How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph.Page)
Quote #4
"It might have happened at one time, but there's no more money. Emaar's a bust. They're going broke in Dubai. Everything was overvalued and now they're busted. They owe money all over the planet, and now KAEC's dead. Everything's dead. You'll see." (V.31.39)
No matter how optimistic (or gullible) Alan can be, Yousef simply isn't buying the propaganda about KAEC's shiny future. He's too aware of the social and economic realities of his country to support Alan's "gut sense" that the desert city holds limitless promise for development.
Quote #5
The road was new, but it cut through absolutely nothing…It was as if someone had built a road through unrepentant desert, and then erected a gate somewhere in the middle, to imply the end of one thing and the beginning of another. It was hopeful but unconvincing. (V.41.40)
This is not what Alan expects to see when he arrives at KAEC with soaring expectations. It's also a real "Man v. Nature" or "Ozymandias" moment—the desert has no intention of letting humans make their mark. And it's not the last time that Alan will view the vastness and harshness of the Saudi Arabian landscape with despair.
Quote #6
There was a black plastic barrier on either side of the balcony that prevented them from seeing anything but the sea ahead. And, he assumed, prevented anyone below from glimpsing the world, egalitarian and free from restrictions, within the Black Box. This was the cat-and-mouse game being played in the Kingdom. Its people were forced into the role of teenagers hiding their vices and proclivities from a shadowy army of parents. (XIII.57.93-94)
Saudi Arabian society operates on two levels and sends mixed signals to those who are trying to get a handle on it. It gives Alan the sense that no one really knows what the rules are—or when they're breaking them. Just like the elusive King Abdullah, there's always a sense that the moral police are just a hair's breadth away, waiting for someone to think the society is more open than it really is.