De Payns woke to the sound of heated conversation coming through the wall. They were staying in a cheap motel in Haifa’s south, and he could hear Adinsky in the next room, yelling into a phone. De Payns checked his watch: 6.49 a.m. He pulled on his pants and went into the Israelis’ room, followed by Jéjé.
As the Frenchmen were ushered in by Simon, Adinsky ended the call.
‘Everything okay?’ asked de Payns.
‘Luka and your boys have grabbed Salah’s team,’ said Adinsky. ‘But they don’t know anything about the EMP machine, only that it’s going to be installed on Pontus.’
‘Installed?’ replied de Payns. ‘It’s going on a rig, so surely that means a rig has to ask for one?’
‘No word yet from Pontus,’ said Adinsky. ‘But my boss said we can’t wait for it to be delivered. If this thing were to be set off, the economic damage would be substantial; it has the capacity to destroy every circuit board in its vicinity. Can you imagine if every computer, every vehicle, every data connection in Haifa, our largest port, was fried? The gas industry might be protected by Faraday cages, but this city isn’t.’
‘Faraday cages?’ said de Payns.
‘They provide protection from electromagnetic pulses,’ the Israeli explained. ‘The gas rigs have them.’
‘If the Israeli rigs have Faraday cages,’ said de Payns, ‘won’t Pontus be protected from an EMP attack?’
‘I asked about that,’ said Adinsky. ‘Our tech people think that if the EMP machine is disguised as a control panel, they’ll install it inside the Faraday cages that would normally surround the electronics and safety systems.’
‘Attack from the inside?’ asked de Payns.
Adinsky nodded. ‘That’s what the Russians developed these things for. They’re fairly portable, and they can be brought right inside the wire.’
‘Do we need more troops?’ asked de Payns.
‘We’ve already been given them,’ said Adinsky. ‘The IDF has a counter-proliferation team that deals with this stuff.’
The phone trilled and Adinsky picked up. ‘Okay,’ he said, grabbing a pen and notepad from his bedside table. He wrote quickly then ended the call.
‘We have a plate number for the truck,’ he said to de Payns, standing. ‘So we have an address. Let’s go.’
■
They drove fast towards the port, passed the security checks at the precinct gates and veered to the north, where a series of docks were supported by businesses. They parked behind a stack of containers, and Adinsky stood at the corner of one and pointed out a building to de Payns.
‘There,’ he said. ‘Seabed Electrical Contracting, the white building.’
De Payns saw a freestanding warehouse with seabed electrical emblazoned across tall drive-in entry doors. The structure was eighty metres across the concrete apron.
‘That’s where the truck is registered to,’ said Adinsky, binoculars to his eyes. ‘Seabed does electrical contracting for the gas industry. It’s owned by Avi and Claudette Aaron.’
‘Looks like someone’s home,’ de Payns observed, noticing a silver Chevrolet SUV parked beside a doorway. ‘How do you want to do this?’
Adinsky keyed his radio mic and spoke quickly in Hebrew. He turned back to de Payns. ‘IDF are on the perimeter, and they’re standing off with the helicopters,’ said Adinsky. ‘They don’t want the Tangos getting spooked and setting off the EMP.’
‘Who detonates it?’ asked de Payns. ‘You wouldn’t want to be standing next to it.’
‘No, it’s effectively a bomb with a flux compression system at its heart. There’s a lot of explosion, so I’d expect the trigger to be remote.’
‘Meaning the owners of Seabed Electrical are not going to set it off in their own warehouse.’
‘I wouldn’t think so,’ said Adinsky. ‘Except that Claudette Aaron used to be Leila al-Dayad …’
‘The Fatah al-Dayads?’ asked de Payns. ‘You mean the hardliners of Gaza politics?’
Adinsky nodded. ‘That’s why we have the IDF on the other side of that fence and a gunship ready to go.’
‘Fatah isn’t Hezbollah-aligned, is it?’
Adinsky shrugged. ‘Bombers are bombers. I don’t care what’s on their bumper sticker.’
‘Can we talk to them first?’ asked de Payns. ‘Can we jam the radio signals and see what’s what?’
Adinsky chuckled. ‘You’re a pure intelligence guy, right? You just see these people as a source of information; I see a threat to my country.’
De Payns inclined his head. ‘Yes, sure—that’s my training. But think about it this way, Ben: you can blast that building with a missile, but how do you ensure the EMP doesn’t go off?’
‘That’s what Tel Aviv and the IDF are squabbling about right now,’ said Adinsky with a smile. ‘I bought us time by coming down here.’
‘Shall we?’
Adinsky made a face. ‘Shall we what? You want me to go in there? We have no idea who or what is inside.’
‘I’m a pure intelligence guy, remember,’ said de Payns. ‘I want to know.’
They walked across the apron towards the warehouse, arms out, away from their firearms. De Payns was only eighty per cent sure of what he was doing; there was no question it was a risk, but he needed to understand what was in that building and who was involved.
They were ten metres from the door in the side of the building when someone stepped out. Adinsky immediately went for his weapon, but the man’s arms were in the air.
‘Please,’ he said, his face a picture of anguish. ‘Please take this thing away.’
Adinsky gestured with his handgun for the man to move away from the door. ‘Who’s in there, Avi?’ he demanded.
‘No one,’ said Avi, his hands still in the air. ‘It’s just me.’
‘Get on your knees, then lie on your stomach,’ snapped Adinsky. ‘Hands where I can see them.’
De Payns moved towards the door and stepped inside, gun raised. A ten-tonne truck sat in the centre of the warehouse, surrounded by workbenches, lathes and welding gear. Looking around, de Payns saw that Aaron had been telling the truth: the place was empty. He walked to the rear of the truck and looked inside. He saw a large Siemens cabinet with five vertical doors.
He moved back outside, where Adinsky had cuffed Avi Aaron. The Shin Bet LandCruiser was heading for them.
‘The machine is massive,’ said de Payns, as the vehicle pulled up.
Adinsky stood over Avi Aaron. ‘How were you going to trigger this thing?’
Avi turned his head so his right cheek was on the concrete. ‘I have nothing to do with it,’ he said, tears on his face. ‘The Russian blackmailed me.’
‘What Russian?’ asked Adinsky.
‘I don’t know,’ said Avi. ‘He turned up about a month ago, he showed me … some things … about someone close to me … and said if I didn’t install this ECP, the information would go to the security services.’
‘We already know about Claudette,’ said Adinsky. ‘You want me to believe she isn’t in on this?’
‘That’s what the Russian wanted you to think,’ said Avi. ‘Claudette was rescued from all that crap when she was sixteen years old. She has no association with her family or with Fatah politics. She hates Fatah, she hates Hezbollah and Hamas. She went to university, she runs this company and she has two fantastic kids. She’s not a terrorist—she’s an Israeli!’
De Payns sensed honesty. ‘Can you trigger this thing, Avi?’
‘Trigger it?’ the man asked. ‘I don’t even know what it is. I just want it out of here.’
‘You haven’t been given a detonation device?’ asked Adinsky.
‘No!’ Aaron cried. ‘My job is to wait for a call from Pontus Operations. They’ll need a new ECP for tomorrow’s first gas offtake, and their contractors—DVJ—won’t have one. But I do; it’s sitting in there.’
‘In that case, who was going to detonate it once it’s installed?’
‘Why are you asking me about detonation? I’m an electrical contractor—I was supposed to install it, not detonate it.’
‘You have no idea who this Russian is?’
‘No, but I think he’s close by.’
‘Why do you think that?’
‘Because there’s never a car at his warehouse, and one time I had to meet him I arrived early and sat in my car. He arrived on foot.’
‘Okay,’ said de Payns. ‘And?’
‘And there’re two hotels near his warehouse, the Sands and the Port View. Can you please get me out of here? What if he’s watching us?’
Adinsky and de Payns swapped looks then dragged Avi Aaron to his feet and ushered him towards the LandCruiser.
When they were outside the port precinct, Adinsky got out of the car and made a call.
Getting back in the car, he turned to de Payns and Jéjé. ‘I’m taking you to the airport.’
‘And the EMP?’ asked de Payns.
‘The IDF have taken over,’ said Adinsky, shrugging. ‘They have a plan.’
‘What about me?’ asked Aaron, who was sitting between Jéjé and de Payns.
‘You’re off to see the wizard,’ said Adinsky. ‘Thanks for the tip on the hotels.’
‘I told you the truth,’ said Avi, eyes red with tears.
‘If we didn’t catch you, you would have told us nothing,’ said Adinsky. ‘You’ll get mercy from a judge, but not from me.’