By Order of the President (Presidential Agent 1)

“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.”