by Bryan Murray
Nick was sympathetic. “No shit! Okay, let’s set up interviews with everyone on the set, check pay records for all extras on the movie, make sure we don’t miss anybody. Check surveillance and security cameras and keep me posted?” he put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “The chief’s on this like a stink on shit!”
* * *
In the local ‘Entertainment Tonight’ studio, the evening newscast was under way as the newscaster broke the story of the deaths of the two movie stars, Richard Costello and Elizabeth Rustovich. The news channel already had the details of the switched ammo, much to the total annoyance of Nick, who was back in the office writing up his report and catching the newscast on the office TV screen.
He became more interested, when the newscaster also explained that this was the fifth strange incident in L.A. in the past 2 months, three of which had happened on the sets of Star of David Productions, but this latest attack had been the first involving fatalities. ‘Hollywood under Fire’ was the headline of the next day’s L.A. Times!
CHAPTER 4
Back in Tel Aviv, the following morning, Sarah drove Jake out to a quiet suburb to meet her family. He was trying to get up to speed with who was who, having only met Ari Golchen so far. “So, Aunt Miriam, is she Ari’s sister?” he asked.
She smiled wistfully. “Yes, and my father Paul is also her brother.”
“And your grandfather?” Jake inquired.
“He’s also the father of my father, Aunt Miriam and Uncle Ari.”
Remembering what Ari had said about her grandfather the night before, he inquired politely. “And is he still in good health?”
She sighed sadly. “Grandfather Abraham is ninety three and although he is still physically well, he has Alzheimer’s.”
Jake sympathized. “I’m sorry to hear that. What did he do for a living?”
She gave a wistful smile. “Abraham was a very formidable agent of the Mossad in his early years after World War 2. In fact, he was a leading member of the team that hunted down Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, as well as a number of other former Nazis.”
Jake was impressed. “Really? And was he the one who persuaded you to get into law enforcement?”
She nodded. “Absolutely, he was also the driving force behind Uncle Ari’s rise to success as defense minister. When Abraham retired from the Mossad, he was the most decorated operative in their history!”
Jake was even more impressed. “And is your grandmother still alive?”
She looked suddenly sad. “No, Esther died ten years ago and they had a long and happy life together. As a young couple they only just managed to stay one jump ahead of Hitler’s death squads as the war ended.”
He was reading between the lines. “And this, no doubt, led to his pursuit of the bad guys after the war was over?”
She smiled. “Exactly!”
They arrived at an attractive but modest house with a high wall around the perimeter and a double gated entry. Sarah drove up to the gate and pulled on the bell rope. Seconds later, the door opened and a tough-looking man, Joseph, opened the door, a bulging shoulder holster apparent under his jacket. He smiled when he saw Sarah and he opened the second door before he waved Sarah to drive inside. She drove into the compound and Joseph closed the doors behind her.
Inside the car, Jake was watching the scene with interest. He turned to Sarah. “More bodyguards?”
She nodded in agreement. “D’you realize how many of these whacked-out terrorist groups would love to add the scalp of Abraham Golchen to their belts?”
Jake nodded in agreement. “I guess you’re right.”
They got out of the car and Sarah’s Aunt Miriam came out to meet them. She hugged Sarah to her, tears of joy in her eyes. She was thin, dressed in black and in her early sixties. “Welcome to our home, my darling Sarah!” she turned to Jake, quickly giving him the once over. “And you must be Jacob, you are most welcome.” she shook his hand.
Jake smiled and returned the handshake. “Thank you, and its Jake, I’m Irish/American!”
Suddenly, Miriam’s expression changed. “So, you are not Jewish?”
Jake smiled. “Afraid not.”
Sarah quickly intervened. She put her arm round Miriam’s shoulders and walked her into the house, guiding Jake inside with the other arm. “Now, be good, my darling, Jake is just my business partner, we’re here to do a job for Uncle Ari, not for the breaking of the glass!”
Jake understood what Sarah meant. “Exactly!” he smiled as they went inside.
Inside the elegant home, Miriam offered Sarah and Jake refreshments and she couldn’t wait to talk to Sarah about matters of the heart. “And how is your life in the USA, my darling?” she asked, a curious look in her eye.
Jake looked on, a hint of a smile on his face.
Sarah gave her aunt a hard ‘don’t start on me again’ look. “Fine, thank you. Business is going well and we are expanding our client list as we go.”
Miriam gave her a knowing glance. “And that horrible man you were married to?”
Sarah nodded her head negatively. “Never see him, never want to, now can we change the subject?”
Miriam was not to be sidetracked. “Ephraim Goldberg was asking after you just this week at the synagogue.”
Sarah gave a sigh of despair. “What have I told you, Aunt Miriam about playing matchmaker, I’m not interested, okay?”
Miriam raised her hands in surrender. “All right, all right, that’s no way to talk to your aunt. I’m only trying to help.”
Sarah relented, hugged her and smiled. “I know and I love you, but I’m just fine, really!”
Miriam finally gave in. “If you say so,” she changed the subject. “In that case, you’d better go up and see Abraham, he’s been asking about you all morning. Introduce him to Jake.”
Sarah was glad to get away. “Of course,” she turned to Jake. “C’mon, you’re about to meet a real sweetheart.”
He followed her upstairs to the bedroom above. Inside the tidy bedroom, Sarah’s grandfather Abraham Golchen, a white-haired man in a wheel chair, sat facing the window, looking out at the distant mountains, an empty look in his tired but strikingly blue eyes.
Sarah and Jake entered and Sarah rushed over to Abraham, tears of joy in her eyes to see the old man. Jake was watching, a tender look on his face. Sarah leaned forward and gently kissed Abraham on the forehead. She whispered. “Hi, Grandfather, it’s me, Sarah!”
Abraham finally focussed on her and recognition showed in the sudden twinkle in his eyes. His voice was still strong in spite of his age. “Sarah, what are you doing here?” he asked.
She smiled and held his hand. “Just passing by, thought I’d stop by to see my favourite man in the whole world!”
He looked pleased to see her and then he focused on Jake. “And who is this gentleman?”
Sarah motioned Jake closer. “This is Jake Harrigan, my business partner, grandfather. We’re here to do a job for Uncle Ari.”
Abraham held his wizened hand out politely to Jake. “Nice to meet you, Jake” he whispered.
“My pleasure, sir.” Jake replied. As he gently shook the hand of the ninety-three year old man, Jake could visualize all he had gone through in his life. Right from the days of Nazi persecution, to the days of Nazi hunting and although he now looked old and frail, Jake could imagine what a dedicated warrior he must have been.
Abraham looked back at Sarah. “So, Sarah, are you still trying to figure out who the bad guys are?”
She smiled. “Kind of.”
He shrugged. “Back in the old days, it was easy.”
Sarah looked curious. “Easy?”
He reached out to hold her hand, thinking back to bad memories - the number tattooed on his wrist, told its own story. “Yes, in those days you didn’t have to wonder who they were, like today’s terrorists, who hide behind women and children, they made sure you knew who and where they were!” he looked tearfully at an old black and white photograph on the b
edside table. It was a pretty, young Jewish woman. Abraham continued. “Your grandmother and I thought we were doing the right thing moving to Vienna, but they still found us, took us away in the middle of the night.”
Sarah put her hand on his arm to calm him. “It’s okay, grandfather, there’s no need to talk about it.”
He ignored her, still thinking aloud. “Thank goodness the allies arrived before they got round to sending us to the gas chambers!”
Sarah patted his arm. “I know, I know.”
Abraham still held her hand, he was looking into her eyes and Jake realized that he was watching a special moment as the old man continued. “Just remember this, my little angel. Your modern day terrorists are no different than the demons we had to deal with. They are all demented idealists, with no regards for human suffering - none!” he suddenly lapsed back into silence as he stared vacantly out of the window,
Sarah leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead before she and Jake left quietly. When they returned to the living room, Miriam looked up from her needlework. “Well?” she asked.
Sarah sighed. “Still living in the past, bless his heart.”
Miriam nodded sadly. “I know,” she changed the subject, a sudden mischievous look in her eye. “So, what should I tell Ephraim?”
Sarah looked out of patience. “Tell him what you like, as long as you let him know once and for all that I’m not interested!” she dragged a smiling Jake towards the door. “We’ve got to go, we have a meeting with Uncle Ari. I’ll call you later, bye. Miriam waved her off like she was a lost cause. “Bye.”
Driving back into the city, Sarah turned to Jake, who had been tactfully quiet during the family visit. “So, what did you think of Abraham?”
Jake thought a moment. “Awesome guy, just thinking about some of the things he must have seen, was giving me goose bumps!”
“I know what you mean,” she replied. ‘And I think he’s right about these modern day terrorists, and these are the guys we’ve got to worry about.”
He nodded in agreement
CHAPTER 5
The next morning, Jake and Sarah were collected at their hotel at 6.00 am by a government Hummer and taken to Mossad headquarters. After detailed security scanning and badging, they were taken to the training complex where they were introduced to Agent Rachel Heinemann, their liaison officer for the training course, who introduced them to the ten new recruits, six men and four women.
While Sarah was getting ready to give her opening presentation on the behavioural studies part of the training session, Jake was being introduced to Senior Agent Daniel Weismann, a top counter terrorism agent with the Mossad, so that they could plan in depth the search and destroy training required in Jake’s first session.
In preparation for her first session, Sarah had already asked in advance for details of that day’s cable traffic from Washington, so that she could perhaps tag particular stories that may be pertinent to what she was trying to teach her students.
She quickly scanned the sheaf of papers and various stories had been forwarded, that could possibly have some significance for the Israeli community. They ranged all the way from attack alerts, to less critical events and then finally, a particular story caught her eye.
It was the story of the deaths of the movie stars in L.A. and the financial stress it was causing for Star of David Productions. Sarah quickly ran off ten copies before quickly grabbing her coffee and heading for the first training session.
After introducing herself to her polite and eager students, she handed out the copies of the L.A story. “I would like you all to take a look at this particular cable from the US and then I’ll explain why I’m passing it around.” After they all quickly read the press report, Sarah began to explain.
“As you can all see on the face of it, this is a low-key story about what may or may not have been an accident occurring in an Israeli-owned company in the USA, where a multi-million dollar movie project was ruined by the death of its two major stars, their deaths now having been attributed to the blank ammunition in an on set weapon, having been changed to live ammunition.”
The students looked at her curiously as she continued. “And this is what behavioural studies is all about,” They continued to watch her closely as she added. “In other words, as counter-intelligence agents, we should be asking ourselves if this is something we need to be concerned about.”
Jacob, a slightly-built, young man wearing glasses, looked confused. “In what way, ma’am?”
Sarah smiled. “Please call me Sarah, ma’am sounds so old. And you are?”
He replied with a smile. “Jacob.”
She continued. “Right, Jacob, what we need to ask ourselves is was this a) an accident, b) a deliberate attempt at sabotage and c) if so, was it merely the result of some grudge action against the movie company?” she continued after a pause. “Or most significant of all, did this have some deeper international significance?”
Jacob and the others still looked confused as Sarah continued. “This is what behavioural studies entails, studying what on the face of it looks like routine events, but double-checking that they are not the forerunner of something more sinister and far reaching that could affect the way of life we are trying to preserve both here in Israel and alongside our allies.”
Jacob seemed to understand as he asked a further question. “So, how do we decide if we should be concerned about potentially significant data like this?”
She was pleased with the young man’s responses. “Excellent question, Jacob!” she replied. “In instances like this, what we should be looking for first is, could this be a repeat of similar unusual events. For instance, I understand that this is not the first attempt to sabotage movie projects owned by Israeli companies in LA. There have been three attempts in the past two months alone against this company, but this is the first involving fatalities,”
The class were exchanging knowing glances as she continued. “So, in this case, we are looking at events with a common theme. Secondly, and this is equally important, we also need to be alert to common geographical activity of this nature, even if it is not an identical type of event.”
Jacob was getting the picture. “In other words, even though the events are different, but in the same area, whoever is responsible could be trying to disguise their real agenda and confuse the authorities?”
Sarah smiled. This kid was very smart. “Exactly! So, for the rest of this first week, as part of this particular aspect of behavioural studies, I would like you all to review the daily cable traffic coming in with these thoughts in mind and we’ll have a discussion session each afternoon.”
The students were beginning to understand what she was driving at as she continued. “Remember, it is part of our responsibility to be able to forewarn the government of any unusual incidences that need to be at least highlighted before they escalate into major incidents of treachery.”
Down the corridor, Jake was in discussion with Daniel Weismann concerning his proposed training session. Daniel, a young, muscular guy in his 30’s, was clearly not too enamoured at having an Irish/American teaching his recruits the finer aspects of search and destroy techniques, but he was nevertheless politely discussing tactics with Jake. He opened the discussion. “So, Jake, you were CIA?”
Jake replied. “Yes, until a few months ago.”
Daniel continued. “And that was when you went into business on your own?”
Jake nodded. “Correct, Sarah is my business partner, she was FBI.”
Daniel smiled. “I’ve spent a lot of time liaising with your colleagues in both agencies and they are very professional people to deal with,” he added as an afterthought. “They have their own agendas of course, but who doesn’t?”
Jake mused ‘There go those agendas again’ as they continued.
Daniel probed further. “So, your topic for the training session is ‘search and destroy’, tell me a little about your background on this?”
J
ake could see that the young agent was making sure that he had the right credentials and that his recruits would be getting the kind of training that he thought they needed.
Jake thought a moment. “Okay if I call you Daniel?”
Daniel smiled. “Of course.”
Jake nodded. “Right, Daniel, before we even begin, I want you to know that in my opinion, you guys are streets ahead of almost every country in the world when it comes to counter-intelligence and I’m not here to criticize your operations in any way, or more important still, try and teach your recruits any techniques that you don’t approve of. We both know that the bad guys need to be clinically taken out from time to time and as long as we are doing it in the most efficient and discreet way, so much the better.”
Daniel nodded that he understood as Jake continued. “As you can imagine, with the US involvement in Iraq and elsewhere, just like with you guys, the very concept of search and destroy had far reaching implications. What I was going to share with you and your operatives, was the methods of intelligence gathering and elimination of potential threats that I had found to be effective in the Middle East.”
Daniel was feeling more relaxed as Jake continued, clearly the two of them were kindred spirits. “In terms of my personal involvement in search and destroy missions, I was undercover in Iraq for two years, working with intel and actually terminating targets on almost a nightly basis. Helping your people understand what this entailed, is also a part of my training session.”
Daniel smiled. “Sounds like we’re going to work well together, Jake!” he added. “What you were doing in Iraq is very similar to what my team and I have been doing the past couple of years. Prior to that, I was attached to the elite Kidon division of Mossad!”
Jake heaved a sigh of relief that they seemed to be off to a good start. He was very familiar with the Kidon unit. They are an elite group of ruthless killers, very similar to the black-ops operatives in the CIA. There were many legendary stories of apparent missions of courage, cunning and danger carried out by the Kidon against the enemies of Israel and Jake felt quite comfortable to be working with the young agent. Little did he know the traumas that lay ahead!
