by Alex Lukeman
"You don't have anyone like that?"
"No. Perhaps I don't try hard enough. I think I scare them away. Israeli men can have fragile egos. They always want to be on top. When they find out what I do, most of them disappear."
Selena laughed.
"Israeli men aren't the only ones with fragile egos."
"You sure you don't want one drink? One won't hurt you."
"I shouldn't..."
"I'll make it weak," Rivka said.
Later, Selena was back in the room with Nick. They were getting ready to go to bed.
"Rivka is nice, isn't she," Selena said.
"Yes, she is."
"I can see how you would be attracted to her."
"Selena..."
"Don't worry, I'm not jealous. I know you didn't sleep with her. But I wouldn't blame you if you had."
"Now you tell me," Nick said.
Selena punched him on the shoulder.
"Don't be a smart ass. She told me what happened when she got shot. I'm only saying that I'm glad she was there in that hotel room with you."
"She was almost killed."
"Well," Selena said. "It may sound hard, but better her then you."
"Better if neither one of us had gotten shot."
Selena changed the subject.
"I keep thinking about Alan. No one was supposed to start shooting at us. I can't get away from this, and I? Even when I think something is going to be simple. It's like one of those old biblical curses."
"Hey, come on. It's not that bad."
"No? Try telling that to Alan, or Gideon. And now there's the baby. I don't think I'll ever feel safe again."
Nick came over and put his arms around her.
"You're safe with me," he said.
Later, after they'd made love, Selena lay awake listening to Nick's deep breathing.
You're safe with me, he'd said.
She thought back to all the times she'd been with him and come close to being killed. Whatever else being with Nick was about, it wasn't about being safe. Somehow she didn't think it ever would be.
What does that mean for the baby?
Selena pushed the thought aside. She wasn't ready to go there, not yet.
CHAPTER 27
The chain link fence surrounding the safe house at Ein Gedi was a patterned shadow in the moonless night. The four men Rashidi had picked for the assault lay on the hard desert floor, outside the compound where Nick and the others slept. They had balaclavas pulled over their faces. Dark clothes made them almost invisible. Each carried an Iranian copy of the Chinese Norinco CQ carbine. It was an efficient assault weapon, firing the standard 5.56 mm NATO cartridge.
Vahid Ghorbani scanned the compound with night vision binoculars. The temperature had dropped into the low forties, typical for the Judean desert at this time of year. Vahid had anticipated the chill, but even so he shivered.
Vahid was in charge of the team. His second in command was named Mahmoud.
"What do you see?" Mahmoud said.
"Nothing. It's as quiet as Behest-e Zahra over there."
Behest-e Zahra was the main cemetery in Tehran.
"No guard? No one patrolling?"
"They feel safe," Vahid said. "Nothing ever happens here."
"After tonight, they may not feel the same way."
"God willing."
Vahid signaled with his hand. The four men raised up and ran to the fence.
"Reza, the cutters. Kazem, you go through first."
The man Vahid had addressed as Reza pulled out a set of heavy wire cutters and began working on the fence. He soon had an opening large enough to go through. Seconds later, all four men were inside the compound and running across the lawn toward the house.
A light on the back of the house illuminated the patio where Selena and Rivka had been talking earlier in the day. A surveillance camera mounted on the eve of the house rotated slowly in a half circle. Vahid waited outside the light until the camera was pointing away. He ran forward until he was directly under it, took out a can of spray paint, and covered the lens. A sliding glass door leading onto the patio was closed. The room inside was dark. Kazem stepped up to the door and gently tried it. The door slid open.
Vahid shook his head. Idiots. The assassins entered the house.
In another room of the house, Alitza sat listening to music on her headphones. On a bench in front of her, monitors displayed images from security cameras covering the grounds outside the house. Her eyes were closed. She tapped her foot to the rhythm of old-time American rock 'n roll. Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis—she never got tired of listening to the classic sounds of the fifties and sixties.
The track came to an end. She opened her eyes and looked at the monitors. Nothing showed on the screen covering the back of the house.
Damn camera. On the blink again.
She looked more closely at the black image on the screen. Something wasn't right. It didn't look quite the same as when the system went off-line. A tiny bit of light showed in one corner of the monitor.
"Shit!"
Alitza punched the alarm button. A loud klaxon horn began blaring. It sounded as though someone had driven a fire engine into the living room. Alitza came out of her chair, drawing her pistol in the same motion. Kazem came through the door and shot her. The bullets slammed into her and threw her back into the chair. Her pistol fell to the floor.
When the alarm went off, Nick was sound asleep. He came up off the bed in an instant, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Behind the raucous sound of the klaxon, he heard a three round burst from an automatic rifle. He grabbed his pistol from the nightstand.
Selena was up, reaching for her pistol. They stood naked on opposite sides of the bed.
"Watch the window," Nick said. "Stay to the side"
Selena ran to the window and pressed herself against the wall. She took a quick glance outside.
"Clear," she said.
Nick opened the door and looked into the hall.
"We can't stay here," he said.
On the other side of the house, Ronnie and Lamont were up and armed. Ronnie looked out the door of their room and was greeted by a burst of gunfire. The rounds passed by and shattered a vase filled with flowers sitting on a small table at the end of the hall.
Ronnie ducked back, stuck his hand out the door, and fired blindly in the direction of the shooter.
"How many?" Lamont asked.
"Don't know. Has to be more than one."
"Think we can make it to the living room? "
"I'll cover," Ronnie said. He glanced around the doorframe and saw someone dressed in black. He let off three rounds and was rewarded by a scream.
Lamont went through the door, Ronnie close behind. They moved at a near run toward the living room, guns held in both hands in front of them. They reached the intersection of the hall and the room. The man Ronnie had shot lay crumpled on the floor. His rifle lay nearby.
Lamont looked around the corner. A hail of bullets zipped by his head, like a hot wind. The glass doors facing the patio shattered.
"You cover me and I'll go for that rifle," Ronnie said.
Lamont knelt, reached around the corner and began shooting at another figure dressed in black. The man ducked back. Ronnie grabbed the rifle and retreated to the safety of the hall.
Rivka had been dreaming when the alarm shattered her sleep. She rolled out of bed, wearing a short nightgown. She grabbed her pistol and opened the door. The hall outside her room was empty, but she heard firing coming from the other side of the sprawling house. She moved on bare feet to the end of the hall and looked out. Across the way, a man dressed in black was firing down the hallway where Nick and Selena's room was located.
A red dot from the laser sight on her pistol danced on the man's back. She fired two rounds. He staggered and turned, firing his rifle. The burst caught her in the chest and slammed her against the wall. She heard Nick shout as she collapsed onto the floor.
"NO!"
Nick ran toward the man who had shot Rivka, firing until his pistol locked open. The shooter went down. Selena was right behind him.
Vahid saw a man coming out of a room and cut him down. He ran past the body and saw Kazem fall as Nick shot him. He saw Nick's pistol lock open.
Fucking American.
He raised his rifle. Selena stepped naked from the hall and shot him four times. Vahid stumbled forward and fell onto the carpet.
Reza saw Vahid fall and ran into the room, firing and screaming as Nick and Selena dove behind a large couch. The rounds shredded the upholstery, sending bits of foam and cloth into the air. Nick lay on top of Selena, shielding her body as the bullets passed over him.
Ronnie raised the rifle he'd recovered and opened up. He held the trigger down. The bullets spun Reza in a circling dance that ended when he fell. He stopped moving.
The smell of burnt powder and blood drifted through the air. The klaxon horn was still blaring. For a moment nobody moved. Then Ronnie called out.
"Nick, you all right?"
"Yeah. We clear?"
"Don't know, but it feels like it."
"I don't hear anybody," Lamont said.
"Rivka," Nick said.
He rose and walked over to where she lay. She was still breathing. Blood bubbled from her chest.
"Bashert," she said. She reached up and grasped Nick's arm.
"Nick," she said.
"Hang on, Rivka."
"Nick..."
"I'm here. Hang on."
She coughed. Blood dribbled from her mouth, then her grip loosened. Her arm fell away.
"Rivka..."
Her eyes were open, staring at whatever eyes stared at when life had fled. Her chest was covered with blood. Her nightgown was hiked up around her waist. Gently, Nick pulled it down to cover her. Then he closed her eyes.
"Aw, shit," he said.
"Somebody turn off that damn horn," Selena said.
Lamont said, "I'll do it."
He moved away to the other end of the house. A minute later the klaxon stopped. Lamont came back into the room.
"Alitza is dead," he said. "She was in the security room."
"What about the other guy, Falk?" Nick said.
"I'll check the house," Ronnie said. When he reappeared he said, "Falk is dead too."
Lamont looked at Nick and Selena, standing near Rivka's body.
"Maybe you two ought to get something on."
"What a mess," Nick said.
CHAPTER 28
Elizabeth had Nick on speaker. She listened with growing concern as Nick described the attack. Stephanie sat nearby, listening to the conversation.
"This complicates things," Elizabeth said.
"No kidding," Nick said. "The place is crawling with people from Shin Bet and Mossad. The Israelis aren't happy and neither am I. Rivka was a friend of mine. Their so-called safe house looks like someone held the shoot out at the OK Corral in it. I'm getting distinctly unfriendly vibes."
"Not your fault, Nick."
"Yeah, I know."
"Any clue on who they were?"
"My bet's on the happy followers of the Ayatollah," Nick said. "No IDs, but they were carrying copies of the Chinese Norinco carbine. As far as I know, Iran is the only country in the area who uses those."
"All right, that's helpful."
"Director, we must be getting close to that gold if they're pulling out the stops like this. We still have to find the next location. With a little luck, that will be the end of it. But I have the feeling the Israelis aren't going to cooperate anymore. Friedman's dead, their agents are dead, and they know as much as we do."
"Then I can just bring you home," Elizabeth said.
"Damn it, Director, I don't want you to bring us home. Rivka wouldn't want that. We've come a long way and I want to see this through to the end. We deserve that."
"It may be out of my control, Nick, but I'll see what I can do."
"Yeah, you do that."
Nick broke the connection. Elizabeth looked at the phone in her hand in surprise.
"He hung up," she said to Stephanie.
"He's angry," Steph said. "You can't blame him. I think he was a little bit in love with the woman who got killed. He met her before he really got committed to Selena."
"The easy thing would be to pull them out," Elizabeth said.
"If you do that, they'll resent it. This has turned into a full-blown mission. No one likes to be pulled out of the middle of something like that. It goes against their code, their ethos. You don't quit a mission until it's over. You don't walk away because people get killed and it's rough. If they leave now, it's as if the deaths of Friedman and Rivka and the others are meaningless. The only thing that redeems that is completing the mission."
"That's quite a speech, Steph."
"It's what it is. Lucas is the same way."
Lucas Monroe was Stephanie's husband. He was also the Director of National Clandestine Services at Langley. Before that, he'd spent years as an active field officer on the hairy end of things in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Elizabeth said, "This has become an international incident. I'm going to have to brief the President about it, but I want to talk with Clarence first. He has connections in Israel that are better than mine. I can get him to sound out what's going on."
"Good idea."
"I was hoping nothing like this would happen."
"It's an old story," Stephanie said.
"What is?"
"There's always a lot of blood spilled when there's a lot of gold."
"Humans never seem to learn, do they?"
"Not when it comes to gold."
Stephanie stood. "I'm going downstairs and see what Freddie can dig up about the photograph and phone number I found in Miriam's apartment.
"Let me know if you find something interesting," Elizabeth said.
CHAPTER 29
The sun had just cleared the horizon, casting a soft glow over the safe house grounds. Ari Herzog stepped from his helicopter and walked over to the commander of the Shin Bet team. He talked with him for several minutes and then went to where Nick and the others stood on the patio of the safe house. Broken glass crunched under his feet.
"Ari."
"Nick."
"Rivka said something before she died. 'Bashert,' she said. What does it mean?"
"It's Yiddish. It means 'meant it to be.'"
Ari paused. "I'm under a lot of pressure to send you back home. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."
"One good reason?" Nick worked to control his temper. "How about Israel owes us? You wouldn't know anything about the gold, if it weren't for us. The fact that the Iranians are trying so hard to stop us proves we're getting close. You send us home now, they win."
"My superiors think we can take it from here."
"You know what your superiors can do with what they think," Lamont said.
Nick held up his hand.
"Come on, Ari, give us a break. What makes you think you can do any better than we have? You turn this over to the bureaucrats, you'll have people fighting turf wars and arguing about the best way to go about it. By the time anyone gets around to doing something, Iran will have found the gold and you'll be out of luck."
"You and I both know the Iranians are behind this," Ari said, "but there is a strong faction in my government that is afraid of confrontation with Tehran. They see you as a provocation, not a solution."
"Tell that to Rivka," Nick said. "We're in a race. If we don't find the gold before the Iranians do, your superiors are going to need a scapegoat. I'd lay odds it's going to be you. I guarantee, you send us home, you won't like the result."
"You don't mind saying what's on your mind, do you?"
"So I've been told."
"You shouldn't waste their lives," Selena said.
"What?" Herzog looked surprised.
"Nick's right. If you send us home, by the time anyone does anything the Iranians w
ill have found the gold and cleaned it out. Alan, your people, all those deaths will have been for nothing. Is that what you want?"
Herzog's face turned dark. "You have no right to imply that I'd abandon pursuing justice for Rivka and the others."
"I wasn't implying that," Selena said. "I'm saying that if the Iranians succeed, those deaths will be wasted. Your best chance of finding justice is to let us finish doing our job."
"So far four of my people are dead and you still haven't found the gold," Herzog said. "Is that what you call doing your job?"
"I guess I was wrong about you," Selena said. "I didn't think you were such an asshole."
She turned her back and walked away.
"Think I'll join her," Lamont said. "Ronnie, you coming?"
"Lead the way," Ronnie said.
Herzog and Nick watched them go.
Herzog took a deep breath. "All right. Forty-eight hours, Nick."
"That might not be long enough, Ari."
"Forty-eight hours."
There was no point in arguing. "We need transportation."
"I'll have a vehicle sent over. Try not to turn it into scrap."
Herzog left Nick standing on the patio and went back to his helicopter. Nick saw him talking to the pilot. A moment later the rotors began to turn. Soon after, the bird lifted into the air.
Nick went over to a chair on the patio and sat down. The others pulled up chairs next to him.
"So, we going home or what?" Lamont asked.
"He gave us forty-eight hours."
"That's not enough time," Selena said.
"It will have to be. He meant what he said."
"Who's our new minder?" Ronnie asked.
"He didn't say."
"We're on our own?"
"Looks that way," Nick said. "But I wouldn't bet on it. Even if they don't have somebody with us, they know where we are. It's easy enough to track us. We haven't gone dark on them."
"Maybe we should," Ronnie said. "We don't need them."
"What about wheels?" Lamont asked.
"Herzog is sending over something."
"We need a new plan," Selena said. "Assuming we're right about what that last marker meant, we must be getting close to wherever the gold is hidden."
"Assuming we're right?" Nick asked. "Are you thinking we might be in the wrong place?"