The ImamChapter 6
TARIQ RETURNS TO MECCA 17th of Jumaada al-awal 1417 (September 30, 1996) Tariq found himself coasting down a bare highway with his two bodyguards in the front cracking open pistachio nuts and drinking warm colas. He had fallen asleep on the plane from Lahore and moved in barren land between Jeddah and Mecca. He had missed both meals on the plane. The road was endless as he watched the car swallowing the blacktop. Every twenty minutes a service station passed with one or two cars idle in a...