by Uzi Eilam
He looked at Deutsch, who seemed enthralled. “We decided to rely on my acquaintance with Abu Nimer, Nimer’s father, and to carry out a quiet surgical operation. It was a gamble, but in any case, the noisy alternative didn’t guarantee success. After serious preparation, including training on a model of the house in which they were holding the prisoner, we went in. My force oversaw the operation, and everything went according to plan. There was no resistance until my fighters encountered the mukhtar’s son. He was holding a pistol, but they managed to overcome him and bring him to me.”
“And that’s how things started getting complicated?”
“It looked like we were getting into trouble. A single stray bullet was enough to bring a Jordanian standby force running to the camp,” Gideon explained, “but young Nimer, my childhood friend, obeyed his father’s orders and led us to the wounded soldier. The mukhtar, as we’d hoped, asked his son to guide us safely out of the refugee camp, and that’s what he did,” Gideon said, finishing the story.
“I think, Gideon,” Deutsch thought aloud, “that the meticulous preparations and, particularly, the decision to rely on the human element are what led to such a successful result. I’m also impressed by the small size of the rescue force you took. That was quite risky, I think.”
“We aren’t as big and wealthy as you,” Gideon answered, “and that dictates the way in which we’re forced to operate.”
“Interesting,” Deutsch said reflectively. “There are similarities between what you just told me and the rescue mission I commanded.”
“What was your story?”
“In my case, it was a pilot who had to bail out of his burning plane and fell into the hands of the Vietcong.”
“Did you operate with the Green Berets?”
“Yes. At first we were assigned to training South Vietnamese soldiers,” Deutsch explained, “and later, to intelligence missions, combat missions such as targeted killings, and search and rescue missions to find captured soldiers. We had extensive and exhausting training so we could do all that, including learning languages and cultures. Training took place at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and at the Eglin Air Force base in Florida.”
“And what happened to the pilot? Did you know where he was?”
“We were continually receiving up-to-date intelligence, and we knew that he was being well-guarded by many fighters. The intelligence effort we made was enormous and based on round-the-clock audio surveillance, satellite imagery, and aerial photography by aircraft.”
“And what about human intelligence?” Gideon asked. “Did you use South Vietnamese fighters?”
“We tried, but we weren’t very successful. We hoped that the concurrent use of a wide range of technological means would balance the scales.”
“And did it?”
“Not exactly. We knew about the facility where the pilot was being held, and we couldn’t tell exactly where their forces were in the vicinity. They often used tunnels to move from place to place. Our preparations included forming a large force, the rescue force, which was under my command, and also two backup forces that knew the plan and had received the same training as us. We used satellite and aerial support by intelligence planes, and a whole fleet of fighter planes waited in the air. Helicopters dropped us far enough away from the target area so we wouldn’t be spotted and put the Vietcong on special alert. Everything went as planned, and we penetrated the facility quietly. We took out the guards one by one without making a sound. But in life, things don’t always go according to plan, and one of my team was discovered before we got to our pilot. There was a commotion and I rushed over…” He grinned. “From here, the story is nothing like yours.”
“What happened next?”
“Things got complicated when more Vietcong forces arrived. I sent both of the reserve forces in.”
“Sounds like it went seriously wrong,” Gideon commented.
“Luckily, our well-trained soldiers and airpower neutralized the extra Vietcong forces before they got to the area. We eventually rescued the pilot unharmed.”
They sat quietly while the bartender brought them another two coffees.
“Your ability to concentrate power and form backup forces is most impressive,” Gideon said.
“Yes, that’s what sets us apart,” Deutsch replied. “But I’m blown away by your ability to act within your limited and creative means.”
“There is a lesson in both of our stories,” Gideon ventured to suggest.
“Which is?”
“Your technologically based power together with the creative sophistication that we Israelis bring to the table is a winning combination.”
“Yes, and it seems to me that it’s the way we should be developing the missile project. By the way, while we’re on the subject, I have something interesting to share…”
Gideon tensed. Deutsch and his surprises.
“We’re invited to a series of meetings at the Pentagon, mainly with the missile defense directorate. They were impressed by your lecture in San Francisco and asked you and me to come to Washington for talks.”
“Wow!” Gideon blurted out.
“That was their request, and we have nothing left but to set a date. Maybe we can cover other parts of our biographies on the flight to the East Coast.”
Gideon was so surprised, he wasn’t sure he hadn’t imagined the whole conversation.
19.
Peet’s Coffee was still empty when Nurit slipped behind a table by the glass wall.
“Good morning, Señora,” the waitress said. “Are you alone today?”
“No, I’m waiting for someone…”
Nurit looked angry to the waitress, who hurried away to bring her a glass of water.
She asked if I was alone. Little does she know how right she is.
A few hours earlier, in fact as early as she could, she’d called Gideon and caught him just as he walked into work. It was instantly obvious to him that she was under extreme pressure.
“We have to meet!” Nurit demanded, her voice higher than usual. “Something really frightening has happened!”
“Nuri, I’m right here!” He tried to calm her. “Tell me from the beginning. What happened to you?”
“I didn’t sleep all night.” Hysteria crept into her voice.
“Yes, Nuri,” Gideon continued, “but what happened?”
“When I came home to the apartment at the end of the day, I wanted to work on my research,” she told him, her voice becoming steadier. “I turned on my laptop, and a message in big letters popped up on the screen that said, ‘You cannot escape your duty to the sacred cause.’ Underneath, it said, ‘Your research work is in danger of deletion.’ I tried to access my research files, but I couldn’t. All I got was the same message.” As she finished, her voice trembled.
“Did you try to restart?” Gideon asked, trying to get Nurit to think practically.
“I deleted the message and restarted the computer,” she answered, her voice still trembling and nervous. “When I tried to open the research file, the message appeared again and then disappeared after a few seconds. The file loaded as if nothing had happened.” Nurit breathed heavily.
“And did you continue working on your research?” Gideon said, hoping she’d say yes.
“How could I? I tried, and I even typed a few lines, but I was so upset… I couldn’t concentrate. It’s scary! You have to help me,” she begged.
“I’m here for you, Nuri,” Gideon replied calmly. “Let’s meet at Peet’s in an hour. Bring your laptop, and we’ll see what we can do.”
***
Nurit was visibly tense and didn’t take her eyes off the entrance. People began to come in for a cup of coffee and breakfast, but Gideon wasn’t among them. After what felt like forever, she noticed him limping quickly toward her. She jumped up and hugged him tightly, not let
ting go. Gideon kissed her on both eyelids and dried the tears welling in them.
“I’m so happy to see you,” she exclaimed as they sat down at the table. The color had returned to her cheeks, and her voice was normal again. “I brought the computer…”
The waitress, smiling brightly, came over and waited patiently.
“Let’s order something to drink,” Gideon suggested. “I’m also ordering you a croissant—you probably haven’t eaten a thing since.”
The smell of brewing coffee and the delicious freshly baked croissant helped Nurit regain her balance. She felt safe with Gideon.
“What are you going to do with my laptop?” she asked. “Do you think it’s safe to turn it on?”
“Yes, but only to see if the message still pops up when you open the file. Let’s look at it together.”
Nurit turned on the computer and typed an entry code for the research file. The screen remained blank for a few seconds, and then the words popped up one at a time. “You…cannot…escape…”
“We shouldn’t leave it on here.” Gideon quickly turned it off. “On the face of it, it looks like it’s been hacked,” he explained quietly. “We have a few computer whizzes at work with extensive experience in defense against cyberattacks. They’ll diagnose the problem with no difficultly, and if I’m right, you’ll get your computer back today, all cleaned up.”
Gideon took Nurit’s hand. He could see that she’d overcome her hysteria, but he realized that there were other difficulties that lay beneath the surface for them to deal with. The computer problem can be dealt with quite easily, he thought, but what do we do about the threat? Does this have something to do with the note Nurit found on her car? I don’t understand the meaning behind it, but it doesn’t look good…
“Come on, Nuri, we’ve got things to take care of,” Gideon said as he took the computer from her. “I’ll take this to the institute to be checked. It could take a few hours. Do you have to be in Berkeley now? Could you wait around, maybe go home, and I’ll let you know when the computer’s ready?”
“Yes, I don’t mind being at home,” Nurit agreed. “In any case, Yudke will be at work until late, and I have enough to do and buy. It’ll do me good to busy myself with other things and not to think too much about this mess.”
Gideon hugged her, stroked her hair, and gave her a light kiss on the mouth. “Everything’s going to be fine, Nuri, you’ll see,” he whispered gently and headed off on his bicycle to the institute.
***
As soon as he got there, Gideon went straight to the software experts’ office and gave them the computer. “It seems to have a virus or something,” he explained. “It could even be something more serious. A message pops up when you try to open the research file.”
“Leave it with us,” Thomas, the head of the team, said. “We’ll check it immediately and identify its illness.”
“Thanks! I’ll be in my office.”
Gideon knew that he wouldn’t be able to concentrate until he got the results back. He hoped he could soon tell Nurit that everything was clean. He sat in front of his computer for three hours solving mathematical models that he needed to build the algorithm. Math puzzles had always been a way for him to escape, but working on the models didn’t cancel out his other brain lobe’s ability to think about Nurit and the threats she’d received. His heart went out to her, and he was determined to do anything he could to help her feel safe. The phone on his desk rang, and although he’d been expecting it, it shook Gideon, and he quickly picked up the receiver.
“Hi, Gideon,” Thomas’s cheerful voice said. “Feel free to come and get your reborn baby.”
“I’ll be right there!” Gideon cried out happily and had to suppress the urge to run down the hallway. Thomas and three of his team were already busy cracking a new problem.
“Oh, there you are,” Thomas said with a triumphant smile. “Thanks for the hard nut you gave us. It was quite the challenge! We immediately realized that it was a new worm that we hadn’t heard of.”
“And did you crack it?” Gideon interrupted him.
“It’s a sophisticated worm that looks completely innocent at first,” Thomas began to explain, with his young assistants nodding their heads. “We’re not sure how it got into this computer. It embedded software that can respond to a code word from a remote computer or to an executable command given to the computer by its owner and delete certain files.”
“And now?” Gideon asked. “What should I do?”
“It’s very simple.” Thomas smiled. “You take the computer and forget about the problem.”
“It’s that simple?” Gideon asked. “And the worm?”
“The computer’s clean,” Thomas promised, “and besides, we loaded a new defense program on the computer, which we just built, and it can withstand attempts to penetrate using this worm. You deserve special thanks for helping us to identify a new cyber threat. Thanks to this information, we can install an upgraded defense system for all our computers here at the institute.”
Gideon took the computer and thanked Thomas and his team profusely. He rushed off to his office and rang Nurit.
“Hi, Nuri,” he began cheerfully. “Everything’s fixed, and the problem was entirely resolved.”
“Really?” Nurit sounded doubtful. “I’ll have to see it to believe it.”
“Do you intend on driving back to Berkeley today?” Gideon half asked, half assumed.
“Yes, Gidi, I have a ton of work to do at the university. I couldn’t progress at all because of this whole affair, but I feel calm now, all thanks to you!”
“Great. Let’s meet at Peet’s again before you set out. I’m leaving now with the computer.”
“I’m on my way,” Nurit said, sounding much more relaxed.
20.
The musicians were already seated, and the strings were fine-tuning their instruments. Professor Cohen flipped through the score for Mozart’s Symphony no. 41.
Ryan ran in panting with his violin case under his arm, mumbling an apology for being late as he brushed a few fall leaves from his light coat. He sat down quickly beside Linda, who glared at him. Gideon felt quite uneasy. This wasn’t the first time he’d been late. Ryan caught his eye and mouthed “Sorry.” This was a particularly important rehearsal—the last before the final concert of the season.
Over the last few weeks, Gideon had devoted more time to playing, mainly to keep his lips in shape and to maintain his embouchure and technique that were so essential to his solo segments. The orchestra played as one under Cohen’s baton, which Cohen used to stop them only a few times. After they’d played Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” Cohen cried out “Bravo!” as he looked at Gideon, and the musicians applauded him. Gideon noted with satisfaction that the hours of practicing his solo pieces hadn’t been a waste of time.
“Hi, Gideon,” Ryan said sheepishly after rehearsal. “Sorry I was late.”
“What’s done is done,” Gideon reassured him. “Just be on time for the final concert.”
“I promise,” Ryan declared. “Do you want a cup of coffee?”
“I most certainly do, and even more, I’d love a glass of cold water to soothe my lips,” Gideon said. “You violinists don’t have problems with your mouth muscles after playing a long solo.”
“Maybe so, but the shoulder of the hand holding the bow sometimes makes its presence felt.”
They sat down at a table with their drinks, their heads still full of Debussy’s wonderful music.
“You played your solo beautifully,” Ryan complimented him. “You’ve obviously been practicing a lot. I’m afraid I’ve been slack lately. It’s just I’ve been traveling a lot.”
“From what I hear from Linda,” Gideon said, “you’re in good shape, so don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“Thanks, Gideon,” Ryan s
aid and sipped quietly on his coffee. “Did you have time to think about where to continue your research after your contract ends?” Ryan dared to ask after a long silence. “You remember that we talked about it at lunch that day, right?”
“Sure I do.” Gideon chose his words carefully. “But I haven’t really weighed my options.”
“If we give you more information on the possibilities, could you give it some consideration and decide your position?” Ryan insisted.
“Information? Why not?”
“This week, people from the investment company in New York will be here. They have a few meetings lined up with startups in Silicon Valley. I was thinking that if you can make the time, I’ll set up a meeting with them. We can hold it at our offices, at Cisco. Just listen to what they have to say,” he implored. “You won’t owe them anything. What do you think?”
“I won’t rule it out completely,” Gideon said. “Call me tomorrow, and we’ll see if we can arrange something.”
They parted with a handshake, Ryan smiling an involuntary self-satisfied grin, and lost in thought, Gideon made his way to the bike stand. Deutsch told me to be careful. But what can happen in a meeting? Why should I be afraid to meet them? I only want to hear the details.
***
Cisco’s parking lot was almost empty when Gideon parked the Chevy in a spot marked for guests. During the short drive from the institute to Los Altos, where the company’s offices were located, he kept thinking about the pressure that Ryan had been putting on him lately. What motivated the man? he asked himself. He recalled how Deutsch had reacted to the names Ryan Davis and Cisco Electronics. He didn’t mention it again in the days that followed, and Gideon wondered what lay behind that silence.
A tough-looking security guard studied Gideon’s driver’s license at length. Like all security guards in the Valley, his hair was short, probably a remnant of his military service, and he didn’t bother to hide the Colt King Cobra pistol on his belt, ready to be drawn at any moment. The man studied Gideon, then his driver’s license again, before picking up the receiver and dialing. Ryan appeared within seconds, thanked the security guard, and led Gideon into a small modestly furnished conference room. The two men sitting at the oval table got up immediately to shake hands and to exchange business cards.