“His name is Hassan Muhammed,” snapped Redbeard. “He’s always been a liar.”

“I don’t think he was lying this time,” Rakkim said. “I met him in Las Vegas. He summoned me to the top floor of a huge office building, one of his vast properties. Just the two of us up there, the city spread out like a magic carpet.”

“Did he offer you a place of honor beside him? Did he offer a fat slice of the world?” Redbeard tugged at his beard. “I’m no mind reader. It’s always a wise strategy to appeal to a man’s vanity and greed. His only mistake was making the offer to the wrong man.”

Rakkim ignored the compliment. He could see the turmoil beneath Redbeard’s bravado. “The Old One talks of a tolerant caliphate, a weaving of the disparate strands of Islam, a harmony of believers. He even leaves room for Christians. He sounds as moderate as you, but, once he has control, do you trust him to maintain his tolerance? If he was willing to kill millions in the nuclear strikes, if he was willing to pollute Mecca itself with radioactivity…do you think there is anything he wouldn’t do to maintain power?”

“Rakkim is telling you the truth, Thomas,” said Katherine. “You know he is.”

Redbeard nodded and no one dared speak. “Tell me what you want me to do,” he said finally. “If we are to be crushed by the truth, so be it. Allah must be on the side of truth.”

“Thank you,” said Sarah.

“Don’t thank me,” said Redbeard. “I already have enough doubts. You start thanking me, I know I’ve made a mistake.” He narrowed his eyes at Rakkim. “What were you and Sarah doing at the Swiss Embassy Tuesday night? Stevens got there five minutes after the two of you disappeared. If I had said no to your request, were you planning to emigrate?”

Rakkim had sensed that he was being observed. He was relieved that it was one of Redbeard’s informants. “This is my country. I’m not leaving.”

“Good. We’ll all stay and fight then.” Redbeard’s expression darkened. “We may get our chance sooner than we expect. Your friend Detective Colarusso had a visit from the Old One’s assassin. Colarusso wasn’t home and his son had the good sense to keep the security door locked, but you are right, things are coming to a head.”

“I’ll call Colarusso when we’re finished here,” said Rakkim.

“You don’t have to leave. Your rooms are just as you left them,” said Redbeard. “I hope you intend to stay with us, Katherine,” he said gently. “This is your home too.”

“I’d be honored,” said Katherine.

Redbeard pulled Rakkim close, and Rakkim smelled the fatigue on him. “I don’t see you for weeks, and almost the first thing you say to me is to ask if Stevens had a room at the villa. Haven’t I taught you anything? You let your pride speak instead of your wits. Rather than see Stevens as a rival, you would do well to look upon him as an ally. He was the one who retrieved Angelina’s body from the Black Robes. He was the one who walked into that nest of vipers alone and demanded that Ibn Azziz turn her over. From what I was told, the boy cleric’s bodyguards wanted to cut Stevens to pieces, but Stevens didn’t back down, and in the end Ibn Azziz gave him the location of the body. Ibn Azziz admitted nothing, of course, but we got her back in time for a proper burial.”

“I’m sorry, Uncle.”

Redbeard let him go, smacked his hands together. “Now, how can I help?”

Rakkim smiled. “Are you handling security for the Oscars?”

CHAPTER 60

Rakkim strolled through the front doors of the Blue Moon, hoping to draw the attention of anyone looking for them and keep it away from Sarah. The crowds were light midweek, and he had taken his time on the walk from the monorail, stopping a few times to look into shop windows.

“Boss!” Albert came from behind the bar, beat him on the back. “Where you been?”

Rakkim pointed toward Mardi’s regular booth in the back. He couldn’t see her, but he knew she was there. “Bring us a couple, will you?”

Mardi looked up from her paperwork as he approached, blond and brassy. She had lost weight.

“Don’t be mad.”

“Why would I be mad?” Rakkim sat down opposite her. Sat so he could see and be seen from the front of the club. “All I can do is try to save your life.”

“I was gone for almost two weeks. I thought I would go nuts.”

“You brought Enrique with you.”

“I had to have something to do.” Mardi looked around, annoyed. “Who told you that? What, you get to scamper around the countryside with the Muslim princess, and I’m supposed to hide out by myself?”

Rakkim laughed. “Scamper?” He shook his head. “You probably don’t have to worry about Darwin coming around, not anymore.” People were slowly filling the club, moderns with bright clothes and etched hair. The call to evening prayer undulated through the streets, faint as a buoy tolling in fog, warning sailors from the rocks. “I heard Enrique got promoted from busboy to waiter when you got back.”

Mardi beamed, shook back her hair. She had gotten some sun, and a thin, gold bracelet on her left wrist, and she would have needed her back oiled while she was away. She had a beautiful back, lean and finely muscled, two dimples at the base of her spine. “It was a very good vacation.”

Albert delivered a couple of fruit slushies, lingered for a moment, then walked away.

“I missed you,” said Mardi. “Hey, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I was just being polite.”

“I’m not embarrassed and you’re not polite.”

“It’s happened, hasn’t it?” said Mardi.

“What?”

“You’ve got a mission. I used to see the same look on Tariq when he got word. I’d glance over at him and he would be so…calm, so utterly poised, that I knew he was readying himself. Getting ready for whatever fate had in store for him. No fears. No regrets-”

“Building strong the ship of death.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what Tariq used to say. There was no room for me on that ship, no room for anyone.” Mardi watched him with those cool blue eyes. Sometimes when they had made love, there would be an instant when her eyes would tender up. It wasn’t anything he did, it was something she allowed to happen. Letting go of the memory of her husband, or maybe it was feeling his presence in Rakkim. That Fedayeen self-assurance, like a scent you all give off, she had said. “You got yourself another mission.”

“Yeah, I did.”

Mardi pushed her drink around the table, but didn’t pick it up. “I only met Sarah that one time, and I didn’t much like what I saw, but Rakkim…right now I feel sorry for her.”

“This is a lovely spot, Thomas.”

“You’re the only one who calls me that anymore,” said Redbeard. “I like it.”

Katherine trailed her hand in the tiny waterfall at the center of his garden, the very heart, just the two of them. “I always wanted a water garden.”

“I remember,” said Redbeard.

“I love the sight and sound and smell of it. The way it teems with life.” Katherine lifted up her arms; let water run down her bare arms, the late-afternoon light turning her skin coppery. “Birds and frogs and lizards and fish. Moss underfoot, leaves brushing against your face. Like making love to the earth.”

“I never thought of it quite that way.”

“Close to God, is that better?” Katherine smiled, watched a leaf spin wildly in the current, caught in a minor eddy. “You did a good job with Sarah.”

“Angelina did a good job.”

“No…there’s a lot of you in her. She’s a fighter.”

“Like her mother.”

“Yes, like me.”

Neither of them mentioned James. He was many fine things, but James was not a fighter. Not like Redbeard. Or Katherine. “Do you ever wonder?” he started. “Do you ever-”

“Yes, I do.”

Redbeard nodded, reluctant to continue. It was good enough sitting here in his favorite spot, just the two of them. As he had dreamed about forever.