The Lion's Game

That's what I thought.

Jane continued, "There is an alternate theory, which is simply that Khalil, carrying a false passport from Haddad, went to the International Arrivals and Departures terminal where a ticket was waiting for him under his false passport name at the ticket counter of a Mideast airline, or perhaps any airline. Or, Yusef Haddad gave Khalil his ticket on board Flight One-Seven-Five."

Jane looked at us and said, "I understand you've considered both theories-Khalil stayed, Khalil is gone. Both are plausible. What we know for sure is that Yusef Haddad stayed. We're trying to establish his true identity, and determine what his co

No doubt about it. I consider myself fearless and brazen, but it was time for me to admit to myself that I could not have done what Asad Khalil did. Only once in my career had I met an adversary who I thought had more balls than I did. When I finally killed him, I felt I wasn't worthy of having killed him; like a hunter with a high-powered rifle who kills a lion knows that the lion was the more worthy and braver of the two.,

Jane hit the video projector button. A blown-up color photo appeared on the screen showing a man's face in profile. Jane said, "You'll see here, in this enhanced photo of Khalil's left cheek, three faint, parallel scars. He has three similar ones on his right cheek. Our pathologist says they are not burns or wounds made by shrapnel or a knife. They are, in fact, typical of wounds made by human fingernails or animal claws-parallel and slightly jagged lacerations. These are the only identifying scars on his body."

I asked, "Can we assume that these scars were caused by a lady's fingernails?"

"You can assume whatever you please, Mr. Corey. I point these out as identifying features in the event he's changed his outward appearance."

"Thank you."

"And along those lines, the people in Paris tattooed three small dots on Asad Khalil's body. One is located on his i

She continued, "In the event you have a suspect, or if you find a body, this might be quick identification to be followed up by fingerprints, or a dental impressions check if necessary."

It was Jim's turn, and he said, "The setup for this operation is actually simple when you examine it. Going from one relatively open country to another is not that difficult. Yusef Haddad was flying Business Class and that always makes things easier, including bringing your garment bag and dealing with medical oxygen. Haddad is well dressed, he probably speaks enough French to understand what they're saying at De Gaulle, and he probably speaks enough English not to be a nuisance to the flight attendants on Trans – Continental.''

I raised my hand. "May I ask a question?"

"Of course."

"How did Yusef Haddad know what flight Asad Khalil would be on?"

"Well, Mr. Corey, that is the question, isn't it."

"Yeah, it's been on my mind."

"Well, the answer is unfortunately simple. We almost always use Trans-Continental, our flag carrier airline, with whom we have a reduced Business Class fare arrangement, but more importantly, we have a security liaison person who works with Trans-Continental. We get people on and off aircraft quickly and with minimum fuss. Apparently, someone knew about this arrangement, which is not exactly top secret."

"But how did Haddad know that Khalil would be on that flight?"

"An obvious security breach within the Trans-Continental operation at De Gaulle. In other words, an employee at Trans-Continental in Paris, perhaps an Arab employee, of which there are many in Paris, tipped off Yusef Haddad. In fact, if you back it up further, Khalil defected in Paris and not in some other city because there was a security breach there. In fact," he added, "for security reasons, American air carriers have a policy that prohibits bringing your own medical oxygen on board. You have to put in a reservation for oxygen, and for a small fee it's delivered to you before you board. Obviously, someone thought about this potential security problem years ago. In this case, however, one of the airline employees swapped a canister of poison gas for one of the oxygen canisters."

I commented, "Both canisters looked the same to me. I guess one of them was marked."

"In fact, the oxygen had a small zigzag scratch in the paint. The poison gas didn't."

I pictured Yusef Haddad saying to himself, "Let me see now… oxygen is scratched, poison gas is not… or was it the other way around…?"

Jim said to me, "Something fu

I explained my silly thought, but only Nash laughed.

Jim referred to some notes, then said, "Regarding the gas, we have a preliminary report on that. I'm not an expert, but they tell me that there are four major types of toxic gas-choking, blister, blood, and nerve. The gas used on Flight One-Seven-Five was undoubtedly a blood agent-probably an advanced or modified cyanide chloride compound. This type of gas is very volatile and dissipates quickly in the ambient air. According to our chemical experts, the passengers may have noticed something that smelled like bitter almonds or even peach pits, but unless they were familiar with cyanide, they would not be alarmed."

Jim looked at us and saw he had everyone's attention, for a change. I've had the same experience in my class at John Jay. As soon as the students start to drift, I come up with something that has to do with murder or sex. Gets everyone's attention.

Jim was into the gas and continued, "Here's what we think happened. Asad Khalil asked to use the lavatory. He was, of course, accompanied by Phil Hundry or Peter Gorman. Whoever accompanied him checked out the lavatory as they would do each time Khalil asked to use it. They wanted to be sure that no one was trying to pull a Michael Corleone-" He looked at us and said, u

Again, Jim paused for effect and continued his narrative. He informed us, "Someone, most probably a cleaning person or maintenance person at De Gaulle, put that oxygen canister under the sink in the dome lav before takeoff. When Phil or Peter let Khalil into the lav, they left him cuffed and told him not to lock the door. Standard procedure. When Khalil was in the lav, this was the signal for Haddad to release the gas in his second canister. At some point, people began to show signs of distress. But by the time anyone realized they were in trouble, it was too late. The autopilot is always engaged during the flight, so the aircraft flew on."