“Yes.”
“I like you, Solomon,” Nick said. “I have some technical questions for you. We’ll be recording so answer in detail. Tell us everything about Al-Saud’s whereabouts, guards, and favorite places he goes in public. Don’t leave anything out because we’ll be torturing the truth out of good old Omar. If he has another version different from yours, I’ll be very unhappy with you.”
“I am a dead man. I do not wish to die screaming. I will tell you everything I know.” Didi did exactly that for the next forty minutes.
“He is telling the truth, Muerto,” Cala said.
“I think so too,” Nick agreed. He nodded at Gus. “We’ll keep Omar for a few moments longer.”
Gus administered the syringes to Omar’s relieved cohorts. After they expired, Johnny and Nick put them into body-bags held open by Gus and Cala. By then, even with the cleansing Nick did and salve he put over the wound, Omar screamed his way into consciousness. Nick bopped him in the head.
“Shut the hell up! You’re in luck. I’m sick of looking at you. Your friends were most helpful so we have a great baseline to determine the truth of what you’ll be telling us. They passed on to the great virgin hunting ground peacefully without pain. If your factual input checks out, we’ll give you a hotshot to hell where you belong. Would you like to start reciting what you know or would you like another dose of intestinal cleaning?”
Omar sobbed and cried real tears. “Can’t you… give me something for the pain?”
“Sure. Once you finish testifying you won’t feel any pain, at least until you reach hell. I don’t know what’s there for you. In finding out your real identities we also found out what you did for the Prince. Your two buddies were simply a couple of ex-Saudi military dupes. You Omar have been a very bad boy. Al-Saud used you as his enforcer. I bet you never thought you’d be on the receiving end of what you used to dish out. If you don’t start talking, nothing’s going to buy you a peaceful passing. You know quite a bit more about Al-Saud than your pals.”
“I know all of his places where he goes into hiding!” Omar suddenly became excited. “Yes…yes… I know every one of them. I was also his personal bodyguard and the only one he truly trusted. That is why he sent me here to hire the devil, McCarty. Better he had sent me to kill Al-Kadi! Can I buy my life with this extra information?”
“Ah… no, but thanks for giving me some guidelines about what you do know. Get started.”
“But… all I can do is buy death.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Show him again, Johnny.”
Omar yelped and pleaded he was ready to talk. It did him no good as he received another bleaching. Before he could pass out, Nick warned him. “I’m going to relieve you of the worst of the pain. You’d better get talking when you can speak again.”
With the wound bleach washed away and more salve applied to the wound, Omar gasped out everything he could think of. Johnny and Gus worked with their satellite laptops to pinpoint all the places mentioned. Nick guided him to numbers of men Al-Saud always had with him and if there were any nightspots such as casinos or nightclubs he frequented when traveling to his favorite hideaway in Dubai.
“He…he loves Nasimi Beach. There are always many tourist women there where he may act out his part of being a playboy sheik. Al-Saud gets a luxurious private cabana where he stays all day and night. He gets a suite at the Atlantis which is part of the waterpark there.”
Nick smiled. “Does he have any plans to go there soon?”
“Al-Saud must leave Yemen very soon or the Americans will find him with their damnable drones. He can never stay in one place for longer than a month. When he stays in Dubai, Al-Saud has enough people in authority bought off he can remain quietly for sometimes two months.”
“How many men does he travel with? I would imagine it’s difficult not to be tracked with a huge retinue,” Nick pressed.
“He has a dozen men who travel with him, but not on the same flights. It is but a short distance from either the Kingdom or Yemen. Al-Saud always has two personal guards with him. I am one of them. I was supposed to be back in Yemen before he left for Dubai. I…I could guide you. It would be easy to-”
Nick injected him. Omar tried to gasp something before the fast acting poison injected into his carotid artery worked, but failed before the light faded from his eyes with lips still quivering. “Every moment with Omar produced a new vision of his past exploits to mind. I think I’m getting soft in my old age.”