did not have to double-take. They shot a hail of rounds from their Uzis and cut them down without breaking stride. Rebecca heard the familiar clatter of the Uzi and grabbed Sam as the two young Israelis ran into the house.
“Shalom!” shouted Rebecca as they looked ready to fire.
“Shalom,” they replied, not lowering their weapons.
Whoever they were, they meant business.
As one kept an eye on the room, the other walked back to the door and waved. A minute later, Ben Meir was being hugged by his very grateful goddaughter and being introduced to Sam and Charles Baker. He was also learning of another old friend’s demise.
Chapter 81
Looking across the docks, Saul knew something was very wrong indeed. For the last two days, the procession of ships arriving at the port had begun to slow. It wasn’t that they were moving back to almost normal levels, it was the fact that nothing was coming in. Everything seemed to be going out. The yards that had been a permanent mountain of cargo containers were almost empty. Each ship that docked left with more than it brought in and in the last few hours, nearly very ship was empty as it came into port but left bulging at the seams.
He locked up the office and looked at the board for the next day’s arrivals. Nothing beyond 12.00 noon. No surprise as it was the beginning of Yom Kippur. The next day, Saturday, no arrivals. Again no surprise as it was a national holiday but beyond that, there was still nothing. Nothing, the docks were emptying and no new boats were due in. Saul Weisfield had no other skills. He had heard how hard the recession had hit around the world but up until then, they had been busier than ever. He was not going without a fight. They could, at least, have told him they were shutting the yard, he thought, as he walked towards the Port Director’s office.
“Paul, what the hell is this? Could you not just tell us we were closing?!” Saul had known the Port Director personally for many, many years and threw the arrivals list on his desk.
Paul looked down at the list and suddenly realized what Saul was talking about. He knew nothing of the company closing down.
“Ah, sorry, I’ve just not put up the new list, there’s no big conspiracy!” he offered genuinely.
“But the place is empty?”
“I’m told they’re just having a big clearout.”
Saul left the office a few minutes later thoroughly unconvinced. He couldn’t help but notice how quiet the roads were. Perhaps it all made sense. However, when he arrived home, he found his wife packing up their house.
Chapter 82
Ben had given the pilot two destinations. On arrival at the first, everyone except for him would disembark and he would travel alone to the second one. Ben Meir waited at the gates of the White House to be allowed in. Access, however, was not forthcoming.
“Have you told the President my name?” he asked again.
“Yes, Mr Meir, the answer I keep getting is that the President is in bed and is not to be disturbed. It is 11.30pm, you know.”
Ben tried his cell phone again but President Russell was not picking up.
“Listen young man,” Ben leant forward towards the guard who had kept watch on the gate for forty years and who recognized Ben very well. “Tell that little shit to let me in or I’ll hold a press conference, on this lawn, right here, in five minutes.”
The guard could of course do no such thing but he could call the President’s office and tell them what Ben Meir had said, which he did.
Four minutes and forty seconds later, a call came back to the gate house.
“Welcome to the White House, Mr Meir,” offered the guard as he opened the gate.
Ben rushed towards the Oval Office and spent the next thirty minutes telling President Andrew Russell more than a few home truths. Russell was apoplectic that anyone dared talk to him in such a manner and promptly had Ben escorted from the White House.
All in all, it had not gone well. Ben was in no position to strong-arm Russell. He needed Russell and Russell knew it. The only one piece of good news was that Russell instantly reacted to the news about the bomb. It seemed he had finally realized the threat was a genuine one.
Ben kicked himself. He could have played it far better. Russell was malleable, you just had to do it carefully. Ben’s temper had not allowed any give. Seeing James Murphy’s almost decapitated body had not brought out the best in him. America would have to wait. He had his own country to save.
Ben hitched a lift back to Israel on the B1-R and made it just in time for the 12.00 deadline. If the nukes hadn’t been found by then, just 36 hours before Yom Kippur, evacuation plans were to be fully implemented with immediate effect.
As he walked into the meeting, he could instantly detect that the weapons had not been found. Their expressions said it all. Ben stood and wished everyone the best of luck. That would be the last full meeting. Of course, they would continue the hunt up until the very last minute but it was time to begin the full-scale evacuation of the cities as a matter of urgency.
Chapter 83
Ahmed Hameed had spent the day mulling over the very strange meeting he had had with Ben Meir. A man whom he knew he shouldn’t but couldn’t help liking. The parts of Ararat he discussed were mind blowing and could, as Ben had said, make him a hero but if Ben was playing him, he’d die a zero, as many a rapper would have said. Ahmed was a new generation of Palestinian and felt sure that that was the only reason Ben had tried what he had tried. Deif or Akram would have shot him without question. It was another reason why Ahmed liked Ben, Ben got him. Something that not many of his fellow terrorists did. Ahmed looked to the future. Many of the terrorists knew nothing nor wanted anything but the violence. With nothing but Ben’s word to go on, he was going to have to either trust the Jew or not. Trusting Jews was not something he had ever had to worry about before. In his world, you simply didn’t.
Out of interest, he had put his network to work and it seemed Deif had done an exceptional job. Of the four weapons, Ahmed controlled one and as for the other three, nobody knew. It was looking like his chat with Ben was all going to be academic in any event.
As the day progressed, the news did not change, nobody knew. As noon struck, the sound began. A rumble in the sky that didn’t stop. The noise travelled the length and breadth of the city, a constant droning rumble. Ahmed checked his watch. The timing was just as Ben had predicted. Ahmed called his deputies and gave them a message to take to their people. Find the controllers as though your very lives depended on it.
Ahmed began to believe these words were not without merit.
Chapter 84
They woke up to the warmth of the Texan sun, welcome respite from the cold of Montana. Sam rolled over and looked out to the crystal blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It was amazing how the two entirely different vistas could elicit similar emotions. One was flat and blue, the other grey and looming. The small ramshackle beach lodge
