“Gone. No—we had nothing to do with it,” the Bahraini Chief of Police added hurriedly, seeing the iciness come into the Scorpion’s gray eyes. “It was your own people. Company business. And I fear she seemed quite willing, habibi.”

The Scorpion shook his head. It made no sense. “What about all this? A welcoming committee?”

Al-Amir bit his lip and absentmindedly rubbed the scar on his cheek. He was obviously troubled.

“It’s your own people. CIA. They want you terminated, Scorpion. This is your firing squad.”

“I don’t get it.”

Al-Amir shrugged and said, “Neither do I. If it were up to me you’d get a medal. You Americani are very difficult to understand.”

The Scorpion aimed the Colt at al-Amir’s head. “I’ll take you with me, Jassim,” he said.

Al-Amir raised his hands in mock surrender. “No need, Scorpion. I’m letting you go. A matter of sentiment. My lord, Sheikh al-Khatifa, is related through his maternal grand-mother to your adopted father, Sheikh Zaid. Also, he wants to stay in King Salim’s good graces and Salim owes you a life. But I must ask you to leave Bahrain at once. Things have been very noisy since you came to Manama, Scorpion,” he said, leaning back on the sofa.

The Scorpion nodded and put away the gun. He sat on the sofa next to al-Amir and poured himself a drink of iced mineral water. His heart was pounding and there was a roaring in his head as if he were holding seashells to his ears.

“I wouldn’t go back to the States if I were you,” he heard al-Amir say.

The Scorpion shook his head.

“I’ll report you dead. With both the CIA and the KGB wanting to terminate you, it’s your only chance,” al-Amir added.

“What will you do for a body?” the Scorpion asked.

“The driver of the Mercedes will do nicely for the CIA. The guns made quite a mess of him. I’m having his body brought here now.”

The Scorpion stared into space. He raised the glass to his lips, but didn’t drink.

The pattern was rearranging in his head. None of it made any sense and then all at once, it all made perfect sense. He drank the mineral water as if it were hemlock.

He had made the worst mistake an agent can make. He had completely misunderstood the nature of his mission.

PART FOUR

PART FOUR

One day a scorpion stood on the bank of a river. He wanted to cross it, but scorpions can’t swim. So he went up to a frog and proposed that the frog carry him across. But the frog was afraid.

“You might sting me and I’ll die,” said the frog.

“Nonsense. If I sting you and you die, then I’m bound to drown too,” the scorpion replied.