“That doesn’t matter!” Decker said. “All Milligan cares about is the money that’s going to start flowing in. The newly formed territory or country or whatever the hell you want to call it is going to have to set up some businesses if it’s going to thrive economically. Why not diamonds, offers Milligan.”

“But why would the Arabs use her as a middleman?” Marge asked. “Why wouldn’t they invest in the land directly?”

“In fact, that’s just what they’re doing,” Decker said. “They are investing in the same companies that Milligan is investing in. But this time, Milligan knows they’re not going to sit on the land like VerHauten’s doing. They’re going to try to develop it, paying her for her expertise. So she wins two ways. One, she gets paid as an expert. And two, if they strike it rich, so does she.”

Marge said, “She has everything to gain and nothing to lose. All she had to do was make her pitch and apparently it worked. Because the Arabs are buying.”

Decker said, “What do you think, Rina?”

There was a long moment of silence.

Exasperated, Decker finally said, “What’s the problem?”

“I don’t know. Something’s off.”

“What is off?”

“If Milligan’s interested only in start-up capital from the PLO, why was she dealing with two local Arabs from Hebron instead of someone high up in the PLO. And who is Donald?”

“Donald?” Marge asked.

“The Hebron Arabs Milligan met with—in secret—claimed they were working for a man named Donald,” Rina explained. “Milligan claimed Donald was working for her.”

“Who’s Donald?” Marge asked.

“No idea,” Decker said.

Rina said, “To my untrained eye, it seemed like Milligan and those men were planning something clandestine. Besides, I just don’t see the PLO giving something away for nothing.”

“They’re not giving away something for nothing,” Decker said. “They’re investing in Milligan’s know-how.”

“But Milligan is still setting herself up as queen without giving them something tangible.”

“She’s giving them something tangible. She’s giving the Palestinians, headed by the PLO, the potential to be big diamond producers.”

“Potential is not a commodity,” Rina said. “Besides, you’re thinking like a Westerner, Peter.”

“How so?” Marge asked.

“Most of the Arabs in the territories are dirt poor. Sure, they’d love to be rich. But they’ve never had capital so they don’t even know what wealth is. Their prime motivator is revenge, not money.”

“Revenge…” Decker thought a moment. “Then suppose Milligan presented the deal not only as an economic boon for the Palestinian government but also as a way to strike out at Israel.”

“The PLO would go for that,” Rina said. “What do you have in mind?”