THE SPANISH REVENGE (Craig Page series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

world history and slept with the lightest and blondest women. He dabbled for a while with pro-Palestinians helping to organize a protest against the Israeli foreign minister, but he quickly realized he had no interest in their cause. His people didn’t care squat about Jerusalem or the West Bank. They were the despised Arabs and Berbers from North Africa living in poverty and subjugated by the Christians who had stolen their land five hundred years ago.
    After receiving a degree in history, cum laude, he returned to Paris, moved back to Clichy, and organized youth programs. Money was no problem. He raised over a million euros from French liberals who supported him to salve their conscience.
    The best was Nicole. She had waited for him. With a degree in psychology from the University of Paris, she worked with him. They moved in together, still concealing their relationship from her parents. Socially prominent Parisians. They would never understand.
    He was so happy. Then it all came crashing down in the riots in the Paris suburbs of October 2005.
    The police were brutal. Blood flowed on the streets. The blood ofhis people. And Nicole marched next to him. Always close by, until that thug of a red-faced policeman fired tear gas right at him, then pulled Nicole away, the only white girl in the crowd.
    Eyes burning, restrained by two cops, Musa watched helplessly as the red-faced monster smashed his truncheon against her blonde head over and over, smiling sadistically the whole time.
    Musa arrived at the hospital after the ambulance. “She’s in a coma,” the doctor said. “The result of a brain hemorrhage.” He sat next to her bed, willing her to regain consciousness. Then her parents came. “Get your ugly black face out of here,” her father screamed. “You destroyed our daughter.”
    For the next week, he remained downstairs in the hospital, out of their sight, seeking reports from the nurses about Nicole while watching on television the police brutality aimed at defenseless Muslim youth.
    A week later, a nurse told him: “Nicole died.” He cried for an hour. Not being a believer, he couldn’t seek solace in prayer. Action was his only response to what had happened: Nicole’s death, the riots. It was his destiny, he decided, to begin his own movement, demanding justice and equality for Muslims in Europe. Seeking revenge for Nicole. Violence was the only way to obtain it.

4
    PARIS
    Craig rushed through the briefing he and Jacques gave to Pierre Morreau, the Defense Minister, about the attempted assassination of Dalton. He didn’t want to be late for his eight thirty dinner with Elizabeth.
    His car was waiting in front of the Ministry. When Craig took one look at the Boulevard St. Germain, which resembled a parking lot, he said to his driver, “I’m taking the Metro. Please meet me in front of the Bristol Hotel in a couple of hours.”
    As the crowded train rumbled along, Craig, standing and clutching a pole, thought about Elizabeth. He was thrilled for her. She had sounded so excited when she called early in the afternoon to say she had arrived. Happily, the Bristol had had a cancellation.
    The train stopped. He exited the Metro station at Avenue Franklin Roosevelt. Walking swiftly in the chilly autumn air, he covered the four blocks to the Hotel Bristol, only a hundred yards from the spoton which the Iranian with the cell phone had intended to activate the bomb in the Hermes box.
    A hotel doorman nodded to Craig and turned the revolving door, catapulting Craig from the busy Rue Saint Honore to the quite elegance of Paris’s most luxurious hotel. Craig glanced at the clock above the concierge’s desk. Eight thirty-five. He cut across the marble-floored lobby to the circular, richly wood-paneled dining room—the height of opulence and sophistication. The incredible food and meticulous attention to detail made it Craig’s favorite restaurant in Paris.
    The maître d’greeted Craig and said, “Madame is