The Storm

CHAPTER 20

JINN AL-KHALIF STRODE THROUGH THE HALLS OF HIS CAVE in a state of fury. He kicked the door to his sprawling office open and threw a chair aside that blocked the path to his desk. Sabah entered behind him, shutting the door with more care.

“I will not be summoned like a schoolboy!” Jinn bellowed.

“You have not been summoned,” Sabah insisted.

“They contact you unannounced, tell you they’re coming here, and that they expect to see me!” Jinn shouted. “How is that not being summoned?”

Jinn stood beside an impressively large desk. Behind him, visible through a glass partition that acted as the rear wall to the office, the production floor of his factory could be seen twenty feet below.

Here and there in the “clean room,” men in protective hazmat-like suits were calibrating the machines, preparing to produce the next version of Jinn’s microbots. The lethally redesigned batch was destined for Egypt and the dam.

“They made a request,” Sabah said. “Considering their tone and actions of late, I thought it necessary to promise your presence.”

“That is an act of insolence!” Jinn shouted. “You do not promise for me.”

Many times in his life had Jinn felt the type of rage that filled him now, never before had it been directed at Sabah.

“Why, as we get closer and closer to the goal, do all my servants seem to be losing their minds and forgetting their places?”

Sabah seemed on the verge of speaking but held back.

“You’ve already said enough,” Jinn told him with a dismissive wave. “Leave me.”

Instead of bowing and departing, Sabah stood taller.

“No,” he said plainly. “I have taught you from a young age, ever since your father died. And I have sworn to protect you, even from yourself. So I will speak and you will listen and then you decide what to do when I am through.”

Jinn looked up in shock, enough so that his instinct to kill Sabah for disobeying him was checked.

“This consortium,” Sabah began, “they’ve given billions of dollars to your effort. And they are powerful men in their own right, bound to flex their muscle every now and then.”

Jinn gazed at Sabah as if mesmerized, listening as he often had during the years.

“The fact that they come as one suggests danger,” Sabah continued. “They’re unified.”

Jinn looked around his office. There was little in the way of decor. But weapons of the past were displayed on one wall, a curved scimitar caught his eye.

“Then I will kill them all,” Jinn said. “I will cut them to pieces with my own two hands.”

“And what would that get us?” Sabah asked. “They have not come alone. Each brings a squad of armed men. In total numbers they are almost equal to our own. It would bring only war. And even if we won, others would undoubtedly investigate, perhaps even seek revenge.”

For the first time in a great while, Jinn felt vulnerable, cornered. If they had known what they were stirring in him, they would not have pressed the issue.

“This could not have come at a worse time,” he said. “We have other guests to prepare for.”

“They will be dealt with,” Sabah insisted.

“Fine,” Jinn said. “What do you suggest?”

“We must send a message that does not start a war. I suggest we show them what they want to see. One to see it closely, the other to observe from a distance.”

A sinister look came over Sabah’s face, and Jinn began to understand. He had to discount Sabah as old and out of touch, but no more.

“Order the test bay flooded,” Jinn said.

“It has been configured to simulate the attack on Aswan.”

A smile crept onto Jinn’s face. “Perfect. Proceed with the demonstration. Give them a front-row seat. It would make me very happy for them to see more than they bargained for.”

A flash of understanding appeared on Sabah’s face.

“I will do as you command,” he said.

Jinn looked back through the glass partition to his workers below. They moved here and there. The machines were operating again, running at full capacity. At the end of the production line a trickle of silver sand had begun to fill a yellow plastic drum. Beyond it, fifty-nine other drums waited. They would carry the latest batch of his horde. And if Jinn was right, they would break the will of Aziz and force Egypt’s military leaders and their wealth back into his hands.