ago, perhaps years ago, but it wouldn't be true. The first inkling I had was early this morning, before daybreak in fact. He followed me in a car with no headlights—'
'On the road above the Jabal Sham?' asked Evan, interrupting.
'Yes.'
'Then you're Crawly or something like that. Cawley the—enemy, among other things.'
'My name is Khalehla, the first two syllables pronounced like the French seaport Calais; and I am indeed his enemy, but not the other things which I can easily imagine.'
'You were following me.' A statement.
'Yes.'
'Then you knew about the “escape”.'
'Again, yes.'
'Ahmat?'
'He trusts me. We go back a long time.'
'Then he must trust the people you work for.'
'I can't answer that. I said he trusts me.'
'That's a corkscrew statement—two corkscrew statements.'
'It's a corkscrew situation.'
'Where's Tony?'
'Holed up in a room at the Tylos Hotel on Government Road under the name of Strickland.'
'How did you find him?'
'Through the taxi company. On the way he stopped at a sporting goods store suspected of selling illegal weapons. He's armed… Let's say the driver was co-operative.'
'“Let's say”?'
'It'll suffice. If MacDonald makes a move, you'll be informed immediately. He's already made eleven phone calls.'
'To whom?'
'The numbers were unpublished. A man will go over to the Central Exchange in an hour or so when the calling lets up and get the names. They'll be given to you as soon as he has them and can reach an official or a public phone.'
'Thanks. I need those numbers.'
Khalehla pulled over the small rococo chair in front of the dressing table and sat down opposite Kendrick. 'Tell me what you're doing, Congressman. Let me help.'
'Why should I? You won't give me my gun or my knife or my watch—or a certain piece of clothing you've probably sold by now. You won't even tell me whom you work for.'
'As to your gun, your knife, your watch and your wallet, and a money belt with some fifty thousand American dollars, and your gold cigarette lighter, and a squashed pack of not-for-export American cigarettes—which was very foolish of you—you may have them all if you'll just convince me that what you're doing won't result in the slaughter of two hundred and thirty-six Americans in Masqat. We Arabs can't tolerate that possibility; we're despised enough for the horrible things we can't control. As to whom I work for, why should it matter to you any more than it does to your friend and my friend, Ahmat? You trust him, he trusts me. So you can trust me, too. A equals B equals C. A therefore equals C. Incidentally, your clothes have been fumigated, laundered and pressed. They're in the first closet on the left.'
Evan, perched awkwardly on the edge of the bed, stared at the intense young woman, his lips slightly parted. 'That's a hell of a mouthful, lady. I'll have to think about your alphabetical logic.'
'I don't know your schedule, but you can't have much time.'
'Between eleven-thirty and midnight tonight,' said Kendrick, with no intention of revealing anything but a time span. 'A young man was with me on the plane. He's a terrorist from the embassy in Masqat.'
'He registered at the Aradous Hotel on the Wadi Al Ahd as “T. Farouk”.'
