by Ty Patterson
‘That okay with you, Abraham?’
‘Yes. It hurts, but not that much. I was angrier that he shot me. We need to find out who these three were. The ramsad needs to know as well. Where did that third person come from?’
‘They must have posted a lookout. He saw you coming and followed you.’
‘We should search the apartment. See what’s missing. They could have planted bugs.’
‘I don’t think they had time. From their reaction, we had caught them soon after their entry.’
‘I agree with Mattias. They didn’t have time. We’ll search in any case, but I am sure we will find nothing. He’s right about the burglary, too. That shooter, he could have killed us. He didn’t.’
Zeb looked up when he felt the sisters’ eyes on him. He nodded. The last speaker had been Cale. They could now put names to the voices.
There were sounds of movement. Metal clinked. Abraham groaned.
‘They’re cleaning his wound,’ Beth murmured.
‘How did your interview go? With Epstein?’ Mattias asked.
‘I don’t know why the ramsad wants this man to interview us,’ Abraham replied angrily. ‘Why would we kill those Palestinians? Besides, he polygraphed us. What more does he want?’
‘He is doing his job,’ Cale said sharply. ‘If I was in his position, I would do the same. If there’s a traitor in Mossad’s ranks, he needs to be found. By any and all means.’
‘I thought you didn’t like these negotiations,’ Abraham goaded.
‘Yes. Neither do you nor Mattias. I am sure the ramsad knows our views. Since Mossad does regular psych evals on us, we must be at the top of the possible suspects list.’
‘You seem to be okay with this Epstein’s interviews.’
‘I am. So should you be, and any other kidon. The sooner he finds the traitors or clears all of us, the better for all of us.’
‘What did Epstein ask you?’ Mattias broke in, playing peacemaker.
‘He said Tel Aviv was just twelve hours away from New York. I could have come the previous day, killed the Palestinians—’
‘The three of us were together the day of the killings.’
‘That’s what I am angry about,’ Abraham exploded. ‘It is in our report. Each one of us is the other’s witness. We aren’t the killers.’
‘What would you do in the ramsad or Epstein’s place?’ Cale asked. ‘Would you believe the report? Or carry out an independent investigation?’
A long silence fell, broken only by the sounds of breathing and movement.
‘What else did he ask?’ Mattias resumed.
‘I left.’ Abraham was clearly embarrassed. ‘I remembered you and Cale were coming over.’
‘You left Epstein just like that?’
‘Yes.’ An awkward silence fell.
‘What’s going on here?’ Cale asked, perplexed.
Mattias sighed, ‘You might as well know, now. Abraham and I were planning a surprise party for you. Happy birthday, buddy.’ There was the sound of palms smacking. ‘Abraham was to arrange a cake. Clearly, he forgot.’
‘I did,’ Abraham admitted.
Zeb reached out and hit pause.
‘That’s why he bolted from my interview.’
‘Yeah. That …’ Meghan pointed to her phone. ‘That recording clears them, right?’
‘It does. I’ll still go through the motions of the interview. It’ll be interesting to see what Abraham says when he meets me again.’
His phone buzzed. He checked the number and took the call.
‘Yes, ma’am?’
He listened for a moment and nodded. ‘I’ll be there.’
‘Alice Monash, the ambassador,’ he told the sisters, who were regarding him quizzically.
‘She wants to meet.’
Chapter Forty-Four
Jerusalem
Four days after Assassinations
Seven Days to Announcement
* * *
‘We’re not leaving your side,’ Meghan insisted as she and Beth hurried along with Zeb.
He had asked them to look into other operatives they could investigate while he met the ambassador. The twins had refused point-blank. Beth had held up her screen when he pointed out that they could research the kidon while he was away.
‘You have a knack of getting into trouble without us,’ she had said, winking at him.
He gave up trying when he looked at Meghan and heard her response.
‘What does she want?’ the older sister asked, matching his pace.
‘No idea. I didn’t meet her today to escort her to the hotel. Maybe that upset her.’
‘Ha!’ Beth snorted in disbelief.
The sisters hadn’t met the ambassador but had heard of her. They knew she wasn’t that petty.
‘Zeb?’ Meghan raised her hand to get his attention. ‘What happens if we don’t clear all the Mossad operatives before Cantor and Baruti’s press conference?’
‘Bad things, for sure,’ he replied grimly. ‘Regardless of what’s declared, hard-liners on both sides will say each leader let their country down. Cantor or Baruti, even both, could lose their governments.’
‘If that happens, any announcement would be meaningless,’ Beth panted as she skipped to keep up with them.
‘Yes. And I think rioting would break out … that would apply more pressure on the two countries, until one or both took a step back.’
‘That doesn’t make much sense,’ Meghan argued. ‘What if the two announced a breakthrough peace deal?’
‘There were negotiations between the two countries previously.’
‘Five years back? Facilitated by our then secretary of state?’
‘Yeah. There was hope, then. Despite world support, those talks collapsed and then there wasn’t the backdrop of assassinated Palestinians. Look around you,’ he said, pointing to a group of Israeli protesters holding placards condemning the prime minister. ‘This region is on the brink of war. Each day, an Islamic nation makes a statement. That Israel should produce the killers or accept the consequences. In the Middle East,’ he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, ‘you don’t negotiate with the other party. You negotiate with history and your perception of it.’
* * *
‘Cantor and Baruti want to rewrite history. That’s all I can say.’ Alice Monash looked at them from her rear seat.
They were sitting in her car, in Beit Aghion’s car park. She had hugged Beth and Meghan when Zeb introduced them as his co-workers, saying, ‘I’m glad you’re here. Someone needs to watch his back.’ At which the younger sister had smirked.
Her ambassadorial mask had come on when Meghan had pressed her for details on the press conference.
‘You called us, ma’am?’ Zeb reminded her. He knew prying any details out of her would be unsuccessful. He had tried.
‘Yes. You know the nuclear scenario—’
‘Not finding the killers in time? Yes, ma’am. We were discussing it on the way here.’
‘Prime Minister Cantor thinks he has a way to defuse the situation if that happens.’ She smiled slightly. ‘It was your friend Levin who suggested it, in fact.’
‘What’s that?’
She took a deep breath. ‘I will talk to all his coalition partners. Especially the hard-liners. I will also go to the West Bank and similarly convince them, too.’
‘They will be convinced?’
Her tone hardened. ‘The United States is fully behind Cantor and Baruti. The two countries have no choice but to progress the negotiations. There is no alternative. The U.S. would not like it at all if the coalitions in both countries collapsed. I am convinced the various parties will listen to me. They will put off their saber-rattling. We are a powerful ally to have.’
‘And an enemy to be feared,’ Beth said.
Zeb looked away, thinking. Faint sounds of traffic came through the toughened windows. An armed guard walked past, giving their vehicle a long look.
‘It co
uld work,’ he said, finally.
‘And that’s the reason I called you. You don’t need to escort me from the embassy tomorrow. I will be at the Knesset all day. However, I would like it if you were there at the hotel in the evening.’
‘We’ll be there, ma’am.’
‘And Zeb?’
He paused as he was climbing out of the vehicle.
‘It will be better if you find something before the announcement.’
* * *
They went back to Zeb’s hotel, where Beth and Meghan also got rooms. They gathered in his, with the twins getting to work immediately. Screens on the small table, steaming coffee mugs, headsets over their ears.
Zeb texted Abraham to set up another meeting.
Busy today, the kidon replied curtly. Tomorrow.
He reached for Meghan’s phone and played the bug’s recording. It continued for several more minutes from the last pause and then ended abruptly on a ‘What’s that?’
‘They were going to discuss it sooner or later,’ Beth shrugged. ‘I checked Cale’s phone. He was in the U.S. Nothing on his cell. Texts to his mother in Tel Aviv, various messages to friends, including one on-and-off girlfriend.’
‘Meir’s files.’ Meghan held a finger up to silence her sister. ‘Werner has decrypted some of them. Details of a house purchase, mortgage, car loans, financial records. All that seems to fit into his earnings. No irregular payments.’
‘You can access his bank records?’ Zeb’s eyebrows raised.
‘All his bank statements are on file. He might have other accounts, but these are clean.’
‘We can’t—’
‘I know. He’s still a suspect. Why don’t you interview Cale and Mattias today? We’ll check out the houses of other operatives.’
That’s what Zeb did.
* * *
Somewhere in the Middle East
* * *
The handler was restless. He knew Magal and Shiri were going to check out the hotel tomorrow. He had tried cautioning them but had been met with cold silence. Which was message enough. They were the operatives, not he.
No, that wasn’t the reason he was restless, however. Peter Raskov was troubling him.
He had turned the FSB agent a while back. The Russian kept feeding him useful intel in return for large contributions to a Swiss bank account. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. One that became very significant when Raskov turned up in Amman, too, tailing Gaber.
The handler reacted swiftly when he learned of Raskov’s involvement. He called the Israelis and told them about his plan. Gaber could be their alibi. They agreed.
His next call was to the Russian, and after a little convincing and a lot of cash, the FSB double agent was on board.
It went down like clockwork. Magal and Shiri reported that Epstein, the Israeli investigator, had bought their stories. Raskov’s photographs had helped.
The Russian had scented his opportunity, however. He demanded more money and threatened to go to Mossad if the handler didn’t deliver.
The handler didn’t like threats. He made his decision. Raskov had outlived his usefulness. He had to be taken out.
Problem was, who would do it? His own teams were busy, in different countries.
He fingered his paperweight again and thought through his various options.
There was only one that would deliver a quick result.
He didn’t like making the call, but he had to.
Magal answered his call.
‘There’s a problem,’ the handler said.
Chapter Forty-Five
Jerusalem
Five days after Assassinations
Six days to Announcement
* * *
Zeb’s interviews with Cale and Mattias the previous evening had been straightforward, and he didn’t spend much time with them. They had cleared themselves inadvertently, courtesy of Meghan’s bug.
He had also had the chance to interview three more kidon: Iram, Gabe and Sinon, all three members of the second khuliyot that had been in the U.S.
He met them together, spent an hour with them, throwing questions at them, and then spent an hour each with them separately. Four hours of interrogation, out of which he got vehement denials that they were the killers.
He also got copies of their laptop hard drives. He didn’t get their cell phone data. Gabe and Sinon told him they didn’t have personal devices. That they used the Mossad phones for their private use, too. They readily handed over those devices.
Iram said his was back at his apartment. He would make a copy of its data and send it to Epstein. He smiled as he spoke, knowing why his interrogator wanted the copy.
Beth and Meghan checked out the apartments of all three while Zeb was questioning them. Gabe’s was in Talpiyot, Iram’s was in Tel Arza, and Sinon’s was in Nayot.
The sisters had to crisscross the city to investigate the residences and as a result didn’t have time to break into them. They did plant surveillance cameras outside, however.
The day had ended with question marks remaining over the three men and Meir. Meghan hadn’t been able to crack open all his files.
* * *
‘Why not ask them directly?’ Meghan regarded Zeb over her glass of juice. ‘Ask all the remaining operatives to submit their personal cell phones.’
They were gathered in Zeb’s room again. Breakfast, which was sparse. A few slices of bread, bacon, juice. They had a busy day ahead and none of them wanted to indulge in a full spread.
‘We can.’ Zeb buttered a slice. ‘The problem is, if any of them are the killers, they would have anticipated such a move. They’ll provide a fake phone and we’ll have no way of knowing. Which is why I was breaking into apartments.’
‘Now,’ he shrugged, ‘we are running out of time. Let’s do it. Ask them to send their cell phone data. And break into their apartments as well. I have asked Meir to meet me today. We can start with him.’
‘Werner’s found nothing on any of them. Nothing incriminating.’ Beth swallowed quickly and went into a coughing fit. ‘Which proves nothing, I know,’ she continued when she had recovered. ‘However, our best case might be to go back to Levin with a probability, based on what Werner’s found, what’s in their laptop files …’
‘Yeah, that’s what I was planning to do—’
His phone rang. Alice Monash.
‘Yes, ma’am?’
‘I need some dirt on Jaedon Haber. And I want you at the Knesset.’
* * *
Knesset
* * *
Zeb took fifteen minutes to reach Givat Ram, the neighborhood where the Israeli legislature was based. He had left as soon as he got the ambassador’s call.
‘There go our plans,’ he had told the sisters with a wry smile. They were already busy, heads down, looking into Jaedon Haber once he had relayed the ambassador’s instructions.
‘You know why she wants this? And why she wants you? She didn’t mention any politician yesterday,’ Beth enquired.
‘No. She doesn’t speak much on the phone.’
Zeb knew Haber was the leader of One Israel, a political party that was in the coalition with Prime Minister Yago Cantor. He didn’t know anything else. No doubt Beth or Meghan will enlighten me.
Operatives had to adapt to changed circumstances. That’s what Zeb and the sisters did on receiving the ambassador’s call. The twins would look up Haber and get back to Zeb. If time permitted, they would check out the apartments of all the remaining kidon while Zeb met with Alice Monash. As for Meir, he would have to be rescheduled.
Zeb paid off the cab and looked up when a whistle caught his attention. Bob, from the ambassador’s security detail.
Zeb spared a moment to admire the imposing rectangular building of the Knesset and then hurried over to join the American.
‘She’s waiting inside,’ Bob said, jerking a shoulder at the legislature. ‘Here,’ he handed Zeb a card dangling off a lanyard. ‘You’re good to go. Se
curity cleared. Don’t ask me how she managed that.’
‘Do you know—’
‘Nope,’ Bob replied and gestured at Zeb to proceed toward the security hut.
* * *
The ambassador was waiting for him in a small room in the interior of the building. She looked at him expectantly when he entered, as Bob stationed himself outside.
‘You’ve got—’
‘Zeb?’ Meghan, over his earpiece, her excitement apparent. He held a finger up to excuse himself.
‘Yeah, go on,’ he answered in a low voice.
‘Haber’s uncle, his father’s brother, has a real estate business in New York. He was accused by his competitors of illegal business practices. Money laundering as well. The FBI looked into it but nothing came to light. Those same competitors said Haber, the uncle, had bought off the investigators.’
‘Keep looking.’
‘Gotcha.’
The ambassador smiled grimly when Zeb conveyed the information. She caught his arm and led him out of the room.
‘What’s this about, ma’am?’ Zeb slowed so she could keep pace.
‘You have heard of Haber?’
‘Just that he’s the prime minister’s ally.’
‘He is that. He’s also bitterly opposed to any negotiations with Palestinians. He regards them as the enemy and says, as long as Palestine is around, Israel will be at war.’
‘He’s a hard-liner?’
‘Very. Unfortunately, he also wields substantial power. His party has eleven MKs, Members of Knesset. He has threatened to withdraw support to Cantor if the prime minister doesn’t stop these negotiations.’
‘What’s all that got to do with me?’
‘’I am meeting him right now. To show him the power of the United States. I had a call with the prime minister in the morning. He said mere threats, which is what I was thinking of, wouldn’t work. That’s why I called you.’
