“ We will allow these misguided Jews to leave our community in peace.”
Again the words echoed repeatedly until they faded away.
He beckoned Agent Cohen. The Shin Bet agents holstered their weapons and trotted warily through a narrow path among the men of Neturay Karta. Gideon nodded at the rabbi and his wife and followed the Shin Bet team downstairs and through the alleys to the gate.
*
Freckles recovered quickly, but he was smart enough to know they had seen the look of fear on his face. “You don’t scare me,” he said, trying to sound defiant. “Everyone here is my friend. We all carry guns.”
Itah turned to Lemmy. “I guess we’re screwed, ah?”
“I guess so.” He smiled at Freckles, placed an arm on his shoulder, and made him turn away from the playground.
“Hey!” Freckles tried to free himself. “Let go!”
But Lemmy’s arm was already bent at the elbow, forming a tight collar around his neck. With his left hand Lemmy pulled the pen from his pocket and shoved the ballpoint tip into the double-agent’s ear. Itah was ready with her crumpled headdress, which she pressed to his mouth to silence his scream.
They led him into a cluster of trees nearby. None of the playing kids noticed anything unusual, and their chatter continued uninterrupted.
Freckles moaned as he tried to force away Lemmy’s hand.
“That was your eardrum. It will heal. But any deeper than this, and my pen would demolish your middle ear, destroy your auditory system and your balance. After that, I’ll be autographing your brain. I’d rather not, but I need to know that you’ll cooperate and not scream. Is it safe now?”
Freckles froze, lowering his hands.
“ Is it safe?”
He made a sound that indicated a positive response.
Lemmy pulled the pen out of Freckles’ ear and held it up. “Too much wax.”
Itah removed the gagging headdress.
“They took over Elie’s operation,” Freckles said rapidly, his voice thinner, as if his vocal cords had narrowed. “Wasn’t my idea!”
“ I thought they shut it down,” Lemmy said, aiming the pen at the ear.
“ Don’t! Please!”
“ Keep talking.”
“ Rabin won’t wear a vest. They had me load Yoni’s gun with blanks. He doesn’t know. He thinks they’re regular bullets.”
“ When will he shoot Rabin?”
“ Tonight. At the rally. Yoni will be allowed to enter the sterile zone. After the rally, near the Cadillac, the bodyguards will leave Rabin’s back exposed for a shot.”
“My God,” Itah said. “Does Rabin know about this?”
“No.”
“But why would Shin Bet get involved in politics? Domestic security priorities don’t change, whether it’s Rabin or Netanyahu, Labor or Likud!”
“It’s not about politics.” Freckles tried to shake his head, but it was still held in the vise of Lemmy’s bent arm. “It’s about making their life easier.”
“It makes no sense,” Lemmy said.
“ Actually, it does,” Itah said. “With the two-state solution, which seems inevitable, Israel will leave the West Bank and Gaza, and the Palestinians will want their future state to be Judenfrei. That means evacuation of all the Jewish settlements.” She waved her hand around. “Including this one, which is growing every week. From a domestic security standpoint, speeding up the process is a necessity-the longer it takes, the larger the settlements, the harder it will be for Shin Bet and the IDF to remove all the Jews from the territories. The staged assassination will strengthen the Rabin government, demonize the right, and legitimize harsh measures against the settlements with a view to total evacuation. Shin Bet is thinking ahead, that’s all. Security considerations, not politics.”
“ That’s right,” Freckles said. “Planning ahead. An assassination attempt by a right winger is a perfect excuse to come down hard on the whole settlement movement, arrest leaders, shut down support organizations, and deflate public sympathy for the settlers ahead of the eventual evacuation.”
“ It’s risky,” Lemmy said. “Is Yoni willing to go to jail?”
“ Yes,” Freckles said. “He’s sincere about shooting Rabin pursuant to the Rodef doctrine.”
“ But what if he checks his ammo? He could switch to live bullets. This could end up being a successful assassination-by mistake!”
“ It’s a blessed gun.” Freckles tried again to free himself, but stopped when Lemmy’s pen slipped into his ear canal.
“Do you want gray matter seeping out of your ear?”
“ Ouch!”
“ What’s a blessed gun?” Lemmy pulled the pen back, but not all the way. “Explain!”
“ After loading Yoni’s gun with blanks, I arranged for a rabbi to hold a little ceremony.” Freckles grinned despite the pain. “He recited a prayer over the gun, wrapped it in a sacred parchment, sealed it with kosher wax, and instructed Yoni to open it only when the condemned Rodef is within range.”
*
At Atarot airfield north of Jerusalem, Gideon, Agent Cohen, and the other Shin Bet agents boarded a helicopter. The mood was grim. Not only they had driven Spinoza out of the confined area inhabited by Neturay Karta, but the attack on Rabbi Mashash’s apartment had been a complete disaster.
The discovery that one of their vehicles had been stolen was embarrassing, but its built-in tracking device provided the best possible hope of catching Spinoza before the commencement of the peace rally. The device worked only when the engine was on, and tracking was spotty in areas of poor cell coverage. So far, since its disappearance had been noticed, the car had not shown up on the monitors at Shin Bet headquarters.
After takeoff, the passengers’ headphones were tuned to an all-news radio station, which carried a live report from the Kings of Israel Plaza in Tel Aviv. In the early afternoon, dozens of buses arrived from all over the country, unloading cheerful revelers, who swarmed the surrounding city blocks with provincial excitement. The tight security arrangements included multiple checkpoints, traffic barricades, bomb-sniffing dogs, and horse-mounted riot police. A small contingency of anti-peace demonstrators had already been arrested for gathering without the appropriate license.
The helicopter followed the main highway to Tel Aviv, descending the Judean Mountains over the string of rusting skeletal trucks and buses, preserved as memorials to the fallen soldiers of the 1948 War of Independence. But soon the Ayalon Valley stretched before them, with open fields of honey-colored wheat and straight rows of vines.
Agent Cohen, who sat up front next to the pilot, suddenly turned and motioned at Gideon to change the channel on his headphones. “The car has just been traced,” his metallic voice came through. “Somewhere in the West Bank. We’re changing course.”
*
They took Freckles’ FN Browning handgun and warned him to remain mum about their visit. Ten minutes down the road, Lemmy stopped at an intersection: Left to the border crossing over the Jordan River, right to Tel Aviv.
“A fork in the road,” Itah said. “No pun intended.”
“The mother of all puns.” Lemmy pointed to the east. “We could cross the border and go to Amman. I have several clients among the king’s courtiers, and the Swiss embassy will take care of the paperwork and fly us back to Zurich.”
“Nice for us,” Itah said, “but the Israeli electorate will be left to watch a spectacle of corruption, deceit, and manipulation, leading to unearned election victory for Labor and a witch hunt against the political right.”
“It would seem less important from distant Switzerland. My father will join us, and we’ll spend Saturdays on the lake, eat and drink, and get to know each other.”
“Tempting.” She smiled. “But even your Swiss chocolate will taste bitter to me. I’m a reporter, and this is the story of my career. And I can’t sit back and let such fraud go through.” She reached for the door handle. “Let me go by myself. I can hitchhike from here, get to Tel Aviv, and call on a few media colleagues. We’ll expose the staged assassination, either before or after the rally.” She opened the door. “You go home to your family.”
Lemmy reached over and shut her door. “I’m going with you.”