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By Root 459 0

heavy drapes were pulled and the crystal chandelier was brightly lit. The walls were covered with dark wood paneling, ornately carved with religious images. The room was appointed with richly inlaid furniture. In the center of the wall opposite the door was a large mahmal or pavilion which contained a centuries-old copy of the Koran. Designed to be carried on the back of a camel, the mahmal was covered with green velvet embroidered with silver. On top was a large gold ball with silver fringes. The gold was real.

Japanese Ambassador Akira Serizawa was already present, along with his aides Kiyoji Nakajima and Masaru Onaka. Gray-haired presidential aide Aziz Azizi was also present. The Japanese bowed politely when the American delegation entered. Azizi smiled broadly. Ambassador Haveles led his group over and shook each man's hand. Then he introduced Hood, Dr. Nasr, and Warner Bicking in turn. After presenting his team to Azizi, Haveles took the Japanese ambassador aside. Still smiling, Azizi faced the rest of the American contingent. He had on black-rimmed glasses and a neatly clipped goatee. He also wore a white earphone with a wire which ran discreetly along his collar to the inside of his white jacket.

"I am delighted to meet you all," Azizi said in very precise English. "However, I am familiar by reputation only with the distinguished Dr. Nasr. I have recently read your book Treasure and Sorrow about the old Mecca caravan."

"You honor me," Nasr replied with a slight incline of his head.

Azizi's smile remained fixed. "Do you really believe that the Bedouin would have attacked the caravan and left twenty thousand people to die in the desert had they not been driven by despair and starvation?"

Nasr's head rose slowly. "The Bedouin of that time and that place were barbarous and greedy. Cheir needs had little to do with their misdeeds."

"If my eighteenth-century ancestors were barbarous and greedy, as you say," Azizi replied, "it is because they were oppressed by the Ottomans. Oppression is a powerful motivator."

Bicking had been chewing the inside of his cheek. He stopped and eyed Azizi. "How powerful?" he asked.

Azizi was still smiling. "The desire for freedom can cause frail grass to split a walk or a root to break stone. It is very powerful, Mr. Bicking."

Hood wasn't sure whether he was listening to an historical discussion, a foreshadowing of things to come, or both. Regardless, Azizi was like a cat on a fence, and Nasr looked like he wanted to find a shoe. Excusing himself as the Russian contingent arrived, the presidential aide withdrew.

"Anyone care to tell me what just happened?" Hood asked.

"Centuries of ethnic rivalry just clashed," Bicking said. "Egyptian versus Bedouin. Mr. Azizi's a Hamazrib, I'll bet. Successful at adapting to host cultures but very, very proud."

"Too proud," Nasr grumbled. "Blind to the truth. His people do have a history of cruelty."

"Certainly their enemies think so," Bicking said with a snicker.

Hood stole a look at Azizi. He was walking the Russians over. He hadn't done that when Haveles's group entered.

"Could his little freedom speech have been a warning about the Kurds?" Hood asked quickly.

"The Bedouin and the Kurds are fierce rivals," Bicking said. "They wouldn't be helping each other, if that's what you mean."

"It isn't what I mean," Hood said. "You saw how he set up Dr. Nasr. Maybe Ambassador Haveles hit it on the head when he said we could be used as bait."

"Maybe he was also being just a touch paranoid," Bicking said.

"Ambassadors always are," Nasr remarked.

After the Russian group of four was introduced, Azizi said that the President would be joining them shortly. Then he turned and motioned to a domestic who was standing in the doorway. The domestic motioned to someone who was standing to the side, out of sight. Hood had a photo-flash vision of camouflage-clad terrorists rushing in with semi-automatics and cutting them all down. He was relieved when liveried men in white walked in carrying trays.

That's only because the President isn't here yet, he thought.