“Let me guess,” said Harvath. “Schoen?”

“The one and only. He was quite ingenious, eliminating the rank structure and encouraging his men to be creative in their assassinations. He gave his operatives anything they needed to get the job done. And he didn’t just want to kill his targets; he wanted the terrorists to experience the same terror that the Israeli athletes and their families had faced. He wanted terrorists everywhere to know that if they even thought about committing attacks on Israel, there was no place in the world where they would be safe from reprisals.

“We know that the Wrath of God operation was covertly controlled by the Mossad, but that Schoen operated with total autonomy, completely outside the Israeli government. We think this might be what they’re doing again.”

“If ever called on the carpet, Schoen could claim sole responsibility and provide them with plausible deniability,” said Harvath.

“Exactly. Though the Israeli government denies any connection with the Hand of God, because of Schoen’s history, we decided to take a closer look at him. Our sources think that he might be in this more for himself than for Israel, and that’s dangerous.”

“So Schoen’s got several reasons to hate the Arabs. What’s this have to do with us?”

“Everything. First of all, if the Israeli government is behind the Hand of God attacks, which we believe they are, they are throwing the Mideast into serious peril. Terrorism on any level is inexcusable, but Israel appears to be taking it to new heights and we cannot have that, especially not now. Not with the resurgence of the FRC.”

“I find it hard to believe that Abu Nidal has magically come back to life. I thought we had independent confirmation of his death,” said Harvath.

“As far as our intelligence is concerned, he is very much dead.”

“So who’s running the show, then? He’s not giving orders from beyond the grave.”

“You’d be surprised. Apparently, Abu Nidal had a son.”

“A son? How the hell did we miss that?”

“I don’t know, but believe me, we’re looking into it.”

“So, the old man passed the baton to his son,” said Harvath as he reached for his cup to take another sip of water. “What’s the connection with the men who kidnapped the president?”

“From what I have seen in the recent reports you filed, you figured it out yourself. Gerhard Miner only had so many men working with him that he could trust. There was no way he could spare any of them to facilitate the explosion in Lebanon that killed the Rapid Return team. So, he contracted it out.”

“And you’re saying he contracted it out to Abu Nidal’s son, who is now the new leader of the old man’s Fatah Revolutionary Council?”

“Yes. His name is Hashim. It means-”

“‘Crusher of evil,’ I know. I’ve studied Arabic,” said Harvath as he fought to process all the information he was getting. “So, Hashim Nidal is rebuilding his father’s organization?”

“Unfortunately, that’s the way it looks. And, he appears to be committed to the same objectives as his father-”

“Destroying any peace negotiations or settlements between the Israelis and the Palestinians and wiping out the State of Israel.”

“Bingo,” said Mraz.

“Then put him on your most-likely-to-bleed list and let Morrell or somebody take him out. The father was bad enough; who knows how much worse the son will be.”

“We couldn’t agree more, but there’s a slight hiccup in this case.”

“There’s always something. What is it?”

“We have no idea what Hashim Nidal looks like. No one that we know of has ever seen him and lived to tell about it.”

“Surely there’s got to be somebody?”

“Zip. Not even a good description.”

“You can’t locate some of his own people and turn them?” asked Harvath.

“The old man had money stashed everywhere, and as far as we know, it’s all being watched. The son, though, has apparently been able to get his hands on money from somewhere, whether it’s his father’s or someone else’s. It’s been enough to fire the organization back up. And apparently he pays very well. No one’s risking their necks or their salaries to talk to us.”

Harvath leaned back on his pillow and had a faraway look in his eyes as he rubbed his stubbled chin. “Schoen and I have both come across Nidal’s son,” he said.

“You’ve seen his face? Both of you?”

“No, not really. What we each saw were eyes. Silver eyes. The assassin in Macau who got to Jamek before we could, the one who took out Gerhard Miner in Switzerland, and the man who attacked Schoen in Israel, the same one he saw after the ambush in Lebanon, were all the same guy. It has to be Hashim Nidal.”

“Or someone working for him,” said Mraz.

“Regardless, I’ll bet our last two Lions either had met with Nidal’s son face-to-face or had enough sensitive information on him that they had to be silenced permanently,” replied Harvath.

“That would make sense, as would the boldness of those assassinations. We’ve already tied the son to a string of deadly terrorist attacks on different continents over the last year and a half. They’ve all been very bloody, very high risk operations. They make what the father did look like child’s play. And what’s worse, we’ve discovered that he’s managed to align several different Islamic terrorist organizations under his umbrella. Our people are projecting that left unchecked, his group will grow to become the largest and best organized we’ve ever encountered. After they light up Israel, who do you think their next target will be?”

“Us,” said Harvath, his tone grave.

“Just like dominoes,” replied Mraz.

“But that’s ridiculous. They’ve got to know that as Israel’s biggest ally we’d come to their aid.”

“I’m sure they do know that. And I’m sure they’re counting on it. The minute we step into Israel, we’re going to see unprecedented acts of terrorism against the United States.”

“Do we have any leads at all?”

“We know that the FRC has made several recent attempts to retrieve funds that Abu Nidal thought he had hidden beyond anyone’s detection. Each of those attempts has been thwarted. The organization is desperately trying to raise cash, and our intelligence indicates that whatever they’re planning, it’s coming up fast.”

“So what’s the operation?” asked Scot.

Mraz spoke up. “The goal of Operation Phantom is to identify and eliminate Hashim Nidal before he can carry out his next attack, and hopefully dismantle his organization once and for all.”

“Operation Phantom?” asked Harvath.

“Yes, Abu Nidal’s son is, for all intents and purposes, a ghost. We don’t know his date of birth, how tall he is…not even what he looks like.”

“Do you guys actually pay someone to sit around and think these names up?”

“Often, it’s the mission directors who develop the code names. In this case, the mission director is Mr. Morrell.”

“Well, that explains a lot.”

“Regardless of your feelings about Mr. Morrell, I can guarantee you we chose the best man for the job.”

“That’s highly debatable,” replied Scot. “But as long as you have me along, at least I can keep an eye on him and try to keep him from screwing things up too badly.”

“And what makes you think you will have anything to do with this operation, Agent Harvath?”

“Because you wouldn’t have spent all this time spilling what you know if you didn’t plan on bringing me in. Let’s also not forget that I am operating under direct orders from the president of the United States, who has the utmost confidence in my abilities, and who with one phone call would have me put on this team, whether you like it or not.”

“You are an arrogant man, Agent Harvath,” said Mraz.

“No, it’s not arrogance, Mr. Mraz, I’m just very good at what I do,” replied Harvath evenly.

“Well, I want you to know that I don’t think you belong on this team and neither does Director Vaile. But, as you mentioned, the president does have every confidence in your ability, and therefore we have grudgingly decided to put you under Mr. Morrell’s command.”