reveres your father. He met him once in Cairo, so be prepared for a lot of reverence.'
'That'll pass quickly,' laughed Khalehla. 'He'll learn soon enough that I'm neither in his or Dad's league.'
'You can use a computer, though, can't you?'
'Well, yes, I can. I frequently have to.'
'I can't. Sabri's wife, Kashi, can't, and certainly he can't, so maybe you're way out of our league.'
'Flattery doesn't suit you, Evan. Remember the dead bolt on the door.'
They had arrived at the house, where Khalehla was warmly greeted by Kashi Hassan; an instant friendship was formed, as was a tradition among Arab women.
'Where's Sabri?' Kendrick had asked. 'I want him to meet Khalehla.'
'He's in your study, dear Evan. He's instructing a gentleman from the Central Intelligence Agency how to operate the computer in case of an emergency.'
It had been over three weeks since the Khalehla-Langley axis had been in full operation and they were no closer to learning anything new than they had been since the sterile house in Maryland. Scores of people who even might have had the slightest possible access to the Oman file were put under Payton's intelligence microscopes. Every step in the maximum-classified procedure was studied for flaws in personnel; none were found. The file itself was written by the State Department's Frank Swann in tandem with the Agency's Lester Crawford, the mechanics involving a single word processor, the typing done in shifts of 1,000 words per typist with all proper names omitted, inserted later solely by Swann and Crawford.
The decision to go to maximum classification had been reached by overview, on the basis of a summary without details, but with the highest recommendations of the Secretaries of State and Defense and the Joint Chiefs, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. It was all accomplished without Kendrick's name or the identities or nationalities of other individuals or military units; the basic information had been submitted to the Select Committees of the Senate and the House for approval at the conclusion of the crisis sixteen months before. Both congressional approvals were instantly forthcoming; it was also assumed that the Washington Post press leak concerning an unknown American in Masqat had come from an indiscreet member of these committees.
Who? How? Why? They were back where they had started: By all the rules of logic and elimination, the Oman file was beyond reach, yet it had been stolen.
'There's something not logical,' Payton had pronounced. 'A hole in the system and we're missing it.'
'No kidding,' agreed Kendrick.
Payton's decision regarding Evan's sudden appointments to both the Partridge Committee and the Select Subcommittee for Intelligence had floored Kendrick. Neither the manipulative Partridge nor the equally manipulating Speaker of the House should be approached directly. Why not? Evan had objected. If he was the one being programmed, he had every right to confront those who were willing accessories.
'No, Congressman,' Payton had said. 'If they were blackmailed into appointing you, you can be sure they'll stonewall and send out alarms. Our blond European and whomever he works for will go farther underground. We don't stop them; we simply can't find them. I remind you, it's the “why” that concerns us. Why are you, a relatively apolitical freshman representative from an obscure district in Colorado, being pushed into the political centre?'
'It's died down a lot—’
'You don't watch television very much,' said Khalehla. 'Two cable networks did retrospectives on you last week.'
'What?'
'I didn't tell you. There was no point. It would only have made you angry.'
Kendrick lowered the Mercedes' window and stuck out his arm. The government mobile unit behind him was new and the turn in the country road ahead was halfway around a long wooded curve, the turn itself close to a blind one. He was warning his guards, and he supposed there was a minor irony in that… His thoughts returned to the 'lousy enigma', as he and Khalehla had come to call the whole elusive mess that had screwed up his life. Mitch Payton—it was now 'Mitch' and 'Evan'—had driven over from Langley the other evening.
