Keys to the Kingdom (27 page)

‘Cheers,’ she said clinking with the imaginary glass.

‘I would love to help you out,’ Worley moved to the couch dominating the small room. ‘But I’m afraid that I’ll be leaving Saudi soon and I wont be in a position to run the Princess.’

Rosinski slugged the Bourbon and it hit the spot. She was beginning to feel pretty Goddamned sorry for the man sitting in front of her. She moved to the couch and sat at the opposite end to Worley. There wasn’t time to develop either a professional or personal relationship with this guy. Anyway, relationships weren’t her bag. Somewhere along the line the ‘Company’ had excised most of the empathy she had been born with. The training was the equivalent of an emotional lobotomy. She said: ‘Whatever’s going down is going to happen sooner rather than later. Like I said before, all I need you to do is to get her out of here safely.’

Worley knew exactly where Rosinski was coming from. Nobody wanted to leave an asset behind to face the music. He had never left anyone behind in his career. The question was whether he would be capable of fulfilling his promise.

Rosinski watched as Worley wrestled with his conscience. She knew she was putting him between a rock and a hard place. The ultimate responsibility for Nadia lay with her and she was trying to offlay that responsibility to Worley. She wondered how she would respond if the shoe was on the other foot. ‘Look, this woman is in a blind panic,’ she said. ‘And she’s not the type who scares easily. She called me this afternoon and told me that she needed to see me urgently. I believe she may have the information that could be the key to the future of Saudi Arabia. Don’t ask me why I believe that, but every now and then I get these hunches that something I stumbled across is gold. I’ve arranged to meet her at the Intercontinental Hotel this evening.’ She saw Worley’s eyebrows rise. ‘I know it’s tricky but I had to improvise. Two women meeting together on what could be considered to be western ground will probably go unnoticed.’

‘But two women meeting with a man who is not their husband would certainly be of interest to the mutawain. And don’t fool yourself that anything goes just because you’re in a large international chain hotel. If somebody at Reception became suspicious and called the local CAVES, then you, me and the Princess could spend a long time in jail trying to explain what we were doing there.’

‘Trust me on this,’ Rosinski took another hit of the Bourbon. She knew what he was saying was true. It was a risk but it was a calculated one. ‘She’s willing to take the risk and so am I. Go this far with us and then you can make up your mind how much further you want to go. We can travel separately to the Intercon and meet up there.’

Worley looked into Rosinski’s earnest face. He would hate to get on the wrong side of this woman. Someone at Langley had been crazy to think that such a person was going to roll over and play dead. He tried to weigh up the options. His days in Saudi were limited. There was only one priority – Gallagher. So what if the CAVES found them. He and Rosinski could claim diplomatic immunity. The only big loser would be the Princess and if she was willing to risk it, so should he.

‘Okay,’ he said finally. ‘I’ll meet with her but no commitment, understood.’

‘Understood,’ Rosinski said. She drained the glass and stood. ‘The Intercon, nine o’clock, room 502.’ She suddenly felt very uncomfortable. There was something else to say but she had no idea what it was.

‘I’ll be there,’ Worley said without rising.

Princess Nadia’s nerves were frayed to the point of non-existence. She sat alone in the back seat of her husband’s Mercedes travelling along the Al Malek Fahed Road. The traffic was dense and modern buildings rose on both sides of the main thoroughfare. With the multi-story buildings lit up for the evening it could be any modern city in the world. But this was Riyadh, a city of fear for a liberal minded woman about to betray her husband. She pulled her abaya around her and huddled deeper into the soft leather of the car. Sometimes she wondered whether her married life had been some kind of hallucination.  Perhaps one day she would wake up and find that it had never really happened. She had met Kareem in London where they had both been students. She had been attracted by his urbanity and by his apparent wealth. He was a Prince of the ruling house of Saudi Arabia. He had been educated at the best school in Riyadh and was doing graduate work at the famous School of Oriental and African Studies. The dashing Saudi Prince had swept Nadia off her feet. Not so her father. The Lebanese had always been wary of their southern cousins. He had forbidden Nadia to continue her relationship with Kareem. That had only reinforced her love for the young Saudi. They had married in Taif in a ceremony that had been directly out of the Arabian Nights. The wedding had been attended by most of the Saudi Royal Family including the King and the Crown Prince. Their early married life had been idyllic. However, the western gloss soon faded from Kareem as he began to embrace Islamic fundamentalism. On her marriage day, he had promised her that she would be his only wife. That had changed also. Kareem rarely spent the night with her now and when he did the concentration was on humiliating her and had little to do with the love he had professed when they had married. She was only stopped from fleeing by the fact that Kareem held her passport and that, even if she could escape she would never see her children again. That was an outcome she could not accept. The man who had once filled her heart with love now filled her very being with fear and loathing. Her husband had been busy all day organising the great Majlis taking place the following day. However, she could not shake the feeling that Omar, their major domo, had been watching her and the other women a little more closely than usual. She was quite willing to accept that her own nervousness may have caused her to be more paranoid. Ordinarily she would never have attempted to leave the house under such circumstances but she knew that if she did not pass the message to Mary Jo this evening, it would be too late. She remembered the eyes of the man they had called Abu Ma’aath. Those serpent’s eyes would be forever imprinted on her mind. She shivered at the thought of them and what the man might do if he ever found out that she had betrayed his plan. Ahead she could see the great concrete tower of the Intercontinental Hotel. In one of the rooms in that building she would hopefully deal a deathblow to her husband’s plan to overthrow the government. She wondered what Kareem’s fate would be. She assumed he would pay for his plotting with his life. At least she hoped he would. Then she and her two girls might finally escape and have a life of freedom somewhere in the West. She imagined herself and her children in California. The thought banished some of her fear and re-enforced her decision to betray Kareem to Mary Jo and her friend. The Americans were the only ones who could stop Kareem. Only they had the power to influence the King. The Mercedes was pulling into the parking area and she felt her stomach contract.

Rosinski was sitting in the foyer of the Intercontinental. One of the embassy drivers had deposited her at eight thirty and would be back for her at ten o’clock. She had heard that Gilman was looking for her but she ignored the message and assumed that more pressing matters had detained him from the pleasure of kissing her off. The clock above the reception area said eight fifty-five and there was no sign of either Worley or Princess Nadia. She avoided eye contact with the two Saudis dressed in
thobes
sitting across from her. The two men had been undressing her with their eyes for the past fifteen minutes and any show of interest on her part might have led to an embarrassing situation. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, she thought. Maybe she should just have blown town like everybody expected her to and left Nadia in the lurch. That wasn’t her style and anyway there was still an outside chance that she could give the ‘Company’ a departing middle finger. Ever since the Princess had called she’d been feeling that she was going to be on the end of something big -something that would blow the shorts off Gilman and expose him and his pals for the misogynistic assholes that they were. She would go over Gilman’s head to Simpson in Langley. They were all going to know that she was twice the operative that her boss was. If Nadia failed to deliver, it would be the first time that Rosinski’s intuition had let her down. She looked up in time to see Nadia swathed in her abaya entering by the main door of the hotel. Neither woman looked directly at the other but as soon as Nadia had passed the reception desk, Rosinski got slowly to her feet and started in the direction Nadia had taken. The two Saudis followed her with their eyes as she moved away.

‘Room 502,’ Rosinski said softly when she caught up with the Princess.

Nadia did not break stride but continued ahead as though she had not heard.

Rosinski took the lift to the fifth floor. Located 502 and opened the door. She could feel her heart beating strongly beneath her breast. The room was the regulation business room. The bed was a double and dominated the room. Just inside the door to the corridor was a small bathroom with a shower bath. She looked quickly around the room. There was no way the place was bugged but if it was there was precious little she could do about it. She had just tossed her handbag on the bed when there was a soft knock on the door.

‘Come in,’ she said almost hauling the Princess into the room. ‘This is not the way I would have preferred to meet,’ she said as soon as the door was closed.

‘There was no time,’ Nadia said removing her abaya. Her hands were trembling. “We must be quick.”

Rosinski smiled uneasily. The Princess was dressed in a black designer dress beneath the all-encompassing black outer garment. She looked like she’d just stepped off the Paris catwalk.

‘Relax,’ Rosinski said. ‘I’d love to offer you a drink from the minibar but somebody didn’t bother to install one.’

‘I can’t stay long.’ The Princess sat heavily in one of the room’s armchairs. ‘Kareem is very nervous so I must get back soon.’

Rosinski was wondering where Worley was when there was a knock at the door. Her heartbeat increased still further as she moved to the door. This was shit or bust and she hoped it wasn’t going to be bust.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ Worley said stepping quickly into the room. Although one could never be sure, he considered that he was on a kind of fool’s errand. Over Rosinski’s shoulder Worley saw the Princess sitting on the armchair. He thought that she looked somewhat forlorn. ‘This is bloody damn dangerous,’ he said when the door was closed behind him. ‘If the mutawain burst in here, none of us would stand a snowball's chance in hell. At best we’d all end up in jail, you and I for a while, the Princess indefinitely. Let’s get this over with as soon as possible.’

‘This is all my fault,’ Nadia said despondently and began to weep quietly.

Rosinski shot a glance at Worley. The message was clear – shut the fuck up.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said bending and comforting Nadia. ‘This is Arthur St. John Worley. He does the same kind of work that I do except for the British government.’ She had intended to tell Nadia that she would be leaving Saudi soon but in the light of Nadia obvious fear, she decided to hold back that little piece of information. She knew it was Goddamned unfair but with her the professionalism had always outweighed the emotion. ‘What was so urgent we had to meet this evening?’

‘Your friend’s name is Worley?’ the Princess raised her head and looked into Worley’s face.

‘Yes,’ Rosinski replied.

‘My husband knows of you, Mr Worley,’ Nadia said. ‘And so does Abu Ma’aath. They discussed you in my house. You have been asking questions about Abu Ma’aath to the wrong people.’ She saw the puzzled look on Worley’s face. ‘Mohammed Al Tawil has betrayed you as I will betray my husband. They discussed whether you should be killed or not, but Abu Ma’aath did not wish you dead. They do not consider you an impediment to their plan.’

‘That is?’ Worley tried not to show his shock at hearing that Al Tawil was a part of Prince Kareem’s plot. No wonder the bastard had been so circumspect when they had met. It just demonstrated how important it was to recruit the right asset.

Nadia could see that Mary Jo and Worley were concentrating on her. ‘Kareem has influenced both the Crown Prince and the King to hold a Majlis of the entire Al Saud family to solve the current crisis. Only Kareem and his Ikhwan friends know that he is at the centre of the crisis. The Sudairi Princes think that the crisis is being fermented by elements in the Family and Kareem has promoted this view. So the family Majlis will settle the question of the succession for all time.’ She tried to remember exactly the discussion in her home. ‘However, Abu Ma’aath has a plan to assassinate the King or his brothers at the Majlis. He spoke of a javelin being aimed from Allah’s breast. What he was referring to I have no idea but the others seemed to know.’

Worley glanced at his watch. The longer this interview continued the more dangerous it became. It had shocked him to his core to hear that Gallagher was aware that he was on his trail. Connally’s advice was fresh in his mind. Up to now he considered that Nadia was in the most danger. Gallagher would never have let him live if he had known that Kareem’s wife was in contact with him. The ‘javelin’ was probably a reference to a gun of some kind but he had no idea what the ‘breast of Allah’ might mean.

‘Do you have any idea where the Majlis will be held?’ Worley asked.

‘They mentioned the Al Hokm Palace but they themselves were not sure. It was Kareem’s job to convince the King of the location. However, whatever is to happen will happen at the Majlis and it will spell the end of the House of Saud as the rulers of Saudi Arabia.’