other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

222 / VICTOR OSTROVSKYwill be synonymous with the name Benedict Arnold in the UnitedStates.""And what if they find out what I've been doing for the last twoyears, because of some screwup by you or one of the others? What doyou think they'll call me then?""But that won't happen. You're not at all at risk. Things are goingjust great at the moment."I looked at him, and I knew he could see the anger in my face."Are they really so great? We spent over two years playing games yourway, and we've achieved nothing. I think it's time to get the real showon the road. Whatever you decide is okay with me. I just want you toknow that no matter what you say, I'm going to attempt to do this. Ifyou stick around, I'll consult you as to what will go into the book andwhat will be left out, because we have, in the end, the same agenda."He sat silently for a moment, his cigarette slowly burning in theashtray. Then he looked at me and smiled. "What the hell, let's kicksome butt."I had not felt that good for a long time. I knew I was back on thehigh road. Now things were going to come out into the open. Theonly problems that wfre still unsolved were small ones.Or so we thought at first. But the more we considered the taskthat lay ahead, the larger it seemed. Who would actually do the writing?I was not in a position to do it myself, I wasn't confident enoughin my abilities, and I wanted a new man who would be able to tell thestory in the simplest way and give it the maximum impact. Hecouldn't be Jewish, for security reasons, and he'd have to have balls.Then there was the need to find a publisher who'd be willing to takeon the Mossad, to keep all of this under wraps while it was being handled,and to refrain from speaking about what we were going to put inthe book. There was also the question of how we were going to getpeople to believe us. At that point, we had no doubt that the Mossad'sofficial reaction would be "Victor Ostrovsky? We've never heard ofhim, but you might check with the mental health department in theMinistry of Health."Little did we know what was in store for us.Ephraim insisted that the book I was about to write be handled by asmany of the clique as possible. He also laid down the rule that,since it was going to be my ass in the sling, I had a veto on whatwas going to go into the book and the last word on how it was goingto be handled.We were sitting in a room at the Four Seasons Hotel. Present wereEphraim; Uri, who made it clear that he couldn't stay more than a fewhours so we'd have to listen to him first; Eli, who still thought this wasa crazy idea and wanted to be on record as being vehemently against it(so I guess this ~aragraph would make him extremely happy); and me.I was somewhat preoccupied. I'd told Bella that I was intending towrite a book about the Mossad. I'd assured her that it was going to befiction, but told her that still it should be kept a secret. When I saidthat, she stared at me as if I were a man in a straitjacket making acomment about fashion. I knew she didn't believe for one minute thatI'd actually be able to get a book published. Now I was going to writeone that was not fiction, and I wasn't sure exactly how I was going totell her and when. I was also worried that once I started to work withsomeone, it would be harder to keep it from her. And since she wasvery much in love with the state of Israel, I didn't know how shewould take it."So what are we going to do here today?" Uri asked."I need an outline," I said. "Some sort of rough sketch of what the,book is going to be about, in headline form. I'll need more headlinesthan I'll actually use so that the person I work with can have a say andinfluence the outcome."Eli wanted to know the purpose of the book, and Ephraim agreedthat that was one of the first things we should be talking about. Then