THE FOLLOWING NIGHT Nasir was visited by an evil zar spirit at Prince Abdul Sa’ad’s Riyadh apartment. Although the fat and womanish eunuch had always considered zars a silly Bedu superstition, from the moment he woke up he had no doubt whatsoever that his visitor was not of this earth. Who else but a demon could have slipped by the guards, one of whom was later found outside his door, his windpipe crushed by a single blow? All Nasir knew was that he had awakened with a khanjar dagger at his throat and a strange apparition seated on his bed. Even though it was summer, the demon was shrouded from head to foot by a black bisht, similar to the cloaks worn by the Mutayr of the Hasa desert. The dark figure stared coldly at him through eyes the color of smoke. Nasir tried to swallow, but his fear was too great.

Without a word, the zar rammed a wad of cloth into Nasir’s mouth. Then he grabbed Nasir’s little finger and bent it backwards till it broke. Nasir screamed into the gag, but only a faint high-pitched squeal could be heard. Sweat poured out of Nasir like a river as an unimaginable pain exploded in his hand. Nasir flopped desperately on the bed like a fish tossed on a dock, but the demon held him down with the strength of ten men. The zar calmly pushed the broken finger back till the fingernail touched Nasir’s wrist and the eunuch almost swallowed the gag in his agony. His eyes bulged out with horror like a frog’s eyes. Perhaps he had died in his sleep and this was hell!

“That was just to get your attention,” the demon said softly.

The demon removed the gag and held the razor-sharp blade edge just underneath Nasir’s nose, gripping the eunuch’s hair with his other hand.

“Tell me what I want to know or I’ll slice it off. After all, a man who’s already lost one nose should want to hang on to his second,” the demon said smiling. It was a cruel joke for the eunuch, alluding to the custom that when a Bedu inadvertently exposed his privates, Arabs would chorus: “Your nose is showing!” to tell him to cover up.

“By the Prophet I will, Master,” the eunuch blubbered, his eyes rolling in their sockets as if weighted in the back like doll’s eyes.

“Where is the assassination to be?” the demon demanded.

“I know nothing, Master,” Nasir wailed. A sudden pain seared his face and he gasped for air as his mouth filled with a warm flush of blood. The khanjar had sliced through his septum. The demon held a picture of the western woman before his eyes. Nasir tried to turn away, but the demon held him fast by his curly hair.