Majid was numb on the train back from Zurich. Had Stavro just threatened to harm his mother and sister if Majid didn’t keep working with him? Had Stavro just acknowledged that he (they?!) were working for terrorists? Had Stavro just asserted that if the scheme went down or Majid blew the whistle he would be implicated as a terrorist himself?

And wasn’t that very likely to be true?

Yes, yes, yes. And yes.

The train passed through tidy Swiss towns and tidy Swiss fields and stunning mountains. There were always mountains in view. Majid knew that some of them were partially hollowed-out—civil defense shelters or secret armories. The Swiss hadn’t fought a war in two hundred years but they believed in being prepared, with an army of citizen-soldiers who kept their weapons at home. It occurred to Majid that that might make it possible for him to obtain a gun himself, perhaps from a disgruntled or mercenary citizen-soldier (were there any disgruntled Swiss? they seemed pretty satisfied to him). And then what? Shoot Stavro? Would that make his situation better or worse? “Terrorist Financier Shoots Terrorist Accomplice!” Not good.

This being Switzerland, the wireless service on the train was excellent. Majid opened his laptop and searched for Medallion Cruises. Its website was beckoning and bright. Exciting Destinations! Your Travel Dreams Come True! Fun for the Whole Family! There were videos of happy customers in shipboard hot tubs and night clubs and smiling during shore excursions to beaches and Roman ruins. A live webcam was trained just then on the boarding ramp of a Medallion ship about to set sail after a stop in Villefranche-sur-Mer. The Mediterranean sun was beaming on passengers returning from a day on the French Riviera. They were wearing straw hats and sunglasses and carrying beach gear and shopping bags. A couple in their thirties was boarding with two children. The mother, her hair wrapped in a yellow scarf, was carrying a boy of two or three who was collapsed asleep against her shoulder. The father was chasing after a girl of six or seven with bright red curly hair and a T-shirt that said “Daddy’s Girl.” She was making a game of their walk up the ramp, running from her father, then waiting to be caught, screaming with delight when she was, then breaking away again. She was adorable. Daddy was laughing.

Fun for the Whole Family!

I mean, ships are prone to mishaps.

Majid was still watching the webcam when his train pulled into Geneva.

Part Four

PART FOUR

To Act

TO ACT

“I believe I was created by God and deposited on this earth for a purpose. My purpose is to pursue criminals and murderers and bring evil to justice.”