Pevsner took a sip and nodded his approval.

"Very nice," he said. "Now, let's try the other one."

The ritual was repeated for everyone, which required other glasses to be produced from a cabinet against the wall.

"Decisions, decisions," Pevsner said. "What do you think, Karl?"

"I like the Hungarian," Castillo said.

"So do I," Pevsner said.

"I like the Italian," Kennedy said. "The Hungarian's a little too sweet for me."

Well, Kennedy doesn't apparently feel compelled to agree with the boss about everything.

"In that case," Pevsner said, "we accept the Drei Hussaren's kind gift of both. Thank you very much."

"Our great pleasure, Herr Barstein."

The waiters filled glasses and then left.

The vegetable soup was as good as it looked.

As he reached for his wineglass, Castillo thought, Easy on the sauce, Charley. You're already half crocked.

He took a very small sip, and, when he put the glass down, sensed Pevsner's eyes on him.

"If you didn't steal the 727, who do you think did?" Castillo asked.

"I'm not absolutely sure about this but right now I think it was stolen by an obscure group of Somalian lunatics:"

"Somalian?" Castillo interjected, surprised.

": who call themselves the Holy Legion of Muhammad," Pevsner went on. He paused and then added: "Who plan to crash it into the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

"That's crazy," Charley blurted.

"Sounds that way, doesn't it?" Kennedy agreed. "But that's what we've got so far."

"I used the word lunatics," Pevsner said. "Crazy people tend to do irrational things. That's what makes them so very dangerous."

"The Liberty Bell?" Castillo argued. "Not the Statue of Liberty? The White House? The Golden Gate Bridge? Why would they want to hit the Liberty Bell?"

"We think two reasons," Kennedy said. "Maybe three. For one thing, since 9/11 the White House, Statue of Liberty, most important bridges, etcetera, have been pretty well covered. Nobody gives much of a damn about Philadelphia, so they stand a better chance of carrying it off. Second, these holy warriors probably-hell, almost certainly-think the Liberty Bell is more of a symbol than it is."

"It's a third-rate tourist attraction, that's all," Castillo thought aloud.

"I'm surprised at that comment, from someone like you," Pevsner said. "That's what they call 'mirror thinking': looking in the mirror and working on the premise that other people think like what you see in the mirror. They don't, and that's especially true of people who call themselves something like the Holy Legion of Muhammad."

Goddammit, he's right. The booze is clouding my thinking.

"You're right," Castillo said. "I am supposed to know better."

"And, third-here I admit I don't know what I'm talking about," Kennedy said. "I have a feeling there's a Philadelphia connection."

"A Philadelphia connection?" Castillo asked.

"If these holy warriors intend to take out the Liberty Bell, somebody gave them the idea. They never would have come up with it themselves. And that suggests somebody in Philadelphia did just that."

"Who?"

"Some converts to Islam. Idn bin Rag-on-His-Head, born John James Smith."

Castillo grunted.

"Did you ever give any serious thought to why so many American blacks converted to Islam?" Kennedy asked.

"No," Castillo admitted.

"Maybe you should," Kennedy said.

"You tell me."

"Because they hate Whitey as much as the rag-heads hate all infidels," Kennedy said. "And for exactly the same reason: They got left behind and they don't like it."

"That's what this war is all about, Charley," Pevsner said. "The Muslim world getting left behind. Think about it."

He paused and took a spoonful of the soup.

"Take away their oil reserves and what do they have?" Pevsner went on. "They once dominated the known world. Now, with the exception of their oil, they are completely unimportant-more to the point, powerless-in the modern world. They simply don't have the skills and the culture to compete in it. They gave the world mathematics, and some of the most wonderful architecture-so long as the architecture is based on one stone laid on top of another.

"All the skyscrapers in the Arab world were designed and built by the infidels. And their airplanes were designed and built by infidels and their telephone systems: even their sewers. And they need infidels to keep everything running.

"This isn't the way Muhammad told them it was going to be. He promised them, in the Koran, that they would control the world. And they all know this because higher education in the Arab world consists mostly of men-only men-memorizing the Koran. And since nothing is their fault, it has to be someone else's-the infidels'."

"That seems pretty simplistic," Castillo said, and immediately thought: Careful, Charley, you don't want to piss Pevsner off.

"Because an answer is simple doesn't mean it's not the answer," Pevsner said.

He took another sip of the soup and then a healthy swallow of the Hungarian wine.

"The Muslim world is four hundred-maybe five hundred-years behind the Western world," Pevsner went on. "And adding to that problem is their religious hierarchy who likes it that way. People in power are never in favor of a system change that will see their power diminished. That's also true in the Western world, of course. The Roman Catholic and my own Orthodox hierarchies-who also go around in medieval clothing-are as guilty of this as the mullahs. The difference is that as the influence of the Christian hierarchies on their societies has diminished over time, the Muslim hierarchies' influence has grown.

"They have-as we see examples of just about every day-thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps many hundreds of thousands of faithful who are perfectly willing to sacrifice their lives because their mullahs tell them it will please God. And also send them directly to heaven, where they will receive the attentions of grateful whores. This, I think you will have to agree, makes for a very dangerous situation for Western society."

He stopped and took another healthy sip of the Hungarian red.

"Excuse me," Pevsner said. "I really didn't mean to deliver a lecture."

"You make some interesting points," Castillo said.

"We were talking about the Holy Legion of Muhammad's intention of crashing into the Liberty Bell, I believe?"

"We were."

"Howard?" Pevsner said.

"We found out the 727 was flown to Chad," Kennedy said. "But we don't know where in Chad and Chad is a big country. Lots of remote places where you could hide a 727. And we don't know if it's still there. They may have finished."

"Painting new registration numbers on it, you mean?"

"I think they're going to do more than that. The only way they can hope to get close to the U.S.-Philadelphia-is to disguise the airplane so it looks like somebody else's. The question there is, whose?"

"When we have more information, we'll get it to you," Pevsner said.

"Why are you giving me this information?" Castillo asked.

"Because the U.S. government is better able to deal with the Holy Legion of Muhammad than I am," Pevsner said. "If I could deal with these people myself, I would. I don't want these lunatics to get away with this."

"Why should you care?" Castillo asked.

For the first time, he sensed anger in Pevsner. His head snapped toward Charley and his eyes were cold.

"Because I am on the same side in this war as you are," Pevsner said. "I hoped I had made that clear."

And if we find the airplane, the pressure is off you?

I can't say that. He's already angry.

People sometimes say things when they're angry they shouldn't.

"And also because if we find the 727, the pressure is off you?" Castillo asked, meeting Pevsner's eyes.