Rabat is both a promised refuge and the destination of a tense return: Samas invites Evan to stay at his home for as long as he likes, and Evan later arrives there with Poppy and the stolen case. The location comes into focus through a chain of private spaces—the aircraft, the drive, the house, and its ocean-facing balcony—culminating in Samas’s startled, hostile response to Poppy.

An Invitation and a Route

Rabat first enters the narrative through a message delivered by Mr. Diltz. Samas has gone to Bern to meet a client, Mr. Diltz explains, and expects to return in the morning. His invitation is generous and open-ended: Evan is welcome to return to Samas’s Moroccan coast home and stay as long as he likes. The message also gives a specific route and timetable, with Samas due to travel to Rabat the following afternoon via Tunis.

At this point, Rabat is a destination Evan could choose, not yet a scene the reader can see. The invitation offers him a place to go and the prospect of Samas’s hospitality, while Samas remains absent. That gap between the welcome conveyed in his message and the later meeting at his home gives the location a dual character: it is first an offered refuge, then the site of an unpredictable encounter.

Arrival with the Case

The later journey begins with a decision about whether Evan will continue. Poppy offers him the chance to walk away wealthy and free of the stolen piece. Evan declines the offer, choosing to see the matter through with her. Their destination is not incidental to that choice: Poppy directs the pilot to Rabat, and the white jet carries them there with Evan still clutching the case.

The arrival is briskly practical. After the aircraft descends, Poppy speaks French on a portable phone; once her call ends, she tells Evan that a car is waiting and asks whether he knows how to reach Samas’s home. He remembers the way. The exchange makes his prior familiarity with the route an important part of the arrival: Poppy brings the case and the immediate plan, while Evan supplies the knowledge needed to reach the house.

The Beach Home and the Balcony

The drive ends behind Samas’s beach home. The description stays close to the approach: coarse gravel crunches beneath the car’s tires, and Poppy surveys the residence before reaching for the handle of the case. She likens the house to a carriage house, an observation that gives the place an unassuming appearance without establishing anything further about its history or design.

Evan’s response is more consequential than the brief description of the building. He first wants to protest when Poppy reaches for the case, because the outcome depends on it. He then chooses to trust her. The home’s threshold thus becomes a point of decision: they have arrived together, but the case remains a source of risk between them, and Evan’s willingness to proceed rests on an explicit act of trust.

The Encounter at the End of the Route

Inside, Evan asks where Samas is and learns that he is upstairs on the balcony. Evan walks down the hall; the amplified sound of the surf rolls down the stairs, marking the route upward before the characters reach the ocean-facing space. They climb to find Samas seated on a lounge chair overlooking the ocean. The movement through the house turns the arrival into a staged approach, carrying the characters from the driveway into the private interior and finally to the balcony.

Samas has just replaced a telephone handset in its cradle. He is already concerned: a woman at the hotel has told him that Evan left with someone. When he turns and sees Poppy, his jaw drops and he growls at her. Her cheerful greeting stands in sharp contrast to his reaction. The scene gives the house an immediate dramatic function: the destination promised in Samas’s message is also where his welcome to Evan collides with his evident hostility toward Poppy.

Rabat as a Narrative Setting

The evidence presents Rabat narrowly, through the route to Samas’s home and the encounter there; it does not describe the city’s wider geography or public life. Its defining details are therefore relational and sequential. Samas’s message makes the destination available to Evan, Poppy’s decision to continue brings the pair there with the case, and Evan’s remembered directions carry them to the beach home.

The change from invitation to confrontation is the location’s central narrative turn. The house appears quiet and private, with gravel in the driveway, surf audible from inside, and Samas on a balcony above the approach. Yet the arrival does not settle the theft or the characters’ conflict. Instead, Rabat brings Evan and Poppy directly into Samas’s presence, making the home the point where their shared plan meets the person whose reaction will determine what happens next.