Deadly Oasis: In the Mt/4, the Empty Quarter - the Rub’ Al Khali

By Robert Wilson

Treachery and romance meet on the vast sands of the Arabian Peninsula known as the Empty Quarter. But the emptiness fails to conceal the plans of Ansar al Sharia, the branch of al Qaeda in Yemen and Oman, to kill or maim major leaders of the world by using two different and subtle approaches. An old oasis area in the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, becomes the headquarters from which the plan will be carried out. Doug Dean comes to Dhofar University in Salalah, Oman, to pursue his PhD dissertation on the ancient frankincense trade across the Arabian Peninsula. As he makes arrangements to move, he is recruited by the CIA. Suspicious activity is believed to be afoot between Yemen and Oman, and the CIA asks Doug to keep his eyes open while in Salalah. Then Doug meets Lila, a bright and modern Omani girl enrolled in Dhofar University to study English and America, and issues become complicated and dangerous.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490886244

Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson was born in 1957. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising and trading in Africa. He has travelled in Asia and Africa and has lived in Greece and West Africa. He is married and writes from an isolated farmhouse in Portugal.

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Copyright © 2015 Robert Wilson.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-8623-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8624-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015911297

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/15/2015

Contents

Preface

Doug

Lila

CIA

Dhofar

Preparations

Ubar and Frankincense

Dhofar University

Yemen

Lila’s Life in Salalah

The Meeting

Al Qaeda’s Planned Treachery

Help from Other Islamics

Job

The Poisons

Polonium and Iran

The Harbor

The Players

Meteorites

The Grand Technical Plan

Qat

The Execution

Wayward Relatives

The Alarm

Bedouins

Verification

Muscat

The Dilemma

The interception

The Separation

The Capture

The Foil

Epilog

Preface

The idea for this story came as the result of a visit to Oman in 2007 made by my wife and myself as a stop on a cruise. Our visit to Oman was one of several to Islamic countries, but Oman was different from most other Muslim countries, as is Brunei. Oman and Brunei are the only two Sultanates in the world today and the people in both of these nations are peace-loving. They are Islamic countries that are not involved in any jihadist or violent activities anywhere in the world. Both countries are friendly with the United States of America. Salalah, our port for our visit to Oman, has warm, dry weather, much like our home in Southern California. I was fascinated by Oman and decided to write a story about Oman. This is that story.

In the subtitle of this book, I use a word play – The MT/4. When I was a boy, there was a joke that went like this: Point to your head and say the abbreviation of mountain. Being a scientist, I use the ¼ symbol for one-quarter. Thus I could not refrain from putting these two together to create The MT/4 for The Empty Quarter.

Doug

Doug Dean put down the letter from Dhofar University in Salalah Oman and smiled. He had been selected to receive the grant for which he had applied. A longer time than he had expected had passed since he had submitted his application for this grant and he had assumed that that was not a positive indication of likely success. This grant allowed him to pursue his PhD dissertation proposal to study the ancient frankincense trade, trade routes, and culture of The Lost City of Ubar or Iram in the Rub’ al-Khali or Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula. The grant that Doug has received would be administered from Dhofar University in Salalah. Doug was a third-year graduate student as a PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department at Miami University in Ohio, with a minor in linguistics. He was also interested in Middle Eastern Culture and International Relations and hopes to get a job in that arena after he graduates. He had been fascinated by a story that he had read that mentioned the ancient culture of Southern Arabia and the frankincense trade there. He realized that this was a Muslim land and maybe not friendly to Americans, but Doug was adventurous and had some missions experience in two Islamic countries and those had been productive and stimulating. He loved adventure and foreign places. While some danger had been apparent, nothing serious had happened. He was eager to find out what God had for him there. He viewed the award of this grant as an opened door for his academic and spiritual growth. Doug felt prepared for this adventure.

Doug’s graduate advisor had expressed her concern that his choice for a dissertation in such a remote place would make it unlikely that his application for a government grant would be approved. What both she and Doug did not know was that another government agency