main road by a pair of KGB guards armed with the new AK74 assault rifles equipped with night vision scopes. Kurshin had to present his papers. As one of the guards held a flashlight on his face, the other one got in back, opened his suitcase, and took his gun.
“You’re late” one of them said. “His plane was delayed” the driver explained. The flashlight was withdrawn and the rear door was slammed.
One of the guards was speaking into a walkie-talkie as they continued up the road toward dim lights just now visible through the trees and rain.
Kurshin shifted in his seat so that he could feel his left leg just above the ankle with the toe of his right shoe. The small.32 caliber automatic was still secure in its holster. Fuck your mother, he thought, using the national expression of disgust, but he wasn’t going to let himself be gunned down so easily. If need be, he would kill Baranov and make his escape. The narrow road opened onto a broad gravel driveway that led up to a large house, almost a mansion, rising out of the side of the hill. They parked in front. Kurshin got out of the car and started to reach in for his bag. “I’ll get that for you” the driver said. Kurshin shrugged and went up to the house, the front door opening for him. Inside the main stairhall he gave his coat to another burly man in civilian clothes, who laid it over the back of a chair and started to pat him down, but Baranov appeared at the head of the broad stairs.
“That will do, Gregory” he said. The guard stepped back. “Come, Arkasha” Baranov called down, his voice soft and congenial. Kurshin went up the stairs and at the top Baranov embraced him, holding him tightly for a long moment or two before kissing him. Then arm in arm they went down the corridor and into a study, a big fire burning in the fireplace across from a comfortable grouping of heavy chairs and couches. The room was book-lined and pleasantly warm. “Cognac or vodka”
Baranov asked. “Vodka” Kurshin replied. Baranov waved him to a seat while he poured their drinks. “It is too bad about Germany, but we are not finished yet” He turned, smiling. “Unless of course you mean to give up and return to Moscow, or perhaps shoot me to death with that little ankle gun of yours” Kurshin was startled, but he didn’t allow it to show. Baranov laughed as he came across the room and handed him his drink. “Didn’t I tell you once, Arkasha, to trust in me? I have friends everywhere. How else do you think I could get out of Moscow unobserved?
You simply cannot believe the pressures and restrictions placed on the shoulders of the director of KGB” He laughed again. “But the job has its compensations, and so will you, as you shall soon see. I I “Comrade”
Kurshin asked, confused. He felt as if he were sitting next to a high-tension wire. The slightest wrong move on his part and he would be dead. “You are going to kill McGarvey for me-and for yourself as well, I suspect-and afterward you are going to strike En Gedi, only this time your method will be so spectacular, so completely unexpected, that they will be talking about you for many years to come. With respect, Arkasha.
And fear.
At first Orraine Bborf wanted nothing to do with McGarvey. As she said, he could have been anyone with some inside knowledge. Even Mossad trying to trick her into revealing the extent of her own information. “If I were a Mossad agent, it would have been an extraordinary admission on my part, telling you about En Gedi” he’d said. “If it’s true she’d countered. “That’s what I’m here to find out”
They had left the cocktail lounge early, and Megarvey had gone up to his room where he cleaned up and changed clothes. A few minutes before nine he went up to her seventh-floor room and knocked on the door.
“I want to tell you one thing” she said, letting him in. “I am no spy”
“Neither am I.” McGarvey said and he motioned for her to keep silent.
For a moment or two she had no idea what he was trying to tell her as he gestured at the ceiling, the drapes, the television set, and the telephone, but then she caught it. “The room is probably bugged” he mouthed the words. She nodded her understanding. “Are you ready for dinner” he asked out loud. She was dressed in a simple dark skirt and white silk blouse, sandals on her feet, and only a slight amount of makeup to accent her high cheekbones and wide eyes. She looked freshly scrubbed, almost but not quite innocent. She nodded a little uncertainly. “Here in the hotel” she asked. “I thought we’d go for a walk first. It’s a nice evening. Afterward you can buy, last time in San Francisco it was my treat, remember” She shot him an angry look, but got her purse. They picked up their tail as they crossed the lobby to the front doors, and outside they walked across the broad driveway and headed back into the city, the night pleasantly cool with a nice breeze from the sea. “Did you call the general” McGarvey asked when they were well away from the hotel. Traffic was still fairly heavy. The city smelled of car exhaust and something else, something almost exotic. “No.
I didn’t think it was too smart under the circumstances”
“They’re probably going to kick both of us out of the country by morning McGarvey said. He didn’t bother turning around to see if their tail had followed them from the hotel. He knew the man had.
Instead, he kept his eye on the passing cars and trucks, because he had even less doubt that he had been made from the moment he’d shown up at the hotel. The Mossad would be frantically trying to figure out what the hell he was doing here.
Lorraine bridled. “I’ll be damned if I’ll let them” she snapped. “I’m still an NPT representative, and there are still questions about the incident for which I’ve received no satisfactory answers. “This is their country, Dr. Abbott” he said. “And they consider themselves at war. U they want you to leave Israel you’ll have to go” He looked closely at her. She was angry, but he could see just a little fear and uncertainty tinged in her eyes. Trotter had told him that she’d done a little work for the Company. But it had mainly been of the variety of keeping an open eye and reporting what she saw. “If and when they ask you to leave, I want you to go without an argument. She stopped short and faced him.
“Who the hell do you think you are” she demanded. “At this point, someone who is trying to save your life, Dr. Abbott” he said firmly.
She was taken aback. Her mouth opened. “There have already been half a dozen lives lost” he told her. “And if you get in the way they won’t hesitate to pull the trigger, no matter who you represent … or how pretty YOU are. II. This last stung. “Goddamnit she started to protest angrily, but McGarvey took her arm forcefully and they continued down the street.
“Now, just what is it I’m supposed to be looking for out at En Gedi” he asked. “Airvents” she said after a moment. “And the equipment for a laminar airflow installation. If they’re storing weapons out there, they’ll probably be deep underground” She looked at him. “They’ll shoot you”
“I’ll take my chances”
“You’re crazy if you think you can just sneak in and look around. “It’s called a finesse” McGarvey said. “Now let’s get to a very public restaurant. You and I are going to have a loud argument.
McGarvey pulled the small dark blue Fiat he had stolen from a side street in Tel Aviv to the side of the road and doused the lights.
Below in the valley about two miles away was the En Gedi Nuclear Research Station, lit up like a small town along the shore of the Dead Sea. A faint wisp of steam came from the one small cooling tower. Even from this distance he could see some activity within the compound. If the weapons were stockpiled down there, the Israelis would have been fighting a difficult battle from day one. If they guarded the place too heavily, it would call attention to the fact that something more than research was going on. If they were too lax, it would invite penetration. Lorraine had put on a convincing performance, raising her voice so loudly that everyone in the restaurant had stopped and looked at them. She had jumped up and started to leave, but he managed to grab her arm. Immediately she whirled around and slapped him in the face.
“You sonofabitch” she shouted, and she stomped off. McGarvey threw down enough money for their bill and hurried out after her, but she was already halfway down the street. “Then go, bitch” he shouted, and he turned and stormed off in the opposite direction. In the first sixty seconds the Mossad team who had been watching them was confused. This wasn’t what they expected at all. McGarvey had been easily able to shake the one man who’d split off to follow him, had doubled back to an area of apartment buildings, finding the Fiat, and headed out of the city.
His cheek still stung, and he reached up to rub it, a faint smile coming to his lips. He had told her to go directly back to the hotel and start packing without a word to anyone. He hoped that she had done just that.
He had been told a long time ago that if getting in the back door was impossible, you could always try the front door. The trick was in coming up with the key. Trotter had wanted him to confirm the existence of the
