must surely not discount the fact they may not restrict their enemy to just Israel.'
Just then the waiter returned to clear the soup bowls. 'Everything okay, sir?'
'Nectar,' replied the Admiral.
The two medium-rare sirloin steaks that followed were also perfect. Between luxurious bites, Vice Admiral Morgan assessed the situation, trying to judge firstly whether Ray Kerman was in fact a spy of the very worst type who had somehow infiltrated the British Army.
He was inclined to dismiss that, on account of the known wealth of the Kerman family, still living in London, still highly respectable. 'Sounds more likely, Ray had a sudden fit of conscience. Were there any suggestions to that effect?'
'Not really. But the house the dead SAS guys were in was in the middle of the battle zone, and it did previously contain a family. The Israelis found two quite young children, under nine, both shot dead. The father was also dead. The mother escaped, and has been found. She says she knows nothing of any SAS officer. For what it's worth, the Brits don't believe her.'
'Well,' Morgan said, 'the only thing I can imagine is that Ray Kerman had a sudden attack of conscience and went over to the other side.'
'Arnie, I understand that is a possibility. What brings me here is to discuss what we should do in the event he moves on from the Hamas groups fighting in the Holy Land and decides to have a go at the rest of the Western World.'
'Christ. I guess we better find him before he gets that far. But I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to plan a mass murder of civilians any more. Not after 2001. There's no doubt the U.S. military scared the hell out of the entire Muslim world when they pulverized Bin Laden's forces, but we gotta keep our guard right up. Because this Kerman character is, in my view, about ten times more dangerous than Al-Qaeda. And right now he's only practicing. And I think he might already have grabbed $100 million of our money.'
'That's what we think. But we don't know where he's put it, and we don't know where he is. So far as I can see, we can only keep a sharp eye on big crimes and bombs in the Holy Land.'
'Well, George. I think we should alert the Mossad and Shin Bet as to our suspicions and fears for the future. They're pretty good at finding people. Right now I'd be 90 percent certain those robberies were carried out by a military professional of Major Kerman's caliber. And talking of caliber, I would not be surprised if the bullets that hit the SAS Sergeant were from the same MP5 as the one that hit the alarm system in the Tel Aviv bank. SAS weapons are customized and highly coveted. Once you own one, you'll never give it up. Maybe they could check.'
'I'll do that this afternoon, Arnie. Meanwhile, do we let the Brits know we are onto something?'
'Might as well. But they'll be on the leading edge of this inquiry. The Brits only sound stupid. It's part of their weird upbringing. But they always know a lot more than you think.'
The two Admirals sat in silence for a few moments. Then George Morris asked, 'How do you think a new recruit like Major Kerman would get from a back street in Hebron to running operations for the Hamas?'
'Well, you know they'd be extremely suspicious, right from the get-go. He's probably on a trial right now, but I guess those robberies proved a point real quick. Kerman's probably already in touch with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is strong down in the Gaza Strip and has a very moderate agenda, centering on the total destruction of Israel and the immediate creation of a Palestinian State.'
'Nothing serious?' said Admiral Morris, chuckling.
'Hell, no. Just the brink of World War III… and remember, the Jihad is pretty ruthless in its fight against Israel. They were the guys who killed or injured a hundred people in the shopping mall in Tel Aviv a few years back. It has four main Palestinian factions, and one of them operates up near the Lebanon border with Hezbollah.
'The key, George, may be a guy called Sheik Biud Alt-mimi. He's from Hebron and is known to be supported by Iran, Kerman's homeland. But none of it's easy. An awful lot of those Fundamentalist military leaders are already in jail, in various countries like Egypt, but especially in Israel.
'A man like Major Kerman would be the best thing that could ever happen to those kinds of terrorists. With a leader like this SAS Commander, they could still launch very destructive attacks on the West.'
'Well, right now we can't do much except to alert everyone to keep a very careful watch on the situation in Israel.'
'Yeah,' said Admiral Morgan. 'And stand by for the unexpected. I doubt Major Kerman's $100 million is sitting idle.'
3
There's tension up here, even in the quietest hollows. Even five miles behind the Syrian border patrols, there is always that simmering Arab resentment along the ridges of the looming natural fortress of Golan.
The greatest tank battle the world has ever seen was fought here, in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israel won it, leaving behind 1,200 blasted Syrian steel hulks. And amid the debris of war, there was the rage of an ancient nation, the custodians of Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city on this earth.
The Golan Heights is a dark and formidable range, a green-and-granite landscape, strewn about with black basalt boulders, possibly placed by the Devil himself, on this centuries-old battleground of the religious faiths.
Doves become hawks up here. For just a very few miles to the west lies the Syrian Disengagement Line. And then, five miles on, across No Man's Land, there is carved in the mountains, another line, along which the hated Israeli conquerors guard the spoils of war, vast lands which were once as Arabian as the towering Citadel of Damascus.
Today there were almost 100 armed warriors gathered in an old Syrian military camp. Their fifty-foot-long open-sided tent was new, and it was set beneath new camouflage, netting and brushwood, in a remote vale between two granite rises, through which the snowcapped crown of Mount Herman could clearly be seen. The old compound was ringed with its original sandbag walls four feet high. Four manned machine gun nests punctuated those walls. There were lookouts in the surrounding hills. Each man had a cell phone and a loaded MP5 carbine at the ready. The place was on a strict war footing, in the tradition of the Golan Heights.
Three unmarked military trucks were parked outside. Beyond them was a rough, wooden building, with a tin chimney jutting from its roof. Outside the rear entrance was a broken-down tanker truck, filled with fresh water. But it was still obvious there were more men here today than those actually living in the compound.
Inside the tent there was a long trestle table, behind which, supported by two easels, was a large-scale cork-board holding three wide maps and two charts. The assembled armed men sat on ammunition crates, making notes, listening to two Syrian officers, who were lecturing them on the least visible point of entry into No Man's Land, and into Israel.
Between the two instructors sat the Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion, Hamas Assault Force — General Ravi Rashood, formerly of D-Squadron SAS, Sandhurst, and Harrow. Promotion had proved to be swift for the best Western officer ever to offer his services to a Third World terrorist group. Major Ray Kerman no longer existed.
Today he wore battle fatigues, and around his head and shoulders was the black-and-white headdress, complete with the two-stranded cord. He looked what he now was, a battle-hardened desert fighter, descended from Bedouins, operating on behalf of an Islamic nation. In his pocket he carried a handwritten note that read in Arabic: 'Dearest Ravi, Please take care of Ahmed. You and he are all I have left now. Allah go with you both. I love you, Shakira.'
The young woman who had saved his life running through those blasted Palestinian streets almost a year ago was now his only personal relationship. She and her brother had hidden him, and then smuggled him north to the isolated little Druze village of Mas'ada, just a few miles from the Hamas compound.
Several weeks later, after Ray Kerman had been accepted into Hamas, it was Shakira who had befriended a senior clerk in the Jerusalem bank and mapped out the floor plan and security system; Shakira who had somehow penetrated A. M. Schwartz National Locksmiths in Hebron and drawn up the diagrams of their most secure gate and
