Chapter 5
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Chapter 5
Alerted of Khalid’s latest travel plans, Pierre Masson, the pilot, and John Viblickovitzian, the navigator, were waiting for the prince to board his Lear jet.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Khalid said, poking his head at the cockpit’s door.
“Good morning, Khalid,” the two men replied in unison.
Pilot and navigator were a team. They had been in Khalid’s employ since he bought the Lear—correction—since his uncle had bought the aircraft for him. “Talk about a rich uncle” had been Talya’s first comment when Khalid had told her of uncle Abdullah Saif Al-Fadir’s gift. Khalid would never forget her reaction that evening.
He smiled at the two men at the controls and nodded. “Let’s get her off the ground then,” Khalid said, closing the cockpit’s door and going to sit down in one of the six seats that furnished the comfortable cabin.
He knew this journey would take about six hours’ flying-time before they would land in Ottawa. Khalid had arranged to meet with Fred Gibson at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service before flying to Vancouver. He wanted to get an update on Mossad’s movements since Talya’s accident. However, Fred Gibson had probably closed the file on what they had called ‘The Ben Slimane Affair’, and had resumed their normal course of business—if ‘normal’ could ever describe the running of an intelligence agency. The year before, Talya had stumbled onto this hornets’ nest, which consisted in the exchange of drugs for weapons; weapons that had ended in the hands of Israelis in Gaza. The head of this government-sanctioned operation had been none other than a CIA undercover agent, and alleged traitor, by the name of Ben Slimane. Shortly before Talya being shot, Slimane’s death had seen the end of this sordid business.
The Lear needed to make a refueling stop somewhere between Paris and Vancouver, and Ottawa seemed to be the best place to do that—less air traffic and quicker service.
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