TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—DECEMBER 6, 2020—15:15 / 3:15 P.M. IDT
After laying Nicole’s bags in the trunk of his black Škoda Superb, Nir opened the passenger door so she could get in. Her exhaustion was evident in her few words and slow movements. He wished he could take her back to her guesthouse to rest, but she had too much time-sensitive information. A couple hours with him and a few more with the team, then she could sleep all she wanted.
As he pulled out of the parking structure, he asked, “You want some coffee to wake up?”
She thought for a moment. “No, I’ve been sitting down for so long. I’d rather stretch my legs.”
“A walk it is. Just close your eyes for a bit right now, and if you fall asleep, I’ll wake you when we get there.”
Nir expected her usual push back, saying she wasn’t tired. But she closed her eyes, and he soon heard steady breathing. A half hour later he pulled into a parking space by the Homat HaYam Promenade. He was debating whether to wake her or let her sleep when she saved him the choice by stirring.
“Feel better?”
“Just enough to take the edge off.” Looking outside the car, she said, “Jaffa. Perfect choice.”
They stepped out of the car and walked to the patterned brick walkway.
“Left or right?” asked Nir.
To their left was Old Town Jaffa with its centuries of history. To the right was the skyline of Tel Aviv with its ever-present construction cranes. Old and new—the ongoing contradiction of Israel. Directly in front of them was the Mediterranean carrying on its breeze the sound of surf and the smell of open water.
“Let’s go right.”
As they set off, Nir said, “So you and Alicia made three stops, right?”
“We did. Two near Hong Kong and one by Singapore. One good guy and two bad guys.”
“And…”
“Well, the good guy was really a bad guy, just not in the ways we care about. The Hong Kong bad guy was actually a good guy. I mean, he was very nice and a great host. It’s just that whole funneling of Chinese weapons into the Middle East thing. Anyway, first guy didn’t buy, but the second guy did.”
“Excellent. He was the one we wanted. What about Singapore?”
“Well, there we had the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly.”
Nicole told him about her time with Saad Salim and the mysterious Arash. When she came to the confrontation by the pool, he was furious. But he caught himself before he vented. He’d played knight in shining armor before with Nicole, and it hadn’t worked out so well. So instead, he forced a laugh and a high five when she relayed how Salim had tumbled over the chairs.
“One out of three sales isn’t bad,” he said.
Nicole took his hand. “Well, here’s where it gets really interesting.” She described breakfast the next morning, the negotiation, and the shocking result.
“Ten million dollars? I mean, I love Alicia’s work. But ten million dollars?”
Nicole just laughed. “It’s crazy. It’s like he’d worked himself into a frenzy and was going to win no matter what. I don’t know if it was to prove something to himself or to me.”
“It was to you. Without a doubt. He’d been rebuffed, but he doesn’t lose. I’m guessing he still thinks he has a chance with you.”
Letting go of his hand, Nicole ran a finger under his chin. “Maybe he does. You should have seen the size of his yacht.”
“Yeah? Did you see the size of my Škoda? That monster has four doors and power steering.”
Nicole laughed. “You know our cuts are one million each.”
“And I’m sure the ramsad will thank us very much for our donation to the cause.”
They walked in silence for a while, enjoying the cool air and bustle around them. At one point they sat on a bench and watched the surfers doing their best to catch rides off the low waves.
“So what’s going on in that mad-scientist brain of yours?” Nicole asked.
“Same stuff that goes through it every day—just trying to take over the world.” Nir kept his eyes toward the Mediterranean.
Nicole smiled. “Seriously. What are you thinking about?”
He leaned forward so that his elbows rested on his knees. “Okay, I’ll tell you. But it will just add to my reputation as the worst buzzkill in the history of buzzkills.” He turned toward Jaffa, then toward Tel Aviv. “I’m just thinking that if the Iranians get their nuke, all this could be gone.”
Nicole laughed. “I’m sorry. What you just said is terrible, and I feel horrible for laughing. But you’re exactly right. You truly are the worst buzzkill in history.”
“I warned you. But you know how I go on and on about how we’re just slowing down their nuclear program instead of stopping it. This right here is what’s on my mind when I’m saying it.” Pointing toward Tel Aviv, he added, “That city right there will be the first to go. Well, maybe after Riyadh.”
“So you think it will be Tel Aviv and not Jerusalem. Seems like they’d want to strike at the heart of the nation, not just at its wallet.”
“Oh no, they won’t touch Jerusalem. The Holy City is not their target; it’s their goal. For them, Jerusalem belongs to Islam.”
“But how can they say that? Jerusalem belonged to the Jews way before Islam existed.”
A small, fluffy dog on a long retractable leash trotted up to Nir and sniffed his shoes. He reached down to scratch the animal’s head, but as soon as he touched it, the owner whistled. The dog hurried back as the owner glared at Nir.
“Have a nice day,” Nir called as he sat up on the bench. Then turning back to Nicole, he said, “They have two main reasons for saying Jerusalem is theirs. First, it’s holy to them because it contains the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the location from which they say Muhammad ascended into heaven. Second, when Jerusalem was conquered, it was declared waqf, which is a sacred and permanent dedication of something to Allah.”
“I’ve heard that word before, but I’ve never known what it meant. So in their minds you Jews have taken for yourselves something that belongs to God.”
“There you go. But again, that’s just for Jerusalem. They point to countless other reasons and excuses and historical events for why they think all Jews in Israel need to be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Nir nodded to a family walking along the beach. Even though the afternoon was cool, the two toddlers were barefoot and kept running to the edge of the surf and back with each wave. “I can’t watch that without thinking What if? Tehran is getting close with their ballistic missile technology. Once they develop their warhead, they’ll have the ability to drop a missile right in Tel Aviv. Even if the place where those little kids are playing somehow remains outside the blast radius, it will still be rendered unusable for, like, a hundred years or something.”
“That’s hard to imagine.”
“But that’s just traditional nuclear weapons. How long until the mullahs put a suitcase nuke or a dirty bomb in the hands of their terrorist militias? Hamas, Hezbollah…both would love to walk one of those into Haifa or Netanya. The Houthis will turn Riyadh into rubble. All Iran’s goals can be achieved, and they wouldn’t have to fire a single missile.”
They watched in silence as the family made its way down the beach.
After looking at his watch, Nir stood and said, “We better head back to the car.”
Nicole joined him, and they started back in the direction of Jaffa.
“Even the job the guys and I just did with Fakhrizadeh, what did it really accomplish? Rather than racing at 100 kilometers an hour, their nuclear program slows to 60 an hour. Even with Operation Bezalel, it feels like we’re in a vast wheat field pulling up weeds one at a time. But the bottom line is if we don’t find a way to shut down Iran’s nuclear program, by one means or another, by one group or another, at one time or another, we’ll lose tens of thousands if not millions of people. Guaranteed.”
Nicole slid her hand under his arm. “Different subject, same subject. When is the last time you took a vacation?”
Nir laughed quietly. “Maybe back when I was 13.”
“Maybe you need to think about one. In fact, I’d even say you need to consider taking a hiatus.”
“Come on, Nicole. How do I take a hiatus when there’s so much to do?”
“First, you’re not Superman. And, second, you just got through saying what you’re doing isn’t making that much of a difference anyway.”
Nir halted and looked at her. “As you’re so fond of saying, I get to say that. You don’t.”
Nicole stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m the girl. I get to say whatever I want.” Then she walked on, leaving him standing there.
After a moment, Nir hustled to catch up. When he had, he raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Okay, reverse psychology duly noted. Well played, Jedi Master. Listen, I know I’m making a difference. It’s just discouraging to see less progress than I believe we need to make.”
She took his hand again. “I get it.”
“I wish our government would decide to shut down the Iranian nuclear program once and for all, while we still can.”
She swung his hand and sung, “If wishes and dreams were candies and creams, we’d all have a merry Christmas.”
Once again, Nir stopped to look at her. But this time the expression on her face made it clear she was teasing him.
“You’re lucky you’re pretty,” he said, looping his arm around her shoulders as they started strolling again.
“You’re lucky I’m pretty too,” she said, then bumped him with her hip.