Beirut

Beirut appears as both a recent base in The Jackal’s movements and a node in the financing that accompanies them. After two months in Lebanon, he boards a flight from Beirut to London, arriving relaxed and fit; during his stay, he has also overseen the transfer of a substantial sum from a Beirut bank to Switzerland.

Setting and Departure

The narrative places Beirut at the start of The Jackal’s return journey. A BOAC Comet 4B, inbound from Beirut, lands at London Airport as another character boards a train. The Jackal comes through the arrivals lounge among the passengers, his appearance marked by a healthy tan from the Middle Eastern sun. His two months in Lebanon have been a period of comfort as well as work: he feels relaxed and fit after enjoying the country and supervising the money transfer.

Financial and Strategic Context

The transfer connects Beirut to Switzerland, where the money is sent from a Beirut bank to another bank. The account does not identify the funds’ ultimate destination or spell out their precise purpose, but presents the transaction as part of The Jackal’s quiet, competent management of his affairs. His leisure and logistical work sit side by side: the same passage that describes his enjoyment of Lebanon emphasizes his supervision of a substantial cross-border movement of money.

The account also recalls the lethal operation in Egypt that preceded his arrival in London. Two German missile engineers lie buried there, each killed by a bullet through the spine; their deaths have delayed development of Nasser’s Al Zafira rocket by several years, while a Zionist millionaire in New York considers his expenditure well spent. These events are not located in Beirut, but their proximity to the Beirut-to-London journey places The Jackal’s recent movements within a wider pattern of paid, politically consequential work. Beirut’s role in the passage is therefore specific but telling: it is a place of temporary repose, a banking point, and the point of origin for his return to the operation unfolding in Europe.