other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

138 / VICTOR OSTROVSKItelling you is that several places that he will go to in his free time, andhe will do that from his home, are in fact safe houses. Place themunder surveillance, and if he comes there during the day, you haveyour safe house. There is always the possibility of following him witha very big team, never letting him see the same person or car twice.But I don't know if you guys are up to it."The room was silent for several seconds while they digested allthis."This is a very sensitive area." Robert was scratching his head. Iwas the only one in the room smoking, but the air was heavy withsmoke. It was easy to see that the two of them were very uncomfortable."What do you mean?" I leaned back in my chair, a thin grin onmy lips. I was very satisfied with myself; I knew I had accomplishedwhat I'd been sent to do, and I'd had a good time doing it. Until now,that is: It wasn't over yet."So, if we follow the man and uncover the safe houses, what willwe find? I mean, can you imagine the scandal if we uncover severalPollard-style cases?""We will be branded anti-Semitic on the spot," Steve remarked, aserious expression on his face."That will not happen," I returned."Why not?" Steve stared straight at me, clearly in disagreement. "Imean, when you go fishing, you can't be sure what it is you'll pull outof the water.""The station will not use the safe houses for their sayanim. Theymeet them in their own houses and under regular everyday circurnstances.Rarely will they meet clandestinely, unless of course the sayanis in the process of bringing in vital information from his place ofwork. The safe houses are used purely for debriefing or field planningsessions with case officers who do not enter the embassy. On rareoccasions, they'll be used to interrogate an agent, but in that case theywill almost always be discarded right after that. The safe houses, Imean."It was getting dark outside, and we all realized that there was littlemore we could say at that time. Information had to be analyzed, andmore questions would come up after that. It was time to call it a day."What now?"Robert pulled a white envelope from his pocket and put it on thetable in front of me. "This is a small token of our appreciation for thetime you have given us. We would like to talk to you again in the nearItTHF OTHER SIDE OF DECEPTION / 139future and ask some more questions, and of course pay for the onesvou have answered.""Could you be more specific when you say 'again'? When exactlydo you mean?""Several days, perhaps.""I can't be sure that I'll be here that long. I'll call you before Ileave and give you my forwarding address.""What is your address now?""I'm here and there. I'll call you tomorrow and give you anaddress, how's that?""Well, we will not be here tomorrow, but you can give it to ourfriend. He'll pass it on to us. In fact, he could be our bodel." We alllaughed.I counted the money in the envelope outside the embassy buildingand realized how cheap the British were. Although eight hundred dollarswas much more than I had at the moment, I knew I had handedthem a golden pickax with which to dig the Mossad's claws out oftheir soil. At one point, Robert had said that they would pay me in themillions for a list of the sayanim, but he was laughing, joking that itwas hardly likely that the Mossad would let me back into headquartersto pick up such a list.But it certainly made me appreciate the batch of photographs ofjust about all the Mossad case officers that I had stashed away in myhotel room. This was something that even Ephraim didn't know. Andhe wasn't about to find out.I knew that I had single-handedly managed to destroy theMossad's capability in England for some time now. They would startto run into problems in the near future, and if I read the Brits right,they would not let the Mossad know where the problems were comingfrom. This was fulfilling my duty and tasting the sweet taste ofrevenge at the same time. I scared myself realizing how much I hatedthem. I hated the people who'd taken me away from the streets of TelAviv and a life I was happy in, with all its small everyday problems. Ihated them for shaking my belief in the Zionist dream that had beenplaced in their hands to protect.Ephraim was half-asleep on the bed, the television was muted, andthe lights were off. He'd probably fallen asleep several hours ago;there was no smoke in the air.