CHAPTER TWENTY
Claudette returned to the flat in Marseille to find a most welcome sight. Imam Khalil sat on her sofa, wearing a soft brown suit, his legs crossed at the knee. In the kitchen were four other followers, the Imam’s entourage that had accompanied him from Greece three days earlier.
She beamed as she hurried to him, dropping to her knees and taking his hand.
“Darling girl,” he said, gently squeezing both her hands in his. “Is it finished?”
“It is.” She gestured behind her, where the Syrian driver Abad followed into the flat carrying the steel containment box that held twenty-four hermetically sealed vials of the mutated smallpox virus. Behind Abad came Rami, the wiry, lean-faced killer. She did not like Rami; he took pleasure in the pain of others, but the Imam had assured h
