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aforementioned stuff could be directly linked to this Khalil guy, so he had been put under the eye to see who he associated with, or to see if he could be caught in the act. But the alleged asshole seemed to have no known accomplices, no ties to or affiliations with anybody or anything, and no known terrorist connections, except Kiwanis and Rotary. Just kidding.
    I scanned a paragraph in the dossier, written by a code-named agent in an unnamed intelligence agency. The paragraph said, “Asad Khalil enters a country openly and legally, using his Libyan passport and posing as a tourist. The authorities are alerted, and he is watched to see who he makes contact with. Invariably, he manages to disappear and apparently leave the country undetected, as there is never any record of his departure. I highly recommend detention and interrogation the next time he arrives at a point of entry.”
    I nodded. Good idea, Sherlock. That’s exactly what we were going to do.
    The thing that bothered me about this was that Asad Khalil didn’t sound like the kind of perp who would show up at the American Embassy in Paris and give himself up when he was way ahead on points.
    I read the last page of the dossier. Basically what we had here was a loner with a bad attitude toward Western Civilization, such as it is. Well, okay, we’ll see what the guy is up to real soon.
    I studied the color photostat from Paris. Mr. Khalil looked mean, but not ugly mean. He was the swarthily handsome type, hooked nose, slicked-back hair, and deep, dark eyes. He’d had his share of girls or boys or whatever floated his boat.
    My colleagues chatted about the case at hand for a moment, and it seemed like all we were supposed to do today was take Mr. Khalil into protective custody and bring him here for a quick preliminary interrogation, a few photos, fingerprints, and all that. An asylum officer from the Immigration and Naturalization Service would do some questioning and paperwork, too. There are a lot of redundancies built into the Federal system so that if something goes wrong, there are no fewer than five hundred people passing the buck around.
    After an hour or two here, we’d escort him to Federal Plaza, where, I suppose, he would be met by the appropriate people, who, along with my team, would determine the sincerity of his defection to Christendom and so forth. At some point, a day, a week, or months from now, Mr. Khalil would wind up in some CIA place outside of Washington where he’d spill his guts for a year and then get some bucks and a new identity, which, knowing the CIA, would make the poor guy look like Pat Boone. Anyway, I said to my colleagues, “Who has blond hair, blue eyes, big tits, and lives in the south of France?”
    No one seemed to know, so I told them, “Salman Rushdie.”
    Nick got a good laugh out of that and slapped his knee. “Two more demerits.”
    The other two guys smiled tightly. Kate rolled her eyes.
    Yeah, I was being a little over the top, but I didn’t ask for this gig. Anyway, I only had one more bad joke and two more obnoxious comments left.
    Kate Mayfield said, “As you may have read in our assignment memo from Zach Weber, Asad Khalil is being escorted by Phil Hundry of the FBI, and Peter Gorman of the CIA. They took charge of Khalil in Paris, and they are flying Business Class in the dome section of the 747. Mr. Khalil may or may not be a government witness and until that’s established, he’s in handcuffs.”
    I inquired, “Who gets the frequent flyer miles?”
    Ms. Mayfield ignored me and continued, “The two agents and Mr. Khalil will deplane first, and we will be in the jetway, at the door of the aircraft, to meet them.” She glanced at her watch, then stood and looked at the TV monitor and said, “Still inbound, still on time. In about ten minutes we should get moving toward the gate.”
    Ted Nash said, “We certainly don’t expect any trouble, but we should be alert. If anyone wanted to kill this guy,