SIXTY ONE.
The armor-plated
Mercedes limousine came to a stop in front of the north entrance to
the West Wing. Two spit-polished marines stood at attention in
their dress blues, one on each side of the door, like sentries to
an ancient palace. Prince Abdul Bin Aziz stepped from the black
limousine and buttoned his suit coat, while ignoring the reporters
who were shouting questions at him from the lawn on the other side
of the driveway. The cousin to the Crown Prince had left his
keffiyeh back at the embassy. In fact, the only time he wore the
traditional garb of his people was when he returned home or was
forced to do so because of ceremony.
Over the last
fifty-four years the Ambassador had spent more time in America than
Saudi Arabia, which was fitting, since he'd been born at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His early schooling had been
handled by tutors and then at the age of fourteen he was shipped
off to Philips Exeter Academy, the ultra-exclusive prep school in
New Hampshire. After Philips Exeter it was on to Harvard for both
his undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Abdul Bin Aziz had a
great affinity for America. More than anything, though, he admired
his host country's secular approach to governance.
He had seen the true
evil that could be perpetrated by men with deep religious
conviction and it scared him. This was why he owned three homes in
America and rarely allowed his children to return to Saudi Arabia.
Prince Abdul Bin Aziz believed that in his lifetime the House of
Saud would fall. It would be trampled by the very fanatics his
relatives had supported over the years.
The ultra-orthodox
Wahhabi sect of Islam had spread like an unruly weed across his
country and beyond, choking out all forward and rational thinking,
silencing all dissenters within and without the faith, and damning
millions of people to a belief system that had more in common with
the Stone Age than the twenty-first century.
And now, in this
dangerous time, he was once again sent to the White House by his
cousin, the Crown Prince, to try to appease the fanatics without
slitting their own throats.