“Istanbul’s dead, Alex.” Reuven blinked like a crocodile.
“Says who?”
“He has three-week-old twins waiting for him at home. He comes from a prominent, wealthy Jewish family in Istanbul. He has no reason to disappear.”
Lick.
On his only visit to Reuven’s home, Alex had found bare walls and not a single personal item. For a moment, he’d suspected that the man’s house had a false bottom.
“One day we’re going to miss these times, Alex. In another year or two, a vacation in Bodrum will seem as plausible as a vacation in Tehran,” Reuven said, sipping what was left of his black coffee.
There was a momentary oppressive silence.
Then Reuven said, “From the initial debriefing of the operatives, we know that they were ambushed at the spice warehouse by soldiers wearing black combat overalls and armored vests. It sounds like Özel Tim. There was an ambulance waiting nearby—it arrived less than a minute after the shooting.”
“The leak didn’t come from us,” Alex cut in. “We didn’t know Istanbul’s identity. The Turks must’ve gotten hold of him, and he gave up the warehouse.”
“So why didn’t they attack when the whole team was inside?” Reuven asked, examining the burnished mahogany surface of his desk.
“Maybe Özel Tim didn’t have time to get ready. Is there anything new from our sources in Ankara?”
“Politicians are usually asleep at six in the morning. When they finally get up, they run straight to the newspaper and look for any mention of their names.”
Reuven turned to look out at the coastal road. “You’ve been in this business long enough to know that sometimes the price is painful. We’ll thank God if this whole thing ends with only two losses.”
Alex approached, pressed both palms on the barricade-like desk, and bent toward Reuven. “You’re not planning to fight for Galia?”
Reuven looked at Alex’s hands as if he were looking at a dead cat.
“Definitely not right away, and it would depend on the cost. She has a Dutch passport.”
Alex straightened up and strode back to the far end of the office. “Her Dutch identity won’t hold up longer than a day,” he said too loudly.
“No one wants Galia back more than I do,” Reuven said hastily, “but don’t forget, Mossad isn’t supposed to serve its agents. The agents are supposed to serve Mossad. If we have to give up Galia in order to avoid taking official responsibility for the screwup in Bolu, we’ll do it—with a heavy heart, but we’ll do it.”
Alex closed the distance between himself and Reuven.
Reuven straightened up and tensed.
“You have no problem abandoning your best people?”
“Everyone can be replaced,” Reuven hissed.
Even you, Reuven, Alex thought.
The head of Mossad nodded, as if reading his mind.
“Galia was going to be the first woman to head Operations,” Alex said.
“You are not the one who’s going to appoint the next chief of Operations,” Reuven fired back. “I’ve heard that the two of you are close. People talk.”
Reuven backed away from the desk, from Alex. The wheels of his desk chair spun soundlessly.
Sweat was forming on Alex’s back. It was always too hot in the chief’s office.
“You didn’t bother to come down to the war room even once all night,” Alex said.
“I was tied up in intense consultations with the prime minister and the head of the Ring,” Reuven replied too quickly, as if he’d prepared his answer in advance. “I couldn’t conduct those discussions in front of everyone.”
A ping sounded. Reuven moved closer to the computer. His eyes darted across it. “Unit 8200 interception: The Turkish government is about to announce that they have found the body of General Farzan Karabashi. They are holding a female Mossad operative with Dutch citizenship who was involved in his abduction, torture, and murder. She’s injured.”
“How do they already know she’s Mossad?” Alex asked.
“She must’ve talked. She’s wounded and she needs treatment. Anyone would talk.”
“Not Galia.”
“Alex, you can’t run the intelligence agency of a country like ours if you let your emotions get the best of you.”
The chief swung his armchair around and bent over the safe, making sure to hide the digital pad with his shoulder as he entered the code. The cast-iron door opened with a sucking sound.
He rummaged through the cardboard folders inside, pulled out a thin green one, opened it, and handed it to Alex.
The first thing Alex saw was a picture of a man with a high, curved forehead, like a dolphin’s. His light blue eyes sparkled.
“That’s Justus. I want you to meet with him this afternoon. Keep your eyes open, sniff him out in your inimitable way. Justus runs all the Nibelungs personally. If there was a leak, it came from him. Don’t hesitate to attack. Shake the tree and see what falls out.”
“Maybe you should shake it yourself?” Alex suggested.
“I have to go on working with him,” Reuven said. “I don’t want to ruffle his feathers. Anyway, I already have urgent meetings scheduled with the PM, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the legal advisers. And we’re expecting a full-out media blitz.”
The course of action was predictable. For the next few days, the State of Israel would offer no response. The familiar evasion tactic—the safe haven for prime ministers and Mossad chiefs who screw up.
“I’ve put together an investigative team led by the head of Internal Security. They’ll look into whether we had a leak here. They’ll want to talk to you when you get back from Berlin,” Reuven said.
The phone on the desk chirped.
Reuven grabbed the receiver. He listened in silence, closed his eyes, and finally nodded and said, “I understand.”
Then he opened his eyes, stared into space, and announced, “The prime minister has ordered an immediate halt to all our European operations.”
“And how are we supposed to understand what’s going on, from Fox News?” Alex wondered.
They both felt that their ship was filling with water.
“Three months ago, I suggested that you take some time off. You have more than two hundred days saved up. You’ve been through things that would shake anyone up. Maybe after Berlin you’ll take a little rest?”
A hopeless dawn rose outside the window. A flash from the depths of his memory, a picture that would never be erased: the hospital in Hampstead. His wife, Naomi, lying on the pale linoleum floor. Dark blood pooling around her. Her face growing pale.
A strange fluttering in the air. Silence. He heard himself say, “You didn’t even come to shivah.”
Reuven stared at the muted coastal road through the bulletproof window.
“And you were there when she died,” Alex added.
“Don’t blame me for the mistakes in your life,” Reuven said quietly, not without rancor.
“You walked into the hospital waiting room with your gun drawn. You didn’t wait to see who was there,” Alex said.
“Enough! I don’t want to hear it anymore.”
“You haven’t heard anything yet,” Alex hissed, his ears burning. He spun around and headed for the door.
“How’s Daniella?” Reuven called out behind him.
His back muscles tightened.
“Have you told her yet?” Reuven twisted the knife.
As he left the chief’s office, Alex was seized by an intense urge to shower.
FLIGHT TO FLORENCE, ITALY | 06:37
With a sense of urgency, Alex shoved warm clothes into a black duffel bag, almost forgetting gloves and a scarf.
The house was quiet. The windows were shut; everything was locked.
The fraction of a second between the time he turned off the lamp in the dining room and when he slammed the front door was enough for the dead Naomi, the black-framed photograph, to throw him a scolding look: You can’t escape. You won
’t be able to forget.
Later, at Ben Gurion Airport, the Gulfstream raced madly down the runway, its engines screaming, the terminal and waiting planes blurred through the windows.
Alex took his first deep breath since leaving the war room that morning.
Text message: Meeting set for 16:00 in the Bebelplatz, Berlin.
He looked at his watch and did a few calculations, then got up and touched the pilot’s shoulder. The pilot turned around and removed his headset, revealing two round monkey ears. His breath smelled of eggs.
“We’re making a stop in Florence.”
The pilot nodded. “How long?”
“Up to three hours.”
The pilot nodded again and replaced his headset.
Alex walked back and sank into the tan leather seat. He looked up at the ceiling, at the approximate spot where two Glock 17s, bullet clips, stun grenades, first-aid supplies, and a sterile emergency surgery kit were hidden.
The malicious final moment of his meeting with Reuven echoed in his mind. He thought about his daughter, Daniella.
Last December, right after she finished basic combatant training, Daniella was sent to London on her first operational mission. She was abducted by the Quds Force, Iran’s unit for secret extraterritorial operations. Alex had rushed to London to rescue her. Out of options, he contacted Jane Thompson, a British former Mossad agent. Together they launched a predawn raid on the Iranian house, and after a bloody gun battle Daniella was freed.
Daniella was wounded and had to undergo surgery in a nearby hospital. While he, Jane, and the male agent were sitting in the hospital waiting room, Naomi, Alex’s wife, suddenly appeared.
Eventually Alex realized that the person responsible for Daniella’s abduction was sitting right beside him.
The man pulled a gun.
Reuven arrived in the midst of the fight between Alex and the traitor. Reuven reached for his gun, shot the traitor, and killed him. A stray bullet from the traitor’s gun hit Naomi. She died almost at once. Alex would never forget her last words to him.
Later, he found out that Daniella had been tortured and raped.
For the last six weeks, she’d been on a remote farm in eastern Tuscany. He made sure to call her regularly. She made sure to keep the conversations short.
He remembered Daniella in the recovery room, still woozy from the anesthesia, asking, “Where’s Mom?”
For a moment, he couldn’t speak.
“What happened, Dad?”
“What?”
“Tell me what happened.”
“She was here . . .”
“When?”
“During the operation.”
“So why’d she leave?”
“She didn’t leave.”
“Where’s Mom?”
“She was shot.”
“What . . .”
“Mom is gone.”
FLIGHT TO FLORENCE, ITALY | 08:39
The secure satphone buzzed.
Reuven Hetz. “The Turkish media is boiling mad. The Ankara police just announced that they found the body of the kidnapped Iranian general and arrested a female Mossad agent carrying a forged Dutch passport.”
“That’s it?” Alex asked.
“I wish. The Turkish prime minister said that Israel has flagrantly crossed all the red lines and violated Turkish sovereignty. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Erdoğan ordered his ambassador in Israel to return immediately to Ankara. Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying that Iran will avenge General Karabashi’s death with blood and fire.”
“As expected. Did the Turks say anything about Galia’s injuries?”
“She suffered moderate injuries.”
Should that make him happy or sad? “They didn’t mention Istanbul’s disappearance?”
“He didn’t disappear, he’s dead. And, no, they didn’t say anything.”
Alex was silent.
Reuven hung up.
Text message: Are you okay?
Sent by Jane Thompson. Her name on the screen awakened a small bird from its deep sleep.
He considered calling her, but he heard the pilot say, “Two minutes to touchdown!”
The Tuscan countryside appeared below between white clouds, followed by the centuries-old red-tiled roofs of Florence. The Gulfstream’s landing gear dropped down with a thump. The pressure in his ears grew. Butterflies swirled in his stomach. Soon he would see Daniella. Fear gripped him. How would she react?
Just to hold her in his arms.
To feel that he belonged to someone.
TUSCANY, ITALY | 10:36
Awaiting him at the end of the highway, past the string of semitrailers crawling along like snails, was a terrible conversation with Daniella. He slammed the steering wheel with his open hand. He had to tell her that he was coming.
The road was wet, and the trucks’ wheels sprayed mud onto his windshield. Then traffic began to flow, and the green road signs slid past in a blur.
He exited the highway at Valdarno. The rolling hills of Tuscany were a patchwork of bare vineyards and olive trees. The waters of the Ambra rushed by. Cars climbed the narrow winding road to Bucine.
He had a thick, rough espresso at a roadside snack bar at the entrance to the town. A dying neon light flickered on the red-and-white Kinder chocolate wrappings. A slot machine clattered somewhere. He put the small empty cup on the counter and left.
“Signore?” a woman called after him.
He looked for her, ready with an apology. A tiny woman, she was hidden behind the cash register, wrinkled and old, dressed in black, her thinning hair pulled back tightly in a bun. She smiled at him, rubbing her thumb and index finger together.
He hurried back and paid her, adding a one-euro tip. “Mi dispiace.”
After passing a row of village houses, he turned right into a wooded area. The winding, bumpy road was covered with morning fog. The road descended, then climbed again, revealing an elongated vineyard with blackened, ropey stems. The horizon was lined with snowcapped blue mountains.
He followed the road into a forest, where the sun glimmered through the sparse treetops. Silvery spiderwebs clung to spindly, brown, leafless trees, and the rotting ground was strewn with pine needles. He opened the window and slowed down, listening to the wind and the twittering of the birds.
The dense woods thinned out, and vestiges of frost glittered on wild grass. A large puddle reflected a mass of heavy clouds, close, threatening the sun.
A muffled shot rang out.
He braked and tensed.
A pair of birds flew off in alarm. The sky darkened, casting the woods into shadow.
Another shot, thick and blunted, from a hunting rifle.
Strange. Hunting was prohibited in early spring.
He continued down the dirt road. The acrid smell of smoke came in through the window. Orange flames rose from a pile of dry branches on the edge of the vineyard. The road to the farm was lined with olive trees.
This was where Daniella was supposed to be.
He pulled into the carport, his tires crushing gravel, and parked behind a jeep.
A lovely piece of land, rich and peaceful, that was not meant for him.
The stillness brushed his ears like soft down. He had come here from the midst of a terrible noise that enabled him to shut out the voices that had been drumming at his heart for the last few months.
Time passed slowly here. Dammit, the bombshell would have to wait. He would just see her, hug her, stroke her face, and say nothing for the time being.
His phone was already in his hand. What would he say?
Finally, he called.
A call-waiting beep went on and on.
“Yes?”
He choked up. That was how she always answered the phone.
“It’s Dad . . . How are you, dear?”
“Hi, Dad. Where are you?”
“In Italy.”
“Where?”
“Milan. I want to come see yo
u.” Coward. Pathetic liar.
“Where—here?”
“I want to see you.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“You’re not busy?”
“I’m dying to see you.”
He heard her deep breathing. “It’s not such a good idea . . .”
His heart dropped.
“A quick visit, just to see you.”
She took a deep breath. “I still need to be alone . . .”
Through the phone, he heard a door close and footsteps going down stairs.
The long silence was discomfiting. Suddenly he saw her, and his breath caught in his throat.
She was walking alongside a red mountain bike, the phone was at her ear, and her face was gaunt and sad. She didn’t appear to have seen him.
“I love you, little girl . . .”
“I know . . .”
He wanted to cry but couldn’t. He yearned to open the car door and run to her, but his body stayed glued to the seat.
She disappeared behind a wall of cypress trees.
“Later, Dad.” She hung up.
“Yes, later,” he said to the air, and leaned his head back.
With her uncompromising gentleness, she had driven a wedge between them.
He waited to be sure their paths wouldn’t cross, and then he sped back down the winding road, his teeth clenched.
BERLIN, GERMANY | 14:48
The weather along the short flight path from Florence to Berlin was turbulent. The plane bobbed like an empty bottle in a stormy sea.
Reuven called on the secure satphone. “Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan called a press conference and demanded that Israel apologize to Turkey and Iran for its crimes. He announced that he’s ordered the expulsion of our consular staff from Ankara. Are you in Berlin yet?”
“Soon.”
“We found a lawyer to represent Galia, but the Turks won’t let him see her in the hospital. He believes he’s been hired by a Dutch human rights organization. The Turkish media reported that soldiers from the Turkish antiterrorism squad are guarding the hospital. We managed to get a photo of her medical report. It’s blank. They didn’t even record her temperature or blood pressure.”
Alex felt as if someone was hammering a nail into his head.
Ring of Lies Page 2
