phoned someone, said something to someone else.'
'Why do you say that?'
'On his way here he was gunned down in his car.'
'My God!'
'If I'm wrong, the only other reason for killing him was his meeting with you.'
'Oh, Christ—’
'Leave the hotel right away and don't leave any identification behind. It could be dangerous to you. You'll see two policemen; they'll follow you, protect you, and somewhere in the street one of them will give you the name of the man who will provide you with papers.'
I'm on my way,' said Kendrick, getting to his feet, focusing his mind on removing such items as his passport, money belt, airline tickets and whatever articles of clothing might be traced to an American on a plane from Riyadh.
'Evan Shaikh,' Ahmat's voice over the line was low, firm. 'I'm convinced now. Your Mahdi exists. His people exist. Go after them. Go after him.'
The Icarus Agenda
Chapter 5
'Hasib!' The warning came from behind, telling him to watch out! He spun around only to be pressed into the wall of a building in the crowded narrow street by one of the two policemen following him. His face against the stone, the ghotra protecting his flesh, he turned his head to see two bearded, dishevelled youths in paramilitary fatigues striding through the bazaarlike thoroughfare, waving heavy, ugly, black repeating weapons in their hands, kicking out at merchants' stalls and rubbing their heavy boots on the surfaces of the squatting streetsellers' woven rugs.
'Look, sir!' whispered the policeman in English, his voice harsh, angry yet somehow elated. 'They do not see us!'
'I don't understand.'
The arrogant young terrorists approached.
'Stay against the wall!' commanded the Arab, now hammering Kendrick back into the shadows, shielding the American's body with his own.
'Why—’ The armed hoodlums passed, thrusting the barrels of their guns menacingly into the robed figures in front of them.
'Be still, sir! They are drunk either with the forbidden spirits or on the blood they have shed. But thanks be to Allah, they are outside the embassy.'
'What do you mean?'
'Those of us in uniform are not permitted within sight of the embassy, but if they come outside, it is another matter. Our hands are untied.'
'What happens?'
Up ahead, one of the terrorists smashed the butt of his weapon into the head of an offending Omani; his companion swung his rifle around at the crowd, warning it.
They face either the wrath of the Allah they spit on,' replied the policeman, whispering, his eyes filled with rage at the scene, 'or they join the other reckless, filthy pigs! Stay here, ya Shaikh, sir! Stay in this small bazaar. I will be back, I have a name to give you.'
'The other—What other filthy pigs?' Evan's words were lost; the sultan's police officer sprang away from the wall, joining his partner, now surging through the shadowed, turbulent, frightened sea of abas. Kendrick pulled the ghotra around his face and ran after them.
What followed was as baffling and as swift to the untrained eye as a surgeon's scalpel plunging into a haemorrhaging organ. The second policeman glanced back at his companion. They nodded to each other; both sprang forward closing in on the two swaggering terrorists. Ahead, on the right, was an intersecting alleyway, and as if an unheard signal had pierced the narrow bazaar, the crowds of sellers and buyers dispersed in various directions. Almost instantly the alleyway was empty, a dark, deserted tunnel.
