Chapter Five
Less than an hour later, I’m back at the palace. Customs? Security checks? A double escalator dilemma? Nerp, not this time. The black suits throw a single nod at the custom officials who questioned me thoroughly earlier in the day, then I’m escorted into a dark Mercedes sedan that peels out of the airport going about 80 miles an hour. We barely slow when we get to the Jahwar collection of palaces. And the car doesn’t come to a full stop until we pull around to the back of Zahir’s palace. At the top of a set of sandstone steps, I see two jumpsuits flanking each side of a twenty-foot high set of arch doors, like they’ve been waiting for us.
The elite guard sitting in the back of the sedan with me jumps out and holds the car door open.
“Right this way, please,” he says in near
