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through the list of the most likely suspects in his mind, the ones who would stand to gain the most. It wasn’t a very long list because there weren’t that many groups that had it in for the Israelis
and
the Palestinians.
    “A few have called papers in the Middle East, but no one who had any inside information. Nothing we can use. And remember, they only attacked soldiers. No civilian casualties at all.”
    “Sounds like Hamas to me. Or Hezbollah,” Terry Cunningham said, thinking out loud. “They’ve killed Palestinians before, when they were pissed at Arafat for dealing with Israel, and changing their charter.”
    “They both said they had nothing to do with it. Who else is out there that’s unhappy at both? And goes so far out of their way to show both of them at the same time?”
    Cunningham considered. “There are a few others, but none who could pull off this kind of thing.”
    “We may be dealing with something new. That’s why I asked Sami to be part of this. He’s an analyst with the Middle East Section. You should have all read his memo before now.” He looked around the table. They nodded.
    Sami watched Kinkaid for hints of what he thought of his memo. He had been forced to prepare it before it was ready. Kinkaid was in too much of a hurry to find the answer. Shortcuts are fine if they get you to the answer quicker. But sometimes shortcuts lead to trouble. Sami thought Kinkaid looked worn out. In fact he looked just plain dumpy. His mind was legendary, but he had heard other things about Kinkaid that troubled him. Sami figured Kinkaid was entitled to the benefit of the doubt for now.
    Kinkaid continued. “You may be wondering why we’re jumping on this so early. No Americans injured, no American interests directly affected. The Israelis can look out for themselves, right? The way I see it, every terrorist event threatens American interests one way or another. It’s just a matter of time. Sometimes it’s way later than when we first hear about something. We’ve been taking a more pro-active approach for the last couple of years. We want to know everything about every terrorist we can. You can’t have too much knowledge about people who are intent on destroying things. Maybe we’ll save some lives. Hard to say. All I know is that it has paid off in the past, and I expect it to pay off now. And if Sami’s memo is even close, we are in for a rude awakening. I will also be in touch with a friend from Israel who has helped me in the past. I’ll find out what they know.”
     
     
    “She’s the most beautiful woman I think I’ve ever seen,” Vialli said as he sat back in his chair in the wardroom and scooped ice cream out of a drinking glass with a spoon.
    “You were all over her as soon as you saw her. You didn’t waste a second—”
    “Dude, you
kicked
me! Made sure I saw her, and now you bust my chops for noticing her? What’s up with that?” Vialli smiled. He scraped the bottom of the glass with his spoon and got up to get more from the automatic dispenser in the back of the wardroom, the Auto Dog as it was known. They were the only officers in the forward-most section of the aviators’ wardroom, the dirty-shirt wardroom. It was on the 03 level, the same level as all the ready rooms and most of the aviators’ staterooms. All they had to do to eat was walk forward. The other wardroom, on the second deck, was where most of the ship’s company’s officers ate.
    Vialli pulled the lever and moved his glass back and forth to get all the chocolate ice cream the glass would hold. He filled a porcelain cup full of steaming coffee and sat down again. “You underestimate me. You think I’m—”
    “I just watch.”
    “Well, she’s different. I’m telling you. She’s a class act. When you went off on your own into that cave we got to talk.”
    Woods frowned. “You didn’t try to make out with her, did you?”
    “I just put my arm around her for a second. She loved it. She snuggled