The First Casualty

18

Jason waited as long as possible before paying cash for his ticket, reluctantly showing his passport for identification. Absent false ID, there was no way he could keep his name off the passenger manifest, a document any moderately talented teenage hacker could get. His hope was that by the time his name was added, the flight would have departed.

In the waiting area, he selected a seat with a wall at its back. The thought of how easily the syringe’s needle could have slipped through the fabric of the seat or those on an aircraft made him squirm. Easy, quiet, undetectable. Undetectable until one of the plane’s flight crew discovered the passenger in 14F was dead, not sleeping, by which time the killer would be long gone. Equally disquieting was the certainty the attempt had been perpetrated by professionals, not one of Moustaph’s disciples, filled more with religious zeal and hatred than talent. Not that the Al Qaeda leader didn’t have capable killers available.

Another disturbing thought was the question of whether the men in Liechtenstein were connected to the shot fired through the bedroom window. Jason was fairly certain they were. Both the lack of subtlety and the blind shot through the window had an amateurish quality. Not like the would-be attack with the syringe.

The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he became. Two sets of assassins? One, the amateurs, acting out of revenge at the command of Moustaph, the other, the paid professionals with ready access to poison syringes and an arsenal of equally deadly weapons.

Not much he could do about it now other than to e-mail Momma and Narcom a list of what he needed so far. He had just finished when his flight was called.

Moments later, he was seated, iPod earbuds inserted as the violins of Scarlatti, the greatest of the Neapolitan Baroque composers, danced through his head. He ignored the scientifically dubious claim of possible interference with the aircraft’s navigational system and began to read the material Momma had given him further.