After settling in the small room John removed the SIM card from his telephone and inserted a prepaid local SIM card and Angelica did the same with her phone. They detested airline food and were really hungry after the long flight from Paris. So in search of a restaurant they strolled up Day Street to Davis Square where they found an Italian restaurant that looked appealing. They ordered two of the dishes recommended by the owner who was also the cashier and had a cold beer while waiting for their food. Two steaming plates that smelled delicious were placed on their table. After the first bite both rolled their eyes and felt as if they had just reached heaven and were served ambrosia, the food of the gods and goddesses. The beer wasn't exactly the gods' nectar so they ordered a bottle of lush deep red Chianti. John beamed at Angelina who smiled back and after consuming the large plate they each ordered a double Espresso and relaxed on the comfortable seats. They strolled back to the hotel and wearily climbed up the stairs to their room. Jet-lag was setting in and within minutes they just fell into a deep sleep.
John and Angelina Smith were Mossad agents whose real names were Shmuel (Sam) Jacobs and Rina (Ruby) Rabinov and they were sent on a special mission by the ambitious operations chief of Mossad who was also Shimony's senior deputy. His nick-named was simply Segan (Hebrew for deputy) and he earned it because he was not trusted to be the chief and was doomed to retire as a deputy. People who saw him for the first time and knew about his career almost automatically thought "always a bridesmaid never a bride" because of the vibes they got from him. Segan was sure that he would not be the PM's selection for the next Mossad head unless he did something truly exceptional, some grand achievement that would be attributed to him alone, a patriotic act that could not be ignored. That is why he trusted his two close cronies, Sam and Ruby, with a delicate and sensitive mission. He promised them promotions if they succeeded and warned them that he would absolutely deny his involvement if they were caught.
***
Segan had explained that their mission was vital to the defense of Israel and would in no way affect the national security of the United States. He didn't need to tell them that the relations between Israel and the US were in a very delicate state, mainly because each country quietly, but not very subtly, tried to meddle in the internal politics of the other. The Israeli right wing government supported the Republican Party while the left wing openly sided with the Democrats. These relations were reciprocal – the Republicans favored the Israeli right wing and the Democrats wanted to see a change of power in Israel. There were also some personal scores to settle between the US President and the Israeli PM – everything is personal as the Godfather said in the famous movie.
In addition, since the Pollard affair in the mid-1980's when some members of the Israeli intelligence community accepted the offer made by a young officer in US Naval Intelligence and recruited him, Israel had vowed never to spy on the US. Pollard happened to be Jewish, and the fact that he passed classified information to his Israeli handlers brought forth accusations of dual loyalty of the whole US Jewish community. After all, Pollard and his handlers committed the worst sin of all – they got caught red handed. Israel officially claimed that this was a rogue operation by individuals who disobeyed their orders and also stated that the classified information was used in the fight against terror for the benefit of the US and its allies. The US did not accept these excuses and made sure that Pollard was severely punished and that the careers of the Israelis involved were callously terminated in the intelligence community.
Segan had briefed the two agents he sent covertly to the US. He said that he had clandestinely formed a closely knit group of adherent backers of Israel in the US but they were instructed to refrain from showing their support openly. They were mainly people who were respected members in their society and above suspicion. He promised that he would never ask them to do anything against the interests of the US. As yet he had not asked them to provide classified information but he had recently learned that one of them was a key player in a major technological development that was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Possession of this unique technology could enhance Israel's operational capabilities and in effect allow it to attack its enemies with impunity. Sam asked what this technology was and Segan said that it was a material that greatly improved the stealth properties of aircraft, missiles and unmanned drones. Segan said that as a senior Mossad officer it was his patriotic duty to obtain this technology, regardless of the risks involved. He repeated his warning that they were to evade getting caught at all costs. When Ruby enquired what he meant by "all costs" Segan smiled cynically and said even at the cost of your life or the lives of others.
Before departing Segan gave them the details of their preliminary contact and told them that a devout Catholic woman would be expecting them. After confirming that they were not followed by agents of the FBI or Homeland Security she would provide them with contact information to the next member in the group of supporters. This man would also make sure that they were not under surveillance and then will hand over the sensitive technology.
***
The next day Ruby and Sam crossed Mass Ave and entered Pemberton Farms and Garden Center. They ordered bagels with cream cheese and strong coffee and sat at one of the handful of small tables in the garden center, surrounded by orchids and other exotic plants. They had arranged to meet their contact at the annual sale held in the basement of St. John Evangelist Church that was Roman Catholic despite its name. They followed the old adage that meeting in public did not raise nearly as much suspicion as trying to conduct a secret meeting. They were to carry out a "bump" – an engineered encounter to penetrate an organization – and meet the contact that Segan described only as a devout Catholic woman who was an avid supporter of Israel. He told the two agents that she believed in the role Israel had to play in the battle of Armageddon and the return to earth of Jesus Christ to defeat the Antichrist, and was willing to help expedite the cataclysmic event.
There were several cars parked in the church's ample parking lot, many of them with infant car seats as a testament to the pro-life sign in the yard. They entered the building through a side door that had a notice directing the people to the annual sale in the basement. They descended the stairway and could hear the sounds of young children and infants even before they entered the large room where the sale was held. At a glance the goods displayed looked like those found in a poor neighborhood yard-sale – an assortment of knick-knacks, old toys, plates and cups and old pots and pans. Sam and Ruby were not there to buy anything but kept up a pretense of being interested in the merchandise. According to Segan's instruction they reached a small table at the far end of the room where some reasonably nice quilts were spread out. The matronly looking woman looked at the young couple who were obviously strangers to the tightly knit community of the church regulars, guessed who they were and held up a beautiful quilt.
She pointed to a square piece of fabric in the corner and said "Can you see the image of the Jordan River here?"
Ruby answered "The Jordan River is now just a small stream with great public relations, not a mighty river as it was in Biblical times".
The woman smiled "Perhaps the river will flow again".
This time it was Sam who responded "With the help of the Almighty and his devout servants".
Ruby intervened, trying to move the conversation to more practical grounds "I love this quilt. Can we buy it?"
The woman, who did not introduce herself nor did she ask the names of the young couple, said "The quilt is for sale but you will have to return to collect it in the evening. Make sure to check it carefully when you pick it up. Please go to cashier and pay there and I'll put a "Sold" label on it."
***
Sam and Ruby left the basement and returned to their room to catch up with some more sleep. After they had rested for a couple of hours they discussed the encounter with the woman, whose name they didn't know so decided to call her Quilty. Ruby wondere
d what possible information she had that was so important that Segan had sent them to gather – she didn't really believe Segan's story about stealth technology. Sam had no idea but said that Quilty must have received some training in clandestine operations as she neither mentioned her name nor what her daytime job was. Ruby was not so impressed by this. She wondered aloud if the fact that they had to return to the church's basement to collect the quilt could not be a trap or even some kind of "sting operation" by the FBI. She emphasized that since the arrest of Jonathan Pollard some thirty years earlier, Israel had avowed to refrain from spying on the US. She added that if they were caught it could create a real rift between Israel and the US as the tension between the allies was very high anyway. Sam tried to dissuade her but had to admit that her suspicion was not unjustified. He emphasized that there was no incriminating evidence against them and they hadn't done anything illegal. Ruby said that they may be accused of entering the US under false identities and that alone could send them to prison or at the very least have them deported. Eventually they agreed that she would go to a café at Davis Square while he returned to collect the quilt. If all went well he would call her and say something that included the code word "Metro". If he failed to call or to use the code word she was to leave the US as quickly and secretly as possible or go into hiding somewhere safe until she could be sure that all was clear. They were aware of another possibility that he wouldn't be picked-up by the FBI immediately but would be followed until they met and then both would be gathered like Easter eggs. However, both were experienced field agents and knew how to spot and evade people who followed them.
***
Ruby left the hotel with her laptop computer and walked to the café and settled down with a latte on a high stool at the counter overlooking Elm Street. Sam waited 15 minutes and then walked the short distance to the same side entrance of the church and descended down the staircase. He didn't look over his shoulder but his keen senses assured him that he was not being followed. He held the receipt he was given earlier and approached the table where Quilty was seated. She looked quite tired after a long day but when she saw Sam she smiled and held out a transparent plastic bag and he could see that the quilt was inside it. He thanked the woman and she wished him farewell and added that she hoped he would enjoy the quilt. He assured her that he would and bid goodbye. With great apprehension he strode up the stairs and exited the door that led to the now almost deserted parking lot of the church. He had half expected to see police cars and black vans with dark windows but saw nobody around. It took him less than three minutes to get back into his room and remove the quilt from the plastic bag. He spread the quilt on the bed and saw that a label had been sewn on the same square with the scene of the Jordan River. At first he saw nothing written on the white label but when he looked closely against the light he noticed that there was a ten-digit number that had been created by a series on small holes probably made with a pin. He phoned Ruby and told her to meet him at the Davis Square Metro station in 20 minutes. According to their arrangement this meant that he expected to see her at the next Metro station, Porter Square, in one hour and 20 minutes.
***
Sam and Ruby met as planned after making sure that neither of them was followed. Sam told her about the ten-digit number that was produced by a series of pin-pricks on the label and both of them guessed that it was probably a phone number. Sam recognized the first three digits 617 as the local area code. He called the number from his prepaid phone and received a voice message box "You have reached the office of Dr. Josh Levin at the MIT advanced materials laboratory. I cannot answer the phone so please leave a message after the beep". To Sam the "beep" sounded like something from the first Star Wars movie so he guessed that Dr. Levin must be an aficionado of the film and probably not a very young man. So, hesitantly Sam said "Dr. Levin, this is the man who purchased the beautiful quilt. Could you please call me back between 8 and 9 pm tonight or between 8 and 9 am tomorrow" and he gave the number of his cell phone. He then looked at Dr. Josh Levin's webpage on the MIT website. He saw that Dr. Levin was in his late fifties, as he had guessed, and that he was not a professor which was surprising in view of the impressive list of publications on the webpage. He showed this to Ruby and she said that something must have impeded Levin's career because academic researchers that were much younger were already professors. When they looked more closely at Levin's CV they saw that he had worked for quite a few years at a private high-tech company under contract to one of the US National Laboratories before joining MIT just last year and this probably explained his academic position. Sam switched off his cell phone, planning to turn it back on only at the time when he expected Levin's call.
***
Sam's phone rang just minutes after 8 pm and he heard a man's voice saying "This is Josh returning your call".
Sam asked "Can we meet tonight?"
Levin said "Could you please come to my office at MIT. I'll be here at least another hour".
Sam looked at his watch and agreed to meet Josh and asked for directions. Thirty minutes later Ruby and Sam found the office on the third floor. They knocked on the door and it was answered by a gaunt man who looked emaciated as if suffering from a terminal disease. He looked very fragile and as if he would fall apart any minute. He welcomed the Israeli couple "I was told to expect you and was instructed to hand over this little parcel" and took a small plastic box out of the top drawer of his desk and gave it to Sam.
Ruby asked "Are you feeling OK?" and not waiting for an answer went over to the cooler and fetched him a glass of water.
Josh Levin said "Thanks, but a glass of water will hardly solve my health problems. I have been diagnosed with a very aggressive bladder cancer and my physicians have given me just one more month. What I am going to give you now is highly confidential and the only reason I want the Israelis to have this information is that my days on this earth are nearly over." Sam and Ruby looked very concerned, as Levin continued "That is why I am working late tonight. I need to complete a crucial part of the work before I weaken much further".
Sam saw that the long speech took its toll and Levin leaned back in his chair. Sam asked what was in the parcel. Levin gestured and said "There is a thumb drive with blueprints of a new stealth material that was developed by the private company I worked for before moving to this position at MIT. This project for developing advanced stealth materials was funded by DARPA for the sole use of the US Air Force and Navy. I know that Israel will put it to good use, and I am also sure that the US interests coincide with those of Israel". He added a highly technical explanation about a breakthrough in material science and something about a completely innovative system called Active Frequency Selecting Surface (AFSS). The idea was that a very thin absorber could change the properties of the surface with the use of broadband receivers that would reduce the reflected wave from radar systems and thus provide stealth features to the object it coated.
Ruby approached Levin's cluttered desk to place another glass of water in front of him. As she straightened up she noticed a framed photograph in which a much younger Josh Levin was standing next to a slim blonde woman. She looked at it closely for another moment and suddenly realized that the woman in the photo was the very same woman that had given them the quilt earlier that afternoon. She motioned for Sam to get up and they both thanked Levin for his help and wished him well as they left the office.
On the way back to the Metro station she told Sam what she had seen in the photo. Sam said that the story about the exotic stealth material was unbelievable and that he thought that Dr. Josh Levin was a bit too far gone. Ruby said that she thought that he was rational and lucid and although what he said was on the verge of science-fiction she had seen stranger things come true. Sam said that there was no point in arguing and that they should check the thumb drive and if the information was valid they should leave the US promptly.
They hurried back to their hotel, inserted the thumb drive into Ruby's laptop and saw
that there were several directories and files with names like "Principles of defeating radar systems", "Microwave reflection", "Ultra-thin broadband devices", "Schematic of the fuselage of advanced jet-fighters", "Testing radar silhouette of ship hulls with AFSS", etc. They looked at each other and Ruby told Sam to start packing. Within five minutes they were ready to leave their hotel room and head to the airport. It was already late at night and there were no pedestrians and very few cars on Mass Avenue. They tried to flag a passing taxi but none stopped, so they decided to walk to up Mass Avenue to Porter Square hoping to find a taxi there or take the Metro to a busier part of town where taxis would be available. Fortunately, just before reaching Porter Square they saw a taxi going in the opposite direction. Sam jumped into the road and managed to get the driver to turn around. The trip to the airport was very quick as the roads were wide open with very little traffic.
The driver dropped them off at the international terminal and they checked the departures electronic notice board for the first flight to Europe or Canada – anywhere that would get them out of the United States in a hurry. They found an Air France flight to Paris that was scheduled to depart within an hour and rushed to purchase tickets. The economy class was fully booked but they managed to get two seats in business class. Sam used his John Smith credit card to pay for the tickets. The Air France representative raised his eyebrow at the name and carefully checked the passports, made sure that the credit card was valid and sold them two tickets at a cut-throat rate.
The Dreadful Patriot: A Thrilling Conspiracy Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense Book 3) Page 9
