“I see. Would you mind giving me a moment to make a call. Perhaps we should reconsider our welcome within the Kingdom and adjust our plans accordingly.”
“Perhaps that would be wise.”
Adam dialed his cellphone and got through to the son of the Crown Prince, explaining his confusion over this discourteous behavior on the part of a certain Colonel al Salah. Had Adam been misinformed about the vaunted reputation for Saudi courtesy and hospitality? He had expected welcome among old friends and had been threatened instead. Adam explained he would now depart as soon as his jet was refueled and report this affront to his father. Adam could no longer tolerate this insulting behavior and implied threats to his wife and family members.”
The man on the other end of the phone was well-aware of the identities of both Edward St. James and Col. al Salah. His next call was to the Colonel, who stood motionless listening to a dressing down in a less courteous dialect of Arabic, one with which the Colonel was quite familiar. Within minutes, two black Suburban’s appeared out of nowhere informing the Colonel and his men to leave the airport immediately.
Another uniformed officer approached Adam and, in perfectly accented British English said, “Please continue to refuel, and be on your way to whatever your destination may be within the Kingdom with our sincere gratitude to you and your father for your great service over many years to the Saudi people and to the Royal Family. Please accept our apologies for the conduct of Colonel al Salah and know that he did not understand why you are here and what you have come to do for us. We are grateful for your assistance. Please enjoy your stay.”
With that he turned, climbed in the lead SUV and left. Adam had no doubt that Colonel al Salah, was from the General Intelligence Directorate, or GID, the Saudi intelligence service, and had been instructed to give this performance. The GID was quite adept at their craft and while Adam’s college friendships with Saudi students was well known to the Security Services, they were still viewed with suspicion. Adam and Edward were welcome in the Kingdom but would be carefully monitored. Of course, once out in the vast desert among the ruins of past civilizations, such scrutiny would be difficult if not impossible to maintain.
The Saudi authorities had been given the impression that Adam was visiting the Kingdom to write some software for ARAMCO and to assist his father, Edward in visiting a newly discovered and unexcavated archeological site. The ladies were there to help with site visits and logistics. But the software was already written, and Edward would fly over and by-pass by the recently detected ruins forty kilometers distant from the ancient Nabataean city of Meda’in Saleh.
Their destination was Nabat-al-Mansur, capital of the Kingdom of Nabataea. The capital had been forcibly moved from its original location in Petra to a location near Jubail for reasons lost to history. Hence the widespread belief that the Nabataeans had vanished from the modern world.
There they would meet with another King and another Royal Family. Then, the events that would follow would truly be extraordinary. And very dangerous for all.
And yes, there would be one magnificent surprise and a huge wedding to celebrate too.
***
They landed just outside the main Oasis at the center of the capital city and were greeted by two Nabataeans on the tarmac in white smocks sporting pocket protectors. Both wore clear goggles, and looked like scientists taking a break from the lab to meet their new arrivals and could easily pass for computer nerds working in Silicon Valley.
The ladies stepped out of the plane and on to the tarmac. Two black SUVs waited off in the distance, drivers in traditional Arab dress standing aside the open drivers side door.
“Greetings to all of you ladies, and welcome to the Kingdom of Nabataea. I am the King, Abdul Salman bin Aziz, aka Abdul bin Soter, and this is my wife Queen Nuri, but she goes by Bunny to her friends. Please don’t breathe a word of any of this to the clerics in Mecca; we’d have a very short life expectancy if you did. Now that the formalities are behind us, where is Adam St. James, that miserable scoundrel and miscreant. He owes me money.”
The King looked up to the forward cabin exit and shouted, “Hey, you can’t hide in there forever, you deadbeat.”
This wasn’t what the ladies were expecting.
Bunny started laughing. She said, “Please don’t pay any attention to the mewling’s of these two children and old friends. I have had to put up with their incessant chatter and bickering since our days at Cal Tech and have refereed more than one temper tantrum. Plus, the carousing and skirt chasing was at best amusing and at worst … well, you know how men can be. Please ladies, let’s return to the Palace, and discuss the upcoming nuptials – to no less than six beautiful and talented women. Adam is a dear friend, but this – well, the teen computer nerd is all grown up I see.”
Vera spoke up immediately, “You mean you allowed your husband to chase skirt with Adam in college?”
“Heaven’s no luv, my husband was the wingman only. The skirt was being chased by Dr. St. James the Younger. If I had ever caught my husband in flagrante delicto, he would be the eunuch King of Nabataea. Come, come ladies, or we’ll be late for dinner. We have things to discuss.”
Vera barged ahead of the girls and caught up to Bunny. “Do, tell luv. I’m sure we’ll be riveted by your delicious stories of the young Dr. St. James and his misbehavior. Spare no details and show video if you have it.”
“You must be Miss Vera of the 3 Birds fame and up for the annual ‘Naughtiest Girl on the Planet’ award again.”
“Oh that,” Vera laughed. “Won it three years running. But you my dear are quite lovely and I have high hopes of learning so much more about my husband-to-be. Was he very naughty? Sinful? You will tell us everything. We’re desperate for dirt.”
“Then dirt you shall have. Please follow me.”
They left the two men behind to work out whatever issues they had. Misti spoke first, “What’s all the fuss about money? I’m surprised that Adam didn’t pay your husband what he owed. I’m sure he would have wired money to him promptly if asked.”
“Could he have wired $1.5 million Bongo Bucks? Not sure what the exchange rate is these days for BB’s.”
“I’m confused,” said Misti.
“After three years of friendship and countless games of Monopoly, they played one last tournament before we had to leave America and return to Nabataea. The eldest of the two most brilliant children I know, my husband, won the playoff but Adam left with the Monopoly board and all the Monopoly money which they called Bongo Bucks. Abdul sent his enforcers, his two youngest brothers, to reclaim his prize. But Abdul’s middle brother is an investment banker in San Francisco and his youngest brother is a surgeon in New York City. They wanted nothing to do with this nonsense. Besides, they both really love Adam and Edward, so they told Abdul they tried, and failed to recover the “stolen booty” – my husband’s words. The trinkets, of course, not a woman’s – well you know what I mean.”
“We do. Is your brother-in-law Benny Salman bin Aziz?”
“Why yes, he is. Do you know him?”
“I do indeed. So, does my sister-in-law Cindy Suarez. He has made oodles of cash for our family, the family trust I mean. Cindy and Dr. St. James the Elder handle our investments, but the venture capital investments are always run through Benny. We just know him as Benny Salman.”
“That’s him and now you know the story. Right now, I’d say the two delinquents are on two hidden dune buggies instead of discussing serious business. They’ll deny it of course and be late for dinner. Probably ‘solving a software issue related to energy extraction from the atmosphere.’ That’s the one my husband uses the most when he oppressed by his nag of a wife.”
“We do have a lot to discuss,” said Misti.
“More than you can imagine. The men and Dr. St. James the Elder asked me to discuss something with you ladies now that you have arrived safely here to the capital. You will all be our guests for a few days, then you must leave immediate
ly. Except for Kendra Boles, who will remain behind with my husband and me. I am sorry to have to tell you this in this way, but Adam, his father and my husband were quite adamant that you should only be given this knowledge once you arrive.”
“But not Kendra?”
“She has been and will be in danger from this point forward. And for the rest of her life. Her sacrifice is already well known within our Kingdom, but not her identity. The suitors are already lining up, even though she will wed Adam two days hence. Do not be angry with her. When you understand the danger you were all in, you will thank her and Adam.”
The ladies all turned to Kendra. “What have you been up to, young lady?”
“Pleasing my fiancé, just not how I’d like.”
Misti smiled at her companion, “You are, so getting spanked tonight Ms. Boles.” She turned to Hannah and said, “I think I may need your expertise too.”
“Good thing I came prepared.”
Kendra protested, “But Bunny will tell you everything. Why the corporal? It’s not fair.”
Misti and Hannah smiled their most lascivious smiles, “You might be withholding meaningless and unimportant information. We’ll need to extract all your secrets; even the ‘secrets’ we already know. Just being thorough, my luv, just being thorough.”
Chapter 23
The ladies arrived at the Palace and were guided to their quarters. Bunny asked them to join her in the main hall from which they would relocate to a smaller, more intimate setting in the women’s quarters of the Palace. Some of the old ways were still observed from hundreds of years ago, though the King and Queen shared their own quarters together and followed new more Western ways. Their quarters were off limits to everyone, save a few childhood intimates serving in the Palace who traveled with them everywhere.
Saudi spies were pervasive and Nabataean Royalty were targets for arrest, torture, imprisonment, and execution. Times were tense in Nabataea. The Saudi’s suspected, without proof, that the Nabataeans were involved in conspiracy after conspiracy to overthrow the Saudi Royal family. The Nabataean Royals were, after all, also Saudi Royals through a distant, and almost forgotten ancient lineage. They had no real claim to the thrown and couldn’t have seriously challenged the authority of the House of Saud; however, the Wahhabi clerics were of a different mindset altogether.
They accused the Nabataeans of heresy, and apostasy, and were bent on the elimination of all that ever was, or is, Nabataea, whether in the east or west of the Saudi Kingdom. Their threats were real, and the clerics had a plan. Time was drawing short. The influence once enjoyed by the clerics was waning as reforms began to take root in the Kingdom. The clerics no longer had decades to finish the job; they had couple of years, maybe less. The Nabataean spies in the Saudi capital warned the King that plans needed to be expedited to leave; the clerics were forging an immense falsehood of Nabataean heresy and insurrection.
It didn’t help that most of the claims made by the clerics were true. The Nabataeans, out of self preservation and as a result the continued oppression and practical genocide of an entire culture and people, had been working on how to undermine the House of Saud from within, or seriously undermine the Wahhabi clerics. Until recently, they had no success at all. After meeting Edward St. James, things changed.
***
The ladies settled into a vast apartment reserved solely for the Queen and her attendants. These days her attendants were also Nabataean research scientists and technicians, but convention had to be observed for the Queen to give the appearance of being a pious Muslim woman. She, like most Nabataeans, were outwardly observant, but inwardly followed their own ancient religious beliefs: Arabic polytheism.
Bunny began, “Abdul’s father, King Azziz, had known Adam’s father for many years prior to his death at the age of ninety-two. Dr. St. James was a frequent visitor to the Palace, more often as a younger man, but also after the death of King Azziz. He came to our city to continue a project begun before Abdul’s ascension to the throne, but which could only be realized with Adam’s help, and the invention of new technology, specifically the new materials invented by Adam’s mother, Maria, and her husband, Dr. Augustin Suarez.
“Dr. Edward St. James also knew the Saudi Royal family and had assisted them on many occasions with very delicate religious matters. It was during that time that Dr. St. James became aware of the rivalry between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim factions and the extreme version of Sunni Islam in the Kingdom, Wahhabism. Their clerics control religious thought in the Kingdom and its tenets are ultraconservative and extreme.
“The union of Wahhabism and the Royal family was thought to be a matter of historical accident, and that the Royals were deferential to the Wahhabi clerics as a matter of faith. For many years, this was probably the case and best explanation for an apparent marriage of convenience. So, long as the clerics did not support a challenge to the House of Saud, the Saudi kings would allow these clerics a degree of latitude. Interpret ‘latitude’ as meaning a perverse abuse of the citizenry through beatings, torture, humiliation and murder. Severed hands and limbs, rape, and religiously approved pedophilia were common, and the ordinary Sunni lived under a cloud of repression and fear.”
Hannah asked, “How did Dr. St. James the Elder fit it? For simplicity sake, let’s just agree to call him Edward and Dr. St. James the Younger, just plain Adam.”
“Perfect. Edward was aware that the Nabataean people worshipped the old Gods and did not wish to convert to Islam, which was required as a part of the marriage contract between a Nabataean Princess and an Arab King who married centuries ago. The marriage united the two Kingdoms under Arab sovereignty, thereby averting war.
“When the Wahhabi Religious Movement took hold in the eighteenth century, one of it’s tenets was the purification of the faith by ridding the Kingdom of infidels. The House of Saud was founded at about the same time. The previous longstanding tolerance shown for the Nabataean way of life, including its cultural, and religious practices, which had always been tolerated, were now beginning to come under intense scrutiny by extremist clerics. But, change was slow in the nineteenth century, and Nabataea thought Wahhabism a passing extremist fad.
“They were wrong.
“New mosques were built in our Kingdom and religious schools proliferated. However, the old Kings of the realm refused to allow Wahhabi clerics into Nabataea, and the Arab Royal families agreed. Nabataea had been loyal to the Monarchy for centuries, and that loyalty mattered. Until recently, that is.”
Hannah asked, “What changed?”
“First, weak Arab rulers in the early twentieth century began to allow more incursions by the clerics in territories that had previously been somewhat autonomous. The clerics didn’t succeed in gaining a foothold in Nabataea, but they did convince the ruling factions that Nabataea posed a threat to the House of Saud. To minimize the threat, they did what the Chinese did in Tibet in reverse. Instead of sending Saudis to Nabataea to ‘colonize’ us, they took young Nabataeans out of our Kingdom, and resettled them in other Saudi cities. Some came at a young age by force, others left voluntarily to preserve family unity. Most were dead within a few years, guilty of transgressions, and convicted of religious crimes in religious courts run by the clerics.
“It took years, but slowly our numbers diminished. Today we stand at one hundred twenty-five thousand souls, but we face extinction in the immediate future. This is what King Azizz, and Edward were trying to avoid, but they didn’t have the means to prevent the genocide they knew was coming. Until now.”
The ladies looked at each other as if they had somehow missed an important point.
“What the clerics could only do slowly and over time, the Saudi’s could and would do quickly. The clerics finally found their way to convince the Royal family of Nabataean treachery. It involves my husband and I, and our research which begun at Cal Tech. I am an engineer, but my husband is a particle physicist. His dissertation is on the extraction of water and energy from the a
tmosphere. The capture and storage of electricity from the air around us. Tesla knew it; so too have others. They just didn’t know how. We do. Our research here in Nabataea has proven we can extract virtually unlimited energy and potable water from the atmosphere at a cost of pennies. And our methodology is proven. It works.
Misti said, “So you are a massive threat to the Royal family and ARAMCO. You will destroy the very foundation of their wealth, and much of the wealth in the Arab world, not to mention the US and members of OPEC. You’re dead folk walking.”
“Correct. Adam has been working on the software for our research, while Maria and Agustin Suarez have worked on our process; Edward worked on how to relocate our people elsewhere.”
“Is that even possible? Where would you go, and who would take you in?”
“That is difficult to answer, except to say that it has all been arranged by Edward, and a lady named Bethy McQueen. We don’t know how, but it has. We will tour the capital one more time with you tomorrow. The day after are your nuptials, you must all leave. Except Kendra of course.”
“It will take months to evacuate this many people. You said the danger is imminent. This can never work.”
“I will let Adam and Abdul explain how. But it can and will be done. In three days. You will leave the Kingdom immediately after the weddings. Then Edward and Adam are bringing in some very brave men and women to help with the evacuation. I understand some four to five hundred volunteers. Everything we need to do this is already here. We simply need to begin.”
“Won’t the Saudi army and air force stop you? They must have a means of detecting such a massive movement of people and materiel. And spies must be here too reporting back to Riyadh.”
“According to Adam and Edward, the answer is no. They have devised a means of protecting us while we depart from Saudi territory and move to our new home.”
Resolution Page 13
