Adjo was not reckless as he watched the compound empty, the gate shut, and activity on the mountainside cease. Except for the observer and the occasional hum of a distant aircraft, it could have been an earlier millennium. A few bedouin boys came along, tugging camels, having given up on finding a brave tourist to rent one for the ascent. That only enhanced the sense of time out of sequence. Then there was the holy man on the mountain. As much as Adjo tried to hold to rational thought, the site lent its weight to the claim that he was the Gharib Qawee. If Adjo felt that way, he could only imagine what more susceptible men might feel. Then, what he had been expecting occurred. He heard the familiar growl and would have to decide now what to do. Four jeeps came chugging through the village. The United Nations Multinational Force and Observers had arrived. The MFO had been established by Egypt, Israel, and the United States in 1981 to keep this holy region from becoming remilitarized. The MFO was comprised primarily of Egyptian peacekeepers under the supervision of Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, American, and British officers.
