Barracuda 945 am-6

by Patrick Robinson

  Admiral Morris sat comfortably in the Big Chair in Fort Meade, and everyone knew he was in it for as long as he wanted to be. Except, of course, when the Big Man from the White House came visiting and automatically walked straight in and sat right down at his old desk. It was as if Arnold Morgan considered he held both top jobs in National Security, rather than just the one at the right hand of the President.

  "Scotty," said Admiral Morris. 'This is a goddamned interesting piece of journalism. Full of facts. And some of 'em may even be true."

  "Yes. I thought so, sir."

  "But I think enough of this is obviously true for us to make a pretty simple worst-case judgment."

  "Sir?"

  "I think we got a fucking tiger out there. And he's not on our side. This Kerman bastard has gone over the wall. No doubt in my mind."

  "Er, actually I think he went around the wall, Admiral."

  Big George paused, smiled. "Exactly so, Scotty," he said at length. "Around the goddamned wall, right in the middle of Hebron. Right now it's only a very uncomfortable possibility. But in my opinion, that's where he's gone. And that requires some action. Just in case it's true.

  "Scotty, I want you to tell someone to bring us some coffee. I need to think. And I think better when I'm awake… and when I have someone to talk to. How long you got?"

  "I'm here till 0400, sir," said Captain Wade, making for the door.

  "That's good. We'll arrive at some good conclusions. Nice and steady."

  Ten minutes later, sipping black coffee in the relative calm of OPS-2B in the dead of night, the two men took a serious run at the problem Whitehall had so far not dared to name.

  "If this guy is on the loose," the Rear Admiral said slowly, "what's the worst thing that could happen, from our point of view?"

  "I guess he could train a group of Arab terrorists to hit at the Israelis with the same kind of efficiency the SAS use against their enemies."

  "Correct. That's what he could do. And I guess we have to ask ourselves first, for whom would he be likely to do this?"

  "I would say, sir, we are almost certainly looking at Hamas, the old Islamic Resistance Movement. Even now it's still the main Palestinian fundamentalist political movement out there. The whole organization grew out of that Muslim Brothers outfit down on the Gaza Strip — every time we conduct a search for terrorist action in Israel it always leads to Hamas."

  "Remind me, Scotty. Who runs it?" "That's hard to know. The main leader was old Sheik Ahmed Yassin, but the Israelis popped him in the slammer ten years ago. Since then Hamas has been responsible for building a lot of Palestinian schools and hospitals, but every now and then they break cover and do something insane.

  "My department thinks that since the various peace initiatives have broken down, Hamas has become a bigger and bigger player, challenging the PLO for pole position. Just about every big bang in downtown Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in the last few years has been directly linked to Hamas."

  "Who funds them?"

  "Dunno, sir. They seem to be pretty damn good at funding themselves. And in my view they better be. Hamas is committed to the total liberation of Palestine and the creation of an Islamic state."

  Admiral Morris was pensive for almost a minute. Then he said carefully, "If this Major Kerman hopped around the wall in Hebron, there must have been an element of impulsiveness to his actions. Because the Palestinians had not staged, or even caused, a riot. It was the Israelis on the attack, the Arabs were kind of defending. They had planned nothing."

  "That's true, sir. But the military documents were very clear. Once the fight broke out, the Palestinians organized themselves very quickly. They brought up rockets and grenades and several machine guns. That's Hamas, trust me. No one else could have pulled that off."

  "They got any known strength in Hebron?"

  "Hell, yes, Admiral. They have, all through the Negev Desert, every town from Beersheba to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The whole place is a tinderbox of Hamas armaments and enclaves. The Gaza Strip is worse. I'm telling you, the ole Hebrews have got their goddamned hands full down there."

  "Look, Scotty, it's been several months since Major Kerman made an apparent rush for the desert. Has anything happened in that time to suggest Hamas has come under some inspired frontline leadership?"

  "I don't think so, sir. Just the usual rash of bombs and stuff. No firm evidence of anything unusual."

  "Well, I'll tell you what. Someone is supplying these guys with heavy cash. Can you run a quick check and see if there's been any big robberies in any of the Israeli cities. You know, Hamas may not even have been suspected. But ever since we've crippled their financing schemes these terror groups have had to turn to regular crime for funds, and the SAS are probably the best break-in guys in the world."

  "Sir, I'll have to go check that in Security Ops. They got a very bright young Navy guy in there called Jimmy Ramshawe. He's new, and he's on duty tonight. I'll get him buzzing on it. You know, there's very few robberies in urban Israel. But if anything's happened, Jimmy'll pick it up."

  "See you back here in a half hour."

  "You got it, sir."

  One hour later, the two men were still waiting, up there in the quiet of the eighth floor, for the appearance of Lieutenant Ramshawe when the guard on duty outside tapped on the door, opened it, and said, "Lieutenant Ramshawe would like Captain Wade to go down to his office."

  "Guess I'll get another cup of coffee, Scotty. Keep me awake if we're going to be another hour."

  "Sir, I won't be long. Fifteen, max."

  Admiral Morris already knew all about Lieutenant Ramshawe. In fact, he'd known his father, an Admiral from New South Wales who had ended up Military Attach^ at the Australian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C.

  Young Jimmy had been born in America, but, surrounded by Aussies all his life, he still carried a distinct inflection of Australia in his speech. He could hardly have been more American. Schooled in Connecticut, he was an outstanding baseball pitcher, and had attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis, thus following his father into a career in dark blue.

  At the Academy, he had excelled, demonstrating a brilliant IQ, and a capacity for infinitesimal detail. A tall, lanky, athletic boy, he also showed many of the qualities necessary to command a warship. He was tough, shrewd, and relentless in achieving his objectives.

  It was his brain that set him apart, and his brain that tied him up. One of his instructors once expostulated, "Ramshawe! Jesus Christ, he could end up a second Captain Queeg, counting the fucking strawberries when all hell was breaking loose."

  But the U.S. Navy is expert at channeling talented people. And they quickly spotted the meticulous and tireless Ramshawe as possibly a natural-born Intelligence Officer. Which, unhappily was the last thing on Jimmy's mind.

  "Christ," he said. "You mean all these bloody jokers in my class are going off to join warships, and leaving me behind in an office somewhere in that bloody Kremlin in the middle of Maryland? Get outta here."

  But the Navy was not joking. The Selection Boards got their way, offering the Lieutenant Commander a rare three-year tour of duty in the NSA, with a gilt-edged promise that if he really did not fit in, his career would be reviewed, with the intention of sending him to sea.

  Lieutenant Ramshawe, urged by his father, agreed, and duly reported to Fort Meade, where he instantly made an impression for his watchfulness and ability to become accomplished at many tasks, all of which required weeks and weeks of study. He had been in the Security Ops Center just a few weeks, but already officers like Captain Wade knew all about him and his ability to pull up truly obscure information and make sense of it.

  Fifteen minutes later, Captain Wade returned to the office of the Director. It was now well after midnight, and Admiral Morris was surprised to hear a real edge to Scotty's voice.

  "Ramshawe's onto something," he said. "Right now you can't even open the door to his office because he's working in the middle of about four tons o
f paper. But he's located a couple of bank robberies in Israel, totally different in character, totally separate dates, separate cities, separate methods of entry and completely different circumstances. He says they're the same, though, and he'll be here to explain himself in the next ten minutes."

  Right on cue, ten minutes later the door opened and the duty guard ushered Lieutenant Ramshawe inside.

  "G'day, Admiral," he said, issuing the perennial Aussie greeting, and heaving a pile of maps and papers onto the Admiral's conference table.

  George Morris chuckled. "Hello, Lieutenant. They working you so hard you can no longer tell the difference between day and night?" he said.

  "Matter of fact, yes," said Jimmy. "But I can't walk around saying 'G'night, Admiral,' can I?"

  "Well, I guess not. How about 'G'd evening'?"

  "Nah. I'd sound like a bloody poofter." All three of them laughed at this interlude from the outback. George Morris found that lopsided Aussie directness engaging, political correctness being hurled to the four winds, in the renowned idiom of Arnold Morgan himself.

  "Okay, sir. I expect Scotty here has told you I've found two bank robberies committed in Israel during the last six days of this past year. I'd prefer to go through them one at a time, that way you can see the similarities when they arise while I'm going through the second one."

  Admiral Morris nodded. And Jimmy spread before him a map of Jerusalem. In red pen he had marked off an area off Jaffa Road, a half mile northeast of the Old City Gate. "Right here, Admiral, in this high-rise, is the biggest U.S. bank in Israel, New York and Beirut Savings. It acts as a dollar clearinghouse.

  "I'm not dead sure how it works, but every day millions and millions of U.S. dollars come into the country via the tourists, and somehow or another they all end up in New York and Beirut. I imagine this huge dollar amount is then wire-transferred back to the New York and Beirut headquarters in Manhattan. Then they systematically destroy the old currency bills, which saves them the trouble and headache of shipping them halfway around the world. Anyhow, at various times of the month there's a bloody great stack of cash hanging around Jaffa Road."

  Captain Wade and the Admiral were silent, as Lieutenant Ramshawe outlined the robbery.

  "Okay, it's Christmas Day, a Saturday, the holiday being observed by most people but not everyone. Even in the Holy Land, where Christ is regarded only as a prophet, there's nothing open because it's the Sabbath on Jaffa Road.

  "At around 1530, would you believe, a bloody riot breaks out over a car accident. It quickly escalates and before anyone knows it there are twenty police cars and the IDF moving in to try and stop it. Right now we're talking gas bombs, Molotovs, and Christ knows what.

  "By 1800, it's over. But it's not until Monday morning they discover that sometime during the weekend, a gang hit the bank and got away with all the dollar bills, mostly old, all unmarked. Streuth! That caused a major investigation.

  "And the upshot of that was as follows." Ramshawe read from handwritten notes:

  1. The gang got in through the roof, blowing off the lock to the fire stairs.

  2. They knew where the alarm system was located, and they silenced it with a burst from an MP5 submachine gun. Put the bastard right out of action.

  3. They knew where to find the strong room, which houses the vault. They located the security system, which was not timed, dismantled it, then blew the vault open and took all the bread. Conclusion: an inside job.

  4. They got away off the roof, because none of the doors or windows anywhere in the building had been opened.

  5. A large military-type helicopter, probably a Sikorsky, and probably unmarked, was seen by several onlookers, taking off from the roof in the middle of the bloody riot, and everyone assumed it was to do with the bloody riot. But it wasn't. And it was five days before anyone realized that.

  "I think anyone would agree, there's distinct overtones of a brilliantly planned heist. Military in its nature. Almost."

  "Where'd you get all this stuff, Lieutenant?" asked George Morris.

  "Well, some of it was reported in the Israeli press. But I filled in a lot of details from a guy at Shin Bet. We got a pretty good quid pro quo with them.

  "But you know, Admiral, it was never a big story, and I think the reason for that was because the bank never let on how much cash was stolen. They played it all down, because, of course, the bills were going to be destroyed anyway. You could argue that technically the bank lost no money. But bloody oath! The cash would be real handy for a bloke who wanted to do some heavy spending."

  "Sure would," mused the Admiral. "Any take on how much cash was actually removed?"

  "Not accurately. The police announced the sum stolen may have been six figures. Which sounds like not much for a bank robbery. But our guy in Shin Bet thinks it could have been $50 million, in used dollar bills."

  "Jesus," said Scotty.

  "Anyway, that story appeared in the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday morning, 28 December; small, inside page, six paragraphs, no photograph of the bank. No mention of $50 million, or of the helicopter. I also thought it was significant that the pro-Palestinian Jerusalem Times never did carry the story… and that brings us to robbery number two, which took place in Tel Aviv, thirty-eight miles away along the Sorek Valley."

  Lieutenant Ramshawe changed over the map in front of the Admiral, and pointed up an area of the urban sprawl of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, specifically around King Saul and Weizmann streets, where the most dazzling modern edifices stand.

  "Right here, sir, is another New York and Beirut bank, in a high-rise. It's the main branch on the coast, bigger than the one in Jerusalem, and again a place where the dollars on the West Coast end up, before being transported to Jaffa Road.

  "Now, sir, according to the police, this place was robbed on Saturday night, 26 December — just a few hours after the bank in Jerusalem. This robbery was discovered by the cleaning staff on Sunday, because they did not work on Christmas night. This story was also played down, and appeared in Monday morning's Jerusalem Post, the day before news of the Jerusalem robbery was printed… I've put together some more notes which I'll read because they're just handwritten, and then I'll get 'em printed up:

  1. This operation took a long time. The thieves had rented a much smaller building next door, four months previously, and then tunneled their way through into the unused lower basement of the bank. They actually cut through a couple of steel pillars.

  2. They used ladders and scaffold to reach the ceiling and battered their way through a cement floor, the police say using drills and sledgehammers.

  3. Once inside, they went straight to the electronic surveillance and alarm system and hit it with just one bullet from an MP5, right in the side so you could hardly notice it. That gave them one hour, because this place had a timed security system override, and it would be that long before an alarm was raised. And that bloody hour was all they needed.

  4. They reached the Tel Aviv vault, identical in every way to the one in Jerusalem, and blew open the gate and the safe, with the minimum of explosive, much less than they had used in Jerusalem.

  5. Then they closed the vault, and the gate, dropped all the bags of dollar bills through the floor into the basement, placed a thin piece of plywood, around four-foot by four-foot, over the hole under the carpet, somehow flipped the carpet back into place, and dropped through the hole to safety.

  6. When the bank security guys answered the call to come in to see why the alarm system was down, they never even noticed the break-in, just called in electricians to come and fix the system. Wasn't until some poor bastard with a bucket and mop stood on the bloody carpet that Sunday afternoon they realized what the bloody hell was going on.

  "Anyway, here we have two highly professional break-ins, into very secure modern buildings. There was plainly inside information for both the layout and locations of security systems and the vaults.

  "In my opinion, there were a lot of guys involved, but they were the same guy
s, same caliber of bullet, same kind of explosive, same objective — used U.S. dollars — same banking corporation. Same holiday weekend."

  Admiral Morris looked up from his sketch pad. "One question, Lieutenant," he said. "I can see the heavy vault door was just swung back shut in Tel Aviv. But how come the security guys did not notice the gate to the vault was blown?"

  "Sir, according to the police, they used a high-powered electric drill, probably portable, to penetrate the cold steel locking bar. They inserted the charge and blew that bar to pieces, but hardly damaged the wrought-iron framework to the gate. After the grab, they just shoved it closed and left it, looking locked, but not locked. The police reckon that door was blown by a real expert."

  "Damn smart," said the Admiral. "And perhaps even smarter to work out the New York and Beirut bank would never want to announce precisely how many used bills were stolen."

  "And that means one thing," said Jimmy Ramshawe, pushing his thick dark hair off his forehead. "Right here we're looking at a pair of the great robberies in history. Maybe $100 million. Snatched with unbelievable precision. And the bastards pulled it off damn nearly in secret. And no one's got a clue who did it."

  Admiral Morris stood up, and walked over to the Lieutenant. "Thanks, Jimmy," he said. "That's brilliantly done. And it's time I went home to bed."

  He showed the Lieutenant to the door and then turned back to Captain Wade.

  "Well, Scotty," he said. "I think we may just have located a career change for Major Raymond Kerman, don't you?"

  "It sure looks like it. These robberies have some classic signs of Special Forces about them. You know, sir… weeks and weeks of planning… total secrecy before and after… faultless execution… no mistakes… no surprises. Even a diversionary uproar, right in the middle of Jaffa Road."

  "Absolutely. This wasn't pulled off by some Arab rabble. These robberies were masterminded and carried out by a real professional.

  "For the moment I think we will say nothing. Meanwhile, try to locate some detail on Major Kerman's military career, will you? We'll have a chat in the morning. For the time being, this better be a need-to-know operation. And that means just us."