The Dreadful Patriot: A Thrilling Conspiracy Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense Book 3)

by Charles Z David

  David saw that she was not going to buy any of the cover stories he had prepared so he cut to the chase "Ruby, I need to speak to you in private".

  Ruby looked around and said "I have nothing to say to you or to the people that sent you" and continued her shopping as if nothing had happened without another glance at David.

  David said the magic words that he had planned as a last resort, appealing to her patriotic feelings "Your country needs you. I know that you and Sam have been mistreated by Shimony and have been punished for following direct orders from your boss. He has sent me to make amends…"

  But before he could complete the sentence Ruby interrupted "A bit late for that, don't you think? I have started a new life and am quite pleased with it. I owe you nothing but contempt".

  She abandoned her cart and walked past the cashier before storming out of the supermarket with David close on her heels. She walked rapidly up Badstrasse pulling out her cell phone as she turned the corner heading up Gruntaler Strasse. She was gesturing excitedly with her free hand as she passed the Willy-Brandt Oberschule and reached her apartment building. David had no choice but to follow her into the building and expect the confrontation with Sam who had already opened the apartment's door and was waiting for Ruby with one hand hidden behind his back. It didn't take a genius to guess what was concealed in his hand, so David held both open hands far from his body and put a smile on his face. "Sam, indeed it is a nice surprise to meet you, too".

  Sam was not smiling "David, I wish I could say the same. Walk slowly through the door, turn left into the living room and sit on the sofa. Don't make any sudden movement and keep your hands where I can see them."

  David obliged grudgingly and said "Sam, I told Ruby that I have come to make amends" and seeing the expression on Sam's face he quickly added "Shimony feels bad about the way you were treated and sent me on a special conciliatory mission. Please let me speak freely."

  Sam looked at Ruby who nodded saying "OK, let's hear him out".

  David repeated the message he had earlier said to Ruby "Your country needs you" continuing with "I know, and Shimony does too, that both of you are true patriots. Segan got you in trouble with his unauthorized initiative. You two just followed his instructions, that to you seemed to be a perfectly legitimate task, coming from your superior officer. It was not your place to question his motives and certainly above your pay-grade to worry about the consequences of being found out".

  Sam instinctively responded "So why were we thrown out of Mossad?!"

  David honestly said "Because the PM needed a scapegoat and just sacrificing Segan was not enough to satisfy the Americans. They wanted more blood and you were not exactly innocent bystanders."

  This last sentence enraged Ruby. She raised her voice "So here's the truth coming out at last. The Americans had to be placated and we paid the price. Effectively we were banished from Israel into exile. We cannot safely return to visit our families for fear that a journalist, or worse a CIA informer, would discover us entering the country. Without Mossad's blessing we cannot even do this under assumed names and fake passports. If you want any degree of cooperation from us you first have to remedy this."

  David hastened to say "You have my word that you can freely enter the country. We'll provide you with valid, legitimate new passports under any name you wish to choose." Seeing the skeptical look on Sam's face David persisted "You don't have to say anything to me until you get the new identities. In fact, I would prefer you to visit Israel and meet Shimony at Mossad headquarters. Then and there we can continue this conversation."

  Ruby and Sam exchanged another look and Sam spoke "OK. Contact us again with the new passports and then we'll see. We demand that you alone do this. Here's my private unlisted and untraceable cell phone number. Call me when you are ready."

  Before parting David said "It is best that this little meeting and agreement is not shared with Segan. He is very unpredictable and his reaction may be violent".

  While all this was taking place Julia was nervously pacing up and down the apartment building on Gruntaler Strasse. She was getting worried that David had not come out or called and even considered breaking into the apartment. However, she had second thoughts about trying to take the two veteran Mossad field operators by force. She was relieved to see David walking unharmed out of the building and approached him discreetly. She took David's hand and whispered that she was glad that he was unscathed and he answered that he needed a stiff drink urgently.

  ***

  David and Julia walked up Gruntaler Strasse, turned right on Klever Strasse and found a nice pub with the improbable name of Offside Pub and Whiskey Bar. They sat at a corner table under a few paintings that depicted realistic scenes and admired the old radio sets in the display cabinet near their table. After each had downed a double whiskey they had some greasy snack and a cold beer to wash it down. David reiterated the main points of the conversation he had with Sam and Ruby. Julia was kindly compassionate and asked him if she could help. David emphasized that they demanded his personal handling of the matter and said that it was best if the Mossad Berlin station was not involved.

  Julia wondered why they really insisted on new Israeli passports. "After all," she said "Ruby and Sam had used Israeli fake passports and probably a myriad of other passports that were illegally obtained for their operations in the service of Mossad and certainly when working for Segan. I would be surprised if they didn't keep some of them or if Segan had not supplied them with all kinds of new passports."

  David said "They are considered as pariahs in Israel. Even if they enter the country with a false identity the face recognition algorithm at the border control posts in Tel-Aviv airport are sure to identify them and trigger an alarm. That is not to say that they will be arrested on the spot – after all they were allowed to leave the country after the US fiasco – but Mossad, the police and the ISA will know about them. They may be followed or harassed, depending mainly on Shimony's decision, and whoever they meet would be under surveillance. This they want to avoid so they have required a kind of official pardon that will remove them from the list of "most wanted persons". This will enable them to meet freely with their families and friends."

  Julia said "I had only heard rumors about this face recognition algorithm and had no idea that it was used against Israeli citizens who were not on a police "most wanted" list."

  David smiled "Julia, you are so young, so naïve and so beautiful that it makes me ache". In fact, David was a bit younger than Julia, but he felt like the older of the two.

  She smiled at the compliment and said "Well, I agree with the last part of your sentence and we'll have to see if your ache can be somehow relieved."

  After they had satisfied their hunger pangs and unwound a little with a glass of cognac the conversation became more personal. David told her, without being prompted "You have probably heard on our grapevine that my relationship with Orna is over."

  Julia laughed quietly and said "This is common knowledge in Mossad gossip. I am now officially divorced after quite a long period of not having an effective marriage."

  This was hardly earth shattering news to David who was aware of the extremely high divorce rate among Mossad employees. The circumstances of their work often made them find themselves in strange countries and unusual situations where normal family life was impossible to maintain. Julia didn't beat around the bush and asked him "What are your plans for the night? Have you booked a hotel?"

  David just smiled "I am completely free and at your service until the morning flight back to Tel-Aviv".

  They exited the pub together and took a taxi to Julia's apartment where they spent the night satisfying each other's needs and releasing the tension that their jobs induced.

  October 4th, Tel-Aviv

  Before boarding his flight to Tel-Aviv David called Shimony's office and set an appointment. An official car was waiting for him at the airport and rushed him directly to Mossad head's office. David reported t
he deal he had made with Sam and Ruby and although Shimony was not pleased with the de facto pardon given to the two former field agents he complied and called in his secretary to attend to the issuance of two new passports. He asked David if they had chosen their new names and David smiled and said that they wanted to be known as Anna and Kristoff Berliner. He laughed and said that the first names were probably influenced by the main characters in Disney's animated film Frozen and the last name by their city of residence. Shimony failed to see anything funny in the selected names and said that Elsa and Hans would be more appropriate for that particular couple.

  Shimony instructed David to hand over the passports only after getting the information he sought about the operations of Segan's firm. The passports were ready the next day – Mossad had good connections with the passport office in the Ministry of the Interior – after all they were one of its best customers, and were always in a rush to get the passports they needed. David made sure that the Mossad experts doctored the passports so it appeared that they were issued in Tel-Aviv 24 months earlier and that they contained a few stamped pages of leaving and entering Israel as well as several other countries outside the European Community. On second thought he reckoned that it would have been simpler to take two passports that were seized by Mossad and switch the photos and personal details to those of the personas requested by Sam and Ruby. Of course, this could also be done with passports from other countries, not only with Israeli passports.

  Chapter 10

  October 6th, Berlin

  David's flight to Berlin was uneventful and he managed to take a short nap between the incessant interruptions for meals, duty free items, announcements by the captain that they were over this country or mountain range and the preparation for landing. David particularly disliked the film clip explaining how to buckle the seat belt and what to do in case the plane had to land on water (bend forward with your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye, was what he thought more appropriate). He even had a stronger dislike, not to say revulsion, from the older planes in which the cabin attendants (stewards and stewardesses to the older generation of passengers) actually stood in the aisle and clicked the seat belt closed and released it as if it was some kind of ancient ritual (it was). To him it was like the stories his grandfather had told about crossing the equator on board a cruise ship and the passengers who dipped in the swimming pool and were adorned in symbolic feathers and received a certificate for being fearless travelers. He had also heard that a similar ritual, this time in freezing water, was customary for those sailing to Antarctica and crossing the Southern Polar Circle. At least in that case they had to brave the freezing water to earn their free glass of cheap cognac.

  Anyway the reception he received from Julia was as far from freezing as paradise was from hell, that is if you believed those who had been in both places and returned to tell about their experience. He told her briefly that he had to meet privately with Sam and Ruby and that this had to be done without Segan hearing about it, so he asked Julia if she could distract Segan somehow. She said that he would immediately get suspicious if she tried to contact him or have him invited to a social event organized by the Embassy, but she could use one of German colleagues from the BND to summon him under some excuse like checking his resident status or that his office complied with the fire regulations. David liked the idea and said that he would inform her when his meeting with Sam and Ruby was to take place so she could set things in motion.

  ***

  The call to Sam's private cell phone was answered by the voice mail box. David left a short message with his prepaid phone number and waited for the return call. A couple of hours later he received a call with a cryptic message that the owner of the phone will be out of town for the next two days. He told Julia about that and suggested that they both pay a visit to the couple's apartment just in case Ruby was there.

  When they reached the apartment building they saw a light in one of the windows but when they knocked on the door there was no reply although they could hear sounds that must have come from a radio or television set. Julia pulled a small leather wallet out of her purse and within 15 seconds the Yale lock on the apartment door opened with a soft click. David called "Hello, is anyone home?" and when there was no response stepped through the living room and checked the bedroom and bathroom before calling Julia to join him. There were no signs of Ruby being in the apartment. Julia shrugged and said that the couple must have left the light and radio on with a timer in order to deter burglars or simply confuse whoever tried to follow them. David responded that they were much too sophisticated for this naïve ploy. They surveyed the apartment meticulously and David spotted a small camera lens inside the smoke detector. He pointed at it and said to Julia "Smile, you are on candid camera" and then waved his hand at the camera in a silent salute and took off his imaginary hat in a theatrical gesture of respect.

  Julia was a bit disgusted with this whole affair and led the way out of the apartment making sure that the Yale lock on the door automatically locked the door behind them. When they were back on the street she asked David how he intended to spend the next two days as the week-end had just started. David grinned at her and said that he needed to spend as much time in bed as possible to catch up on his sleep, and that in any case the weather was getting chilly and an unseasonal cold front was approaching. As soon as they got back to Julia's apartment she went to her laptop and put on Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Snowflakes and suggested that they drink a hot cup of tea spiced with some brandy as an antidote to the snowflakes. David said he preferred the more popular Waltz of the Flowers but Julia responded that she would consider his request in the Spring and meanwhile they had to get away from the snowflakes and what better place than under the warm blankets.

  On Monday morning Julia and David crept out of bed and were glad to see that the storm front had passed and the sun was shining. David said that was a good omen and called Sam's cell phone number. This time Sam answered in person and they agreed to meet in the apartment on Guntaler Strasse in the evening.

  ***

  David asked Julia to stay behind and keep an eye on the apartment building in case some uninvited visitors, especially Segan, showed up. Reluctantly she agreed to play a secondary role in this affair.

  When the door opened Sam smirked "David, that was a very nice gesture that you and Julia performed in front, or rather underneath, our camera".

  David smiled "I must say that I didn't expect something so simple and crude. What burglars believe nowadays that when lights and the radio are turned on it means that the apartment is indeed occupied? The camera in the smoke detector is also not very high-tech, but I give you full marks for being deceptively simple".

  Ruby, practical as ever, said "Did you get Shimony's approval for the deal we proposed?" In response David put his hand in his pocket and produced two passports with a blue cover and lettering in Hebrew and English saying these were passports of the State of Israel. He said that they were in the names they had requested of Anna and Kristoff Berliner. He didn't repeat Shimony's comment that Elsa and Hans were more appropriate names.

  Sam held out his hand to take the passports but David put them back in his pocket "Just a minute. First you two need to fulfill your part of our deal and answer some questions".

  Ruby broke the silence "We'll answer all your questions and tell you as much as we can. However, there are certain things which we cannot say and you must understand that we have some obligations to Segan".

  David considered the situation and disregarding Shimony's directive handed over the passports and said "I fully understand your position. Although we need very detailed information from you as soon as you are willing to give it, a comprehensive interrogation session can be delayed until you visit us in Israel. Meanwhile there is only one urgent matter that needs a short answer now: is Segan's organization involved in the fatal mishaps that befell the Iranian nuclear scientists in Europe?"

  Ruby looked at Sam and s
aid "The short answer is affirmative. The long answer will be given after our visit to Israel. Surely you know that we are not gullible enough to believe that we'll be allowed to leave Israel after we disclose everything we know about this affair. If you want our full cooperation let us visit our families and friends in Israel and when we are safely back in Berlin come and see us again for an interview in which we'll tell you everything, including some things you would never be able to find out without our help".

  David said that he fully understood their reservations and distrust and gave them his direct Mossad phone number and asked them to call him when they arrived to make sure that the agreement was honored by Israeli authorities.

  October 7th, Tel-Aviv

  David had returned to Tel-Aviv on the night flight without spending another night in Berlin, much to Julia's disappointment. This time he managed to get almost three hours of uninterrupted sleep on the flight so he was quite fresh and ready for work after they landed at the crack of dawn at Ben-Gurion airport. He wasn't surprised to see that despite the early hour the parking lots at Mossad headquarters were almost full. He saw that Shimony's car was already parked in his allocated parking spot and when he entered the outer office of the Mossad head he was welcomed by Shimony's personal assistant who ushered him into the chief's inner sanctum. Shimony rose from his chair and said "Well, what did our friends tell you?" and motioned for David to help himself at the coffee machine.

  David took his time and made himself a cup of espresso using the strongest capsule marked 14. He knew that the chief was impatient and didn't like to be kept waiting, but decided that in this case he wanted another minute to gather his thoughts and correctly phrase what he had learned from Sam and Ruby. He took a sip of the dark liquid from the miniature cup and said "Yes, Segan's firm is deeply involved in the Iranian affair, but I cannot elaborate."

  Shimony was unappeased "What do you mean?" and David proceeded to tell him about the deal he had made and explained that he had no details.