If history had taught the Jews anything, it was the uncertainty of alliances with goyim. Consequently, they spied on friend and foe alike with admirable evenhandedness.
Jacob's brief had been to keep an eye on Arab diplomats in London, to pass along to his handlers the snippets of information from which the tapestries of international affairs are woven. The information might or might not be passed along to the intelligence community of the United States, which hosted no Iraqi, Iranian or Liberian embassy of its own upon which to spy.
Somewhat less well known was Jacob's ability with explosives, learned during his time in the Israeli Army before his migration to England. Unconfirmed rumor had it that he was the one who had gotten into the hiding place of one of Hamas's more notorious terrorists and wired T4 to the telephone's dial. The next call blew the man's head off without so much as cracking the mirror on the wall. True or not, Jacob had the reputation of being the duke of detonation, a prestidigitator of plastique.
The Americans as well as the British had suspected his duties included spying on them as well. All potentially aggrieved parties – CIA, FBI, MIS, MI6 – agreed he was now retired, no matter how odd his choice to spend his final years in the practice of law that had been his first love, or, odder still, his preference for London drizzle over Mediterranean sun.
Jacob opened doors behind his desk, revealing a small cupboard, counter and gas ring upon which sat a teapot. 'Still lemon, no sugar?'
Lang had to smile. 'Age hasn't taken your memory.'
Jacob poured into porcelain mugs. 'Not entirely a blessing. I can still remember whom I dislike but my eyesight's gotten so bloody bad, I can't see the blokes coming.' He opened a tin and shook his head sorrowfully. 'Out of biscuits, I'm afraid.' He extended a steaming mug and lit one of the malodorous pipes. 'So brief me on the last ten years, Langford. You might include the reasons for that ridiculous moustache, what I hope are false jowls and that dreadful German-made suit.'
Lang glanced around the room and touched his ear.
Jacob nodded. 'Ah, yes, 'tis a lovely spring day outside. Why don't we take our tea out to the courtyard. Who knows, we might even hear a lark sing, although the last of the poor creatures I saw in London was years ago, dying of the smog, he was.'
The sun had grown no warmer and Lang shivered as they entered the courtyard. 'If you think your office is bugged…?'
Jacob's head bobbed solemnly. 'Was it not your poet Robert Frost who observed some people believe good fences make good neighbors? In our business… our Former business, good listening devices make good neighbors. Your Agency, MIS, the others, do not fear what they think they know. So I let them listen in to what happens in my office. It must put them to sleep. I have nothing to hide anymore. Besides, had it not been for your countrymen…'
'You'd be dead,' Lang finished.
Years ago, Lang's employers had known from bugging Jacob's phone that he was going to be nearby at the same time a Hamas group planned to explode a car bomb at the Israeli Embassy. Unknown to the would-be terrorists, the building had long previously been rendered impervious to anything smaller than a nuclear blast and the most serious damage would be to the surrounding neighborhood. Arresting those planning to join Allah in paradise would have tipped the fact the Arab group was seriously infiltrated. Lang had insisted no point was to be served by letting Jacob be reduced to his composite atoms and had warned him clear.
'I would indeed be dead,' Jacob agreed, 'a fate only marginally worse than old age. Now, the last ten years, what have you been doing that you worry about being overheard?'
Lang told him.
Jacob shook his head. 'My sorrow for the loss of your family. Your sister, nephew, I didn't know. But Dawn… A name from the poetry books. You will remember I had the wisdom to ask her what she saw in you when you two visited London some years ago. Lovely person.
'Now you are a lawyer in America, wanted for murders you did not commit both here and there. How may I be of help?'
They had walked the short distance between the law offices and an old round structure, the Temple. Lang pulled open the heavy door and motioned Jacob inside.
'I'm cold,' Lang said. 'There's no one here and I doubt anyone has bugged this place.'
The Temple was just that. Built in the twelfth century by the Order of Knights Templar, it was round with an inner circle supported by columns. In the middle of the circle, several stone effigies reposed on the worn limestone floor, swords clasped to their armored chests. No inscription gave a clue as to their identity. Lang had always assumed they were Templars.
Jacob and Lang circled the room as Lang finished his story.
'Pegasus, Limited,' Lang finally said. 'The only clue I have, or at least the only one I understand. If it does business in Europe, Echelon would know.'
Jacob stopped. 'Echelon? Your National Security Agency doesn't share that information with any agency where I might find out.'
The National Security Agency was the most secretive of the secretive. Its operatives were computer jocks, its weapons high technology. It participated in no active espionage in the conventional sense but maintained a heavily guarded satellite monitoring station just outside London which had the capability to intercept every fax, e-mail and phone call made in Europe. The information was shared only among England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Lang smiled. 'Of course, your retirement. Plus Mossad naturally has no means of intercepting Echelon and would be reluctant to do so if it could. I wouldn't want to impose on our friendship by asking…'
'You cannot get this information from your former employers or their friends at MI6?'
Lang shook his head. 'My former employers don't owe me a favor, particularly not the London Station. It's the plumb of the service, draws all the Harvard-Yale types, guys that wouldn't dream of being seen with someone who graduated from a state college.' He wrinkled his nose, giving his very best imitation of an upper-class British accent. 'As for MI6, old thing, why they're just too, too. Hardly can understand the blighters, talking through their Cambridge-oxford noses, y'know. Just too tiresome, dealing with a bloody Yank. No sense of… Well, old stick, you know what I mean.'
Jacob chuckled as he held up a hand in surrender. 'Okay, enough. What makes you think this Pegasus can be found by Echelon?'
'Because there are no electronic transmissions it doesn't pick up. That's how Boeing beat Airbus in the bidding for new aircraft for several Mideast countries.'
'You know American intelligence agencies are forbidden to do such things, Langford. They assure us all they only use such technology to keep track of terrorists, bin Laden, North Korea, sale of missiles to certain Arab nations.'
Lang rolled his eyes. 'And of course diverting billions of dollars to U.S. companies would not be sufficient incentive to deviate from that policy.'
Jacob glanced around, making sure no one had entered the building since the conversation began. 'Even if what you say is correct, how could a single name be sorted out? There must be millions of transmissions daily.'
'Done easily enough by programming keywords into the computer.'
'Like 'bomb'?'
'Like. Story a few years ago was that an Irish comedian was playing on stage in Soho. Opening night, called his girlfriend in Belfast, was nervous about his act. Said he was afraid he was going to bomb out. Two blocks were cordoned off before he even got to the theater. Bomb squad, dogs, the works. MIS blamed it on that all-time favorite, the anonymous tip.'
Lang could hear fingernails rasping against a heavy five o'clock shadow as Jacob scratched his chin. 'So, if someone were to have the ability to intercept Echelon's product, 'Pegasus' could be a keyword, any communications concerning it gathered in. A tall order, as you say, for a small, poor operation like Mossad.'
Lang chuckled. 'Small, yes. Poor, perhaps. Most efficient in the world, undoubtedly.'
Jacob was staring somewhere past Lang. 'This is all you know about these people who have killed so many, that they are somehow connected to this Pegasus?'
