The "Mr. Spy" series has been written several times, and I still can't help but continue to share. I like to read books and I like to watch movies, especially the themes of war and secret agents. In contrast, the process of reading books is more delicate and more evocative, perhaps because the imagination space of reading books is larger.
Frederick Forsyth, who has worked secretly for MI6 for more than two decades, has a deep experience, and the novel is known as the "Spy Training Manual". The New York Times commented that "when it comes to espionage and transnational conspiracies, Forsyth is a well-deserved master of suspense."
In 1972, Forsyth won the Poe Award for his masterpiece Mr. Spy: The Day of the Jackal. The novel tells the story of a killer code-named Jackal who was hired to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle, and is regarded as the pinnacle of assassination novels.
It is well known that de Gaulle (1890-1970) escaped more than thirty assassinations in his lifetime and eventually died of illness. The ending is set, and the Jackal's assassination operation is bound to fail, but the novel always gives you a strong suspense: the confrontation between the masters, until the final moment, you still can't imagine why the Jackal's killing will be lost.
The novel is very cool to read, Forsyth uses the technique of news writing to restore accurate technical details, all the plots are so real and tightly sewn, just like documentary literature full of realism, it is simply a "killer textbook".
After the novel was published, "Jackal" became a popular code name for killers; the novel also became a model for intelligence agencies and terrorist organizations to learn, and became a template for people's research project planning and crisis management.
Forsyth worked as a journalist and was proud of his ability to dig up facts. His novels are good at blending real people and real events and artistic fiction, and their meticulousness makes me want to review them well: jackals' logical thinking, careful and thoughtful planning, sensitive and accurate predictions, and rapid and decisive responses, no matter what is worth learning well!
Frederick Forsyth
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" why did > assassinate Charles de Gaulle? </h1>
The "Secret Army" believed that de Gaulle had tarnished the honor of France and that only when he died could France truly return to the hands of the people. They made six attempts, three exposed in the early planning phase, one in the day before the execution, and two unsuccessfully in the implementation phase.
After the arrest of Algu, the leader of the "secret army organization", the new leader Rodin faced a difficult situation: the French security service infiltrated the "secret army organization" to an alarming degree, there were fewer and fewer supporters, and everyone had to hide in Tibet and even flee abroad.
Rodin was shrewd and capable and had keen insight. He believed that the current situation could no longer be traditional, and that in order to deprive the French Security Service of its sources of intelligence, there was only one option: to hire a professional killer and kill de Gaulle.
"Whoever he is, this man must be a foreigner," Rodin said, "he is not a member of the 'Secret Army' or the National Council of Resistance, the police all over France do not know him, he has not left any files, and the weakness of all dictatorships is that in his vast bureaucratic archives, nothing is equal to non-existence." No one knew about the killer, so he 'didn't exist'. He had a foreign passport, and when he was done, he disappeared and returned to his own country. ”
The story begins.
Rodin summons two aides to accompany his plans: René Moncre to meet the bounty requirements of the professional killer, and André Kasson to find intelligence to assist the killer in his assassination mission. This plan was known only to the three people present, after all, their organization had been infiltrated so badly by the French Security Service that no decision could be kept secret for long.
Through an intermediary, Rodin invites the killer, code-named "Jackal", to meet him at the hotel. When the Jackal learned of Rodin's request, he bluntly stated that the assassination of de Gaulle could only be done by hiring professionals and must be done by outsiders.
Professionals don't act with enthusiasm, so they are calmer and less likely to make mistakes of principle. He's not an idealist, so it's impossible to have any hesitation at the last minute, such as who will be injured by an explosion or other means. As a professional, he calculates precisely all the unexpected risks that may arise, so his chances of successfully completing the program are greater than anyone else's. But if he can't come up with a plan that will not only complete it, but also get out safely, he won't act.
He asked for a high price, half of it upfront, and the rest was paid later. In addition, he made the condition that no information should be left behind, that the three men in the room should stay in a safe place and ensure safety until the plan was completed, and that any one of them would be arrested and deemed to have cancelled the plan; that the plan should be planned and executed by himself, acting completely independently, without revealing details, nor urging or interfering with him.
For the question of the asking price being too high, the Jackal advises them to rob the bank; if the mission is completed and the balance is not collected, then he will work for himself, "targeting the three of you".
OAS, The French "Secret Army Organization"
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" how > jackals plan? </h1>
After accepting the assassination mission on 15 June, the Jackal began collecting and reading almost all articles about de Gaulle and de Gaulle's writings in London, studying the subjects of his assassination.
At that time, de Gaulle was not only the president of France, but also the most well-protected and efficient person in the Western world at that time, and the entire security system set up around de Gaulle was always on alert.
In the Assassin's favor, he remained in the shadows and was unknown, while his targets crudely refused to cooperate with the security agencies.
When, where, and how to do it, the jackal carefully planned, and he decided to use a false identity for the whole process.
The film The Day of the Jackal (1973), the following pictures, except for the description, are from the film stills.
Step 1: Steal your passport
The Jackal observes passengers stepping off the plane at the airport, looking for people of similar age and stature.
On July 14, he tracked the hotel where the priest was staying and sneaked into the room to steal the passport of the "Reverend Pelle Jensen."
On July 16, the Jackal stole the handbag of American student Marty Schulberger and took his passport.
On July 17, the Jackal spent the day shopping, equipped with things related to the two fake identities: clothes, shoes, glasses, hair dye, etc. He never buys more than two things in the same store.
Step 2: Get a fake passport
On 18 July, the Jackal wandered around the small villages around the Thames Valley and found a tombstone that met his requirements. The deceased was Dugan, who died at the age of two and a half, and if alive, was about the same age as a jackal.
He went to the parish office to find out the details of Dugan; he went to the registration center to get a copy of Dugan's birth and death certificate; he applied for a passport in Dugan's name, filling it out according to his own circumstances except for name, age and date of birth, and sending it to the passport office along with a copy of his birth certificate. Four days later, he managed to get a new passport named Dugan.
Step 3: Customize the rifle and forge the fake certificate
If it's easy to get a fake passport in britain, Brussels, Belgium, is the epicenter of a long history of forged documents.
After getting his new passport, the Jackal used the cash to buy a plane ticket and flew from London to Brussels.
On 21 July, at the introduction of an intermediary, the Jackal sought out an "ordnance engineer" to order a very professional and unusual rifle; asked the Belgians to forge documents.
One of the requirements of the jackal is to forge the documents of the old man in France, and the counterfeiter puts on makeup and takes pictures of the jackal, and the photo shows an old man who is old and gaunt, and the effect is good. But the Jackal feared that it would be easy to reveal the photo in broad daylight, and the falsified witnesses retorted that he was not.
This is how the mind of the person checking the documents works. Usually, he sees your face first, then asks you to show your ID before he can see the photo. By this time, he had already imprinted the image of the person standing beside him in his mind. This will affect his judgment. What he looks for in his photos is similarities rather than differences.
The Belgian advised him not to look too much like the person in the photo and avoid wearing clothes similar to the one in the photo. In order to give people the feeling of aging, grow a beard for a few days and shave your face in a few places. The Belgians also taught a small trick, swallowing two or three small pieces of gunpowder, and within half an hour they would be nauseated and vomited, uncomfortable but not fatal, and their faces would be gray, pale, and sweaty.
Although there was no expression on his face, the Jackal listened to the opinion of the falsifier and admired it in his heart. This is the second time he has come into contact with experts who are well-versed in the industry today.
Step 4: Step on the point
Beginning on July 22, the Jackal used Dugan's fake identity to check in in Paris, stepping everywhere.
Of course, no onlooker could have imagined that this quiet and elegant British tourist had been stirring his coffee for hours while staring at the buildings, but his mind was calculating the angle of shooting, the distance from the upper floor of the building to the long open flame under the Arc de Triomphe, and the possibility of a person escaping from the Taiping Ladder behind the building and unconsciously blending into the crowd.
After a field trip, the Jackal determined the location of the shooting and the escape route.
On the last day of July, the Jackal went shopping at the Paris flea market and bought something dressed as a French veteran. Catch a luxury train in the evening and arrive in Brussels from Paris.
Step 5: The gun and the fake certificate are in hand
On August 1, the Jackal went to see the "Ordnance Master", the gun had been built, but the pipe was tricky, and it would take a week to overcome the problem.
In the afternoon, the Jackal went to see the falsified witness. The falsified witness was greedy and wanted to blackmail him. The Jackal calmly said that it was very secretive and generally no one came. The Jackal quickly and ferociously broke his neck bone.
Killing a counterfeit is as simple as twisting a cockroach.
On August 2, the Jackal went to the mall to buy the necessary supplies and rented a car with a forged new driver's license.
On August 5, the Jackal drove to the forest to test the gun, and the results were very satisfactory.
On August 6, the Jackal saw the "Ordnance Division" for the last time. The thin steel pipe is ready and polished very smoothly. The parts of the gun are loaded into the tube and are the right size.
The longest tube was twenty inches long and contained the barrel and breech. Each of the others was about a foot long and fitted with two upper and lower stock brackets, silencers, and scopes. The stock is separate, the trigger is mounted in its padding, and the rubber stopper for the bullet is also independent. As a result, the entire shotgun disappeared, let alone the assassination rifle.
On August 11, the Jackal received a letter from Zurich that the advance amount had been deposited into his account. The next day, he set off.
Everything seems to go well, but the Jackal's actions are leaked by Rodin's bodyguard, Victor.
Victor didn't know about the assassination plan, only to hear Rodin say "Goodbye, Mr. Jackal" as he sent the guest. He fell into the trap designed by the French Security Service, captured and tortured to death.
During the interrogation, with the blessing of "technical means" and drugs, Victor collapsed, talking nonsense, and all the recordings were sent to the Operations Sub-Bureau. Colonel Rowland analyzed the recording and concluded that the foreign Assassins, code-named Jackal, were attempting to endanger the President's life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" > how do the police pursue? </h1>
The conspiracy stage has been filmed, and the intense and exciting hunting stage is even more addictive.
On 11 August, France's interior ministers met to discuss how to kill the Assassins. The sheriff said that the first task was to find out the assassin's name, which was purely the work of a detective. He recommended his deputy: Claude Lebel.
Lebel came to a meeting temporarily, read the report, listened to the minister's speech, and his heart sank.
They were demanding, no, ordering—ordering him to accomplish impossible tasks, and he had no way of getting started. So far, with no criminal record, no clues, no witnesses—except for three people he couldn't ask, only one name, one pseudonym, and the whole vast world—he had to find this man out of it.
Like the Jackal, Lebel is professional and careful, and his wisdom and decisiveness set off the jackal's cleverness and rapid response, and they fight each other in the air.
Lebel was tasked with working immediately, transferring Karen as an assistant and secretary.
He spoke separately with the heads of criminal police homicide units in seven countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and South Africa) to inquire about the killer through unofficial channels. Lebel couldn't say on every phone call, but everyone would guess that France had only one goal that would interest the first-rate political assassins.
Scotland Yard in England worked meticulously, and Political Superintendent Thomas locked in a man named Charles Harold Keslope and asked for someone to investigate him. Superintendent Thomas then asked his men to investigate the entire list of recent passport applications, and found that there was a problem with Dugan's passport. By analyzing the passport photos of Kathrop and Dugan, Superintendent Thomas believes it is the same person.
If it weren't for the rumors in the Caribbean bar, the police would never have noticed him. But from now on, he became Dugan, dyed his hair, wore colored contact lenses, made his figure leaner, and thickened his heels. He faxed Dugan's physical features, as well as passport numbers and photographs, to Paris.
Clues to the name Charles Keslope were obviously useless, but France found that Dugan had entered the country and found information about his hotel stay and car rental.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="04" > wonderful hunt and counter-hunt</h1>
On August 13, The Jackal rented a car repair room and welded a thin steel pipe containing a gun to the inside of the chassis flange of the rented Alpha sports car. The interior of the Alpha sports car has a deep flange on the inside, which is why he rented the car. It would soon be covered with a thick layer of dust and mud, and the steel pipes would not be found without extremely careful inspection.
On August 14, the Jackal drove an Alpha sports car and successfully entered France from Italy in the name of tourism. Through intelligence from the Secret Army Organization, the Jackal learns that the operation has been exposed and that the mission continues to mean more and more danger.
Of course, the danger has increased, there is no doubt about that. The intention of the assassination was revealed, he was going to attack a heavily guarded fortress, and the question was whether his assassination plan could defeat the security barrier. He weighed it up and was confident he could do it.
The enemy and ourselves always infiltrate each other. Where does the intelligence of the "secret army organization" come from? The beautiful Jacqueline took the presidential secretary-general's secretary, St. Clare, and became his mistress. Saint-Clare did not like Lebel, and after each meeting of the Ministry of the Interior, Jacqueline cleverly tricked out information and relayed it to Valmi, who then told the Jackal.
The Jackal picked up the Baroness at the hotel, a handsome and humorous Englishman who loved her. After a night of wind, the Jackal painted the car and continued on the road, changing the body color from white to dark blue and the license plate.
After learning that Dugan's false identity was exposed, the Jackal made the decision to go to the Baroness. The baroness was almost forty years old, her husband was looking for flowers in Paris to ask willow, and her son was nearly twenty years old, and he went to the military academy, and the manor was only taken care of by the old butler and the florist. The lonely baroness was very happy about the arrival of the Jackal.
On August 20, the game grounds guards found a car hidden in the forest and discarded by the jackals and reported it to the village police.
On August 21, the Jackal contacted Valmy as usual in the morning, and the Baroness overheard his phone, rummaged through his luggage and found a gun. Without any hesitation, the jackal killed her at once. The Jackal then disguised himself as a Danish priest and left the manor in the Baroness's car. He bought a train ticket to Paris as a Danish priest.
On 22 August, Lebel received a report that the Jackal had escaped from the manor and killed the Baroness, and he issued a nationwide alert on the grounds that he wanted to arrest the killer. At this time, Lebel was already suspected of having an internal ghost, and every time he reported to the Ministry of the Interior, he expected to catch the jackal, but each time the jackal could escape.
Lebel spied on all those present at the meeting, pulled out St. Claire, who leaked the secret, and also captured the Jackal's source of intelligence: Valmi. On the morning of Valmi's capture, the Jackal called Valmi as usual, and Lebel calmly answered the phone. The call aroused the vigilance of the Jackal, who immediately checked out and left the hotel.
Only an hour after the Jackal left the hotel, the French police arrived at the hotel: Lebel found through the Danish consulate that the Reverend Pelle Jensen had lost his passport and matched his physical characteristics.
The Jackal was not in a hurry, and he quickly transformed into the American student Marty Shulberger.
On August 23, Superintendent Thomas of the United Kingdom found another passport identity stolen by the Jackal: the American Marty Schulberger, told Paris.
At this point, Lebel had been working non-stop for ten days, the assassin's stolen passport, name, and physical characteristics were available, and the Ministry of the Interior launched all the resources to hunt him down, optimistic that he would be caught by noon the next day at the latest.
Paris launched an unprecedented search, and the jackal seems to be difficult to fly, right?
The jackal was still not in a hurry, he put on heavy makeup, and walked into a bar near midnight. At one o'clock in the morning, he went home with Jules Bernard, the "flower protector." They encountered three car checks along the road, and the jackal's heavy makeup and waves made the soldiers so disgusted that they did not even check their documents. The next day, Bernard saw the chase news on television, and the Jackal, without any hesitation, killed Bernard.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="05" > the final hit</h1>
On 25 August 1963, on Liberation Day in Paris, President de Gaulle attended the celebration as usual.
It was hot, and almost seventy-five thousand soldiers were sweating to maintain order. Lebel thought the safety precautions were impeccable, and he couldn't think of how the Jackal would act. He takes the "stupid way": going around in every ritual, "keeping your eyes open", which is the only thing that can be done.
Finally, the contest came.
The Jackal dressed as a crippled veteran, with worn-out clothes and a haggard face, walked on only one leg and was supported by an aluminum crutch. The Valley soldiers were ordered to guard Rennes Street, and the "veteran" said he lived in the front attic. The "veteran" looked so pitiful that Valrey couldn't bear it, he checked the "veteran's" documents and let them go, "There is no order to say that an old man is forbidden to go home."
Sheriff Lebel had a hunch that something would happen, but he still couldn't find a clue. The ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame in the morning ended, and nothing happened, except for the ceremony held in the square in the afternoon. It had been thoroughly searched and sealed off airtightly.
Lebel looked around to see if the vigilant man was moving, and the Valley soldier casually mentioned that there was an old cripple coming home at twelve o'clock in the afternoon, and had to let him pass, he had only one leg and a crutch. Lebel jumped up and called Valre to rush over, and by this time De Gaulle's convoy had arrived.
Lebel rushed into the apartment with Valrey and ran decisively to the top floor. There were many rooms, and he was hesitating where the jackal was hiding when he heard a very light "flutter" sound.
That's right, by this time the Jackal had already fired its first shot: on the sixth floor, one hundred and thirty meters away, the target's facial features were clear.
De Gaulle awarded the veteran a medal, and after the jackal pulled the trigger, de Gaulle bowed his head without warning and bent down to give the veteran a kiss. The bullet flew over and shot into the sun-softened tar on the square, causing no harm. The Jackal took a second bullet and prepared to keep shooting.
In the midst of all the fire, Lebel ordered Varre to shoot. Valrey was the first to rush into the room and was shot by the Jackal. When the jackal received the third bullet, Lebel quickly picked up the soldier's MAT49 and hit the jackal in the chest with all the half-shuttle nine-millimeter bullets, knocking him flying. The roar of bullets filled the cabin, and was heard over the square. Later, the media was told that there was a problem with the cylinder of a motorcycle.
The Jackal made no mistake, he equipped this special gun with three bullets, which was more than enough, and immediately retreated after completing the task. His plan was so seamless that he lost to a relentless and conscientious detective.
Lebel and the Jackal belong to the same category of people, shrewd, capable, calm, well-planned, not afraid of challenges, the only difference is that the Jackal works for money, and Lebel works for faith: Lebel is not superstitious about power, he believes in the meaning of his profession.
He has always been a good cop, he is steady, precise, methodical, and tireless. It was only by chance that he had an epiphany—and that was a must for a good cop to become a brilliant cop. But he never lost sight of the fact that ninety-nine percent of police work is routine, relying on quiet investigation, reconnaissance and re-investigation. All the toiling ties the parts together into a whole, and this whole becomes a net that eventually nets the criminals of the case and makes them stand in court, not just create headline news.
De gaulle
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="06" > the jackal legend</h1>
Forsyth was incredibly fast, usually writing a book in 45 days, while Days of the Jackal took only 35 days. Forsyth has another explanation for the statement of "writing quickly": "I have never been fast to write, and I have to do something very well and be well prepared. When I started writing, I was surrounded by a U-shaped table, surrounded by piles of materials I had collected, each of which corresponded to a story about a character or place I was going to write, all of which were details. So usually you can write a book in 45 days. ”
The novel portrays a perfect killer, with elegant taste, professional calmness, and wisdom and coldness. It is reported that Amir, a far-rightist who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Rabin in 1995, overturned "The Day of the Jackal"; Arushunyan, the killer who assassinated President Bush in 2005, always carried a notebook full of notes "The Day of the Jackal"; and the Venezuelan terrorist Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez was reported to have a copy of "The Day of the Jackal" in his apartment in London, so he was called "Carlos the Jackal".
"Carlos the Jackal"
Many women are obsessed with the character of "Jackal", breaking the convention that "male readers prefer assassination novels" and triggering a hot scene of female readers reading such novels. This shocked even Forsyth himself: "I thought female readers would hate the Jackal, who took advantage of his mistress and ruthlessly killed her." But on the contrary, the Jackal actually has a large number of female admirers, and I am confused about this. Perhaps, the reader thinks this guy is cool. They envy a character who flies around the world cleanly and decently. Moreover, for most of the book, the Jackal wanders around in a Hotel in Europe enjoying expensive and exquisite food and wine. ”
Forsyth writes fiction like news, and the "six elements" are complete: time, place, character, event, why, how, objective narrative, and no psychological description or character analysis of the character. This way of writing makes the novel have a high degree of rigor and logic, and the reading pleasure is very strong.
The ending of the novel leaves the biggest suspense: who is the Jackal? He wasn't Kathrop, the real Kathrop had been staying in Scottish hotels for three weeks, indulging in climbing and fishing. The British did not recognize the Jackal as British, as he was proficient in Chinese and had multiple fake passports. The Jackal was buried in a suburban cemetery in Paris, whose death certificate was unknown to an unknown foreign tourist, and died in a car accident.
"Highly intelligent logical thinking, well-trained professionalism, resolute and thorough execution, rapid crisis handling and adaptability are all required courses for espionage in Fossays's writings. His characters have the highest example of project planning and implementation. ”
The world of international politics, agents and killers, is far away and unfamiliar to us, and Forsyth's display of this mysterious world before us in great detail greatly satisfies our curiosity.
Do it, do it and you're done; books, good looks are enough!
(The picture in this article comes from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author)