‘We would do as much as we could to stop them,’ Falk said, not exactly reassuring the couple. ‘But yes, that is why we are here. Whoever Jaekel was working with wants to obtain the horse statue from inside Alexander’s tomb, very badly — and they believe you are a threat to their plans. Since you are now here, they may make another attempt — and we will be waiting.’
‘How did you know about the statue?’ Nina demanded, before the answer came to her. ‘This arrangement you’ve got with the US government — the Mossad gets access to more than just fingerprints, doesn’t it? How high up does it go?’ Falk and his partner remained silent, though the former had a faint smile that suggested any level Nina imagined would not be as high as the truth.
Eddie’s expression was anything but smiling. ‘You got us out of jail, didn’t you? You had words with somebody at the Justice Department, because you knew that if Nina came to Egypt, you’d be able to use her as your fucking canary. And if you knew anything about her at all, you also knew that she would come out here.’ He gave his wife an I told you so look, which was not well received.
‘Yes, we expedited your release,’ confirmed Falk amiably. ‘Ideally, you would never even have known we were here, but unfortunately you chose a restaurant that limited our options for observing you covertly. It’s hard to run a surveillance operation with just two people.’
Eddie made a sarcastic sound. ‘Short-staffed, are you? Mossad’s murder squads using up all the budget?’
Again Zane bristled at the insult to his organisation, but Falk took it in his stride. ‘Even the Mossad has its limits — although we prefer that our enemies don’t realise it. But don’t worry. You won’t see us again… unless we’re needed.’
‘We don’t need you,’ Eddie said firmly. ‘You want some friendly advice? Fuck off and don’t come back.’
‘Any time you want to finish what we started, Chase…’ rumbled Zane, stepping closer.
Falk sighed and shook his head. ‘Young men and their machismo! They learn, in time — if they don’t get themselves killed first.’ He spoke to his companion in muted Hebrew, causing Zane to retreat and lower his head, then addressed the couple again. ‘Anyway, I can see your bodyguard coming back, so we shall leave you in peace. Until we meet again, Dr Wilde, Mr Chase.’ He gave them a cheery wave, then headed away down the street, Zane at his side.
Nina watched them go, still slightly bewildered by events, then looked around at Deyab’s slightly alarmed voice. ‘Dr Wilde! You said you would wait at the restaurant.’
‘Change of plan,’ Eddie told him. He gave the street’s other denizens a cautious once-over, Falk’s revelations now weighing on his mind, but nobody showed the remotest interest in the two foreigners. ‘Did you get Macy back to the hotel?’
‘Yes,’ Deyab assured him. ‘But you should have waited for me. I could get into trouble for leaving you—’
‘It’s okay, we won’t tell anyone,’ Nina assured him. ‘And nothing happened.’ She noticed that he was staring at the dirt on Eddie’s jacket. ‘Except that Eddie had too much beer and tripped on the sidewalk.’
Deyab looked perturbed. ‘But you only had two drinks.’
‘Guess I can’t take my booze,’ said Eddie. ‘Come on, then. Now you’ve found us, let’s go back to the hotel.’
‘Good idea,’ said Nina. As they set off, she glanced back for any sign of Falk and Zane, but the two Mossad agents had vanished into the crowd.
7
‘So, what’s your big problem with the Mossad?’ Nina whispered to Eddie.
The pair were in the back of Deyab’s Mercedes, Macy up front with their driver. The bodyguard had the radio on, listening to a mix of news and traffic reports, but Nina still kept her voice low. Deyab was, after all, an Egyptian government operative, and while Egypt and Israel had for the most part left behind the conflicts that led to war in 1973, she still didn’t want to find out how he would react to the revelation that she and Eddie had been in contact with Israeli agents.
‘Don’t get me fucking started,’ Eddie muttered. ‘They just waltz in and do whatever the fuck they want without giving a damn about how it’ll affect anyone else — even their allies. I was on a mission in Iraq where we were supposed to recover an Iraqi chemical weapons specialist—’
‘I thought they didn’t actually have chemical weapons?’
‘They didn’t have chemical WMDs, that was all bollocks, but they still had some nasty shit left over from the Iran — Iraq war that they could use on a small scale. But we managed to meet this guy and guarantee his safety, and were about to bring him in when Mossad fucking assassinated him, right in front of us!’
‘My God!’ said Nina. ‘What happened?’
‘We were coming out of a house when they popped him with a sniper rifle. Blew his head right off. We went after the shooter — we didn’t know who’d done it — and we found these four Israeli tossers chilling out half a mile away, waiting for us. They gave us some code word and told us to pass it on to our command, and when we did, we were told to let them go, just like that.’
‘Seriously? The Israelis murdered someone the SAS was protecting and got away with it?’
The Englishman made a sound of deep disdain. ‘Ever heard of the USS Liberty?’
‘No, what is it?’
‘An NSA spy ship, but it was part of the US Navy. It was in the Med keeping an eye on things during the Six Day War in ’67. The Israelis decided they didn’t want anyone spying on them, so even though it was a US-flagged ship in international waters, they bombed the shit out of it, torpedoed it, and dropped napalm on it for good luck. Killed a fair chunk of the crew, and injured a lot of the others.’
‘They attacked an American ship? But we’re their ally!’
‘Yeah, and if they’ll do that to an ally, think what they’ll do to people they don’t like. After what happened in Iraq, I read up about some of the other shit they’ve got up to. If they can get away with bombing a US warship — and it wasn’t mistaken identity, they knew exactly what they were doing — taking out one Iraqi under SAS protection is nothing. Basically, they do whatever they want, and the American government looks the other way ’cause the pro-Israel lobby in Washington is so powerful.’
Nina was uncomfortable about the turn the conversation had taken. ‘I’m not disputing what you’ve just told me, but that sounds…’ She tried to phrase it in a non-confrontational way, but struggled to find any suitable term. ‘Kind of like anti-Semitic paranoia,’ she was forced to finish.
‘Yeah, and that’s what happens,’ Eddie said, frowning. ‘You say Israel’s done anything bad, you’re immediately accused of being anti-Semitic. But a government isn’t a race or a religion — and neither’s an intelligence agency.’ He leaned deeper into the seat. ‘Not that I’m saying everything they do is wrong. Having a Nazi-hunting unit is something I can totally get into.’
Macy glanced over her shoulder. ‘What can you get into?’
‘A big woolly sweater with a cat on it,’ he told her, instantly switching his expression to a grin.
She gave him an uncertain look. ‘Okay, sometimes I just don’t understand British humour.’
‘You’re not the only one,’ Nina assured her, relieved that the awkward moment had passed.
The excavation site came into view ahead. ‘We are here,’ Deyab announced.