"Sir, if Ahmed Kamel and his sister knew about the LNG scheme, why didn't we obtain the location of SLA headquarters from them."
"We didn't, because the Kamels didn't know the location of the main SLA base," Hawk said, taking the stub of the cigar from his mouth. "They weren't trusted members of the SLA — trusted to the extent that they knew the SLA's main base — until a week ago."
I finished my drink, put down the empty glass and looked at Hawk.
"You're saying that you and Mr. Ben-Zvi now know the location?"
Hawk nodded. "The Kamels managed to get word to us through a Control Officer in Damascus."
I glared at Jacob Ben-Zvi. "Yet you still let me and Miss Weizmann risk our necks in the House of Medals! Thanks a lot!"
Ben-Zvi's face contorted into a puzzled half-smile. "There wasn't any valid reason to call off the strike against the House of Medals," he said, gesticulating with one bony hand. "The place was scheduled to be raided. Your plan was the best, N3."
Hawk reached into the inside pocket of his rumpled coat and took out another cigar. "Actually we didn't get the message from the Kamels until yesterday afternoon. There was a fatherly tone to his voice. "Their report was on a need-to-know basis. You understand that."
I grinned crookedly at Hawk. "And now that I do know, I suppose the next thing you're going to tell me is that I've got to skip over to Damascus and check out Ahmed and Miriam Kamel?"
"That's only half of your assignment," Hawk said matter-of-factly, removing the wrapper from the cigar. "The second half is more complicated. Ahmed Kamel will lead you to within sight of Karameh's headquarters. You'll get the exact coordinates of the base's location, then get the hell out of Syria and back to Tel Aviv.
"We Israelis will do the rest," Ben-Zvi said passionately. "We'll bomb the base off the face of the earth."
I looked at Hawk. "Sir, I was under the impression that the Kamels had given you and the Hamosad the location of the SLA base! Besides, they're both double agents. How do you know they're telling the truth; unless, of course, their love of money is greater than their revolutionary fervor."
"It is," Hawk said and shoved the cigar into his mouth. "It was they who tipped us off to the House of Medals. Yeah, there's a possibility that the whole thing's a setup, but I don't think so. We'll have to chance it."
"What about SLA headquarters?" I asked.
"Karameh's main base is on the As-Suwayda hills of southeastern Syria," Hawk explained. "You have to go in because the Kamels don't know a thing about cartography. They can't pinpoint the exact location."
Ben-Zvi added, "You won't slip into Syria until after we've questioned the terrorist that you and Leah captured. He might have some information that will have a bearing on your mission."
"Which means I'll leave sometime tomorrow morning," I said.
"Before dawn," Ben-Zvi said flatly.
My eyes jumped to Hawk, then to Ben-Zvi. I didn't like the deal. I never have trusted double agents. And suicide has never appealed to me.
Chapter Four
Leah and I had planned to go out that night and celebrate along Tel Aviv's Dizengoff, a street of crowded sidewalk cafes and juice bars. Hawk and Ben-Zvi's visit changed all that. In the first place, neither Leah nor I were in the mood. In the second place, at midnight the Israelis were going to fly me to Tiberias, an ancient city on the western shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Ben-Zvi had given me a brief rundown on how I would slip into Syria. Two agents, one an Israeli, the other a Syrian, would take me across the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. After that I'd be on my own.
We had dinner sent up to our suite and discussed the situation as we ate. Not one to minimize the danger, Leah quietly pointed out that if I were captured by the Syrian authorities, I would be given a quick trial and hanged as a spy.
I paused in cutting my T-bone and gave Leah a reproving look.
"Tell me something I don't know," I said. "Naturally the Syrians would stretch my neck. They love you Israelis like the Kremlin loves the Vatican. I'm not concerned as much about the Syrian police as I am about Ahmed and Miriam Kamel. I'm going into Syria like a doomed sinner and my only salvation is a couple of Arabs I trust like the plague."
Leah dabbed at her mouth with a napkin, then said, "So far the Kamels have proved trustworthy. After all, they did tip Hamosad to the SLA cell operating out of the House of Medals."
"Which doesn't prove a damn thing." I said. "The Syrian Liberation Army is ten times more kill-crazy than the PLO and Black September combined. Karameh and his top boys wouldn't think twice about sacrificing their own people to accomplish some particular end."
"You mean if the Kamels are lying to AXE and to Hamosad?" Leah gave me a puzzled look. "But what could the SLA hope to accomplish?"
I sighed, picked up a glass of wine and stared thoughtfully into the red depths. "Suppose the SLA wanted you Israelis to bomb a fake base? To do that, the Kamels would have to lead me to within sight of a phony camp. That's one possibility."
"But not very probable in my opinion."
Finishing the wine, I placed the glass on the table and pushed back my chair. "Another possibility is that Syria might want to start a war with Israel, using the Israeli bombing of the fake base as an excuse. But I don't think so. The Syrians aren't quite that stupid. Even if they were, the Russians wouldn't let them."
Leah smiled at me, got up from the table and we went over to the couch and sat down. It was only 7:30 and there was still plenty of time to say our intimate goodbyes.
She leaned back on the couch, her eyes flashing more provocatively than usual. "I thought you were going to make something up to me," she said softly. "Or have you forgotten?" Before I could answer, her arms instinctively reached around my neck, her heart pounding with such ferocity that I could see her skin quivering above it.
As we kissed, Leah felt my excitement grow and whispered, "The bedroom will be more comfortable."
Leah slipped out of her clothes as we walked across the room. She stretched across the bed languidly and watched me undress, her eyes half-closed. Before I could finish, her hands folded around the nape of my neck, and she pulled me down on top of herself.
The love-act with Leah was an ever-increasing sensation of endless pleasure. Her breasts, her slim waist, her well-formed thighs, the ecstatic expression her beautiful face all combined into a succession of thrills, making me want to caress them all at the same time. Successively, I managed to do them all justice, sending her into heights of rapture. She began shrieking and gasping, and then she began to moan. Her arms clasped me tight with iron determination; her powerful thighs closed around me, and I felt her tightening in that lubricous haven to which I constantly strove with all my might. I felt an irresistible impulse to propel myself forward, and covered her with a last, ultimate advance that left no particle of air between us.
Odd, I thought. Tonight I was in heaven.
Tomorrow I'd be in Syria — in hell…
Chapter Five
Although Damascus is said to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, it does not look old. Modern apartment and office buildings rise on either side of broad landscaped boulevards while the residential area is laid out with small green squares and broad lawns. Flower gardens surround attractive villas.
This was not my first visit to Damascus, so I knew that the most beautiful view of the city was at sunset from the Salihiya Hill, a ten minute drive from the center of the city. Below the hill lies Damascus, the Barada River fanning out into seven branches, traced by poplar trees which line their banks and by the nearby green of the gardens. Damascus' shining white houses and its many domed mosques are encircled by green parks and fruit groves which end abruptly at the desert's edge. Tall, slim minarets push skyward and, as the sun drops below the horizon and the sky reddens, muezzins appear everywhere on the balconies of these minarets, summoning people to evening prayer with the unforgettable call, "Allah el Akbar" — "God is great, God is great, there is no God but God."