made you change your mind then?”
Peter asked.
“I’m not sure that I have changed my mind.” Steven turned back to face him. “I still think it was the right idea-“
“But?” Peter insisted.
Steven shrugged. “The murder of Aaron Altmann, the mutilation of
Melissa-Jane-” He hesitated. Other acts of which I suspect Caliph was the originator. They were not for the common good. They were merely to protect Caliph’s personal safety, or to satisfy what I am beginning to believe is vaunted and unbridled lust for power.” Steven shook his head again. “I believed Caliph to be noble and dedicated but there is no nobility in some of the things he has done.
He has acted like a common criminal. He has acted for personal advantage and glorification. I believe in the concept of Caliph but I know now we have chosen the wrong man. He has been corrupted by the power that we placed in to his hands.” Peter listened to him carefully, his head cocked to one side, his blue eyes clear and quietly searching.
“All right, Steven. So we discover that Caliph is not a deity but a man with a man’s petty greed and self- interest.”
“Yes, I suppose
I do.” Steven’s handsome florid face was heavy with regret. “Caliph is not what I believed he might be “Do you accept now that he is evil truly evil?”
“Yes, I accept that. “Then, fiercely, “But God, how I wish
Caliph had been what I believed he was at the beginning.” Peter could understand that and he nodded.
“It was what this crazy world of ours needed-” Steven went on bitterly. We need somebody, a strong man to tell us what to do. I
thought it was Caliph. I wanted it so badly to be him.”
“So now, do you accept that Caliph was not that man?”
“Yes,” said Steven simply.
“But if there was a man like that I would follow him again,
unquestioningly.”
“You said you would do anything to prove to me that you had nothing to do with Melissa-Jane will you help me to destroy
Caliph?”
“Yes.” Steven did not hesitate.
“There will be great personal risk,” Peter pointed out, and now
Steven met his eyes steadily.
“I know that. I know Caliph better than you.” Peter found that his affection for his brother was now reinforced with admiration.
Steven lacked very few of the manly virtues, he thought. He had strength and courage and brains, perhaps his major vice was that he had too much of each.
“What do you want me to do, Peter?”
“I want you to arrange a meeting with Caliph face to face.”
“Impossible.” Steven dismissed it immediately.
“You said that you had means of getting a message to him?”
“Yes,
but Caliph would never agree to a meeting.”
“Steven, what is the single the only weakness that Caliph has shown so far?”
“He has shown no weakness.”
“Yes, he has,” Peter denied.
“What is it?”
“He is obsessed with protecting his personal identity and safety,” Peter pointed out. “As soon as that is threatened, he immediately reverts to abduction and torture and murder.”
“That isn’t a weakness-” Steven pointed out. “It’s a strength.”
“If you can get a message to him that his identity is in jeopardy. That somebody, an enemy, has penetrated his security screen and has managed to get close to him,” Peter suggested, and Steven considered it long and carefully.
“He would react very strongly,” Steven agreed. “But it would not take him very long to find out that I was lying.
That would immediately discredit me, and as you said earlier I
would be at grave risk for no good reason.”
“It isn’t a lie,” Peter told him grimly. “There is a Mossad agent close to Caliph. Very close to him.”
“How do you know that?” Steven asked sharply.
“I cannot tell you,” Peter said. “But the information is iron-clad. I even know the agent’s code-name. I give you my word that the information is genuine.”
“In that case-” Steven thought it out again Caliph would probably already be suspicious and would be
