End of Days (Pike Logan #16)(21)
Which, of course, is exactly what had happened, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. I said, “He was okay with it. Not good, but okay. But I do have to ask why you guys haven’t engaged our intelligence systems.”
“I don’t know, but if I were to guess, it’s because they’re fighting about it right now, and my side of the equation wants evidence before we go off with our knives out.”
“Good. Because that’s exactly what I told him to make him feel better.”
She finally smiled and said, “So you play games like we do.”
“Not a game. I just wanted to defuse the situation, and it seemed logical. Unlike you guys. You have two dead and no mention on the news that some Iraqi militia is claiming credit. One is a tragic paragliding accident, the other is a random mugging. And yet nobody in official circles in Paris and Switzerland seems to know that. Don’t tell me about games.”
She said, “We’re doing that for a reason. It’s the people who hired me. Some in my country are always spoiling for a fight. Trust me, after the death of the Shin Bet head of European Protective Services, they’re building up steam. They want to send a message to Iran, and not like the Wrath of God teams. They want to eliminate Iran completely. The only thing holding them back is the fact that we kept the claims of the killings secret. If that hit the news, there would be overwhelming pressure to respond. And that response would require an escalation, when we don’t know if what’s happening is what it appears.”
I said, “You’re not worried they’ll just leak it?”
“Somewhat, but if they did, it would be treasonous. Right now, that will hold them in check.”
I nodded and said, “What do we have to work with in Zurich? Why didn’t we go to Paris? Seems like that would be more logical, given the active-duty nature of the target.”
“Paris is being handled by Shin Bet. It’s a firestorm. We can’t get anything done there. They control everything. The man that was murdered is responsible for the protection of all Israeli assets on the European continent. Trust me, we won’t get anywhere with them.”
“So they were responsible for the security of the Ramsad as well?”
She heard the question, thought about it, then said, “Yes, actually, that’s correct, but because the head of the European service was killed, we’ll have an easier time in Interlaken. They are getting their just due for allowing him to be killed, but the Shin Bet is consumed with the killing in Paris. We will have no interface with them.”
I saw her face draw inward, thinking, then she said, “Nobody cares about a retired person. Only the active ones.”
I said, “Well, maybe we can change that. Get some justice for him.”
She leaned forward and took my hand. “That’s why I wanted you, Nephilim. You and the team. You don’t care about politics. Only the truth. And I think this truth is going to be something people don’t want to see.”
As always, her gaze was disconcerting. I pulled my hand away and said, “Turn that shit off.”
She laughed and I said, “I’ll help you with the truth, but only if it’s the truth. Don’t pull me into some Mossad political fight.”
She said, “I don’t do politics. You should know that by now.”
And I did. In her earlier days, she’d been what’s called a “honey trap,” where she’d entice a Palestinian terrorist into bed so her hit team could kill him. She’d used her weird ability to read people and realized that the men she was setting up for the kill were innocent. And the man doing the killing wasn’t working for Israeli security, but because of profit. Black market profit. She’d turned him in and he had been cut free, but she had still been cast aside as a someone who couldn’t be trusted within the Mossad. She’d eventually landed on Aaron’s team as an outcast. Aaron had recognized her talents and her frailty because of the way she’d been used. She definitely didn’t do politics, but I knew how she felt about the dead Ramsad, and vengeance was a different story.
We’d crossed paths on a separate mission with her original team leader—the one who forced her to sleep with innocent men so he could murder them. She’d pretty much stopped Europe from going into World War III, and as a return favor, I’d help set up the team leader because he had been involved in the plot.
And she’d slaughtered him.
I leaned back and said, “So, where do we go from here? What are we doing when we land?”
“This fight is biblical. I can feel it. We’re going to find the man who killed the Ramsad, but that’s just a first step. He killed him for a reason, and it’s prophecy.”
I said, “Please, stop that. Let’s work with what we know, not some crazy theory about biblical prophecies. Is that okay?”
She squinted at me, then said, “Okay. If you want me to start questioning your judgment, what are we going to do with the American pilots flying this plane? They don’t have Schengen passports, and I don’t understand why we didn’t just fly straight to Zurich. It won’t matter where we land, they’ll still have problems.”
The Schengen Area in Europe was a no-border zone encompassing multiple countries where anyone living within it could travel freely. Even in the time of COVID. Since the vaccine rollout, and Israel’s incredible response, they’d been included as free travelers as if they were on the Schengen list, and didn’t require a visa. Americans, unfortunately, while also not needing a visa, were required to quarantine for fourteen days.