Evin Prison, Tehran
Morris finished his story and Zorik understood that they were all hostages and would be released only if Iran's demands were met by Israel. Zorik asked "Morris, do you think that someone knows that you were kidnapped?"
Morris looked at Vicki and said "We thought a lot about this. Obviously the hotel in Kemer would notice that we did not check out and one look at our room would alert them that something happened to us as our luggage and even our passports are there. They may have notified the Israeli embassy or consulate, or at the very least the travel agent that booked our package deal."
Zorik asked if they had any family is Israel. Vicki burst out in tears "Yes, we have a son and a daughter. Both are very close to us and they would alert the police and probably the Israeli Foreign Office if we didn't return on schedule. We are sure that the circumstances of our disappearance would be investigated. We hope they will speak to Azzuri the pilot of the hot air balloon but I doubt that he will tell the truth about our abduction".
Zorik nodded and said "Our government is very sensitive to sudden disappearance of citizens and I am sure that they will investigate the matter until they find out what happened. I am not sure that they will get to the bottom of this and figure out that you are held here in Tehran but the case will not close until they find out."
Shulamit Levy said "Now I remember that before we went on our trip to Georgia there was something on the news that an Israeli couple had gone missing in Turkey and the anti-terror branch of the government issued a warning about going to Turkey. That is why we decided to go on an organized tour to Georgia. A lot of good this did us…"
Morris interjected "Why didn't you tell us about this earlier?"
Shulamit answered "We didn't know that you and Vicki were that couple. You never mentioned the circumstances of your kidnapping."
Zorik saw that this was leading to an argument and cut it short "Please relax, we are here together and must stay unified and support each other. Inbal and I left Israel months before this happened and Ari and Avi have also not been in touch with news from Israel".
Zorik then looked at the other couple, Shulamit and Nate Levy, and asked them how they were captured. There was little doubt that Shulamit was the talkative one in the Levy family and indeed she started to describe how they were captured.
Two weeks earlier, Shulamit and Nate Levy in Tbilisi, Georgia
The Levy couple wanted to celebrate their Silver Wedding and the fact that their youngest daughter had moved out of their small apartment in Haifa to study at the university in Beer-Sheva. They had intended to go on one of those "all inclusive" deals in Antalya but when they heard that an Israeli couple disappeared under mysterious circumstances they changed their plans and joined a guided tour to Georgia. They had heard a lot about that country with its magnificent mountains, good food and wine as well as nice, hospitable people. They were also attracted by the low prices for the "last minute" deal. The flight from Tel-Aviv to Tbilisi was a bit scary as the old airplane seemed to be on the verge of breaking apart, as cheap charter flight sometimes seem to be but almost never really crash. It was a no-frills flight so they were really hungry and thirsty when they landed in Tbilisi in the evening. They were driven with the rest of the group by coach to the Marriott Hotel on Shota Rustaveli Avenue. As soon as they got the key to their room and put their luggage in the room, Nate said that he was starving and that he wanted go out to look for something to eat. Shulamit said that he should not go alone and offered to join him as she, too, was famished. So they didn't bother to unpack and took the elevator down to the lobby and enquired at the front desk about a place to eat. The woman at the desk said that they could order room-service and when they asked for the menu they saw that at that time of night only served cold sandwiches. So Shulamit said to Nate that it would be better to look for a restaurant near the hotel and get some hot food so out they went.
The streets near the hotel were lit up nicely but they didn't see a restaurant that looked inviting, so they wandered a little further. As they crossed a small alley they saw a neon sign that looked like a restaurant. They started down the dark alley when suddenly they were surrounded by four men wearing black leather jackets. The leader asked them something in Russian and when they didn't respond said in heavily accented English "Tourists?"
Nate just nodded as he was at a loss for words for a moment.
The man didn't see this silent response and immediately got angry and said "Where from?" in an aggressive tone.
Nate was still unable to respond but Shulamit proudly said "Israel".
The man looked at his three buddies and muttered something and then smiled nastily and Shulamit could see a couple of gold teeth reflecting the neon sign, and said "Come with" in English and drew something out of his jacket's pocket.
Nate heard the sound of a flick knife opening and saw it glinting. He lifted his hands and said "Dollars? Do you want dollars?"
The man turned serious and grabbed Nate by the collar and pulled him deeper into the alley. Two of the younger guys grasped Shulamit's hands and twisted them behind her back. Her scream was muffled by coarse hand that was placed over her mouth.
The Israeli couple was forced to walk down the alley while one of the young men pulled out his cell phone and spoke to someone in rapid Georgian. A few minutes later a pick-up truck with a double-cabin appeared and the Israelis were forced into it and thrown on the floor under the back seat. Once again Nate tried to offer dollars but the response was a slap on the back of his head. The older man and the driver of the truck started arguing and shouting about something. Nate couldn't follow the conversation that was taking place above his head but understood that Iran was mentioned several times. The older man warned Shulamit and Nate that if they as much as muttered a syllable he would cut their throats. Of course, they didn't understand his exact words but there was no doubt what his intentions were. They cowered on the floor of the truck and tried to hold each other for comfort.
The pick-up truck drove along the right bank of the Kura River and then along the Rustavi Highway and finally straight across the border into Azerbaijan. There didn't seem to be any formalities while crossing the border, probably because it was close to dawn and the guards on both sides preferred to stay in their sheltered shacks rather than worry about the light traffic. The leader of the group was busy talking to someone in Russian on his cell phone and probably making some kind of arrangement to hand them over.
They reached Gazakh and stopped near the Olympic Complex and were met by three men in a van. The Israeli couple was ordered out of the pick-up truck and as soon as they saw the three men Nate was sure that they were devout Muslims. Some money changed hands and the pick-up truck headed back north while the van with the hostages continued south-east. Crossing from Azerbaijan into Iran was even easier and within a few hours Nate and Shulamit found themselves incarcerated in Evin Prison.
Evin Prison, Tehran
The irony of the situation was not lost on all the Israelis in the cell – here the Levy couple tried to evade the risk of going to Turkey only to suffer the very same fate they had tried to get away from. Even Zorik, who prided himself on being a pragmatist and realist, had to accept that this was an act of fate rather than an act of faith, while the others regarded the whole affair with fatalism. Shulamit said that they had not suffered any ill-treatment by the kidnappers in Georgia or by the Muslims that took them from Azerbaijan to Tehran. The only abuse they endured was from the fat jailor in the Evin Prison and even that was more because he was a sadist than because their captors wanted to extract sensitive information from them.
Zorik asked all the people in the prison cell whether they knew if the Israeli authorities had been aware of the missing couple. Nate said that he was sure that their tour guide would have noticed their absence in the morning following their abduction and would certainly report it, but he didn't have any direct knowledge if that had happened.
Zorik then turned to
Avi and Ari, the two Israeli guys who were in their twenties and asked them how they ended in Evin Prison. Avi was a muscular tall man in his early twenties and would have even been considered as very good-looking if it were not for a large fresh scar on his right cheek. He pointed to the scar and said that the fat jailor had violently pushed him into the cell and when he fell his face was scratched by the latch on the door. Ari was thin and short but his blue eyes were burning with an internal rage. Apparently he was the talkative one and described briefly how they ended up in Evin Prison.
A week earlier, Ari and Avi, Phuket, Thailand
They were dancing with a large bunch of young men and women at a "full moon" party on the west coast beach at Kata. The loud music reverberated in the air, echoed back from the trees and pinged like a sonar directly on the brain. The young beachaholics, a term for people addicted to beach parties and alcohol, were moving about mechanically like zombies in time with the music. They were fuelled by copious amounts of cheap alcohol and by low quality marijuana, amphetamines and an assortment of other drugs. Most of these were homemade by enterprising locals and tourists who didn't care about any after-effects that the users may experience once they sobered, if they bothered to do so. Two blonde girls, who said they were from Sweden, encircled Avi and rhythmically imitated his every move, while Ari looked on a bit jealously at the laughing threesome. Avi quietly said something to the girls and one of them turned to Ari and invited him to join their dance. The four of them continued dancing for another couple of hours and then the girls said they had to go to the toilet and indicated that the guys should follow them in ten minutes to the nearby guesthouse where they were staying. Avi and Ari nodded and said that they would pick-up a little more "fuel" and join them shortly. Ari said something to Avi in Hebrew and both giggled, patted the girls on their backside and sent them on their way. Then they headed towards the cluster of trees where they knew that every variety of drug or alcohol could be purchased.
A dark skinned boy of about 15 approached them and asked if they were Israelis because he had a special deal for them. When they nodded he motioned for them to follow him and headed along a trail that led further into the trees. The two Israelis were already a bit high and were looking forward to a night of a thousand pleasures. They didn't pay attention to the four large men who surrounded them until a dirty rag with something that smelled like ether was placed on their mouths and their hands were pinned to their bodies. They passed out almost immediately and were carried to a truck that was waiting on the dirt road that ran close to the beach.
They came to a little later with a splitting headache and discovered that their feet and hands were tied with coarse ropes. It took them a while to orientate themselves and realize that they were captured. Avi tried to speak but his mouth was so dry from the alcohol, drugs and ether that his tongue felt like sandpaper and no sound came out. Ari was in no better shape but managed to make some noise by stumping his feet until one of the captors hit him across the back of his head and told him to shut up. Finally, when he noticed their condition he held a bottle of water close to Ari's mouth and gave him a couple of sips and then did likewise to Avi. He said that they would soon reach their destination.
The two Israelis had no idea why they were captured or where they were taken to. Ari knew that the island of Phuket was 49 km long so reckoned that they must still be on the island and not too far away from Kata beach. The truck left the paved road and moved on to a gravel road and then came to a stop. They heard someone get out the truck's cabin and open some kind of a gate. The truck moved a few meters and stopped while the man closed the gate and got back into the cabin. The truck moved a little further and stopped and the driver switched off the engine.
Ari and Avi were brusquely unloaded from the truck and unceremoniously led by two men to a small wooden shed where they were chained to a metal pole. Dawn was rapidly approaching and they could clearly smell the ocean and see it. But then every place is near the beach in Phuket so that didn't add any information until they heard a plane taking off and understood that they were near the airport.
At long last a man dressed in a safari suit addressed them in accented lilting Hebrew and said that they were hostages of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and would soon be sent to Tehran. He introduced himself as Colonel Shirazi, a senior officer in the IRG and head of the Counter-Intelligence Department that dealt with the Zionist entity that some called Israel. He said that if they behaved and cooperated they would not be harmed and added that in the evening a private jet would take them to Iran. Ari asked if he could go to the bathroom and the Colonel said that the Iranians were civilized and an ancient people with a proud history and treated their prisoners well. He said something in rapid Farsi and one of the captors untied Ari's feet and took him outside to the toilet. The guard drew his pistol and led Ari outside. Avi looked up at the Colonel and said that they would cause no trouble. Suddenly a shot was heard and Avi cringed with fright and moments later the door opened and the laughing guard led the shocked Ari in to the room and tied his feet again. The Colonel smiled when he saw that Avi had wet himself and said that this was just a demonstration that they were serious.
After dark the Israelis were escorted by the Colonel and two guards and driven to a hangar in a jeep with dark windows. A small private jet was waiting there with its engines already turned on. The Israelis were forced to board the plane and were seated on both sides of the aisle at the back of the plane. The plane taxied to the runway and took off towards the west and then headed north. The small jet covered the distance of about 5,500 kilometers in a nonstop eight hour flight and landed in Tehran. There was a small welcoming committee consisting of IRG members who greeted Colonel Shirazi and without further ado led the two Israelis to Evin Prison.
Evin Prison, Tehran
The eight Israeli prisoners now understood that they were held as hostages, as none were interrogated for military or secret information. Apparent to all was the fact that the Iranians were not selective – any Israeli would be fit to serve their purpose - regardless of age, gender, position in society or personal history. The fact that they were grabbed from Turkey, India, Thailand and Georgia indicated that this was some kind of global operation by Iranian intelligence, or more likely by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. They realized that there could be more hostages brought in to Evin Prison in the near future or even being held in other locations. For the time being they were treated quite well, despite the sadistic behavior of Fatso the fat jailor.
Chapter 5
September 25th, Tel-Aviv, Israel
The Head of Mossad received yet another phone call from the Prime Minister inquiring if any progress had been made with regard to his granddaughter. The PM told Shimony that the young diplomat sent to Srinagar from the Israeli embassy in New Delhi sent his report to Colonel Dan Oren and didn't discover any new information about the whereabouts of the young Israeli couple. Haim Shimony replied that he already knew that and Mossad was investigating the matter of the disappearance of several other Israelis under similarly mysterious circumstances and that there was a theory that the incidents were related. The PM asked who was behind this and Shimony answered that there was no definite evidence but that he believed the Iranians were responsible. The PM then wondered aloud if these incidents could be connected to the fate suffered by the Iranian nuclear scientists. Shimony answered that this was also part of the theory. The PM said that he wanted a full report by the end of the month and hung up without giving Shimony a chance to respond. Shimony looked at the silent phone in his hand and shouted to his secretary to summon all Mossad divisions heads, as well the head of military intelligence, the representative of the Israeli Security Agency and David Avivi for an urgent meeting in the evening.
With a stern expression, which was in contrast to his usually relaxed features, Shimony addressed the meeting.
"I am sorry to have summoned this meeting at such a short notice, but the PM is putting a lot of pressure on
me. He is worried not only about his granddaughter and her fiancé but that the recent series of disappearances of Israeli citizens could somehow be connected to some global operation by the Iranians. He has instructed me to give this matter top priority and pool our resources. Does anyone wish to comment?"
The head of the Mossad section that dealt with international relations said "Our colleagues in the Indian Intelligence Bureau, India's internal intelligence agency, had raised the possibility that the couple was kidnapped and transported over the border to Pakistan. They found that during the week of September 13th, close to the time the Israeli couple had disappeared, there were incidents of heavy drinking among the border police at the Chakothi-Uri Xing Point. The sergeant in charge of the post was dishonorably discharged from the service for negligent behavior and it also turned out that he had received monetary bribes and alcohol. Putting two and two together I guess that it is where and when they were moved to Pakistan."
The ISA participant said "We have found no connections between the missing people. Morris and Vicki Aladgem are in their sixties and from Bat-Yam, Nate and Shulamit Levy are in their forties and from Haifa, two young men Avi and Ari had just completed their military service and are in their early twenties and Inbal and Zorik are in their late twenties and from Tel Aviv."
David Avivi raised his hand quietly and said "Looking at the timing of the disappearances - this has to be connected to the Iranian nuclear scientists. Also the fact that the missing Israelis were kidnapped, or so we assume, at different locations indicates that there is a powerful organization involved. This is not a series of random acts or incidents and certainly not a simple ransom demand situation."
The Dreadful Patriot: A Thrilling Conspiracy Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense Book 3) Page 6
