TWENTY.
David had been given
very simple instructions. At 6:00 P.M., when the narrow streets of
Jerusalem were choked with traffic, he was to be dropped off at the
All Nations Church on Jericho Road and then walk north. His Range
Rover pulled up in front of the church fifteen seconds early. David
took a moment to gather himself and then after thanking his driver
he stepped from the vehicle and onto the curb. He was resplendent
in an expensive, dark-blue four-button Italian suit, white dress
shirt, sans tie, and black shoes.
His eyes were covered
with chic black sunglasses and his thick black hair was slicked
back behind his ears.
David's classic good
looks ensured that he always stood out in a crowd, but waiting in
front of the church, within view of the Al Aqsa Mosque, holding two
identical attaché cases, he drew even more looks than usual. He set
the two cases down, and fished out a pack of cigarettes.
After lighting one,
he stood there trying to look relaxed, one hand in his pocket, the
other holding the cigarette. He took a few earnest drags and
surveyed the area. The church that he was parked in front of was a
favorite tourist spot for Christians. The All Nations Church, or
The Church of the Agony, as it was known by the old-timers, was not
the ideal place to start such a journey.
Having grown up in
the city, David couldn't help but be aware of the three religions.
Each of them, he had noticed from an early age, loved to
commemorate pain and suffering, but none of them more so than the
Christians. David looked up at the ornate pediment that sat atop
the church's colonnade. The gilded mosaic depicted the Agony of
Christ as he prayed to his father the night before he was to be
crucified.
David glanced to the
north at the small Garden of Gethsemane and its well-tended olive
trees. They marked the spot where Jesus was betrayed by Judas and
arrested. As the believers of the fourth major religion would have
said, he was surrounded by bad karma.
He had little doubt
that his Palestinian cohorts knew little of Christianity and
Judaism, and what they did know were mostly lies propagated by
racist caliphs, imams and sheiks. The Jews were of course the most
savaged. The Muslim leaders repeatedly told their flock that during
Passover Jews sacrificed young Palestinian children and drank their
blood.
The ludicrous and
unchallenged lies perpetuated themselves from one generation to the
next. David looked to the place where Jesus had been betrayed. He
knew of no Palestinian clever enough to intentionally start this
journey from a place of such biblical importance. Besides, if they
had the slightest clue that he had met with the head of Mossad,
they would simply grab him and torture him until he revealed
everything.
They would never play
some elaborate game. It was not the way of his people. They were
too driven by emotion.
The early evening sun
was still fairly high in the sky as he looked up and down the
street. They were out there watching him; Palestinians and Israelis
alike. David hoped that Ben Freidman wasn't so dumb as to try to
trail him for the entire journey. Security for such a meeting was
very tight. If the people who were to transport him got even the
slightest whiff that they were being followed, they might easily
abort.
Tonight's meeting,
though, would be a bit different from the usual.
They were all waiting
on him this time, like greedy little children. They wanted their
cash and that meant they would take risks to make sure he got
there. Still, David wondered what Freidman and his spies from
Mossad were up to. David had specified that no transponders be
placed in the attaché cases. The reason for this was obvious. The
security people in charge of the meeting would be carrying
countermeasures that would detect just such a device. Freidman
would know that, but David knew that Freidman would also never
trust him enough to just let him wander off with fourteen pounds of
plastic explosives.
He'd verified that
weight as soon as he'd gotten back to his apartment that afternoon.
Freidman's people had put seven pounds of the lethal explosives in
each case rather than the five he asked for. The yield of each case
had been increased by forty percent. This would make his mission
all the more difficult to pull off, but he had a plan that would
hopefully enable him to walk away unscathed.
After throwing his
half-smoked cigarette into the street, David grabbed the two cases
and started north. At the first intersection he crossed the street
and continued on his way, passing the Tomb of the Virgin Mary on
his right. He'd walked almost another block when without warning a
blue Toyota van came to a sudden stop next to him and the side door
slid open. David, having done this many times before, casually
veered to his left and stepped into the waiting van. They were
moving again before he was seated. Someone from behind threw the
door closed and then the man in the seat next to him began frisking
every inch of his body, starting with his left ankle.