Read Online Hooked by Michael Harris, Ruth Harris - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Michael Harris, Ruth Harris
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withdrawn from medication by now but I’ve discovered an anomalous receptor in his amoeboid cells. It’s what made him blow up to two hundred and sixty-five pounds—”
As soon as Gavin put down the receiver, he realized he had neglected to order glucose but decided not to bother phoning Kiskalesi back. He had already begun eliminating glucose from Sadun’s formula anyway.
When the medication was delivered from Zurich, though, the package included glucose. Nobody could have known about it except the man who had taken his bag — or the man for whom it had been taken.
That evening, Gavin began to fit all the pieces together and, immediately after giving Sadun his shot, he went into his room, locked the door, and wrote a three-page letter, with one carbon copy. In it, Gavin accused Nicholas Kiskalesi of the theft of his bag and went on to describe, accurately, Sadun’s position as a pawn in an international multimillion dollar oil gambit being manipulated by Nicholas Kiskalesi.
When he had finished, Gavin put the carbon into an envelope and sent it to Nicholas Kiskalesi. He enclosed the original in another envelope marked DO NOT OPEN EXCEPT IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH. He mailed it to Cleo Talbot at her Fifth Avenue residence.
Sadun’s vital signs improved after the second injection. By the third day, he was back to his old, new self and it almost seemed as if nothing had gone awry.
The first thing Sadun did was to announce to the world’s press that instead of waiting until Ramadan, he would return to Egypt immediately. He ordered Rudy to do his packing and requested the loan of Nicky’s plane.
In Cairo, public celebration of Sadun’s imminent return began — apparently spontaneously — in front of the presidential palace, in the marketplaces, and in the grand mosque of El Azhar. The military, partially loyal to the absent monarchy and partially beholden to the Nasser government, which paid its salaries, was momentarily paralyzed. Rumors of insurrection circulated and seventeen deaths were reported as a result of the 7.62-mm AK-47 assault rifles supplied by the Russian technical advisers.
Gavin, without whom Sadun had refused to budge, was in his room packing when he heard a scream from next door. He picked up a bronze candlestick and opened his own door softly. He looked both ways. The corridor was deserted.
He walked the few paces to Sadun’s room and knocked. There was no answer and he let himself in. X lay on the bed in a lake of blood. Lying next to her was Sadun. His head, severed from his body, had rolled to the floor where it rested on the zebra skin rug, its eyes wide, frozen in an expression of horror.
They will come for me next
, thought Gavin. He ran down the hallway, down the rear servant’s stairs, through the kitchen and then to Seema’s room.
He put his forefinger to his mouth. “Shhhh,” he told the terrified child.
17
The beheading of Sadun in his grotesque bedroom, his crimson blood staining crimson satin, made world headlines.
Nasser’s government realized how precarious its base of power actually was and knew it needed support, political and financial, from sources other than the Soviet Union. When the Turkish billionaire Nicholas Kiskalesi offered to finance a dam project equal to the Aswan, Nasser was happy to accept.
As part of the bargain, Kiskalesi asked for and was granted oil concessions. Nasser’s thinking was that dams and oil fields created jobs, and jobs created full bellies. With full bellies and money in their pockets, people weren’t so likely to harbor thoughts of a return to monarchy.
The murderers of Cilek, as they were dubbed by the world’s press, were never identified. Speculation abounded; some said they had been hired by Nasser; others asserted that they were Soviet KGB assassins assigned to get rid of Sadun before he could seize control of Egypt and push it further to the West; still others alleged that they were CIA killers hired by the United States,
As soon as Gavin put down the receiver, he realized he had neglected to order glucose but decided not to bother phoning Kiskalesi back. He had already begun eliminating glucose from Sadun’s formula anyway.
When the medication was delivered from Zurich, though, the package included glucose. Nobody could have known about it except the man who had taken his bag — or the man for whom it had been taken.
That evening, Gavin began to fit all the pieces together and, immediately after giving Sadun his shot, he went into his room, locked the door, and wrote a three-page letter, with one carbon copy. In it, Gavin accused Nicholas Kiskalesi of the theft of his bag and went on to describe, accurately, Sadun’s position as a pawn in an international multimillion dollar oil gambit being manipulated by Nicholas Kiskalesi.
When he had finished, Gavin put the carbon into an envelope and sent it to Nicholas Kiskalesi. He enclosed the original in another envelope marked DO NOT OPEN EXCEPT IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH. He mailed it to Cleo Talbot at her Fifth Avenue residence.
Sadun’s vital signs improved after the second injection. By the third day, he was back to his old, new self and it almost seemed as if nothing had gone awry.
The first thing Sadun did was to announce to the world’s press that instead of waiting until Ramadan, he would return to Egypt immediately. He ordered Rudy to do his packing and requested the loan of Nicky’s plane.
In Cairo, public celebration of Sadun’s imminent return began — apparently spontaneously — in front of the presidential palace, in the marketplaces, and in the grand mosque of El Azhar. The military, partially loyal to the absent monarchy and partially beholden to the Nasser government, which paid its salaries, was momentarily paralyzed. Rumors of insurrection circulated and seventeen deaths were reported as a result of the 7.62-mm AK-47 assault rifles supplied by the Russian technical advisers.
Gavin, without whom Sadun had refused to budge, was in his room packing when he heard a scream from next door. He picked up a bronze candlestick and opened his own door softly. He looked both ways. The corridor was deserted.
He walked the few paces to Sadun’s room and knocked. There was no answer and he let himself in. X lay on the bed in a lake of blood. Lying next to her was Sadun. His head, severed from his body, had rolled to the floor where it rested on the zebra skin rug, its eyes wide, frozen in an expression of horror.
They will come for me next
, thought Gavin. He ran down the hallway, down the rear servant’s stairs, through the kitchen and then to Seema’s room.
He put his forefinger to his mouth. “Shhhh,” he told the terrified child.
17
The beheading of Sadun in his grotesque bedroom, his crimson blood staining crimson satin, made world headlines.
Nasser’s government realized how precarious its base of power actually was and knew it needed support, political and financial, from sources other than the Soviet Union. When the Turkish billionaire Nicholas Kiskalesi offered to finance a dam project equal to the Aswan, Nasser was happy to accept.
As part of the bargain, Kiskalesi asked for and was granted oil concessions. Nasser’s thinking was that dams and oil fields created jobs, and jobs created full bellies. With full bellies and money in their pockets, people weren’t so likely to harbor thoughts of a return to monarchy.
The murderers of Cilek, as they were dubbed by the world’s press, were never identified. Speculation abounded; some said they had been hired by Nasser; others asserted that they were Soviet KGB assassins assigned to get rid of Sadun before he could seize control of Egypt and push it further to the West; still others alleged that they were CIA killers hired by the United States,
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