The Righteous Spy

5 | The Office, Tel Aviv – Thirty Minutes Later

5

The Office, Tel Aviv – Thirty Minutes Later

Yuval stood with his back to the blank screens in the meeting room addressing Eli and Rafi. It felt like being back in the army or on the three-year Mossad training course when you were given assignments to complete and then got graded.

‘This operation in the UK is the beginning of the most significant initiative since 1948 when the state of Israel was founded,’ Yuval said.

Eli was accustomed to a certain level of hubris when a new operation was mooted but this statement went well beyond standard introductions. Keeping his expression grave, Eli nodded and waited with considerable interest for what was to come.

‘The PM and the cabinet believe that now is the time for us to be accepted as a major power player, not just in the region, but in world politics. After all, if North Korea can be considered as such, why not Israel?’

Eli caught Rafi’s expression; he was frowning.

‘It’s not as crazy as it sounds,’ Yuval said. ‘The prime minister sees a unique opportunity and whatever we may feel about him, he’s shrewd. The situation is like this: the US is faltering under Trump; the EU is riven with dissent; Russia, for all its posturing, is falling apart economically behind the scenes. The war in Iraq is over, in Syria the war is coming to an end and when the superpowers have left the arena, there’ll be a power vacuum. We need to be ready to fill it by building our alliances not with America but with our friends in the region. To do that we need better intelligence, and that’s what we’re going to do even if we have to be a little more creative than usual and push ourselves.’

‘And the UK is where this is going to start?’ Rafi said.

‘Exactly, it’s where we begin. Instead of having to be grateful for any crumbs of product the Americans and British throw our way, the first operation in the strategy will make us appear to be pivotal to the security of the UK and thus more significant in the region. How?’

Yuval paused for effect before he answered his own question, ‘We’re going to stop a terrorist attack.’

Eli rubbed his scalp, ‘Nice idea, Yuval, but how can that be guaranteed? We don’t have the resources to infiltrate UK groups and even if we did we’d be tripping over MI5 which would make us even less popular than we already are.’

‘Very simple, Eli. The way to guarantee that we stop a terrorist attack is... by running the terrorist,’ Yuval said with simple pride.

‘I see,’ Eli frowned. The content of the morning meeting was disturbing to say the least.

In terms of his intelligence career Eli considered himself to be a simple man; a meat and two vegetables man; not an experimental gourmet who mixed incompatible foods for the novelty. Simple was good. Simple was safe. Simple worked. You made the contact; gathered operational information; developed the source; made the pitch and then you ran the source; extracting best quality product possible while keeping the source fit and healthy. Simple.

Yuval went on, ‘You two are pivotal to this operation’s success. I picked you, Rafi, because of your operational experience, and you, Eli, for your track record as the best agent runner in the organisation.’

Eli stood up and walked around the room, ‘So, the idea is that we do a false flag operation on a suicide bomber and then feed the intel to the British so they can stop it? It’s certainly original.’

Original sounded better than unlikely.

‘And the so-called terrorist has actually been recruited?’ Rafi said. ‘You’re saying Shabak infiltrated a Hamas cell at that level? Impressive.’

‘Yeah, they’re full of themselves. Another reason for us to follow through and get some glory. We can’t be seen to let the plodders in Shabak look smarter than Mossad,’ Yuval said.

Plodding sounded fine to Eli at that moment even though he’d never been tempted by the internal security service, Shabak; there was too much bureaucracy.

Yuval was still speaking, ‘We’re calling the operation Sweetbait – cute eh? What is also attractive is that we won’t need to use London’s resources which is just as well as there are going to be some changes there.’

Changes? This was news to Eli; it could only mean that Gidon was going to be fired which would leave the head of London station job vacant. Rafi seemed to have missed the allusion.

‘I have connections in London,’ Rafi said. ‘From way back but I’m sure I could reconnect. She used to work for us when I was in London; Alon was her katsa and her code name was Trainer.’

‘Ah, the legendary Alon,’ Yuval said. ‘A good man indeed, and I read about Trainer in the archives. Highly respected; skilled apparently – but it won’t be necessary.’

From across the room Eli watched Rafi nod, accepting the decision like the good soldier he was.

Eli held up his hand, ‘Yuval, I’m happy to go to London; happy to deal with Red Cap; bring him back in, clean up Gidon’s mess, but the type of operation you’re planning...’

Yuval interrupted, ‘I need a spy runner, understood? I need the spy runner.’

‘Eli, it’ll be fine,’ Rafi said. ‘We complement each other; Yuval has thought of everything.’

‘Don’t brown-nose me, Rafi,’ Yuval said. ‘Eli is the lead; you are number two. What’s more, the success or failure of this operation rests jointly on your shoulders. In other words, if one of you screws up the other one will be equally responsible. You’ll find the reading material in your mailboxes and travel will send you your documents for London.’