The Ghost of Flight 666

CHAPTER 43: A Bumpy Ride

Captain Bashir climbed into the hot cab of the old, rickety truck with his first officer and navigator for the long ride back to Bandar Abbas. It could have been worse. He could be in the back with the fourteen members of his crew that shared the truck bed with thirty goats. So much for the elite of the Iranian Navy!

As they drove, bouncing along the coastal road in the ancient truck, the driver turned on the radio.

The announcer was reading the headlines, “Last night a Singapore passenger jet, the same jet missing from a hijacked flight from Kuala Lumpur two months ago, landed unexpectedly at military airfield in Israel.

“Rumor has it that it was being flown by the captain of the hijacked flight who was himself involved in the plot. Unfortunately all the passengers are now feared dead. In a strange twist, the flight reportedly had on board the missing three tons of Iranian Uranium that was being transported under United Nations auspices for quarantine in Abu Dhabi.

How the Uranium got on board the aircraft and why it suddenly appeared in Israel is unknown. The Israelis have taken possession of the Uranium purportedly for safe keeping. Iran is thus far silent on the matter. The captain is in Israeli custody and awaiting extradition to Malaysia, where he has been convicted in absentia for the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians. He has been sentenced to hang.”

Captain Bashir was struck dumb. The navigator shook his head in wonder. The first officer blinked and asked, “Do you mean to tell me we went through all of this just to give the Israelis our Uranium; couldn’t we have just flown it there to begin with?”