“However, we question the efficacy of this award as it applies to peacetime Egypt,” Gazali said, slowly and deliberately. “The law was put in place to be sure our legislatures and bureaucracies continued their work even if its members were killed in battle. Although this honor has been recently applied many times, we see this as merely symbolic, an honorific, which is used as a convenience and token of honor until new elections are held. Further, this custom has never been applied to the office of president, and well it should not, for fear of eroding the importance of that high office. Another consideration, of course, is the fact that Madame Salaam was not bom in Egypt, and has not yet qualified to become a naturalized citizen. Therefore, we do not consider Madame Salaam as meeting the strict standards of the law, and therefore—”

The Assembly chamber erupted into sheer bedlam. It seemed every representative was screaming and shaking their fists at Gazali. Several lawmakers even got out of their seats and attempted to rush the podium, but were turned away by uniformed security officers that appeared as if out of nowhere. No one had ever seen such an uprising in the Assembly chambers before—and certainly, Khan had never seen such a loud outpouring of emotion.

Through this chaos, Ulama al-Khan made his way off the dais and to a side hallway toward the back exits. He knew he had lost. The memory of Kamal Ismail Salaam was too powerful and Susan Salaam was almost as popular in Egypt as her husband—perhaps even more so, because of her bewitching beauty.

Several Assembly members siding with Kalir shook their fists, shouted, and even tried to grab at al-Khan as he made his way off the dais. Supreme Judiciary security officers, led by the chief of security of the Supreme Judiciary Council, Major Amr Abu Gheit, who was assigned as al- Khan’s personal bodyguard, roughly pushed the protesters out of the way, even clubbing one across the head with a pistol butt.

What fools, al-Khan thought. They would actually consider physical intimidation to try to turn him aside? Several more assemblymen rushed to their colleagues’ aide, but Gheit and the rest of al-Khan’s bodyguards had no trouble subduing them as the presidential candidate made his way out of the chamber.

As he emerged from the chamber into the back hallway, he turned to Gheit: “Take down the name and political party of any representative who even dared look angrily in my direction,” he ordered.

“Why? So you can have your henchmen kill them as well?”

Khan turned. There, standing before him, was Susan Salaam. Her husband’s aide and national security adviser, Ahmad Baris, was standing with her. A few Assembly aides and staffers were milling about, fascinated by a confrontation between these two political rivals.