Margaret Truman's Experiment in Murder by Margaret Truman Page B

unfortunate death is history,” Landow said. “He was a foolish man. His increasingly negative reaction to the work we’re doing couldn’t be tolerated.”
    â€œBut he did bring us Ms. Klaus,” Borger said.
    â€œYes, he certainly did that. She’s a remarkable subject. Your work with her was nothing short of brilliant.”
    â€œIt’s never difficult when you have a patient like that, just a matter of guiding her in the right direction while in trance. I believe I’ve found someone equally gifted. Of course, the stakes are considerably greater than silencing Mark Sedgwick.”
    Landow peered at Borger over his half-glasses. “Tell me more,” he said.
    â€œHe’s a young Arab American filled with anger, a prizefighter, although I gather he wasn’t very successful. According to Puhlman, he took quite a beating in his last few fights, leaving him with headaches. I’ve offered to treat him. Peter is bringing him to the house tonight.”
    â€œYou say he’s angry. Angry at what ?”
    â€œThe world. He’s anti-Mortinson because of his liberal policies toward Israel.” Borger laughed. “He even thinks that the Jews control professional boxing and are keeping him out of the ring.”
    â€œYou’ve done a full evaluation of his trance capacity?”
    â€œI will tonight, but from what I’ve observed already, he’s an excellent subject.”
    Landow nodded and closed the file folder. “How fast can you program him?”
    Borger shrugged. “Hard to tell, but I think I can do it fairly quickly.”
    â€œWe need more than that,” Landow said. “We’re running out of time where Mortinson is concerned.”
    â€œI’m well aware of it, Colin. But as you know, finding the perfect assassin is never easy. I’ve evaluated every subject who’s been brought here, and while some of them were potential candidates, none fully measured up. I’m hoping that this young man—whose name is Iskander Itani, by the way—will fill the bill.”
    â€œLet’s hope,” said Landow. “Our friends are getting antsy. The polls show that Mortinson will waltz into the White House unless drastic steps are taken. We all know how devastating that would be to our country.”
    â€œSpeaking of our friends, Colin, I’m going to need a new infusion of money to pull this off, providing of course that this young man works out.”
    â€œHow much?”
    â€œA half million at least.”
    â€œThat shouldn’t be a problem. I’m flying to Texas tonight to meet with them. I’ll bring up funding.”
    â€œGood. I think I’d better get home and prepare for tonight.”
    â€œGo ahead. The sooner this is done, the better it will be for everyone. The longer it drags out, the greater the likelihood that it can be traced back to the clinic—and even back to Langley, God forbid.”
    â€œI understand,” Borger said, annoyed at being reminded of the obvious.
    The project that he was about to undertake was, unlike previous projects, not funded by the CIA. The money behind the assassination of presidential candidate George Mortinson came from a group of wealthy men, mostly from the South and Southwest, who considered themselves patriots of the first order. Through sympathetic rogue CIA employees like Colin Landow who shared their extreme right-wing beliefs, they’d turned to experts in mind control like Sheldon Borger to create the “perfect” assassin. Aside from Landow and a few others who were of like mind, the CIA itself was unaware of this criminal use of its Lightpath Psychiatric Clinic, nor was anyone connected with the agency’s Medical and Psychological Analysis Center in Langley.
    For Borger, seeking the perfect hypnotic subject to assassinate a presidential candidate reflected two things about him.
    He shared the political views of the men