Talbiya, Jerusalem
Four days after Assassinations
Seven Days to Announcement
Zeb was with Abraham, in a café not far from his hotel, in his Jarret Epstein disguise. The kidon was part of a three-person khuliyot that had been in the U.S. when the assassinations happened. Or so their mission report stated.
The other operatives in the team were Mattias and Cale.
Zeb had introduced himself when the operative arrived and had waited while Abraham went through the drill of calling Levin and confirming his identity. He had engaged the man in small talk, to get him comfortable before starting with hard questions.
‘Everything is in my report.’ The kidon scratched his stubble and looked away from Zeb’s steady gaze.
‘I know. I read it. I have to ask you these questions, however. It is how investigations work. You were tailing a Russian arms dealer in New York?’
‘Yes. Mattias, Cale and me. Groshky, the Russian, has sold arms to Hamas in the past. We have tried to catch him in the act but failed. We thought he was in New York for another deal, which is why we were following him.’
‘When did you hear about the assassinations?’
‘That evening. We turn cell phones off when we are on a mission. We checked them at our hotel, caught up on the news, and by then, the ramsad had recalled us.’
He scratched his neck and fidgeted in his chair, not making eye contact.
His behavior doesn’t mean anything. Some of the best agents I know don’t look directly at another person.
‘New York to Tel Aviv is about twelve hours. You could have come the previous day, killed those Palestinians, stayed back in Jerusalem and shown up as if you just landed after Levin summoned you back.’
Abraham stiffened. ‘What are you implying?’ he barked, meeting Zeb’s eyes for the first time.
‘That you could be the killer. Just because you were in America proves nothing.’
‘I am sitting here,’ Abraham hissed through gritted teeth, ‘just because the ramsad asked me to cooperate with you. That doesn’t mean I have to listen to wild accusations. I did not kill—’
His hand shot to his pocket and brought out his cell phone. He looked at it, his brows drawing together in astonishment.
‘I have to go,’ he rose abruptly and walked away without a backward glance.
‘Abraham—’
‘Later,’ the kidon shot over his shoulder and broke into a run.
Zeb stared at him, puzzled. He waved the approaching server away, still wondering. A sudden premonition hit him. He checked his cell phone. Brought up his GPS tracker app. Narrowed his eyes when he saw the green dots for Beth and Meghan moving rapidly.
Too rapidly. As if they were jumping … or fighting!
He swore under his breath and broke out into a run, following Abraham.
The plan had been simple. Zeb would interview Abraham while the sisters broke into the kidon’s apartment. They would bug it, make copies of his computer’s hard drive and make clones of any cell phone they found. Zeb would ask him for his personal device and, if the operative carried it with him, make a copy of it. They figured the overt and covert operations, working in tandem, had a better chance of either clearing operatives of identifying suspects.
The plan was good. Abraham lived alone and was single, so there was no danger of encountering a partner in his apartment.
The sisters, wearing jeans, jackets and trainers, entered Abraham’s building. Once they reached his floor, unchecked by any person or security system, they looked for security cameras. They found none.
They pulled on thick, dark vests over their jackets and masks over their faces. They looked the way they wanted to be seen, as burglars of indeterminable gender.
Meghan picked the lock while Beth kept watch. They entered noiselessly and surveyed the apartment. Simple, almost spartan. A wicker chair in one corner, a glass coffee table that had the remains of dinner on it, cane furniture to another side. A TV on the wall next to the door, playing a news channel, sound muted.
They broke off, Meghan going to one bedroom to the left, while Beth took the kitchen and the other rooms to the right.
They were fifteen minutes into their search when a fist pounded on the door.
‘Abe!’ a voice called out from outside.
Meghan rushed to the living room and looked across at her sister. They weren’t anticipating visitors. Levin’s notes on Abraham were clear. The operative was a loner, and visitors to his apartment were very rare.
Zeb said he would keep the man occupied for at least an hour. The thought raced through Meghan’s mind as she considered escape options. The apartment was on the third floor, one window facing the street, the others looking over an inside yard.
Busy time of the day. Traffic and pedestrians outside. Can’t go out of the street window. They didn’t know the building’s layout and couldn’t risk scaling down to the courtyard.
‘Abe!’ another voice yelled and the door shuddered as fists pounded on it.
‘Hide!’ Meghan whispered and was ducking back to the bedroom when the door opened.
Two men framed in it, their laughter dying away, their eyes squinting at the masked figures in the living room.
Mattias and Cale. She recognized them immediately.
Something flew from Mattias’s hand straight toward her. She ducked instinctively, and the wine bottle that he had thrown crashed into the wall behind her. Before she could recover, the kidon was on her, smashing into her ribs. She went down, catching a glimpse of Beth and the other operative grappling furiously.
They reacted so fast, she thought dimly as she tried to evade her attacker’s blows. They would. They’re Mossad. She couldn’t risk calling out to Beth. Nor can we allow ourselves to be unmasked. They wanted to maintain the cover that Epstein was operating alone.
Mattias jabbed at Meghan’s neck. She jerked her head away at the last minute but wasn’t fast enough. His knuckles dug deep in her throat, dimming her vision, leaving her breathless.
And with that came rage. She and Beth had trained with the best. She wasn’t going to allow a kidon to beat her.
She twisted her hips to throw him off-balance and gouged an elbow deep into his side. His teeth were bared as he struggled to get his fingers under her mask and rip it off.
She met his hard eyes and widened her eyes and smiled. He faltered for a fraction of a second. She headbutted him viciously, breaking his nose, and with another furious gouge to his ribs threw him to the floor.
Meghan went on the attack, raining blows on him, risking a swift glance to see that Beth was holding her own against Cale. We need to overpower them and knock them out. We can then get away.
The hard edge of her palm slammed into Mattias’s neck. The kidon reacted by rearing his legs up and slamming his knees into her back. She fell forward but didn’t ease her hold over him.
She had drawn her fist back, aiming for his neck, when something slammed into her and sent her sprawling to the floor.