by Bryan Murray
Davies shook his head. “So, where does that leave us?”
Jake shrugged. “Up the creek, I’d say. Without any ID at the scene of each hit, we’re flying blind. We need to get your boffins in the bureau to scan all the CCTV for each venue, do mass face recognition and see if we get a match in 2 or 3 locations. Also, let’s check on a face match with the artist’s impression of the guy in the bakery truck. At least then we’d have a face of a suspect, otherwise, we could be chasing our tails forever.”
Davies nodded. “I agree, I’ll get the boffins working on this,” he turned to Daniel. “So what’s your game plan, Daniel?”
Daniel thought for a moment. “We need to finish up our report on the embassy and then get back to Tel Aviv for a full de-briefing with the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister. Probably the day after tomorrow.”
Davies wrapped things up. “In that case, we’ll get things moving on our end and keep you posted.” The meeting broke up and Daniel, Jake and Sarah drove back to their hotel for a welcome meal and a night’s sleep in a bed, instead of on an airplane. What they were too tired and too busy to notice, was the beige SUV following them!
CHAPTER 15
After a pleasant dinner in their hotel, Daniel, Jake and Sarah, were sitting outside in the tiki-bar, having a night cap, discussing the current situation. Daniel checked with both of them. “Same again?” They both nodded and he went to the bar to get another round of drinks.
Jake and Sarah were chatting about the crazy way their assignment had escalated from a low key training session to a full blown international incident. They were discussing their counterparts in the US.
“Davies is okay,” Sarah began. “He’s a straight shooter and he and our benefactor Senator Johnson are pretty tight, How about this Bostwick guy from the CIA?”
Jake thought a moment. “I dunno, probably okay, I guess, but you could tell that as soon as he realized who I was, he was trying to keep me at arm’s length.”
Sarah smiled. “Yes, I could tell there was a coolness when you first met!”
He smiled. “Correct, but you’ve gotta be firm with these bastards. Give them an inch and they’ll run you ragged!”
She nodded. “Right, I suppose if this escalates overseas, then we’ll probably be dealing with someone else from the agency?”
He looked at her affectionately. “Right. Looks like somebody really has their sights on going after the Israelis. Just as long as they don’t start going after you. That’s when I’d get really pissed!”
She smiled. “Same here. We can’t have people ruining the business, can we?”
If Sarah had known that at that very second, she was in the cross hairs of a rifle held by Akeem, in the bushes at the far side of the tiki bar, she would have had a heart attack. As his finger tightened on the trigger, in that split second, Daniel suddenly walked quickly across the line of fire with the drinks in his hand as the bullet hit him in the head, killing him instantly. He fell to the ground and the glasses shattered on the concrete!
People around screamed and Jake instantly pushed Sarah to the floor and tried to drag the fallen Daniel out of the line of fire, his Glock already in his hand. He looked across at Daniel, but he was dead.
Sarah had seen the flash of the rifle and she was pointing across the tiki bar. “Over there!” she pointed. “Get the bastard, Jake!” she screamed as Jake was already bounding over chairs across the tiki bar in pursuit of the gunman.
Akeem had already realized his mistake of not making the hit as planned as he was now running at full speed with an armed agent in pursuit, which was not the plan. He stopped, looked back and took aim at Jake as he came rushing round a clump of trees. The bullet ricocheted off the wall next to him, but Jake kept running.
They were both running along, past restaurants with outside patios and the patrons were looking on in shock at the two men shooting at each other. Jake got off a couple of shots, but they bounced off the wall next to the running Akeem, who was now looking around desperately for an escape option.
Up ahead, a car was pulling up at the curb and Akeem yanked the door open, dragged out the woman driver at gunpoint and jumped in before driving off in a squeal of tires. Jake got off a shot that shattered the rear windshield, but the car was already accelerating away into the distance.
He slowed to a stop, catching his breath, a look of total anger and frustration on his face. His brain was already in high gear. Who would be firing at them with a scoped rifle, if it wasn’t something to do with the latest chain of events? From the way that Daniel had suddenly cut across the shooter’s line of fire, he could only assume that they were targeting either himself or Sarah! But why?
What surprised him, was that very few people even knew they were on the team trying to track down the terrorists. So, did that mean that whoever fired the fatal shot, that killed Daniel by mistake, already knew both himself and Sarah?
His mind went freshly back to the chase. The man ahead had been dark, swarthy, athletic build and he sure knew how to run. He could very easily have been an Arab.
He immediately ran back to the lady whose car had been stolen. She was still standing there in shock at what had happened in the last few minutes. She looked at him nervously as he approached with the Glock still in his hand and he raised his arms in peace to try and calm her. “Take it easy, ma’am. I’m with the FBI,” he lied. “I was chasing the guy who stole your car.”
She looked really upset. “What the hell was all that about?”
Jake calmed her down. “Don’t worry, ma’am, we’ll get your car back but first I need your help and your memory real bad?”
She looked at him dubiously. “In what way?”
Jake continued soothingly. “I need you to describe everything you can remember about what the man looked like and what he was wearing, okay?”
She thought a moment and nodded. “Okay?”
Jake began. “Was he a white Caucasian?”
She looked at him. “Ya mean like an American?”
Jake was coaxing her. “Yes, ma’am!”
She thought a moment. “No. he looked like a foreigner.”
Jake smiled. “Good, good. Would you say Mexican, oriental?”
She was concentrating. “Maybe Mexican, but I’d say more like an Arab.”
“Bingo!” Jake thought as he continued. “Did he have long hair, short hair?”
She closed her eyes a second, thinking out loud. “I’d say longish.”
“And what was he wearing?”
She thought a moment. “A short sleeve white shirt and grey casual slacks.”
Jake smiled. “Excellent, Miss...?”
“Dolores Johnson, Mrs.”
Jake smiled at her. “Great, now what I’m going to need Dolores, is for you to come with me, so I can get you to explain exactly what this guy looked like to one of our police artists. Is that okay?”
She thought a moment. “I guess, and what about my car?”
He touched her arm. “Don’t worry about that, one way or another you’ll get your car. Shall we go?” he asked. She nodded and they both headed back towards the hotel.
* * *
By the time they arrived, there was pandemonium in the tiki bar. Sarah was sitting to one side in tears and the body of Daniel was already being photographed and checked out by Nick and his team.
Jake quickly organized Nick to get a sketch artist for Dolores and then he went over to Sarah.
He hugged her to him. “You okay, love?”
She nodded numbly. “Poor Daniel! That could have been me. Did you get the guy?”
Jake nodded negatively. “No, he stole a car and drove away, but the good news is that the woman he stole it from, got a good look at him and she’s describing him to the sketch artist as we speak.”
He looked across at Daniel, a massive head wound where the bullet had hit, that was intended for Sarah in all probability. “Poor guy!” he sighed. “That’s two deaths in his family within day
s!” he looked at Sarah lovingly. “How much longer are we going to keep dodging these bullets?”
She sighed. “I dunno. So, how much did this woman tell you?”
He thought a moment. “Well, it sounds like he was an Arab, longish hair, he was certainly swarthy, athletic-looking.”
Sarah sighed. “Like 10 million others on the planet, I suppose.”
Jake looked frustrated. “I guess,” suddenly, he slapped his forehead. “Maybe not!” he grabbed her hand and led her out of the tiki bar.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
He turned to her. “When I was chasing him, we ran past a row of restaurants with outside patios.”
She was already reading his mind. “CCTV!”
He nodded. “Exactly, let’s go.”
They retraced the chase and of the five restaurants that Jake and Akeem had rushed past, only two had CCTV and of those, only one had CCTV in the outside dining area that also covered outside the rail where Jake had rushed by. This was the restaurant that Jake and Sarah zeroed in on. The manager Jim was most cooperative when they showed their badges and he ran the tape for the past hour backwards.
The pictures were a little grainy and suddenly, at one stage, Akeem was seen sprinting past with Jake in pursuit, gun in hand. Jake rewound the tape and tried to stop it at the point where Daniel’s killer came on camera. It was difficult, but Jake was sure that the boys at the FBI could do something with it. They commandeered the tape from the willing manager and headed back to the hotel.
Jake was incredulous that the media had already zeroed in on the shooting of Daniel and cameras were everywhere as the embassy staff were trying to take Daniel’s body back to what was left of the embassy, waiting for instructions from Tel Aviv. Jake immediately grabbed Davies, who had just arrived and made sure he rushed the CCTV tape to the bureau lab in LA for processing.
Both Jake and Sarah were exhausted and Jake ordered them a well-earned drink in the bar. They were desperately sad at the death of Daniel and they re-capped on the crazy events of the last two hours. Jake shook his head sadly. “I was only telling Daniel that these guys would make a mistake and permit us to get some ID that could escalate the chase. I didn’t realize it would cost poor Daniel his life to get it!”
She nodded. “Right, Davies told Uncle Ari what went down and that’s one more sad job for him to do, tell Daniel’s family what happened.” She would have been considerably more worried, had she known that at that very moment, Akeem was sitting on a jet in LAX, ready to fly out to of all places Tel Aviv!
Jake’s phone rang and he answered it. It was Minister Golchen, still at his desk in the early hours of the morning, calling to speak to Jake on an urgent matter. “Yes, Minister?” Jake answered.
Ari was quick and to the point. “Jake, Deputy Director Davies briefed me on the terrible death of Agent Weismann and I wanted to thank you for going after the assassin. Did you manage to apprehend him?” he asked.
Jake was totally sympathetic to the situation that Ari was having to cope with and he tried to sound upbeat. “No, sir, he got away, but a woman, whose car he stole, got a good look at him and she’s with the police sketch artist now. I’ve also got some CCTV footage with the assassin on it that the FBI lab are unscrambling, so hopefully we will have at least some ID. One thing we do know for sure, sir, he’s an Arab!”
Ari was grateful for the information. “That’s excellent work, Jake and that is my main reason for calling.”
“It is?” Jake inquired.
Ari continued. “Yes, Jake. I’m calling to ask if you will take over the lead role as our representative in all these unfortunate events, assisted of course by Sarah and I will also send you another veteran from the Kidon unit, like Daniel, to work with you for protocol purposes.”
Jake looked at Sarah and she was watching his face. “Yes, of course, Minister, if that’s what you want?”
Ari interjected. “Indeed it is and don’t worry, you will both be paid top premium rates for your services.”
Jake was still surprised. “That’s unimportant at this stage, sir,” he began. “We just need to stop the hemorrhaging, catch our breaths and maybe this first ID of the assassin of Daniel will be a start.”
“Exactly,” Ari replied. “So, when will you be returning to Israel?”
Jake thought for a moment. “Well, sir, Daniel had started the report on the embassy bombing and it will take us a couple of days to finish it in liaison with your embassy staff. We also need to do the report also on Daniel’s shooting and then we’ll head back.”
“Sounds good to me, Jake,” Ari continued. “And send me anything you get on the ID of this assassin, so we can run it through our files to try and get a match.”
Jake replied. “Will do, sir, we’ll be in touch.” he rang off and looked at Sarah, who had been listening to the conversation.
“So?” she asked.
He shook his head incredulously. “He wants us to take the lead for the Israelis, now Daniel’s gone and he’s assigning another veteran to help us!”
“That’s cool but scary, Jake,” she replied. “But it makes sense. We haven’t time to bring anyone else up to speed and we’re already in sync with the Americans.”
He nodded. “Exactly, so the pressure’s on, partner. We need ID on these guys like yesterday and then we can at least stop fighting with one hand tied behind our backs.”
She shrugged. “I agree and now we need ballistics working on the bullet removed from Daniel’s head. We also need to search for that woman’s stolen car to check fingerprints and forensics need to go over it in detail.”
Jake was thinking aloud. “Right, and we need to circulate the ID’s of these guys to all airports, bus lines, stations, etc. If they move anywhere, we need to know. Somehow, somewhere, these bastards are going to resurface and we need to be ready!”
They would both have been quite despondent if they had known that both the men they were seeking, were already out of the country, ready to implement the rest of their master plan.
CHAPTER 16
In a quiet street in Tel Aviv, the escorted SUV of Ari Golchen, drove up to a house on the street and the bodyguards in the leading SUV got out, checked the street and went to knock on the door. The door opened and Daniel’s sister Mary stood there, surprised to see her visitor. Ari climbed out of the second SUV and went inside, Mary closed the door behind him and the bodyguards took up a position outside.
Inside the house, Mary looked nervously at the Defense Minister. “Is something wrong, Minister?” she asked and suddenly, she put her hand to her mouth in shock. “Oh, my goodness, its Daniel isn’t it?”
Tears sprang to her eyes instantly as Ari coaxed her to sit down in the chair. “I’m afraid so, my dear.” he answered.
Through eyes brimming with tears, she looked the Minister in the eye. “What happened?”
Ari took a breath. “Well, my dear, your brother died a hero’s death!” he began. “He was leading a team of investigators, checking into all these recent terrorist attacks. I’m afraid he got in the line of fire of another target that the enemy fired at and sadly he was killed.”
Mary, having lost a son and now a brother, was totally devastated. She struggled to stay courteous with Ari. “Thank you for telling me, Minister,” she sobbed. “I’ll let the rest of the family know.”
Ari put his hand on her shoulder. “I wanted to deliver this sad news personally, Mary. I didn’t want you to hear it from anybody else. Your brother was a proud son of Israel and his dependents will be well taken care of. You have my personal assurances. May heaven bless you and your family!” he left, a sad look on his drawn, tired face. When he had gone, Mary looked skywards, tears still brimming in her eyes. “Now there are two loved ones coming home, Ha Shem!”
* * *
In the airport in Tel Aviv, the transport plane bringing home the coffins of the soccer players and their coaches, was being unloaded in a secluded hangar.
Famil
ies and friends were there in deep mourning as the coffins were conveyed out of the hold of the aircraft and wheeled on gurneys to a line of waiting hearses that would take the deceased loved ones to their families for burial. Prime Minister Mischner and his wife, both dressed in black, were there to meet the families with their condolences and the media were already there in force recording the sad event.
All over the world, in every soccer stadium, a minutes silence was being observed by the competing teams before every game, as a token of respect for the slain Israeli athletes.
This was the second time in history that the world had mourned the loss of an Israeli team of athletes and their coaches. The first instance had been at the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli Olympic Team in Munich at the Summer Olympics in 1972. In that event, the culprits were the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, five members of whom were also killed in the shoot-out.
On the tragic occasion of the murder of the soccer team, the murderers were also terrorists, if indeed the claims already received by e-mail could be believed. However, the fact that the same claimants had already called Minister Golchen later, disclaiming responsibility, was totally confusing to say the least.
Across the country, equally sad scenes were being recorded and the funerals of the Prime Minister’s brother, the dead industrialists and also the identified passengers from Flight 169, were all being held. Finding and identifying the remains of some of the passengers and crew on the ill-fated Air Israel flight, was still going on in the huge, cordoned off area up in the San Bernardino Mountains.
It was as if death was stalking every live TV channel as the US media was also covering the funerals of the Israeli embassy employees in LA. On the talk shows and CNN, considerable criticism was being levelled at the lack of progress being made by the US authorities, although many of the complainers were still unaware that a Mossad team was also helping, now being led by Jake and ably assisted by Sarah,
As they were both finishing their report on both the soccer team attack, the embassy bombing and now the death of Daniel, Davies and Nick came by to check on how things were going.