Deception

by Ethan Jones

  “I understand, I… I overreacted and didn’t think this through,” he said, trying to make his voice sound like he was truly regretting his actions.

  “Yes, and more than that, but we’ll discuss that and what’s going to happen next at another time.” Bateaux’s voice was still harsh, but it had lost some of its initial rage. “For now, reach the embassy and get your story in order. There will be a briefing with MI5 and other British agencies. You might be able to leave London without too much trouble, Pierce, but we both know this isn’t over.”

  Javin nodded. I’ll ask for admin leave before Bateaux or others request it. “Yes, I’ll do the best to fix whatever I can…”

  “We’ll see about that. Anything else?”

  “Yes. What’s the initial assessment of the recordings?”

  “According to our cyber-analysts, it’s all genuine. The NSA has also confirmed that the conversations haven’t been manipulated. They went even further and discovered the source of all the wire-tapping. Guess who it was?”

  Javin shrugged and looked at the intersection as another black taxi shot in his direction, followed by a large garbage truck. “The Saudi aide to their foreign minister?”

  “That’s what everyone thought, but the NSA found out the source was actually a senior Israeli official.”

  “What? How can that be?”

  “That was Mossad’s reaction too. The culprit is a national security advisor who traveled with their foreign affairs minister. Mossad checked his phone and discovered a malware he had unwittingly installed when downloading an infected funny cat video sent by a friend’s hacked account.”

  “Really? Funny cat video?”

  “Yes, funny for everyone else but the poor schlub. The hackers gained full access to the advisor’s files and were able to turn on the phone’s recording settings. So, they could record anything, anywhere he went.”

  “And who did that?”

  “Mossad’s still not certain about the hackers’ identity, but the location seems to be one of the Gulf States.”

  “Do they not know, or they don’t want to share?”

  “Either one, but it doesn’t really matter. Mossad thanked us for the cooperation and was going to release Claudia without any further complications.”

  Javin nodded. Yes, but I had no idea this was in the works… “So, the Iranians were telling the truth all along?”

  “They were, but it’s a cry wolf situation. They’ve lied and deceived us so many times, that we can’t trust them even when they tell the truth. This is a first good step, but it’s unlikely to lead to negotiations. The Israelis might agree to a partial halt of hostilities and to start inspections, but we’re still years away from a comprehensive, lasting solution.”

  “First good step forward is better than nothing or sliding back into open attacks.”

  “Yes, but the Middle East and the wider area will remain a hotspot and a troubled region for a long, long time. Even if Iran became a normal country again, there have been so many unresolved issues and deep-seated conflicts burning up those countries for decades.”

  Javin said nothing. He fully agreed with Bateaux’s assessment.

  Bateaux said, “Any other questions?”

  “No, that’s all.”

  “Good. Call me if there are complications at the embassy, although everything should be smooth sailing from this point on.”

  For the operation, not so much for me… “I’ll do that, sir.”

  Bateaux ended the call, and Javin began to walk along Primrose Hill Road, heading south. A few blocks away, he saw a taxi and flagged it. He gave the driver directions to the Canadian embassy, and they reached it in about half an hour, without running into any trouble.

  As Javin walked through the embassy’s doors, he cast a last look at the street, then at Trafalgar Square. It didn’t end as I had thought, but it could have been much worse. He sighed and entered the safety of the embassy.

  Epilogue

  CIS Headquarters

  Ottawa, Canada

  A week later

  Javin had spent the last three days in briefings with his boss, other CIS senior staff, and members of the Internal Inquiries Section, which investigated all cases of potential violations and misconduct of CIS operatives. The British authorities had insisted the CIS conduct a detailed and comprehensive inquiry about the course of events and the escalation of violence in London as a result of the activities of the CIS team and their Bahraini counterparts. The demand had been the first pre-condition for Javin’s release. The second had been sharing the full, comprehensive report of the inquiry, including the recommended disciplinary actions.

  Today, Javin and Claudia were meeting with their boss to learn about the inquiry’s preliminary results. Javin wasn’t as worried as he had been over the first couple of days after returning from London. He had done some soul-searching and had made some tough decisions about his present and his future.

  Taking advantage of the downtime, since he was barred from field operations until the inquiry’s completion, he had arranged for Liberty to come and visit him. They had been together most of the time when Javin wasn’t in meetings or preparing for briefings. Javin had shown Liberty the best of Ottawa, and their relationship had begun to grow. They were slowly discovering that they had so much in common. They shared the same outlook on life of doing everything they could to help those who couldn’t help themselves, albeit in very different ways…

  The elevator stopped, and Javin and Claudia got out on the fourth floor of the CIS headquarters. Javin drew in a deep breath as he followed her. A dull pain spread across his chest. As he had suspected, the bullets had left him with bruised lung tissue. The chest radiograph and ultrasound detected no fractured or broken ribs. Javin knew he had been very lucky. And he also knew that one day, his luck might just run out.

  “Javin, you okay?” Claudia said.

  She had stopped and was looking at him.

  Javin smiled and nodded. “Yes, just… those bullets did more than tickle…”

  Claudia returned the smile. “Do you need a break?”

  “No, I don’t want to be late.”

  “We still have five minutes.”

  “I’m okay. I just need to breathe.” He took a few small, shallow breaths, and slowly the pain dissipated. “There, I’m much better now.”

  “Let me fix that. Your tie’s crooked.” She stepped even closer to Javin and loosened his black tie. Although Bateaux didn’t require it, both Javin and Claudia were dressed in business attire for the meeting with their boss. Javin felt he always needed to dress for the situation. He was wearing his favorite black jacket, with a blood-red shirt and a black tie with a large double Windsor knot as he liked it. Claudia had donned a light gray skirt suit, one of the few times she could actually put on a skirt for work.

  “There you go,” she said after a few seconds. “Now, it’s perfect.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No worries. How do I look?”

  “Gorgeous.”

  Claudia gave him a mock frown. “You should only say that to Liberty…”

  Javin shrugged and smiled. “You know what I mean…”

  “How’s it going with her?”

  “Oh, it’s great. I… I haven’t felt so happy and excited in a long, long time… since… well…”

  “Let’s just leave it at a long time.” Claudia gave him a look of understanding. “And I’m glad to hear that, Javin. You deserve to be happy.”

  Javin resumed walking. “I might be jumping the gun here, but I think Liberty’s the one.”

  Claudia gave him a sideways glance, but her face had a blank expression. “Are you rushing into things, Javin?”

  “Perhaps I am. Or perhaps I want things to be good. That’s why I said I might be jumping the gun…”

  “And what does Liberty think?”

  “We haven’t talked about it.”

  Claudia smiled. “A great place to start. Once you know what she th
inks, you can start making a decision.”

  Javin nodded and followed her. “Yes, as much as I may want things to move fast, Liberty seems to like the status quo.”

  Claudia nodded. “It’s a good approach, cautious. I’d do the same if I were in her shoes…”

  Javin nodded again.

  They walked in silence until they came to the end of the hall and reached the office of their boss.

  Claudia glanced at Javin. “Ready to do this?”

  “Sure. Let’s get it over with…”

  She knocked on the black, solid wood door, just underneath the sign that read: Michael Bateaux.

  Footsteps came from the other side of the door, and a moment later their boss opened it. “Good morning, Claudia, Javin. How are you this fine morning?”

  His tone was upbeat as he tipped his head and gestured for them to enter his office.

  Javin didn’t know what to make of it. Is he happy because of the inquiry’s results, or because he’s getting rid of me? He nodded at his boss and said, “I’m okay.”

  “Doing well,” Claudia said. “And you sound pretty cheerful… Good news?”

  Bateaux closed the door behind them. “The good news is that there is no bad news…”

  He walked to his square glass-top desk, which was covered in a heap of scattered folders. Bateaux was in his early sixties, with a head full of snow-white hair that he kept in a short-cropped but stylish hairstyle. He had a large, broad forehead and a full gray beard, and was dressed quite casually for his position in a light blue shirt, a black sweater, and matching corduroy pants. He sat heavily in his black leather chair and reached for one of the red folders on the right side of the desk. He opened it and skimmed through the first pages, then looked over his black-framed glasses at Javin. “How are you feeling?”

  “Getting better with every day. Some pain once in a while, but nothing serious, sir.”

  Bateau nodded. He returned to the folder, flipped a couple of pages, and glanced at Claudia. “Anything you want to add to your report about Mossad?”

  Claudia shrugged as a frown covered her face. “Nothing more than what I wrote. It was a wicked act, to say the least…”

  Bateaux nodded. “I had a long talk with my Mossad counterpart. He claimed the shooting was ‘friendly fire,’ and things got out of hand as people overreacted. No matter how much they try to justify their actions, they’re simply indefensible…”

  Javin said, “They did it to themselves. We’ll be even more reluctant to share any intel with them or involve them in our ops.”

  He wanted to say more, that Mossad agents knew exactly what they were doing, this wasn’t friendly fire, and Mossad was going to pay for kidnapping Claudia and killing Yael. The forensic ballistic report confirmed she had died because of a wound on the left side of her abdomen. The report’s findings were inconclusive about the exact weapon that had killed Yael. Two small-caliber bullets had struck her, but several people at the shootout had brandished and fired pistols. The result didn’t matter much to Javin. A Mossad agent that Yael knew, who went by the name of Peter, had been the first one to open fire against Yael and the rest of Javin’s team. If Peter wasn’t already dead, Javin would make him pay for what he had done, along with the others who had participated in that ambush.

  Bateaux shrugged and flipped the page in the folder. “Yesterday, I talked to the aide of the Qatari prince,” he said in a voice full of disgust and disappointment. “He apologized profoundly for the miscommunications and the misunderstandings.”

  Javin tightened his fists but kept a cool, calm composure. He didn’t want Bateaux to notice his reaction. He nodded and said, “What happened there?” His voice was warm and neutral, without a hint of the rage seething inside him.

  Bateaux shook his head. “It’s difficult even for me to get a clear answer. It’s like handling snakes, slippery creatures that can bite at any moment… I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Al-Attiya was working with Mossad against their common enemy in the region, Iran. If Iran secured a nuclear weapon, they’d be a threat to Qatar, rich in oil but small in population.”

  Javin gave Bateaux a curious glance. “Qatar is supposedly a good friend of Iran. I guess Qatar could be playing both sides against the middle.”

  Claudia said, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend…”

  Javin nodded. “And that’s how the Saudi team knew everything about our op: They could have received intel from Mossad, if Al-Attiya gave them intel. Or he could have shared that intel with the Saudis directly…”

  Bateaux nodded. “Whatever it is, it’s no longer our problem. Shinwari is in Bahraini custody, and the Qataris are trying to have him extradited. We’ll let them figure it out.”

  Javin nodded again and drew in a shallow breath. He had already made different plans. After Mossad, the aide of the Qatari prince was second on his hit list.

  Claudia asked, “How was Murphy able to track us?”

  Bateaux said, “I asked my MI6 colleagues, but Sawyer was reluctant to reveal his sources. It appears that he learned about your plans from either the Qataris or Mossad. As we all know, Yael had made many enemies inside Mossad. They took her back, thanks to you, Javin, but that didn’t mean they liked her or accepted her return.”

  And that was a mistake, a grave mistake. “That’s true,” he said slowly in a low voice.

  He didn’t tell Bateaux how Sawyer had attempted to recruit Yael to eliminate Javin. If he didn’t know about it already, whatever Javin could say would make no difference. He was convinced that Sawyer had hired Murphy to assassinate Yael as well, since she could tie the former MI6 deputy director to the attempt against Javin’s life in Beijing.

  Bateaux closed the folder and slid it to the side. He picked up a second folder of a greenish color. It meant this was about an operation that was still active. Javin sat up straighter at the edge of his seat.

  His boss looked at Javin and held his gaze for a few moments, before opening the file. “You can probably guess this is about the inquiry into your actions in London and the aftermath. As expected, the committee is recommending disciplinary action.”

  Javin frowned and shook his head. He knew that was a possibility, and he had seen agents dishonorably removed from the service for much smaller infractions than his. He thought he was prepared to hear the bad news. But nothing ever prepared one to learn that the best part of their life, the one thing they loved the most, would be torn from them, forever.

  Bateaux said, “This is, of course, a prelim finding. The committee is still investigating, and the final recommendation is not expected for at least two, maybe three weeks.”

  Javin felt his throat go completely dry, so he coughed and said, “I’d like to start that admin leave as per my request…”

  “Yes, yes, of course.” Bateaux nodded. “That was a smart move, Javin, since that’s the committee’s interim recommendation. Your leave will start immediately and will last until the committee’s final decision.”

  “Then what?” Javin asked in a tense voice.

  Bateaux didn’t look up from the folder. “It will depend on their recommended measures. It could be a simple reprimand, a demotion, or another disciplinary measure. In any case, it’s not going to be good.”

  Javin’s frown grew deeper. His boss’s voice didn’t ring with any frustration. It was true that Javin had overreacted, overstepped his authority, and disregarded a direct order. Still, he expected some sympathy from his boss, but when he looked at Javin, there was no regret in Bateaux’s hard look.

  Bateaux said, “Take some time to relax, Pierce, and don’t think too much about what might happen.” He tried to give his voice a warm tone, but it still came across as cold and emotionless. “Get better and spend time with the ones you love. What’s meant to happen, will happen…” Bateaux closed the folder and slid it to the side.

  Javin nodded and relaxed his face muscles. “Right, I’ve talked to the committee, and I’ve told them everything I know.”
He shrugged. “I can’t do much to affect their decision.” But I’ll do whatever I can about the Mossad and Al-Attiya problems…

  Bateaux tried to smile, but the corners of his mouth formed what was at best a grimace. He commended Javin for showing restraint and claimed he had to prepare for an important phone call. He walked Javin and Claudia to his office door, where they had an awkward handshake.

  Out in the hall, they walked a few steps in silence, then Claudia stopped and turned to Javin. “What are you going to do now?”

  Javin shrugged. “Follow Bateaux’s suggestions. Spend time with Liberty. I have at least two weeks, so—”

  His phone began to ring, interrupting his words. He recognized the ringtone he had assigned to one of his favorite contacts. But… How can it be? She’s… she’s supposed to be dead… “Claudia, give me a moment. I need to take this…”

  “Sure. Take your time.”

  Javin marched briskly toward the other end of the hall. The phone rang another time before he could answer it. Before he could say a single word, a female voice said matter-of-factly, “Javin, I need to talk to you. Right away, and in person.”

  He recognized the voice.

  It was the Russian operative, Mila, who was supposed to be dead…

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