The Himalayan hit

In Barry Eisler's "John Rain" novels, an honest Japanese cop is frustrated with his inability to bring corrupt politicians and mafia men to justice, so he hires an assassin to take them out. To keep the jobs from being traced back to him, he insists that the targets die of what appear to be natural causes. As Prague Mayor Pavel Bém makes plans for a two-month climbing vacation in the Himalayas, rumor has it that he's on Mirek Topolánek's hit list for the way he behaved during the government-building period. LN reported that Bém already sees Topolánek or his aide Marek Dalík behind even the slightest negative report about him. Under such circumstances, it might be too risky for Topolánek to go after Bém directly. Perhaps that's why reporters have started to ask questions about Roman Janoušek, Bém's skilful middleman. If he fell, Bém would be hit where it hurts the most. [Czech Republic Lidové noviny]