The Messenger

doctorate, then work. I suppose I’ve never had time for love.”
    “No time for love? How sad.”
    “It’s an American disease.”
    Nadia lowered her sunglasses over her eyes and rolled onto her back.
    “The sun is strong,” Sarah said. “You should cover up.”
    “I never burn. It’s one of the good things about being a Saudi.” She reached out and lazily buried the end of her cigarette in the sand. “It must be very strange for you.”
    “What’s that?”
    “An all-American girl like you, working for Zizi al-Bakari.”
    “Sorry to disappoint you, Nadia, but I’m hardly an all-American girl. I spent most of my childhood in Europe. When I went back to America to go to college, I felt terribly out of place. It took me a long time to adjust.”
    “It doesn’t bother you working for a Saudi?”
    “Why should it?”
    “Because many people in your country blame us for the attacks on 9/11.”
    “I don’t happen to be one of them,” Sarah said, then she recited the lines that Gabriel had given her in Surrey. “Osama chose Saudis to carry out the attacks so he could drive a wedge between your country and ours. He’s declared war on the House of Saud as well as America. We’re allies in the fight against al-Qaeda, not adversaries.”
    “The Saudi intelligence services have warned my father repeatedly that he is a target of the terrorists because of his close relationship with the Royal Family. That’s why we have such stringent security.” She gestured toward the bodyguards. “That’s why we have to bring gorillas to the beach instead of two nice-looking boys.”
    She rolled over onto her stomach, exposing her back to the warm sun. Sarah closed her eyes and drifted into a hazy dream-filled sleep. She woke an hour later to find their once-secluded spot surrounded by other people. Rafiq and Sharuki were now seated directly behind them. Nadia appeared to be sleeping. “I’m hot,” she murmured to the bodyguards. “I’m going for a swim.” When Rafiq started to get to his feet, Sarah motioned for him to stay. “I’ll be fine,” she said.
    She walked slowly into the water, until the waves began breaking over her waist, then plunged beneath the surface and kicked hard several times until she was past the rough surf. When she broke through the surface again, Yaakov was floating next to her.
    “How long are you planning to stay in Saint Bart’s?”
    “I don’t know. They never tell me anything.”
    “Are you safe?”
    “As far as I can tell.”
    “Have you seen anyone who could be bin Shafiq?”
    She shook her head.
    “We’re here with you, Sarah. All of us. Now swim away from me and don’t look back. If they ask about me, tell them I was flirting with you.”
    And with that he disappeared beneath the surface and was gone. Sarah went back to the beach and laid down on a towel next to Nadia.
    “Who was that man you were talking to?” she asked.
    Sarah felt her heart give a sideways lurch. She managed to answer calmly. “I don’t know,” she said, “but he was hitting on me right in front of his girlfriend.”
    “What do you expect? He’s a Jew.”
    “How can you tell?”
    “Trust me, I can tell. Never talk to strangers, Sarah. Especially Jews.”

    S ARAH WAS in her cabin dressing for dinner when she heard the whine of the Sikorsky’s engine. She fastened the pearls around her neck and hurried up to the afterdeck, where she found Zizi seated on a couch in the cool evening air, dressed in a pair of fashionably cut faded blue jeans and a white pullover. “We’re going to the island for dinner tonight,” he said. “Nadia and I are taking the last helicopter. You’ll come with us.”
    They boarded the Sikorsky twenty minutes later. As they floated over the harbor, the lights of Gustavia glowed softly against the gathering darkness. They passed over the ridge of steep hills behind the port and descended toward the airfield, where the others were waiting at the end of the tarmac, clustered around a convoy of gleaming black Toyota Land Cruisers.
    With Zizi safely in place, the convoy set out toward the airport exit. On the opposite side of the road, in the parking lot of the island’s main shopping center, Sarah briefly glimpsed Yossi and Rimona sitting astride a motor scooter. She leaned forward and looked over at Zizi, who was seated next to his daughter.
    “Where are we going?”
    “We’ve commandeered a restaurant in Gustavia for dinner. But first we’re going to a