Page 46 of The New Girl

“No.”

“What about this man?” Gabriel laid a second photo on the table. It was the DGSI surveillance shot of Rafiq al-Madani sitting next to Khalid aboardTranquillity.

“Where did you get this?”

“TheTatler.” Gabriel withdrew the photo. “Is he a friend of yours?”

“I don’t have friends. I have subjects, houseguests, and family.”

“Into which category does al-Madani fall?”

“He is a temporary ally.”

“I thought you were going to shut down the flow of money to the jihadis and the Salafists.”

Khalid’s smile was condescending. “You don’t know much about Arabs, do you?” He rubbed his thumb against his fingertips. “Shwaya, shwaya. Slowly, slowly. Little by little.”

“Which means you’re still funding the extremists with the help of your friend Rafiq al-Madani.”

“Which means I have to move carefully and with the support of someone like Rafiq. Someone who has the trust of important clerics. Someone who can provide me with the necessary cover. Otherwise, the House of Saud will crumble, and Arabia will be ruled by the sons of al-Qaeda and ISIS. Is that what you want?”

“You’re playing the same old double game.”

“I am holding a tiger by the ears. And if I let go, it will devour me.”

“It already has.” Gabriel called up a message on his BlackBerry. It was the message he had received while sitting in Christopher Keller’s kitchen. “It was al-Madani who told you about the second demand letter. He did so at three twelve p.m. London time.”

“I see you’re monitoring my phone.”

“Not yours, al-Madani’s. And five minutes after he called you, he sent an encrypted message to someone else. Because we were seeing his keystrokes, we had no problem reading it.”

“What does it say?”

“Enough to make it clear he knows where your daughter is.”

“May I see the message?”

Gabriel handed over his phone.

The Saudi swore softly in Arabic. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Perhaps you should find out where your daughter is first.”

“That’s your job.”

“My role in this affair is officially over. I’m not going to get myself into the middle of a Saudi family fight.”

“You know what they say about family, don’t you?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s the other F-word.”

Gabriel smiled in spite of himself.

Khalid returned the BlackBerry. “Perhaps we can come to some sort of business arrangement.”

“Save your money, Khalid.”