access road wound up from a secondary highway through a thick stand of trees that at times formed a canopy over the narrow road. General Accounting actually owned the place, but the FBI’s Witness Protection Program had been the most recent users. They parked in front and went up the sloping pathway to the broad porch. Before they went inside McGarvey turned and looked back down the road. The cars that had come from the airport with them had peeled off and were nowhere in sight. The afternoon was warm and lovely. The countryside seemed peaceful. Inside the foyer they were met by a well-dressed man with startlingly blue eyes and a slightly disdainful expression.
McGarvey had never met him, but he pegged the man almost immediately as a lawyer. “Any trouble” he asked Barker. “No, sir. From somewhere McGarvey thought he could hear the murmur of a conversation. A bulky man in a khaki shirt and trousers, hunting boots on his feet, stood at the head of the stairs. When McGarvey looked up at him, he moved off. He was armed with an M16 and he looked serious. Whatever had happened or was about to happen here, they were definitely taking it for real. The blue-eyed man spoke. “I’m Howard Ryan, general counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency, and you must be Dr. Abbott” He stuck out his hand, but Lorraine ignored it, her right eyebrow rising slightly. “Would you mind telling me what is going on here, Mr. Ryan” she demanded. “If it’s no trouble, that is”
“Of course” Ryan said smoothly. “Would you like to freshen up before we get started”
“No. Is Mark O’Sheay here” Ryan nodded. “Yes, he is. If you’d like we can go in now. They are waiting for you”
“It’s been a long trip, don’t screw with me” Lorraine said crudely.
Ryan’s gaze shifted to McGarvey. “You can wait in the living room, we’ll be with you in a half hour”
“I don’t think so” McGarvey said. “That’s an order, Mr. McGarvey..”
Ryan started to say, but Trotter had come to a doorway at the end of the stairhall. “It’s all right, Howard. We’ll see them both” McGarvey and Lorraine went back to the study, where Trotter was waiting. “Hello, Doctor, I’m John Trotter, I’m also with the Agency. We have someone here whom you know” He stepped aside. A fat, academic-looking man with pince-nez was just rising from his seat at a long table.
“Mark” Lorraine gave a little cry and she went in. McGarvey was right behind her. He could see that O’Sheay was angry and disturbed. “Now”
Trotter said, coming in with Howard Ryan, who shut the door and locked it. “We have a lot to talk about, and very little time, I’m afraid, to do it in”
Now that she was with at least one familiar, friendly face, Lorraine Abbott had regained some of the confidence she had lost when she’d been arrested in Tel Aviv. “What’s going on here, Mark” she asked her boss. “Have they told you yet”
“If you’ll just have a seat, Dr. Abbott, we can get started” Trotter said. “We have a lot of ground to cover”
” I will not” Lorraine snapped at him. “Mark, can we get the hell out of here? Now” O’Sheay shook his ponderous head. “Not just yet” he said.
“Listen to the man” McGarvey had remained standing by the door.
She shot him an angry look. “I’ve listened to about as much as I want to listen to. My lab will be expecting me”
“We have taken the liberty of informing them that you are on an extended assignment with the NPT” Trottei said. “You what”
“Please, Dr. Abbott, if you will just have a seat, I’ll explain everything to you”
“Goddamnit..”
“Sit down” McGarvey said. “The man is trying to save your life”
“I don’t she started again, but then she nodded and sat down, O’Sheay next to her, and Trotter and Ryan across the table. Megarvey remained standing. “Before we begin, it is my duty to inform you, Dr. Abbott, that these proceedings are being videotaped, and that the subjects that will come under discussion are classified top secret. You may not divulge what has happened here with anyone outside of this room unless you are instructed to do so by proper authority. Ryan passed a single-page document and a pen across to her. “If you have understood what Mr. Trotter has just told you, please sign this; it outlines the penalties for noncompliance under the National Secrets Act. The color left her face. “I’ve already signed it” O’Sheay said. “But the NPT..”
“Has been cut out for the moment. Just sign it, Lorraine. She did it, and pushed the paper back to Ryan, who put it in a file folder. She was subdued. McGarvey felt a little sorry for her. She was a smart, beautiful woman, but she had been playing an amateur’s game until now.
Her education wasn’t going to be pleasant to watch. “On June ninth of this year you were dispatched by the Non-Proliferation Treaty Inspection Service to investigate an incident at the En Gedi Nuclear Research Station” Trottei began. Lorraine nodded. “Along with a British scientist, Scott Hayes, you did so. Mr. Hayes was apparently satisfied with what he was shown.
We have seen his report. But you were not. Can you tell us why”
Again Lorraine appealed to O’Sheay for help, but he nodded for her to answer the question. “I felt they were hiding something” she said. Her voice had lost its harsh edge. “Hiding what”
“Mr. McGarvey has already briefed me”
“We’ll get to that, Doctor. What did you think the Israelis were hiding”
“I didn’t know at the time, but the man who met us at the gate was Lev Potok. I happen to know that he is a major in the Mossad. “After your inspection tour was completed, why didn’t you return home and make your report”
“I talked to Mark and told him that something funny was happening, and asked him to send out whatever material he could on the research facility. Construction and start-up information, that is”
“You were looking for something specific”
“Yes. “Could you explain that to us” Trotter gently prompted. “I thought there was a possibility that the Israelis were hiding fissionable material somewhere within or beneath the facility.
Specifically weapons-grade material. There is certain equipment …
certain things they would have to have done in order to maintain such a depot”
“Did you find anything in your document search”
“I wasn’t sure at the time. There were certain airflow installations that supposedly were to be used in a reactor room emergency. I thought it was possible they could be used for something else”
“The equipment is there” McGarvey said. Lorraine looked up at him. “You saw it? You were actually inside”
“Not in the weapons vault itself. But the laminar airflow equipment was there, laid out about the way you said it might be. And the air shafts are deep. Perhaps three hundred feet”
She nodded thoughtfully. “Judging from their reaction, you must have struck a nerve” Trotter hadn’t turned to look at McGarvey, he’d kept his eyes on Lorraine. “Your conclusion then, Doctor, from everything you’ve seen and heard concerning En Gedi” She glanced at Mark. “If you mean to ask, do I believe the Israelis are storing nuclear weapons at En Gedi, I can’t answer you. If you want to know do I think it’s possible, I do.
Very likely, in fact” Now Trotter turned around to face McGarvey.
“The good doctor says you briefed her, Kirk”
“I told her everything”
McGarvey said. “Everything” Ryan snapped.
“Yes. “Well, that tears it” Ryan said in disgust. “You had no goddamned brief..” McGarvey overrode him. “Her ass was hanging out on the line.
I was either going to tell her nothing, or I was going to tell her everything. And that, Counselor, was my studied decision as a field officer whose own ass was on the line”
“Under the circumstances I have to agree with Kirk” Trotter said.
Lorraine’s eyes were bright. “Why am I getting the feeling that I’m not going to like what’s coming next”
“It’s for your own protection, Doctor” Trotter said. “Believe me, if there was any way, any way at all of doing this any differently we would”
“What are you talking about”
“You are going to have to stay here, for … a few days, perhaps a little longer”
