AL BUSTAN ROTANA HOTEL, DUBAI, UAE—17:05 / 5:05 P.M. GST
This is Tet. I’m out.” The voice on the computer seethed with frustration.
Peter jumped in immediately. “Lamed, you’re on. Be careful. You’re our only other asset there.”
“Lamed. Root.”
“Tet, SITREP,” Peter said.
Nicole thought Tet sounded apologetic and embarrassed when he responded. “I got too close. He was in a Montblanc store. When he walked back out, I was just two doors down out in the open. He walked past me, and he was watching me in the glass. I kept my eyes on the lingerie in the window.”
“Of course Noam would be looking at lingerie.” Kevin chuckled.
Peter wheeled toward him. “Legend names! We only use legend names!”
“Ani miztaer,” Kevin said, apologizing. Then realizing his Hebrew slip, he said, “Sorry. Got it.”
Peter addressed his phone again. “Were you burned?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t know. He’s in the Canali store now.”
“Get out of there! Lamed, he’s in the Canali store.”
“Lamed. Root.”
Peter flipped his phone closed, and for a moment he looked like he was going to throw it. “Stupid! I won’t let this operation get sidelined by shoddy tradecraft. Gail, set up an appointment for me with the Tet team when we’re back in Tel Aviv. Apparently, they need to be reminded that their job is to not be seen.”
Gail, who had just arrived five minutes earlier, pulled a small black Moleskine notebook out of her purse and began jotting in it. From the look on her face to her short, quick movements, it was evident to Nicole that Gail was not doing well with the stress.
Rising from her table by the window, Nicole went to where Gail was sitting on the queen bed closest to the door.
Gail looked up. “What?”
“Hold still.” Nicole reached toward her, and Gail pulled back.
“Hold still,” Nicole said again.
Gail sat still but with a doubtful look on her face.
Taking Gail’s wig in her hands, Nicole gave it a one-and-a-half centimeter turn to the right. Then she brushed the hair back over Gail’s shoulders with her fingers.
Nicole smiled. “Better.”
Gail surprised Nicole by smiling back. “Thank you.”
Gail returned to her notebook, and Nicole went back to her computer. Time was ticking down. Still, it seemed like the moment of launch would never arrive.
AL BUSTAN ROTANA HOTEL, DUBAI, UAE—18:15 / 6:15 P.M. GST
Nir sat in a white panel van in the parking garage of the Al Bustan Rotana hotel. With him were the three other members of the Kidon hit team, James, Chester, and David, along with their driver, Evan. There was no telling how soon Plasma Screen would get back to the hotel, but for Nir, he couldn’t come soon enough.
Evan suddenly sat up straight. “It’s Gail.”
James pulled the side door open, and Gail stepped in.
“He’s finished his first meeting,” she said as she squatted behind the passenger seat, probably so she could keep the dust of the van floor off her white pants. “We’re guessing he’s now going to meet his IRGC contact. That means we’re likely on in two to three hours.”
“When do you want us up in the room?” David asked. Like Nir and the other two men, he was well-built and wore a T-shirt and a ball cap low on his head. Nir didn’t know anything about him, but he guessed he was in his mid-thirties. Chester was the lookout, Nir and James were the muscle, and David would give the injection.
“First team, I want you up there by 18:35. Second team, come five minutes later.”
Gail reached into a shopping bag she’d brought with her, then pulled out a white and chrome device about the size of a fist before turning to David. “It’s already loaded with the suxamethonium chloride. I know you’ve practiced with it enough that I don’t have to tell you how to work it.” She passed the device to David, and he turned it over in his hands.
Gail looked each man in the eye. “This is our one shot at this monster. If we mess it up, he’ll likely go underground for a long time. Remember, he shot Avi Sasportas in the face. He and his friends shot and killed Ilan Sa’adon. Remember all the lives this man and his weapons have taken. The time has come for justice. You four are the ones called upon by God and your country to deliver it.”
Nir watched as Gail stepped back out of the van, leaving the shopping bag behind. The gravity of what he was about to do weighed heavily on him. In a country with a population of seven and a half million, he and these three men were the ones given the honor and responsibility for not just avenging the deaths of those young soldiers and so many others but preventing more murders. He would not disappoint Israel. He would not disappoint the families of the murdered young men. He would not disappoint the rest of his team. Plasma Screen would die tonight. Nir would make sure it was so.