'You're not supposed to have one.'
'So give.'
'You're impossible.' Khalehla reached into her bathrobe pocket, withdrew a pack of cigarettes and shook one up while reaching for a ceramic lighter on the coffee table. She lit Weingrass's cigarette and repeated, 'You are impossible.'
'And you're my Arab Mother Superior,' said Manny, inhaling as though he were a child wallowing in a forbidden third dessert. 'How are things in Oman?'
'My old friend the sultan is a little confused, but my younger friend his wife will straighten him out… Incidentally, Ahmat sends you his best.'
'He should. He owes me for his grades at Harvard, and he never paid me for the broads I got him in Los Angeles.'
'Somehow you always get to the heart of things… How is everyone in Jerusalem?'
'Speaking of sending regards, Ben-Ami sends you his.'
'Benny?' cried Rashad, sitting forward. 'Good Lord, I haven't thought of him in years! Does he still wear those silly designer blue jeans and strap his weapon back over his tail?'
'He probably always will and charge the Mossad double for both.'
'He's a good guy and one of the best control agents Israel's ever had. We worked together in Damascus; he's small and a little cynical, but a good man to have on your side. Tough as nails, actually.'
'As your bum would say, “Tell me about it.” We were closing in on the hotel in Bahrain and all he did was give me lectures over the radio.'
'He'll join us in Masqat?'
'He'll join you, you not very nice person who has shut me out.'
'Come on, Manny—’
'I know, I know. I'm a burden.'
'What do you think?'
'All right, I'm a burden, but even burdens are kept informed.'
'At least twice a day. Where's Ben-Ami going to meet us? And how? I can't imagine that the Mossad wants any part of this.'
'After the Iranian mess the moon's too close, especially with CIA input and banks in Switzerland. Ben will leave a telephone number at the palace switchboard for a Miss Adrienne—my idea… Also, someone's coming with him.'
'Who?'
'A lunatic.'
'That helps. Does he have a name?'
'Only one I knew was code Blue.'
'Azra!'
'No, that was the other one.'
'I know, but the Israeli killed Azra, the Arabic Blue. Evan told me it sickened him, two kids with such hatred.'
'With the kids it's all sickening. Instead of baseball bats, they carry repeating rifles and grenades… Has Payton straightened out your transportation?'
'He worked it out with us yesterday. Air Force cargo to Frankfurt and on to Cairo, where we go under cover in small craft to Kuwait and Dubai, with the last leg by helicopter. We'll reach Oman at night, landing in the Jabal Sham, where one of Ahmat's unmarked cars will meet us and drive us to the palace.'
'That's really underground,' said Weingrass, nodding, impressed.
'It has to be. Evan's got to disappear while stories are planted that he was seen in Hawaii and is supposedly holed up at an estate on Maui. Graphics is working up some photos showing him over there and they'll hit the newspapers.'
'Mitchell's imagination is improving.'
