Thinking back to his children, Saad realized he couldn’t completely blame them for abandoning him. He had no doubt that his ex-wife had plenty to do with their view of him. She’d been a good woman, just naïve. She didn’t understand that men who live in his kind of world play with a different set of rules when it comes to family, time, and monogamy. Admittedly, he had not been the best of husbands, but at least he hadn’t insisted on having other wives—unlike the buffoon singing on the dance floor. His four submissive wives had born him a total of eight children, although five were girls and two of the three boys appeared to be complete dunces.

Saad had his corporate intelligence team do a full background on Ali Kamal before he allowed him on the boat. He was a prince in the royal family, which was not unusual. The House of Saud bred like rabbits, and each spawn was considered royalty and given an outrageous amount of money.

Saad’s father had experienced quite a few run-ins with the “royals” during his years in Saudi Arabia. In fact, one of those royals, the current King Salman, had run to then-King Fahd to report some offense supposedly committed by Saad’s father. That was what led to his family’s flight to Qatar.

Kamal was an idiot, but he was, as Vladimir Lenin talked about, a useful idiot. This was because he hated the Saudi royal family with a passion that may have even exceeded Saad’s own. Although a royal himself, Kamal, too, had experienced a falling out. In November 2017, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the arrest of four hundred of the nation’s elite, among them Prince Ali. Along with the others, he was detained in the opulent Ritz Carlton in Riyadh. But it was no vacation.

The first night they were all blindfolded, and most were beaten. Kamal was left hanging by his arms in his room. His wrists had been tied together with the rope passed over the bathroom door and secured. The next day the interrogations began, and the questions and violence lasted for weeks before he was finally released.

Many of the business leaders lost their fortunes with more than $100 billion collected from them by the government. Because of his bloodline, Kamal was able to keep his wealth but not his status. Banned from the royal palace, many considered him a social pariah.

By all rights, Saad thought he should feel bad for the man. But he was such a loathsome creature that it was difficult to hope for anything but the worst for him.

Again, though he is an idiot, he truly is a useful one. How else can I learn about what is happening in the Saudi royal family? And there is most certainly truth in the old adage that an enemy of my enemy is my friend.