Rapp pointed the weapon at the Prince's other knee and repeated the question.

"Why did you kill your own cousin?"

Omar was now rocking back and forth, holding his shattered knee with both hands as blood oozed from between his fingers.

"How much are you being paid? I will pay you millions," he pleaded.

Rapp squeezed off another round, this time striking the other knee.

Omar squealed and looked down in absolute horror at the fresh wound.

Rapp kept his voice under control.

"Why did you kill your cousin?"

"Because I hated him!" hissed Omar.

"Because he and my brother are leading my country in the wrong direction, and because I should be Crown Prince!"

Rapp didn't speak at first. Omar had said it all. As much as Rapp detested him he did not find this enjoyable. There was no thrill in watching him suffer. Even though he had no doubt the man deserved everything he was getting and then some, for Rapp it was just a job.

He hesitated for only a second, and then raised his pistol and sent a single bullet into the Saudi Prince's forehead.

EPILOGUE.

The Crown Prince and his entourage had taken the top three floors of the Plaza Athenee in Paris. President Hayes by contrast had only taken the top two floors of the Bristol, but then again the President only had one wife. The Israeli and Palestinian delegations were spread around town at various hotels. The peace summit had caused quite a stir with the Parisian hotel community. Spring was fast approaching and, as always, rooms were scarce. With only two weeks to make arrangements, apologies and discounts were offered and schedules were changed. Parisians were proud to host a conference that might finally bring about a peace in the Middle East. Especially in light of the recent embarrassment they'd suffered due to the less than honorable actions of their country's Ambassador to the United Nations.

The French intelligence agency, DST, had arrested Ambassador Joussard on charges of accepting a million-dollar bribe from a wealthy Saudi Prince. To make matters worse, that same Saudi Prince, along with his bodyguard, was found dead in Cannes the very same day of Joussard's arrest. And if that wasn't sensational enough, the strangled body of a known Palestinian terrorist had been discovered aboard the Prince's yacht. The story was too juicy to resist and within days the press was all over it.

The details had been scarce at first, but slowly the picture of an international terror network funded by a spurned Saudi billionaire began to emerge. The group was being blamed for the assassinations of the Palestinian Ambassador in New York, the Saudi Ambassador in Washington and the increased suicide bombings in Israel and the West Bank, all in an effort to manipulate the UN and gain international sympathy for their cause.

The spokespeople for the Saudi royal family had been quick to disassociate Crown Prince Faisal from his estranged half brother Prince Omar. It was said that the two had not talked to each other in years, and that the Machiavellian Prince Omar had been all but banned from the royal court. He spent almost all of his time sailing the Mediterranean aboard his yacht, gambling and running his various enterprises.

He was carefully profiled as a man without a country, and a man with little or no alliance to Saudi Arabia.

How Prince Omar had ended up dead was the cause of much speculation. One theory had it that Omar had gone back on a deal he'd made with the Palestinian terrorists, and had paid for it with his life. This leak was designed to send a message to wealthy Arabs who liked to dabble in bankrolling various terrorist groups. There was also the inevitable rumor that Omar had been eliminated by either the Israelis, the French or the Americans, for his hand in trying to manipulate the UN.

The truth about what had happened was slightly different. The French DST had arrested Ambassador Joussard only after President Hayes had made the French President a very gracious offer. Either the French could arrest their own Ambassador, and save some face, or the Americans would expel the Ambassador and denounce him on the floor of the UN for accepting a bribe. For the French this was a no-brainer.

President Hayes also suggested that in order to make amends for the upheaval at the United Nations it might be a good idea for the French to host a peace conference.

After the French agreed to host the conference it was fairly simple for President Hayes to get the other parties to show up. The Palestinians and Saudis were shamed into participating because of their unwitting role in recent events, and the Israelis were told they could either attend or face some very hard questions about what actually happened in Hebron. In the end, all the parties agreed it was mutually beneficial to at least sit down and talk.

Neither Rapp nor Kennedy were bothered that the credit for their hard work had been given to others. It was the way they preferred it.

They had the gratitude of their President, and the personal knowledge that they had helped to avert an international crisis. Now they were about to ingratiate themselves to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and further cement the alliance between their two countries.

Rapp, Kennedy and the director's personal security detail were brought into the Plaza Athenee through a back door and escorted to a service elevator. From there they were taken to the top floor and met by a phalanx of bodyguards. Only Rapp and Kennedy were allowed to pass, but first Rapp had to hand his weapon over to one of the CIA security guys.

Rapp felt naked without his gun, but there was no choice in the matter. Even unarmed, the Crown Prince's bodyguards were less than thrilled about granting him an audience. They were escorted to a room where Rapp was simultaneously frisked by two men while a third stood guard with his pistol drawn. Kennedy stood off to one side, slightly amused by the stir that Rapp had caused. When the bodyguards were finally satisfied the two Americans were allowed admittance into a plush suite and left alone.

Neither bothered to sit, nor did they speak. Kennedy had asked for permission to have a team of technicians sweep the room, but the Saudis had declined. This either meant they were confident that their own people were up to the job, or they intended on recording the meeting for their own purposes. In reality it was probably both, which was why they would say as little as possible. Their mere presence, and the large manila envelope that Kennedy held to her chest, would say it all.

The envelope held a videotape, several audiotapes, and a thick file of financial transactions and phone records. The originals were all kept in a safe back at Langley. These were copies. The videotape had been lifted from Omar's yacht and contained the graphic footage of David being strangled, as well as Omar's personal thoughts on his brother's lack of manhood and intelligence. The audiotapes contained Omar's conversations with the Crown Prince leading up to and immediately following the assassination of their cousin. They revealed Omar's continued plea for an oil embargo, and finally, his confession in the back of the limousine before he was put out of his misery. All of it unassailable proof that Omar was in fact much closer to his brother than the press was led to believe.

There had been a debate as to whether or not they should erase Rapp's voice from the last tape. Surprisingly, Rapp had argued that it should remain. He was not ashamed of what he'd done, nor was he afraid of any reprisal from the House of Saud. He recognized that he had done the Crown Prince a great favor by ridding him of his errant brother. He had saved him the trouble of having to do it himself and risk a potential schism in the royal family. This way Crown Prince Faisal got exactly what he wanted and his hands and conscience were clean. He would be indebted to the man from the CIA.