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the dead man and the Syrians in Shed 27. Indeed their presence there was known only to the Port Captain and his immediate assistants. It was a good deal later, when he learnt that one of the Mahroutti trucks had left the docks with a consignment of agricultural machinery in the early hours of morning, that his suspicions were first aroused. With the police he went to Shed 27. The doors were locked and there was no response to knocking, so they broke in and found the bodies of Major Aramoun, Captain Azhari and the two lieutenants. In addition, that of a man whose face had been mutilated beyond recognition. The documents in his pockets and his identity disc showed that he was an Israeli soldier. It was at this stage they realized that the almost naked body found that morning near the Port Captain’s office was Colonel Rashid Dahan’s.
    The police counted sixteen grey packing cases in the Benz six-wheelers. A quick check with the Byblos ’schief officer confirmed that this was the number which had been off-loaded . Exterior examination of the packing cases indicated that none had been opened or in any way tampered with. A check with the police at the Port Gates revealed that the Mahroutti Bros truck which had passed through in the early morning had the same registration letters as one of the two trucks still in Shed 27. The Chief of Police and the Port Captain lost no time in reporting what they’d found and the conclusions they’d drawn to their respective Ministers – Defence and Transport.
    That night the Lebanese Minister of Defence telephoned his opposite number in Damascus on a scrambler line. TheSyrian Minister having expressed shock and indignation, they were soon in agreement that Shed 27 had been the target of a particularly brutal Israeli commando raid. The Syrian Minister suggested that since the packing cases had not been removed or tampered with, the raiders must have been disturbed and obliged to call off their operation.
    The Lebanese Minister pointed out that whoever might have disturbed them must have done so unwittingly, for no report of any sort had reached the port authorities or police.
    The Syrian Minister agreed that this was difficult to explain. He undertook to fly down a party of officers on the following day to take over the consignment and move it to Damascus by road.
    The Lebanese Minister told him that Shed 27 was now being guarded by police, reinforced by an army unit. Everything possible was being done to prevent a repetition of the events of earlier in the day.
    The two ministers agreed it was imperative to keep the news of the attack from the media for as long as possible, and to ensure that the contents of the packing cases should remain a closely-guarded secret. In the meantime, said the Syrian Minister, an urgent meeting of his cabinet would be called to consider the diplomatic action to be taken vis-à-vis the Israeli Government.

6
    In an old junk yard in Sinn-el-Fil, a poorer quarter of Beirut, two men worked on the engine of a vintage Renault. But for occasional rubbish scavengers and children looking for a place to hide, few people came that way. No weapons could be seen but the men were armed.
    Inside the shed a single bulb on a worn flex hung from a roof-beam. In its uncertain light could be seen a big Leyland pantechnicon which took up one side of the shed. BADAGUI CO. SAL was lettered in black on its yellow sides. In the warm air of afternoon the atmosphere in the shed was pungent with the smell of diesel oil and tyres.
    Two grey packing cases stood on the dirt floor near the far end where a man was busy at a bench. He was working by the light of a camping torch. Not far from him three men and a girl were examining a large steel cone with the aid of an inspection lamp. It lay on a wooden trestle, near it a fork-lift truck. Beyond the yellow Leyland an armed man stood on guard.
    ‘One point seven-five metres,’ said the bearded man with the neck scar. ‘Heavier than it looks.