you knew that. Didn't I tell you?”

“That is what you told me, but that's not what I mean and you know it. This past Tuesday evening before I went to work, two rather rude and big Syrian intelligence officers or so they claimed to be paid me a visit. They almost broke into my apartment and after roughing me up a bit they began questioning me about you. They wanted to know all kinds of things about you and our relationship. They asked me if you were working for the CIA, the FBI or even Army Intelligence?”

Joseph started to laugh. “Army Intelligence? Now there is an oxymoron if I ever heard one. There is no such thing!”

“This is no joke, you idiot. These people are dangerous. They could just as soon kill you as look at you. One of them grabbed me from behind pinning my arms to my sides and the other used his hands to feel me up while he questioned me. It was as if they already knew the answers but were just using the questions as an excuse to abuse me. The one behind me was rubbing his you know what on my backside. They were really enjoying their work.”

“I'll just bet they did! I'm really sorry this happened. I hope they did not hurt you. But, Dina, I have no idea why they should question you or even for that matter, how they would know that you know me. Last night, when I was at the Club, Mr. Amos the Cafe Casablanca owner mentioned that you had been asking about me since my last visit a while back. Perhaps they overheard you and thought that you knew me. The truth of the matter is that, yes, they must and should be interested in me because of my involvement with Fazzi Muhammad and his family. You see Fazzi at one time was a big wheel in the Syrian government apparatus. During my Army studies of Arabic and Muslim culture, I happened to attend services at Fazzi's mosque where I met and became friendly with him and his family. So friendly and so close, in fact, that I also became engaged to his daughter. Add to this the fact that I have started working with Fazzi and the Arab/American community on this Investment Club and you can see why they would be interested in me. If you want to know my guess it is that they are trying to gather information about me. And that includes those I associate with. I hardly know you that well and really cannot understand why they would bother you.” He explained, as their lunch arrived. They continued talking while eating, Joseph telling her all about his public life. “So I guess it's just a case of them wanting to make sure that I'm not going to steal the money or that I'm not running some kind of a scam.”

“There must be more to it than that.” She insisted. “They wanted to hire me.”

“Hire you? What on earth for?”

“They said they would pay me well to spy on you and find out every thing I could about you. They said they want me to find out if you are a homosexual. They asked me to make love to you and take you to bed. They wanted to see if you were attracted to women,” she laughed.

“Oh so that's the reason for the whip and your hand under the