The Alamut Ambush

'It can be on Cloud Nine for all I care,' Butler snapped. 'They meet there and you want to hit them for six. But you can't get at them. Is it in Israel?'

'Israel?' The disbelief in Razzak's voice was answer enough.

'Not Israel then. And obviously not in Egypt. So one of the others, where your writ does not run — but neither does Israel's either. So why Israel? Why not your Russian allies – they don't want trouble either – ' Butler's eyes settled for a second on Audley ' — and they've been known to do other people's dirty work?'

'Major Butler – ' Audley began. Butler cut him short. 'No, Audley.

Maybe it feels right to you, and maybe history repeats itself — but I have to have facts to swallow. I want a plain answer.'

'And I will give you one,' Razzak held up his hand. 'I accept Major Butler's disbelief. Six months ago I would have agreed with him –

and even now it's not something I'm doing willingly.'

Razzak lifted his chins and stared down his squashed nose at dummy2

Butler. If it had been a lean face and a hawkish nose it would have been a proud look, even an arrogant one. So that, thought Roskill, was probably what it was.

'Major, this man Hassan is very confident of himself but he is also very careful. If anything happened now – anything — to make him think that maybe he's not been so clever, then there will be no Alamut tomorrow.'

'Tomorrow!'

'Less than thirty-six hours from now. And I'll never get another chance like this – not a chance to take Hassan and Watchers in one bite.'

Razzak sat forward. 'But you are right, Major – I could ask the Russians. Or the Syrians – and even the Iraqis too, though as things stand between us that would hardly be wise. But all of them are belter placed to take Alamut if I offered it to them. But having taken it, would they destroy it? Or I wonder – would they use Hassan for themselves?'

He grimaced. 'I think they would be tempted. But even if they weren't I think they're no more secure than we are. I think they'd scare him off, Major.'

The Egyptian's tone was carefully controlled: only the words themselves conveyed the distrust and contempt he evidently felt for his allies and fellow-Arabs.

'So you prefer your enemies?'

'When my enemies have identical interests – I'd make a treaty with the devil himself, Major.'

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A slow smile cracked Butler's face. Whether by accident or intuition, Razzak was speaking Butler's language now – the language of pragmatic patriotism, which measured friendship neither by blood nor past history, but by the calculation of mutual benefits.

'The same interests,' said Audley, 'but not the same opportunity for temptation perhaps?'

'Hah!' Razzak chuckled. 'There you have the answer in a nutshell –

but less than that even. The Israelis have no opportunity at all!

They can do what I want or they can do nothing at all. What you call a Hobson's Choice.'

'It seems that you've managed things rather well, then, Colonel.'

'No, Dr. Audley. It's simply that Alamut has left us only a Hobson's Choice to make.'

Razzak nodded at Butler. 'You guessed very close actually, Major.

"Cloud Nine" you said. You see, Hassan is meeting his friends on tomorrow evening's Trans-Levant flight from Aleppo to Mosul.'

XIV

'TOMORROW EVENING'S ORDINARY, scheduled flight.'

Razzak showed his teeth, beautiful white even teeth, as incongruous in his ugly face as those liquid brown eyes. 'But if you had ever tried to book a seat on this particular flight you would have failed. And I'd guess the regular crew won't be flying dummy2

tomorrow either, for one reason or another. It might even be hard to find out which of Trans-Levant's fleet it'll be, too, until the very last moment. But otherwise – an ordinary flight, yes!'

'Good God Almighty!' Butler exploded. 'Man – are you sure?

Because if you're wrong – '

'Because if I'm wrong, what I propose to do would be a crime?'

Razzak raised his eyebrows eloquently. 'The thought had crossed my mind, Major Butler. But I am not wrong. That flight will be Alamut, believe me. The final briefing before the kill. But it must be our kill, not Hassan's.'

An ordinary flight . . . And yet there was method in it: if Hassan had one or two men strategically placed in Trans-Levant's operation – if he had it penetrated like the Ryle Foundation – then it wasn't as crazy as it sounded. The problem of organising any secret convention was that the delegates had to converge on a place. They had to meet somewhere, and in meeting they maximised the danger of discovery.

But if the crew and the passengers could be hand-picked, an airline flight solved this problem dramatically: quite simply, the meeting would be over before anyone knew it had taken place. What seemed a random collection of travellers would come together naturally and disperse naturally. If by any mischance any individual delegate was being followed, the pursuits would be baulked at the departure point and then led straight home when they picked up their quarry again.

Razzak was watching each of them speculatively — watching each of them test the plausibility of what he had told them and, as each dummy2

found it not so implausible, waiting for them to react to it.

'So you want the Israelis to sabotage it?' Butler was frowning and there was doubt in his voice.

Razzak shook his head. 'No, Major Butler. If I thought they could sabotage it, then I'd have done it myself without their help. But sabotaging planes isn't as easy as it used to be – and sabotaging this one just isn't possible, believe me.'

'I was going to say' – Butler said brusquely – 'Hassan's a fool to put all his eggs in one basket so they can all be broken at once. And him too. But why isn't it possible?'

'Many reasons, Major. The men he has in Trans-Levant will be his most trusted ones, that's certain. And even if we knew which plane they were going to use, which we don't, no one's going to get close to it at Aleppo – not now, anyway.'

'Why not now?'

'Because Aleppo airport is at this moment sealed up as tight as a camel's – as tight as Fort Knox. By Hassan, I believe – and at no cost to himself.'

'How the devil has he managed that?'

'Very simply, Major. At this moment Aleppo airport already has a bomb scare of its own. Someone phoned up yesterday to warn them that the Kurdish extremists – the ones who haven't accepted the settlement with Iraq – are going to blow up one of the Iraqi flights. It was in the newspapers this morning. Not a plane moves until they've checked it out thoroughly.'

The Egyptian shrugged. 'It could be just Hassan's good fortune. But dummy2

I don't think it is. The Kurds have denied it and for once I believe them. You see, Major – it has the feel of Hassan about it. He's a man who likes to use others to do his own work. He likes to ride on other people's backs.'

The Old Man of the Sea, thought Roskill. Of all the creepy fairy tales, that one had chilled him most in his childhood. And again there was method in it – Hassan's method. For he would only be using Aleppo's security system now as he had used Trans-Levant and the Ryle. And as he planned to use the Arab nations to destroy Israel for him.

'I think his plane will be the best-guarded of all, Major Butler,' said Razzak simply.

'Then that only leaves you hijacking,' said Butler. 'And – by God! –

if you've got one of his men in your pocket — ' He stopped short as he saw the objection to what he had said. 'But where does that bring the Israelis in? Are you going to hijack it to Israel?'

'If it were possible, it would be the most civilised way of solving the problem, that is true,' the Egyptian said regretfully. 'But I am assured that it is one thing the Israelis will not even contemplate.