that it had been necessary in the first place. His Sudanese mercenaries had been incredibly loyal, fulfilling his orders without question or fault. He thought back to the archaeologist a couple months ago as an example of their efficiency, but he couldn’t allow laxity now. As the operation got into full swing, he would be relying on them more and more. Tonight’s grisly demonstration was a just reminder.
More disturbing than the blunders in Rome and Asmara was the fact that Gianelli had no idea who had contacted Mercer at da Vinci. There
Unknown Location in the Middle East
News of Ibriham’s death in Rome reached Yosef a full day after the machine-gun attack because the team had been on the move during the night, traveling with their prisoner from their previous location in Lebanon to a more secure site. They were now ensconced in an urban safe house near the bustling city center, but cut off from it by the house’s ancient stone walls. The house was attached to its neighbors in the time-honored way of Middle Eastern cities, yet it had been vacant for several years.
The neighborhood was full of those sympathetic to their cause and would not report that the previously unoccupied house suddenly had ten people inhabiting it, eleven if one knew about Harry White held captive in the windowless cellar. This location did afford more amenities, but it was still much too dangerous to use for the remainder of their mission. Discovery by the police or special investigative services would mean either a shoot-out or execution after a quick, one-sided military trial. Apart from everything else, Yosef also had to consider the team’s next relocation, no more than a week away if he wanted to maintain the hard-and-fast rule about safe houses.
Yosef betrayed no reaction when he’d learned of the death of his nephew. But the few team members who’d worked with him before knew he was taking the killing very badly. He had a new hardness, a new layer of armor that shielded him from the loss and continuing pain of his life’s work.
Several of the team sat at the dining room table with pitchers of water and carafes of rich coffee. It was morning, the first minutes they had been able to relax. The remainder of the group were either on sleep rotation or out purchasing supplies. The dining room was heavy with both quiet grief and the coolness of the morning that soaked through the plastered walls.
Yosef had never used this particular safe house, but it was like so many others he had slept in, worked in, and killed in before. He had willingly given up his life to live like this, and while he felt no regrets for that decision, its toll was becoming too heavy. Losing Ibriham could very well be the last blow he would take.
No one at the table had spoken. Each was waiting for Yosef, the team’s new leader, to take up his mantle of command. He remained silent, inhaling cigarettes until the small astray before his chair brimmed. This morning had aged him a further ten years.
“What is the state of our prisoner?” Yosef finally asked, avoiding the real issue by addressing other details first.
“Settled as well as can be expected,” one of the team replied. “He’s much quieter and more cooperative since we started giving him cigarettes.”
“His injuries?”
“For an old man, he heals remarkably well. His hand’s doing fine.” This from a nurse who had been with the organization for a year.
Yosef lit another cigarette, watching the blue-gray smoke coil to the wood beams that trussed the high ceiling. He didn’t bother to blink away the smoke that scalded his eyes. The inquiring stares of his people galled to the point where he wanted to escape the room, the house, the entire organization. But not before Philip Mercer paid for his nephew’s death.
He forced himself from his reverie. “There is no point in going over what has happened. We all know that Ibriham is dead and this places me in command. It’s a job I don’t want, but that doesn’t matter.” If they wanted a morale-boosting speech, they could get it elsewhere, he thought. “We will continue as before. The only significant change of plans is that I will be heading to Eritrea to keep track of Mercer with those already scheduled to go. Also, when this operation’s done, I want our prisoner executed and I personally will deal with the American.”
The most junior member of the group spoke. “I am not questioning you, Yosef, but aggravating the situation with two more deaths won’t help our cause. According to our information, Mercer had nothing to do with Ibriham’s murder. Killing him will only draw more attention to our presence.”
Again nothing showed on Yosef’s face, but his voice was deadly. “Killing Mercer has nothing to do with our cause. It’s a personal matter. And no one will be aware of it. Eritrea’s a big country, full of danger. One more corpse buried in the desert will make no difference.”
He looked around the table to see if anyone else would question his decision, but none would meet his gaze. He had to keep the team focused for just a few more weeks, until the election. After that, he no longer cared what happened to them or himself, or God forbid, Israel.
Yosef thought back to the murder of his niece, Ibriham’s cousin, so many years ago. She’d been shot by an Israeli soldier who was so shaken by the accident that he’d been unable to return to active service. Ibriham had taken her death particularly hard, and Yosef had feared that he would join a Palestinian splinter group to reap his revenge. But days later, a bomb at a bus stop in Tel Aviv had killed eleven Israelis. Television reports showed cheering crowds of students in Gaza celebrating the martyrdom of the suicide bomber. That evening, Ibriham approached his uncle and asked to join him in the Mossad. Ibriham had been so impressed by the compassion the soldier had shown following the fatal shooting and so sickened by the crowds that the internal conflict that had torn him since childhood had cleared. He had said he was a Jew first and foremost and wanted to be like his uncle, dedicated to the preservation of the Jewish homeland.
From that time, Ibriham’s uncertainty gave way to a zeal that forced him to work tirelessly within the ranks of the Mossad. In just a couple of years, he’d topped the list of field operatives. This brought him to the attention of Israel’s current defense minister Chaim Levine, who was forming a secret team from within the ranks of Israel’s military and intelligence community for a shadowy program of his own. Ibriham quickly accepted Levine’s offer to join and eventually lead his cadre in pursuit of the minister’s dream. It had been Levine who drew Ibriham in, but now the responsibility fell on Yosef’s shoulders. The team watched him quietly.
“I know what you’re thinking: the old man has gone mad. You think I might jeopardize the mission with a vendetta against a man who’s actually helping us. I assure you, nothing will happen to Mercer until after he discovers the mine and we retrieve what we lost so long ago.” Yosef paused to fill a glass with water. “Ibriham’s death has been a devastating blow, not only to me personally, but also to you. But it doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop. In just a few weeks, if we are successful, we’ll rejuvenate our nation and will lay the foundation to ensure that
“It’s true we have our land, bought with blood and defended with yet more. But since the founding of our state, we have lacked a soul. We’ve existed, lived, and died but never have we truly felt our place. Many thought taking Jerusalem in 1967 would give us that soul — the Western Wall, for generations known as the Wailing Wall because it stood inside Jordan’s borders. It was the wall built by King David himself when he erected the Temple. It’s a tangible piece of what we once had.
“We have it now,” Yosef scowled. “A towering wall of sandstone blocks that sits in the shadow of a mosque. I have been to the wall just once, back in ’67, as a soldier. I had killed to take those slabs of rock, killed joyfully. Since then, I find the area an abomination. There are more tourists there gawking than Jews praying. It sickens me.
“I fought and killed and nearly got killed for a symbol. The Western Wall was a first step but it was never meant to be the end of what we wanted to achieve in our promised land. It wasn’t until the Scud missiles slammed into Jerusalem and Tel Aviv during the Gulf War that a select group remembered that there was more work before Israel was complete.
“In a few weeks Defense Minister Chaim Levine will be Prime Minister. He’s going to nullify the peace accords and outlaw the PLO again. He’ll close our borders to the West Bank and Gaza, keeping the hordes in the slums they themselves have created. There will be no more suicide bombers because when he’s finished with the Palestinians,
