delighted. That is wonderful he thought; and I did not even have to ask him. Could Yussef, as he said last night, be coming around to really considering conversion or was he just doing this to please me? Either way it is fantastic. He could not help humming one of the Dabbke tunes as he quickly showered himself, dressed and gathered his notes placing them in the breast pocket of his suit. Feeling something else there he pulled out the small notebook he had left there. Taking it out he looked it over, checking to see if anything was missing, Finding all in order he went over to the picture that covered his wall safe, opened the safe and placed the papers inside and locked it up. Not giving it another thought he went to the library where he sat down and quickly went over his notes for the fifth time while he waited for Allie to arrive. When he did they had a light brunch and taking Fazzi's limo they drove toward the base.

"How are the arrangements going for your mission?" Fazzi asked.

"Very good so far. It appears as if the Emirate had already notified them that someone from their office would soon contact them, so they were expecting this. I have informed the leaders that I want to meet with them to deliver an important message. Most of them, if not all have agreed to meet with me in the next few weeks. I will then deliver the Emirate's message to each one in person. After that the fireworks will begin. They are not going to like the message. Lets hope they don't kill the messenger."

"They won't - at least not this time. At first they will be curious, they will want to see what's in it for them. Then the few of big ones will kick and scream but in the end they will come around thinking and planning ways for them to take control. But they too will submit and then we will weed out the ones we do not want." Fazzi told him. "Once they realize that they have no money and can't raise any, they will be only too happy to join."

"I just hope you are right."

"I know I am." Fazzi said as the car speed on toward the base. "There is one more special item I want you to do for me Allie. I want you to become friends with Yussef. It is important to me that you do. Yussef is a very important part of my life and he can and will also be important to the 'Emirate'. He has few if any friends within our community. By that I mean real friends, men his age, Arab friends. He has plenty of American friends, but as he becomes more and more involved with us, they will drop him like the Americans say 'like a hot potato'. I would like you to try to befriend him. He needs and will need someone to help him adjust to our ways."

"Sir, it is not that I don't like him. It is that I don't trust him. I'm sorry, Your Excellency, I know how much he means to you, but, I can't get this feeling out of my mind that there is something that does not add up there."

"I am not asking you to trust him, just to try to befriend him. It is a fact of life that we Arabs never really trust ourselves let alone outsiders. He needs to learn