Beirut's Great Mystery

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If the attackers hoped to silence the anti-Syrian front that Hariri had built, they were disappointed just seven days later, when 150,000 people descended on Martyrs' Square in Beirut to mourn Hariri, wave Lebanese flags and demand Syria's withdrawal. The blast did, however, have a chilling effect on one group close to Hariri: his family. Days after their father's funeral, Hariri's four sons fled the country following a warning that they might be next. But as the Syrians began pulling out their troops, paving the way for elections, the Hariri clan grew concerned that without its leadership, the opposition could falter, jeopardizing Rafiq's legacy. "We gave our father's blood for this country," says Saad, formerly the CEO of the family's $3.8 billion construction empire. "But we realized that we had to continue his dream."

It won't be easy. Lebanon is chronically fractious, and the old civil-war rivals are already bickering over how to divvy up power with the Syrians gone. Nobody is talking yet about the most contentious issues facing the new parliament: how to disarm Hizballah, the militant Shi'ite group, and reconfigure the 1943 power-sharing agreement known as the National Pact. The task of uniting the country has fallen to Saad, a shy Georgetown University graduate who makes no secret that he would rather be scuba diving or riding his Harley. "Watch me," he told TIME in a recent interview at the wood-paneled fourth-floor office where his father used to hold court. "My father didn't want a political dynasty. What I would like to do is work in politics for three or four years, establish a real party and then just step down." But gradually he is warming to the role that fate has delivered him. When he appeared at a recent Beirut campaign rally, he practically had to be dragged out of his seat to read a speech to supporters. But at the end of the rally he leaped onto a chair to blow kisses to the well-wishers. "Saad! Saad! Saad!" the crowd chanted, as sure a sign as any that the torch has passed, from father to son. —With reporting by Nicholas Blanford and Romesh Ratnesar/Beirut, Bruce Crumley/Paris and Elaine Shannon/Washington