Espionage: The Spy Who Came In from the Trunk

The yellowish, brassbound trunk not only moved—it talked. From its depths came kicks, wriggles, and a sepulchral voice pleading "Aiutatemi! Salvatemi!" (Help me! Save me!). Porter Mario Colelli, who was loading freight into the rear baggage compartment of United Arab Airlines flight 784 to Cairo, recalls, "It was good Italian, real Italian Italian. Suddenly, I thought, 'My God, this is an Italian, and these Arabs are kidnaping him—some political fellow or something. Who knows what they'll do to him down there in Cairo!' "

With the porter's alarm at Rome's Leonardo Da Vinci airport last week began an espionage yarn...