clive had read and reread the printouts three times when the idea dropped into his mind without warning. It wasn’t the most unique thought; frankly, he wondered how he’d missed it earlier. He sighed and reconsidered. If Miriam was killed, the coup would fail, wouldn’t it? Yes, everything was based on the bloodline Miriam would give the sheik. And if Seth was in the country . . .
Clive grabbed the cell phone and hit the last-call button.
“Smaley.”
“I think I have something, Peter.” Clive took a breath. “On the surface this may not seem like an obvious course of action, but just listen for a second.” He paused. Smaley would never buy this.
“Well?”
“Only the mixing of blood would guarantee the sheik a royal. What would happen if we were to cut off the bloodline?”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“If anything were to happen that would prevent Miriam from bearing Omar a child, the sheik might reconsider his allegiance. He would have no guarantee of royalty without a son. Marriage alone doesn’t cut it. The sheik needs a son out of this.”
“I still don’t see how—”
“If something were to happen to Miriam, she couldn’t bear a son, could she?”
Smaley was quiet for a moment. “You’re suggesting what? That we kill Miriam? We’ve been over this.”
“No. I’m suggesting we tell the sheik that we will kill his daughter if the coup succeeds. We buy time.”
“Buy time for what?”
“For Seth.”
Smaley paused. “I thought we settled this. Even if we knew Seth was in play, he’s not an assassin. We can’t rely on him.”
“No, no. He wouldn’t kill Miriam anyway; he’s in love with her, for heaven’s sake. I just want to bluff. Worst case, we buy time for plan B. This may be our last chance.”
“You’re saying that I tell the sheik we have an assassin in their country, ready to pull the trigger and end Miriam’s life. If Seth is in play, we can’t put him in that position. And if he isn’t, I can’t put us in a position of crying wolf. We’ll erode our own credibility.”
“We have to!” Clive wiped his forehead of sweat. Smaley was right, but Clive’s gut was telling him that Seth was still out there and needed time. Time for what, he wasn’t sure. Just time.
“I’ve been after Seth, remember?” Clive said. “They have to catch him to kill him. This buys us more time. This gives him a chance.”
“This is crazy. We don’t even know that he’s in the country. What if the Saudis decide to take Seth out? Worse, what if they have already? Besides, all the sheik has to do is make one call to verify that his daughter’s fine, and the whole ploy falls flat.”
“Maybe. But it forces the sheik to make that call. And taking Seth isn’t easy. Look, don’t ask me why this makes sense. Just do it. Please. The idea that we have a man in place ready to kill his daughter will get the sheik’s attention. Guaranteed. Even if she’s fine now, he’ll realize we could take her out before she bears a child. This will slow him down. He won’t be able to rule out an assassin in a matter of minutes. It could take him hours.”
“We’re down to two hours,” Smaley said. “Delaying them one more won’t change a thing.”
“Unless Seth has actually made some progress. Don’t count him out. This guy may still be able to see their moves before they can.”
Another long silence. Smaley muffled the receiver to speak to someone else and then returned.
“Okay, Clive. I’ll see what I can do. That’s all I can promise.”
The sheik stormed into the tent. “How can they have an assassin in place already?”
“His name is Seth,” Al-Hakim said. “The one who evaded Hilal and Omar in California.”
Ah! The one who could presumably see into the future. The one who seemed to be able to walk through walls. He had come to kill Miriam?
“He was her protector. Now he will kill her? Do they think we have the minds of children?”
“They said his first objective is to take her out of the country, but if he is unable, he will kill her. They say he is in love with her.”
So, if he could not have her, then he wouldn’t allow another man the same privilege. This Omar might do, but not an American.
“I urge you to consider this threat, Sheik Al-Asamm,” Al-Hakim said.
“Why didn’t they tell us this earlier?”
“Perhaps they weren’t ready to show their hand. If they’d told us earlier, we would’ve had enough time to deal with the situation. Now, with just over an hour to go, we are forced to reconsider our plans. It’s good strategy on their part, bluff or not.”
The sheik stepped out of the tent, alarmed, and breathed deeply. The sun was setting, a large orange ball in the horizon. He’d always taken Miriam’s safety for granted for the simple reason that she was too valuable to kill. But he’d never considered that the Americans might kill her to preserve the status quo. A shaft of fear impaled him. Would they really do it?
If Miriam was killed before she bore Omar a child, the sheik’s agreement with Khalid would be worthless. His daughter and his dreams of royalty would be smashed in one blow! The Americans could be as ruthless as anyone when they chose to be.
The sheik whirled around and strode into the tent.
“I must talk to Omar!” he said. “Tell Khalid that I will not move until I am assured of my daughter’s safety.”
Omar stood yet again, keeping an eye on Seth’s knife. “Your time is finished. You may come willingly, or I will take you by force. The choice is yours.”
“If you try to take me by force, Seth will kill me,” Miriam snapped.
“Seth is incapable of killing you,” Omar said. “This charade is finished.”
“Why am I incapable of killing her?” Seth asked.
“You don’t have the backbone.”
“You mean that I love her, don’t you? You’ve been watching us and now you see that I have what you’ll never have. Love.”
To Miriam’s surprise, Omar didn’t object.
“But you’re right,” Seth said. He rotated the knife in his hand and flipped it through the air. The blade embedded itself in the tabletop and quivered like a spring. “I couldn’t bear to hurt any woman, much less the woman I love.”
“And that is why you don’t deserve this flower,” Omar said. “Today you will die.”
“I will die only if God has decided that I should die. Neither of us knows that yet, do we?”
Omar plucked the knife from the wood. “You stand unarmed, surrounded by twenty of my men, and you continue with this nonsense? Without this gift of yours, you’re nothing but a babbling fool.”
“My lack of sight doesn’t make the future any less real. If I could see all of the potential futures right now, I would undoubtedly see one in which both Miriam and I survive. Just because I don’t see that future now doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
Stalling was all Seth could do now. Omar was right, the game had come to an end. A lump rose into Miriam’s throat. She stared at the knife in Omar’s hands, regretting Seth’s choice to give it up. He had taken this loving your neighbor business too far.
Was Omar their neighbor? She doubted it. Seth might not have the stomach to kill her, but she didn’t have the stomach to return with Omar.
What if she made a break for it now? She might be able to reach the door and run into the desert before Omar could stop her. But they would come after her. She would have to kill herself. Jump off a cliff, perhaps. Could she really bring herself to commit suicide? How could she kill herself?
Omar flipped open his phone and calmly pushed two keys. He lifted the receiver to his ear and locked his gaze on Miriam. “We are coming out,” he said. “If the American makes a move, tell Mudah to shoot him in the head. Under no circumstances is the woman to be harmed. And don’t be fooled, the American is in a black abaaya, and she is wearing Western clothing.” He snapped the phone shut.
He motioned to the door. “Go.”
Miriam’s heart pounded like a giant piston. She could not move.
Seth wasn’t moving either.
“Are you deaf?”
“Out!” Omar boomed. His cell phone chirped in his hand. “If you don’t move, I’ll have you shot in here.”
Seth still made no move. The phone chirped again.
Omar spit and snatched the phone to his ear. “I’m coming, you fool!”
Omar took one more step and then paled. He listened, motionless, and then turned to Miriam.
“Forgive me, Abu al-Asamm. I thought you were one of my men.”
The sheik!
“Of course your daughter is alive.” Omar spoke quickly, momentarily distracted by this intrusion. He took a step toward the window and glanced out, listening now.
Miriam caught Seth’s eyes. They were wide, glinting with a determination she hadn’t seen in them before. He had decided something.
“No sir, you don’t understand. I have your assassin!” Omar paused. “Yes, I have the assassin and I have your daughter here. They are both in my control.”
Seth leaped over the table, snatched the knife from Omar’s right hand, and seized Miriam before Omar could react. He threw his left arm around her shoulders, and jerked the knife to her throat.
Omar whirled.
“Scream,” Seth whispered in her ear.
She understood immediately.
“Father! There is a knife at my throat! Father!”
The phone was still pressed to Omar’s ear.
A fist pounded on the door.
“Tell them to leave or I will kill her!” Seth shouted. “I will kill the sheik’s daughter!”
Omar blinked several times. The fist pounded again, accompanied by a muffled yell this time. “Sir?”
Omar finally came to himself. “Leave us!” he yelled to the men outside. “Get in your cars and wait for my call!”
A garbled electronic voice squawked over the phone from across the room. Her father, loud now.
“No, Abu al-Asamm,” Omar spoke into the receiver. “I assure you that there’s no danger to your daughter. My men have this place surrounded! I have the situation under control.”
“Scream,” Seth whispered again.
“Fatherrrrr!” She put her full emotions into it now, tapping the pent-up horror of facing Omar alone again. “Faaatherrr!” Agony and terror rolled into one cry.
Omar’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Seth’s ploy, however daring, probably still only delayed the inevitable, Miriam thought. Seth would not kill her, and once his empty threats played themselves out, her father would understand that. Once the sheik satisfied himself that her life was not in the balance, Omar would kill Seth and take her captive.
Miriam put the grief of this realization into her next wail. She sounded like a wounded jackal.
“Shut up!” Omar screamed.
Miriam took some small comfort in his momentary desperation. She winked at him.
“I assure you, Abu al-Asamm, there is no . . . Yes, he is here, but he’s bluffing! Your daughter’s screaming because she is with him! Speaking to her will prove nothing!”
The sheik was yelling at Omar.
Omar pulled the cell phone from his ear and glared at Miriam, lips flat and trembling.
“You will prove nothing by this!” he spit. Dropping his voice, he said, “You will both pay before you die.” He shoved the phone toward them. “Your father wishes to speak to you.”
“No!” Seth said.
That stopped him.
“What do you mean no? She will not speak to her own father?”
“No,” Miriam said softly. “I will not.”
Omar lifted the phone. “She will not speak to you.”
“Fatherrr!” Miriam cried. “I am dying!”
“She is not dying!” Omar said. “They are playing with us!”
“Fatherrrr!”
The sense of true faith came to Seth as clearly as any algebraic equation. He’d seen enough of how futures worked to know that such an unlikely event as the sheik calling when he had, for the reason he had, was not random or without purpose.
The call did nothing but stall Omar. But if there was a future in which Seth and Miriam survived, and if Seth could facilitate that future by stalling Omar, he decided it would be a good idea to stall the prince some more. But stalling meant getting the knife back, a prospect that filled him with dread. Fortunately his boldness paid off.
He still didn’t know how they were going to survive, but he did believe that had they were meant to survive, and that was enough.
“Fatherrrr!”
And then Seth knew how they were going to survive, because without warning his mind opened up, as if the roof above their heads had been blown off.
He gasped.
Miriam gasped. “Ouch.”
He’d inadvertently jerked the knife against her throat, but it took a moment for him to mentally organize the streaming images and relax his grip.
The sudden immersion into potential futures felt like diving into a clear, cool pool after being left to die in the desert. Seth lowered his arms. Now the stalling made perfect sense. Something had caused the sheik to call.
Miriam turned to him, no longer concerned with screaming. One look at his face and her eyes widened.
“Of course she will talk to you. Please, please calm down!” Omar said. He had no clue that anything had changed.
Seth spun through possible futures as if they were photos on a wheel. There—a future in which both he and Miriam survived. But it was only one of many. And it wasn’t one he especially liked.
Seth winked at Miriam, who was grinning, of all things. He took a deep breath and stepped forward.
“Change of plans, my friend.”