'And contrary to rumours, he does communicate beyond a microphone?'
'Of course.'
'Do you know who he talks to? Do you know them personally? Do you know how reliable they are in terms of maximum security; does he? Do you know the men who are on the listening devices up in that house?'
'Of course not.'
'What about me? I'm a field officer with an acceptable cover in Cairo. Would you have talked about me?'
'I did, but only to Swann.'
'I'm not referring to what you did with someone in authority who knew everything because he was the control, I'm talking about up there. If you started questioning me up in that house, mightn't you have brought up any or all the people I've just mentioned? And to break the bank, Mr. Amateur, isn't it conceivable that you might have mentioned the Mossad?'
Evan closed his eyes. 'I might have,' he said softly, nodding. 'If we'd got into an argument.'
'An argument was unavoidable, which is why I got us out and came down here.'
'Everyone up there is on our side!' protested Kendrick. I'm sure they are,' agreed Adrienne, 'but we don't know the strengths or the weaknesses of people we've never met and can't see, do we?'
'You're paranoid.'
'It goes with the territory, Congressman. Furthermore, you are a damn fool, as I think I've amply demonstrated by your lack of knowledge about safe houses. I'll skip the question as to who gives orders to whom because it's irrelevant, and go back to your first point. In all likelihood I did not save your life in Bahrain, but instead, because of that bastard Swann, put you in an untenable position we and certain pilots call the point of no return. You were not expected to survive, Mr. Kendrick, and I did object to that.'
'Why?'
'Because I cared.'
'Because u>e—'
'That, too, is irrelevant. You were a decent man trying to do a decent thing for which you weren't equipped. As it turned out, there were others who helped you far more than I ever could. I sat in Jimmy Grayson's office and we were both relieved when we got word you were airborne out of Bahrain.'
'Gray son? He was one of the seven who knew I was there.'
'Not until the last hours, he didn't,' said Rashad. 'Even I wouldn't tell him. It had to come from Washington.'
'In White House language, he was put on the spit yesterday morning.'
'For what?'
'To see if he was the one who leaked my name.'
'Jimmy? That's even more stupid than thinking it was me. Grayson wants a directorship so badly he can taste it. Also, he doesn't care to have his throat slit and his body mutilated any more than I do.'
'You say those words very easily. They come quickly to you, maybe too quickly.'
'About Jimmy?'
'No. About yourself.'
'I see.' The woman who had called herself Khalehla moved away from the rock. 'You think I've rehearsed all this—with myself, of course, because I damn well couldn't reach anyone else. And, of course, I'm half Arab—'
'You walked into the room up there as if you expected to see me. I wasn't any surprise to you.'
'I did, and you weren't.'
'Why and why not? On both counts?'
'Process of elimination, I suppose—and an arrangement, a man I know who protects me from real surprises. For the last day and a half, you've been hot news throughout the Mediterranean, Congressman, and a lot of people are shaking,
