started to work his way through the file.
'As you can see, the first time he appeared on the scene was in nineteen sixty-nine. The Vassilikos killing. That's when the newspapers first referred to him as the Cretan.'
'Because the chauffeur was so sure he'd spoken with a Cretan accent?'
'Which according to the file, was confirmed by the maid at the Hilton in West Berlin a month later when he got General Stephanakis.'
Morgan read on. 'This business with the girl in the wardrobe while they were waiting for Stephanakis to appear. It's genuine?'
'Oh, yes.'
'Which explains the Cretan Lover tag?'
'That and a similar case you'll find mentioned in there. And that Boudakis girl - it wasn't rape. A psychiatrist had a session with her. His impression was that she'd fallen for the man.'
'From the details listed in here, I'd say a great many Greeks might be cheering for him,' Morgan said. 'Both Vassilikos and General Stephanakis seem to have been a couple of butchers.'
'All right,' Baker said. 'So our friend is just a simple Cretan peasant, a hero of the Resistance who doesn't like the present regime in Greece, a regime he sees as fascist. He decides to do something about it. Fine - except for one rather important point. Since then, he's been responsible for one assassination after another the world over. Oh, the credit's usually been claimed by some appropriate terrorist group, but we know, as do most of the world's leading intelligence organizations, when the Cretan has been responsible. His touch is distinctive and unmistakable. Read on. You'll see what I mean.'
He sat by the fire and relit his pipe and Morgan started to work his way through the file.
In June 1970, he had killed, in his hotel room, Colonel Rafael Gallegos, Chief of Police for the Basque country which straddles the Pyrenees between Spain and France. The killing was a carbon copy of the murder of General Stephanakis in West Berlin. Responsibility had been claimed by the Basque Nationalist movement, the ETA, which had been fighting for years for separation from Spain.
In September of the same year, General Severo Falcao, head of the Brazilian secret police, had been assassinated in Rio de Janeiro by a traffic policeman who had stopped his car on a quiet country road leading out of the city to the General's home. As in the Vasslikos killing, only the General and his bodyguards died. The chauffeur had been allowed to go.
In November 1970, he had murdered George Henry Daly, an insurance executive in Boston. What the newspapers had not been told was that Daly was actually Major Sergei Kulakov, who had defected to the Americans five years before from the Red Army's Berlin Intelligence station. The CIA had squeezed him dry and then provided him with what they had fondly imagined to be a brand-new identity. His wife had described the Cretan perfectly. He could have killed her and didn't.
In 1971, in Toronto, there was Henry Jackson, an economist, another case of a defecting Russian agent under an assumed name.
Later that year, the Israeli Consul-General in Istanbul. The Turkish People's Liberation Army had claimed credit for that.
Then came one of the most spectacular affairs of all. His killing of the Italian film director Mario Forlani, at the Cannes Film Festival. The Black Brigade in Rome, the Fascist answer to the Red Brigade, claimed credit. They'd threatened Forlani on a number of occasions because of a film he had made ridiculing Mussolini.
'So he isn't some Marxist fanatic,' Morgan commented.
'You mean the Cannes business? That was a hell of an affair. The French had the hotel Forlani was staying at guarded like Fort Knox. Garde mobile all over the place. Plainclothes security men inside. Everybody was staying there. Half the uncrowned heads of Europe, most of what counts for stars these days in Hollywood. John Mikali, the pianist, Sophia Loren, David Niven, Paul Newman and God knows who else.'
'And he pulled it off in the middle of that lot?'
'What
'As you can see, the first time he appeared on the scene was in nineteen sixty-nine. The Vassilikos killing. That's when the newspapers first referred to him as the Cretan.'
'Because the chauffeur was so sure he'd spoken with a Cretan accent?'
'Which according to the file, was confirmed by the maid at the Hilton in West Berlin a month later when he got General Stephanakis.'
Morgan read on. 'This business with the girl in the wardrobe while they were waiting for Stephanakis to appear. It's genuine?'
'Oh, yes.'
'Which explains the Cretan Lover tag?'
'That and a similar case you'll find mentioned in there. And that Boudakis girl - it wasn't rape. A psychiatrist had a session with her. His impression was that she'd fallen for the man.'
'From the details listed in here, I'd say a great many Greeks might be cheering for him,' Morgan said. 'Both Vassilikos and General Stephanakis seem to have been a couple of butchers.'
'All right,' Baker said. 'So our friend is just a simple Cretan peasant, a hero of the Resistance who doesn't like the present regime in Greece, a regime he sees as fascist. He decides to do something about it. Fine - except for one rather important point. Since then, he's been responsible for one assassination after another the world over. Oh, the credit's usually been claimed by some appropriate terrorist group, but we know, as do most of the world's leading intelligence organizations, when the Cretan has been responsible. His touch is distinctive and unmistakable. Read on. You'll see what I mean.'
He sat by the fire and relit his pipe and Morgan started to work his way through the file.
In June 1970, he had killed, in his hotel room, Colonel Rafael Gallegos, Chief of Police for the Basque country which straddles the Pyrenees between Spain and France. The killing was a carbon copy of the murder of General Stephanakis in West Berlin. Responsibility had been claimed by the Basque Nationalist movement, the ETA, which had been fighting for years for separation from Spain.
In September of the same year, General Severo Falcao, head of the Brazilian secret police, had been assassinated in Rio de Janeiro by a traffic policeman who had stopped his car on a quiet country road leading out of the city to the General's home. As in the Vasslikos killing, only the General and his bodyguards died. The chauffeur had been allowed to go.
In November 1970, he had murdered George Henry Daly, an insurance executive in Boston. What the newspapers had not been told was that Daly was actually Major Sergei Kulakov, who had defected to the Americans five years before from the Red Army's Berlin Intelligence station. The CIA had squeezed him dry and then provided him with what they had fondly imagined to be a brand-new identity. His wife had described the Cretan perfectly. He could have killed her and didn't.
In 1971, in Toronto, there was Henry Jackson, an economist, another case of a defecting Russian agent under an assumed name.
Later that year, the Israeli Consul-General in Istanbul. The Turkish People's Liberation Army had claimed credit for that.
Then came one of the most spectacular affairs of all. His killing of the Italian film director Mario Forlani, at the Cannes Film Festival. The Black Brigade in Rome, the Fascist answer to the Red Brigade, claimed credit. They'd threatened Forlani on a number of occasions because of a film he had made ridiculing Mussolini.
'So he isn't some Marxist fanatic,' Morgan commented.
'You mean the Cannes business? That was a hell of an affair. The French had the hotel Forlani was staying at guarded like Fort Knox. Garde mobile all over the place. Plainclothes security men inside. Everybody was staying there. Half the uncrowned heads of Europe, most of what counts for stars these days in Hollywood. John Mikali, the pianist, Sophia Loren, David Niven, Paul Newman and God knows who else.'
'And he pulled it off in the middle of that lot?'
'What
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