Operation Flashpoint by Dan J Marlowe

Author:Dan J Marlowe [Marlowe, Dan J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-4117-9
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 1998-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

7

JOCK MCLAREN admitted me into the office when I knocked. “Damn it all, Earl, you have all the excitement,” he greeted me. He sounded wistful. “I got to the Picadilly when it was all over. Come on. Karl’s inside.”

Erikson was stoking a pipe at his desk when he entered the inner office. He nodded but was silent until he had the pipe drawing to his satisfaction. “Tell him your end of it first, Jock,” he said.

“Well,” McLaren replied, looking at me, “I found out from the bartender that a guy answering your description had blown the scene with the girl. So I figured I’d do the next best thing, and I trailed the police ambulance down to the morgue to check out the man we knew as Hawk. I identified myself and took considerable physical evidence from the body. We checked it out with sources we consider reliable, and we got a make. The man’s name was Hakim Shukairat, age twenty-nine, a Jordanian. He held a rank roughly equivalent to captain in the fedayeen. He was the leader of a fanatical commando group that we’re certain forced down a chartered American airliner near Las Vegas and also—”

“Earl knows that,” Erikson interrupted him. I realized that Erikson, with his usual need-to-know security precautions, hadn’t told McLaren that I was aboard the hijacked aircraft.

McLaren raised an eyebrow but continued. “Shukairat led or participated in the shoot-up of an El Al plane in Switzerland some time ago. It appears likely that he was brought to the U.S. for the same kind of work, and it’s believed that he would have mounted similar operations.”

McLaren paused for an instant. “So far we’ve been unable to tie him into any political, military, or financial contacts in this country that would make him anything but a bandit, although we’re sure they exist. Our evaluation to this point indicates that he was an able field man but that he wasn’t a planner. He probably received his orders from well-trained superiors. And he either got careless today or he was set up for the fall by the girl.”

“I’ll bet against the last one,” I said.

“Do you think the two assassins were Israeli agents?” Erikson asked me. “Making a move on their own because they felt we weren’t moving fast enough?”

“There was nothing to indicate it,” I said slowly. “I imagine a man like Shukairat could have papered a room with his enemies. They didn’t look any more like Israelis than they did any other Middle East nationality. Although come to think of it, the whole affair had kind of the look of an execution.”

“I’m going to have a little talk with Bergman,” Erikson said grimly. “If it was Israeli intelligence, and if Bergman can’t keep his falcons leashed, we’ll ship them out of the country. What about the envelope you mentioned, Earl?”

I unbuttoned my shirt, removed it, and tossed its bulk onto the desk. It was smudged and wrinkled, but the seal was still intact. McLaren hunkered down and peered at it from eye level without touching it at all.

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