Beirut Station
Paul Vidich
Pegasus Crime
Beirut, Lebanon, 2006: CIA agent Analise Assad is operating under a Non Official Cover (NOC), serving in the United Nations refugees commission. Lebanese-American by birth she’s able to fit in anywhere in the city, one of the most dangerous postings in the world. And she really needs to fit in. Her NOC status means she’s a deniable asset should things go wrong. Her target is Hezbollah terrorist Najib Qassem, a man believed to be planning the assassination of US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice when she visits Lebanon to broker a ceasefire. The CIA and Mossad team up to deal with the threat.
… a story worthy of Le Carré and Graham Greene.
Analise infiltrates Qassem’s family with the aim of scoping out the best way to target him. She hatches a plan to use a specially designed car bomb, but the two agencies disagree over how and where to deploy it. Analise wants to protect Qassem’s two grandchildren from the plot, but her life is made complicated by an illicit affair with a war correspondent Corbin, and the suspect attentions of mysterious Mossad agent Bauman. With the Beirut police breathing down her neck and increasing official pressure to deal with Qassem before Rice’s visit, Analise does her best to drive her plan forward. She soon suspects both sides’ agendas are seriously at odds with the other, and even her superiors within the CIA don’t have her best interests—or survival—at heart.
Beirut Station is a perfectly executed fictionalized snapshot of a time when the Middle East was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Paul Vidich has created a story worthy of Le Carré and Graham Greene.
