In Tripoli they also told him that in the more rural areas, the police were looking at cars that might be driven by dealers of drugs. This could be a problem, they warned him, as the police sometimes looked for drivers who were of the black or Spanish race, and they might stop an Arab man by mistake or even on purpose. But at night, it was difficult to see who was driving, and now the sun was setting.
Asad Khalil thought for a minute about Gamal Jabbar. He took no pleasure in killing a fellow Muslim, but each believer in Islam was expected to fight, or to sacrifice, or to be martyred in the Jihad against the West. Too many Muslims, such as Gamal Jabbar, did nothing except send money back to their homelands. Jabbar did not actually deserve death, Khalil thought, but death became the only possibility. Asad Khalil was on a holy mission, and others had to sacrifice so that he could do what they couldn't do-kill the infidel. His only other thought about Gamal Jabbar was a passing concern that the man could have survived the single bullet. But Khalil had seen that twitching before, and heard that gurgling. The man was dead. 'May Allah take him into Paradise this very night.'
The sun was setting, but it was not practical to stop to perform the Salat. He had been given dispensation from the mullah for the time he was engaged in the Jihad. But he would not fail to say his prayers. In his mind, he prostrated himself on his prayer rug and faced Mecca. He recited, 'God is most great! I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Hasten to Salat! Hasten to success! God is most great. There is no God but Allah!'
He recited random passages from the Koran, 'Kill the aggressors wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you… Fight them until Allah's religion is supreme… Fight for the cause of Allah with the devotion due to him… Permission to take up arms is hereby given to those who are attacked… Allah has the power to grant them victory… Believers, fear Allah as you rightly should, and when death comes, die true Muslims… If you have suffered a defeat, so did the enemy. We alternate these victories among mankind so that Allah may know true believers and choose martyrs from among you, and that he may test the faithful and annihilate the infidels. Allah is the supreme Plotter.'
Satisfied that he had fulfilled his obligations, he felt at peace as he drove through the strange land, surrounded by enemies and infidels.
Then, he recalled the ancient Arab war song, and he sang the song called 'The Death Feud.' 'Terrible he rode alone with his Yemen sword for aid; ornament, it carried none but the notches on the blade.'
CHAPTER 21
Jack Koenig returned with some papers in his hand that looked like faxes. We all sat and he said to us, 'I spoke to the crime lab supervisor at JFK. They have a preliminary report-' he tapped the papers on the coffee table '-of the scenes of the aircraft and the Conquistador Club.' He added, 'I also spoke to George, who has offered to transfer out of the ATTF and out of New York.'
He let that hang there for a few seconds, then asked Kate, 'Yes? No?'
'No.'
Koenig addressed Kate and me and said, 'Can you two speculate or guess as to what happened on the aircraft before it landed?'
Kate said, 'John is the detective.' Koenig said to me, 'You're on, Detective.' I should point out here that the FBI uses the term 'investigator' to describe what amounts to a detective-so I didn't know if I was being honored or patronized. In any case, this is partly what I was hired for, of course, and I'm good at this stuff. But Koenig made no secret of the fact that he just got some answers to the questions he was asking. So, rather than make an idiot of myself, I asked Koenig, 'I assume they found those two oxygen bottles in the dome coat closet.'
'Yes, they did. But as you discovered, both had their valves open, so we don't know what was in them. But we can assume that one was oxygen and the other wasn't.' He said to me, 'Proceed.'
'Okay… about two hours outside of New York, Air Traffic Control lost contact with Trans-Continental One- Seven-Five. So, it was then that the guy with the medical oxygen bottles, probably sitting in Business Class in the dome-'
'Correct,' said Mr. Koenig. 'His name was Yusef Haddad. Seat Two A.'
'Okay, this guy-what's his name?'
'Yusef Haddad. Means Joe Smith. He's on the manifest with a Jordanian passport and medical oxygen required for emphysema. The passport's probably a fake, so was the emphysema, and so was one of the oxygen bottles.'
'Right. Okay, Joe Smith, Business Class Jordanian in Seat Two A. This guy is breathing the real oxygen, then he reaches down and opens the valve of the second bottle. A gas escapes and gets into the closed air-conditioning system of the aircraft.'
'Correct. What kind of gas?'
'Well, it was something nasty like cyanide.'
'Very good. It was most probably a hemotoxin, maybe a military form of cyanide. The victims basically suffocated. The lab will analyze blood and tissue tonight and see if they can identify it. Not that it matters. But that's the way they work. Anyway, within ten minutes, all the air on board is recirculated. So everyone got a dose of this gas except Yusef Haddad, who was still breathing pure oxygen.' He looked at me and said, 'Tell me how Khalil escaped death.'
'Well, I'm not sure of the sequence of events, but… I'm thinking that Khalil was in the lav when the gas escaped. The lavatory might be less toxic than the cabin air.'
'In fact,' Koenig said, 'it is not. But the exhaust flow of air from the lav is vented directly out of the aircraft, which is why everyone in the cabins can't smell it when someone sits on the potty.'
Interesting. I mean, I once took an AeroMexico flight to Cancun where they served a lunch consisting of twenty-two different bean dishes, and I was surprised the plane didn't explode in midair. I said, 'So the lav is toxic, and Khalil is breathing as little as possible and maybe has a wet paper towel over his face. Haddad has to make his move very quickly and get to Khalil, either with his own oxygen or one of those small oxygen bottles that are carried on board for medical emergencies.'
Koenig nodded, but said nothing.
Kate said, 'What I don't understand is how Haddad and Asad Khalil knew that the aircraft was pre- programmed to land itself.'
Koenig replied, 'I'm not sure either. We're checking that out.' He looked at me and said, 'Continue.'
'Okay, so within ten minutes, there are only two people alive on board the aircraft-Asad Khalil and his accomplice, Yusef Haddad. Haddad finds the handcuff keys on Peter Gorman and uncuffs Khalil in the lav. The poison gas is eventually vented, and after they're certain that the air is safe to breathe, maybe fifteen minutes, they get off the oxygen. Kate and I didn't see the aircraft's emergency oxygen bottle lying around, so I assume that Haddad or Khalil put it back where it's usually stored. Then they put Haddad's medical oxygen in the dome coat closet where we found it.'
'Yes,' Koenig replied, 'they wanted everything to look fairly normal when the aircraft was first boarded at JFK. Assuming Peter or Phil had died near the lav, they also put that person's body back in his seat. Continue, Mr. Corey.'
I continued, 'Okay, Khalil must not have killed Haddad immediately because Haddad's body was warmer than everyone else's. So these two guys tidy up things, maybe go through Phil's and Peter's belongings, take their guns, then probably go down to First and Coach and make sure everyone is dead. At some point, Khalil doesn't need any more company, and he breaks Haddad's neck, as Kate discovered. He puts Haddad next to Phil, cuffs him, and puts the sleeping mask on him.' I added, 'Somewhere along the line, Khalil took the thumbs.'
'Correct,' Koenig said. 'The lab found a knife in the dome galley with traces of wiped blood, and they found the napkin used to wipe the knife hidden in the galley trash. Had anyone who first boarded seen a bloody knife, that would have gotten some attention. Had you or Kate seen it, you'd have come to the conclusion you came to even sooner.'
'Right.' What you first see when you arrive at a crime scene is often what the perpetrator wants you to see. Further investigation, however, turns up the ropes and pulleys behind the scenery.
Koenig looked at us and said, 'At some point, while the aircraft was being towed, Sergeant Andy McGill of the
