Jerusalem Galaxy
Seven days after Assassinations
Four days to Announcement
Zeb stuck his hand out and greeted Eliel. ‘You know me as Epstein.’
‘That man we met looked very different,’ the kidon said, smiling. ‘Navon told me about you. Carmel, too.’ He lowered his large backpack to the floor and flexed his shoulders.
‘You’re American?’
‘Yeah,’ Zeb drawled deliberately.
‘You speak our language better than most natives.’
Zeb shrugged. Eliel was fishing, but he wasn’t taking the bait. No Mossad operative would ever know who he and the sisters worked for. We might tell Carmel and Dalia, but no one else.
‘How’s your mother?’
Eliel’s face darkened. ‘She doesn’t have much time … I might have to go suddenly if—’
‘Sure.’ He turned when a voice greeted them. Carmel, approaching rapidly.
She punched Eliel lightly on the shoulder and, after a quick nod to Zeb, led the kidon away.
‘I have a favor to ask,’ Magal told his team leader after she had finished briefing him.
‘Go ahead.’
‘Can you reassign Navon and me? To the roof? I think you have someone else there, don’t you? After all that’s happened at home,’ he put on a melancholy expression, ‘some fresh air will do me good. Up there,’ he pointed upwards, ‘will help.’
Carmel patted his forearm sympathetically, ‘Of course. That won’t be a problem.’ She turned her head away and spoke rapidly in her mouthpiece. ‘Navon’s coming,’ she said when she finished. ‘You’re clear to the roof.’
Shiri came presently and hugged his partner briefly.
‘You can show him around the hotel?’
Navon nodded.
‘Not the fifth floor. You know the rules.’
‘Yes, boss,’ Navon grinned cheekily.
‘What’s with the fifth floor?’ Magal asked curiously.
‘We can’t go deep in the hallway. IDF is protecting it,’ Shiri said as he led him away.
‘What’s the plan?’ Shiri asked an hour later. They were on the roof of the Galaxy, just the two of them, their backpacks on the concrete surface.
Magal enjoyed the Jerusalem view for a moment before replying. He could see light reflecting off the Dome of the Rock in the distance.
‘Where are the drones?’
‘Well below us,’ Shiri assured him. ‘There are a few choppers,’ he pointed to the sky, ‘but their focus is on street traffic.’
Magal looked around them. The roof was flat, with a five-foot-high parapet running all around. The water tank they had discussed was to one side. Pumps, fans and several pieces of mechanical equipment were bolted by its side. A large, painted circle was in the center. A helipad. The approach to the elevator room was through a raised structure that had a door. No security to it. A simple twist-and-push handle mounted on it.
He touched Shiri’s shoulder and took him to the side. ‘How far away is that hotel? Its rooftop?’ he pointed to the one he had checked out.
‘One-fifty, two hundred feet?’ Shiri squinted.
Magal leaned over his backpack and unzipped it. He brought out a lengthy coil of nylon rope and a crossbow. Two pulleys followed, as did several belts and harnesses.
‘That’s our escape.’
‘We’ll zipline?’ his partner caught on quickly, his eyes dancing.
‘Yes. I have booked a room. That one, there in the middle.’ He pointed. ‘I have left weapons and disguises in it.’
‘What kind of disguises?’
‘Police. We will leave the room as two uniformed police. No one will question us. Now, tell me about the blind spots.’
Shiri told him.
The hotel had security cameras on all floors, however they were mounted deep into the hallways.
‘So, the elevators are covered but not the areas on either side of their doors?’
‘Yes,’ Shiri confirmed. ‘They start from the first rooms to the left and right, which are twenty-five feet away.’
‘No cameras in the staircases?’
‘No. There are IDF people at the entrance door of each floor.’
‘How many?’
‘Three. And there are two standing outside the elevators on each floor. You saw them. No one at the roof, though. We are the security, here.’
‘What about the fifth floor? How much security there?’
‘You mean at the conference room? Two.’
Magal stopped so abruptly that Shiri bumped into him. ‘Only two?’ he asked incredulously.
‘That’s what Carmel told me. And I didn’t see any more when she and I stepped outside the elevator. But don’t forget the two at the elevator and the three on the stairs.’
Magal scratched his chin as he thought rapidly. ‘I would have thought they would have more IDF or police on that floor. Carter isn’t in charge, is he?’
‘No. Not Carmel, either. Moshe Abhyan is. He’s an IDF commander. He’s on our comms channel.’
‘They must be figuring on taking out the assassins on the ground floor. That’s why there are barely any guards on the fifth.’
‘That’s what I figured. The twelfth floor has a similar setup. Three outside the elevators, a roaming patrol of two on the floor and three inside the stairs.’
‘How many guests in the hotel?’
‘I haven’t found that out. Carmel didn’t know, either. I checked with the other kidon. No one knew. But there’s a constant stream of people in the lobby.’
‘I saw that.’
‘I have been patient,’ Shiri burst out when Magal pinched his nose and kept quiet. ‘I didn’t even ask you about Moscow. You have some plan here? How we’ll tackle all that security and take out the Palestinians and get away safely?’
Magal couldn’t help smiling at his friend’s outburst. ‘We can’t go against all these IDF and police personnel.’
Shiri slapped his palm against his thigh in frustration. ‘I thought you were working on something!’
‘Patience,’ Magal grinned wider. ‘I said we can’t take them on. Which is correct. There are too many of them. However, we won’t need to.’
‘Those fighters? The ones the handler arranged?’
‘Yes, they will help, but not in the way you think.’ Magal glanced at his watch. It was twelve pm. ‘Come on. I’ll explain as we work.’
He shoved the zipline equipment and the crossbow beneath the tank. He removed an AK from his backpack and added it to the pile on the roof. He then lugged his bag and gestured at Shiri to follow suit.
The two men went to the elevator room, to the concealed door in it, and went down the stairs. They nodded at the IDF men on the nineteenth floor and similarly greeted all the guards they encountered as they moved down.
There were two flights of stairs between each floor, with a landing in between flights. No security team had sight of another, even if they leaned over the railings. That suited the two kidon.
‘Making him familiar with the layout,’ Shiri told the three soldiers at the fifth floor. Carmel had let all the personnel know that Magal was joining the team; that ensured they encountered no awkward questions.
Magal opened the door to the fifth and peered out. The two guards at the elevator stiffened, then relaxed when they recognized him. He looked down the hallway and waved at the two in front of the conference room. They waved back.
‘You’ve seen the negotiators?’ he asked Shiri when they were back on the stairs, in between the fourth and fifth.
‘No one has. They are escorted from the twelfth to the fifth by IDF. They have their own elevator. The American ambassador comes every day, however. She joins them in the morning and leaves in the evening.’
He watched Magal remove several smoke bombs and hide them beneath a fire hose box. His partner added two flashbangs and a small amount of explosive to the bombs.
‘That’s your plan? Take them all out? I thought we were only interested in the Palestinians.’
Magal connected a remote detonator to the bombs and synced it to his cell. Satisfied, he looked up. ‘We will use the handler’s men to create panic. What will happen when the hotel is under attack?’
‘Evac procedure,’ Shiri responded automatically. ‘The guards will bring the negotiators out. Surround them and take them down these stairs. Which is why we are on the fifth floor. It’s not a long way down to the basement. And this time, there’s no chance of a surprise attack by someone like Masih. The entire street has IDF and cops, some in uniform and some in plain clothes.’
‘When they are on the stairs,’ Magal pointed to the red box that housed the hose, ‘I’ll detonate those.’
Shiri’s eyes widened when Magal finished briefing him.
‘It will work,’ he said in a hushed voice.
‘Of course, it will,’ Magal scoffed. ‘We have the element of surprise. No one is expecting us.’
‘We may not be able to take out all the Palestinians.’
‘We don’t have to. We need to kill just a few, not all six.’
‘The handler—’
‘Is not here,’ Magal interrupted him irritably. ‘We can’t kill them all. We aren’t going to risk our lives on this mission.’
Shiri chewed his lip as he looked up the stairs, past the three soldiers there, toward the door. He let it unfold in his mind, how it would go down.
Magal and he would race down from the roof at the first signs of attack. ‘Nothing up there,’ he would yell over his comms. ‘We’re going to the fifth to provide more support.’
He knew Carmel and Abhyan would remonstrate, would ask them not to leave their positions. They would ignore those commands.
‘Are they here?’ he would gasp at the guards on the negotiators’ floor.
‘No. Floor’s clear. Stand back!’ a guard might cry out. ‘Negotiators coming.’
Shiri would help him hold the floor’s door open as the Palestinians and Israelis surged inside, with IDF soldiers at the front and rear.
‘Go! Go! Go!’ he would yell as the hotel shook and shuddered and sounds of firing echoed.
‘You too!’ he would tell the three guards when the crowd was descending down the stairs. ‘Magal and I have got this. Get them to safety.’
The guards might argue, but just then, his partner would detonate the explosives.
‘Boobytrap!’ he would yell, and he was sure that would be enough incentive. ‘Take them away!’
Distance would open up. There would be shouting and screaming and swearing. No one would be looking at them.
Magal would fire at the soldiers in the rear and then at the Palestinians—whose details the handler had sent.
Shiri had seen his friend work with a gun. He hadn’t seen a better shot maker. Magal could take out the soldiers and a few Palestinians, even through the smoke and panic.
They would have just a couple of seconds, however, before the soldiers at the front looked back.
Shiri would fire a burst at the door and push against it as if there were shooters on the other side.
‘Move!’ he would yell. ‘Magal and I will keep them at bay. For as long as we can.’
Magal and he would race to the roof as soon as the soldiers and survivors were out of sight.
‘Keep a watch,’ they would yell at the guards on each floor. ‘We’ve been breached. The stairs could have explosives. Magal and I will check, upwards.’
The comms channel would be flooded with noise. There would be multiple orders, and with their inputs, there would be confusion.
Enough time for them to reach the roof and zipline away to the neighboring hotel, where they would change into their police uniforms and rush out to the street to support the security personnel.
‘Let’s do it,’ he told Magal.
‘There’s one more thing.’
‘What?’
‘It’s not happening tomorrow.’
Shiri had had enough of suspense and surprises. He gripped his friend’s shoulder tightly and snarled, ‘When?’
‘It’s going down today. In a few hours.’