Prologue
The Sultanate of Oman, at a secret meeting point in the desert near the southern Omani coast, on Saturday, June 17, at 2 p.m. GMT+4.
“The wind is blowing from the East. Can you feel this faint acid smell? It’s due to these black basalt rocks that dot our arid soil. In this season when the air cools, the overall humidity changes the appearance of the desert. Do you see these little plants with purple flowers sprouting out of the ground? We call them girgir, almost sacred food for nomads. Doesn’t it tell you about our people and why they are satisfied with so little? When you think that we are only a week away by boat from the Indian peninsula. Over there, the monsoon has already started.”
The man who speaks with such a moody composure, dressed in a dishdasha, the traditional thawb of the coastal regions of the Persian Gulf, is from the province of Hail in Saudi Arabia. The man with gray hair in his fifties who is patiently listening to him, while being overcautiously careful not to interrupt his speech, is a Jordanian citizen.
“You haven’t come here to see me talk about the monsoon, I reckon,” he says without even looking at him.
“Dear Sheikh,”[1] he answers, “you are welcome to talk to me about anything you fancy. Whatever the subject, it is always a pleasure listening to you.”
“Well, thank you, my friend. I’m here today to tell you about an exceptional young man whose destiny is set by the highest authority to follow his path,” he adds, emphasizing the word authority while pointing his right index finger toward the sky.
The Sheikh then takes a short pause, and suddenly places his finger on his lips, as if he wanted to alert his interlocutor of an invisible entity spying on them out of nowhere.
“I think it’s time to go for a boat ride”, he adds, “you’ll see, you won’t regret it.”
The 50-year-old, who wears a gray business suit, more appropriate for a business meeting than for a getaway at sea, looks at him straight in the eyes with a thoughtful air and nods his head to make it clear that he has understood that even the walls have ears in the middle of the desert...
