RainStorm

independent contractor is found dead there with a
    very broken neck. Which he asked about, specifically."
    "Yeah, you mentioned something about that. The guy was a
    contractor?"
    "I just said so," he said, looking at me.
    He was catching on to the way I was leading him by feeding
    back pieces of what he'd just said. Good for him.
    I smiled. "What did our friend want to know about the contractor?"
    "Was he on our payroll."
    "Was he?"
    "No."
    I looked at him. No way to tell whether he was lying. For now.
    "Who was the contractor working for, if he wasn't working
    for you?"
    "I don't know."
    "Who do you think?"
    He shrugged. "Why would you care? My guesses, about the
    woman, for example, are usually way off base."
    I laughed. "That's true," I said. "But I find them amusing anyway."
    He smiled, apparently having figured out that it was smart not
    to let me get a rise out of him. "I really don't know," he said. "And
    there are a lot of other things I don't know, either. I'm already
    speculating to fill in the gaps. I think what happened was, Belghazi's
    people learned about the dead French guy and got spooked.
    'Who was he? Could he have been after Belghazi? Who hired
    him?' Belghazi is a professional paranoid. You know the type. I'm
    sure he would have investigated."
    "You're saying there's a connection between Belghazi and the
    Agency guy who visited you recently?"
    He 'was quiet for a moment, then said, "Let me tell you about
    those phone numbers you gave me."
    "All right."
    "First, the cell phone you picked up operates on a plan from
    Saudi Telecom, although the subscriber is an obvious corporate
    front that hasn't led us anywhere yet. Second, "whoever was using
    the phone placed repeated calls to a certain Khalid bin Mahfouz,
    who's a general with Saudi intelligence. Mahfouz liaises with key
    members of some of the groups the Saudis fund--Hamas, Islamic
    Jihad, Hezbollah. Mahfouz controls the funding to these groups, so
    if he asks them for a favor--say, muscle for an unrelated job in an
    unrelated place, he gets what he asks for."
    "Is Mahfouz on the list?"
    "I'm sorry, other than what I've of necessity told you, you don't
    need to know who is on or not on the list."
    "Then tell me how this leads to Belghazi."
    "Belghazi makes sure Mahfouz gets a cut of all Belghazi's weapons
    deals. So if Belghazi has a problem, he calls Mahfouz. Belghazi spreads
    around a lot of patronage. He can ask for a lot of favors."
    "All very interesting," I said, "but so far the connections you're
    offering me seem a little thin."
    "I know they're thin. I don't have all the answers, but I'm trying,
    all right? And I'm telling you things that I probably shouldn't,
    partly because I owe it to you after what just happened in Hong
    Kong and Macau, partly because I'm concerned that, if you're not
    satisfied that I'm leveling with you, you're going to do something
    unwarranted, possibly involving me."
    "All right, keep going, then."
    He exhaled forcefully, his cheeks puffing out slightly as he did
    so. "Do you know that, in mid 2002, word leaked to the press that
    the semiofficial Defense Policy Board, which recommends policy
    to the Pentagon, had written a report concluding that, quote, 'The
    Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to
    financiers, from cadre to foot soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader'?
    The Secretary of the State was mobilized within hours to
    quash the report and distance it from the purported actual views of
    the Bush administration. Then, last summer, Bush ordered twenty-eight
    pages of a Congressional report on Nine-Eleven redacted, ostensibly
    to protect national security, in fact because the redacted
    portions provided details on Saudi financing of terrorist groups."
    "A conspiracy?" I asked.
    He shrugged. "More like a conspiracy of silence. Everyone in
    Washington knows what's going on, but bringing it up goes over
    about as well as a discussion of incest in the family. But the lack of
    discussion doesn't make it all any less pervasive."
    He took a sip of coffee. "So here's what I know. Fact one, someone
    in NE Division is very concerned that Belghazi might be on
    the list, and that we might have sent someone after him in Macau.
    Fact two, shortly after the NE Division guy visits me, six Saudis
    show up in Macau and Hong Kong to try and take you out. Fact
    three, the six Saudis are connectable to Belghazi through Mahfouz.
    Fact four, there are elements of the U.S. government that are