other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

168 / VICTOR OSTRO\'SKY"What the fuck is going on?" I called out, making sure not tomove my hands. It seemed to me that the gun was of small caliber, buteven a twenty-two at this range was more than enough to scramble mybrains. I had no idea what was going on, and I forced myself not to tryto figure it out. I had no doubt that I would be told in a very shorttime, or I would be shot, in which case it really didn't matter much.Albert translated, trying in vain to imitate the harshness of theman's voice. "He says you are a Mossad agent and that you are hereto trick us.""It's not a secret that I come from Mossad." I was trying to keep atremble out of my voice; I could feel my bottom lip getting stiff withfear. "I mean, if I wasn't, would we all be here?""He says you are here to trick us; he says he has it from a goodsource."This was it, as far as I was concerned. Either the man was bluffingor else he had something. If he did, there was nothing I could do. Itwasn't as though I was on a legitimate job for the Mossad, in whichcase some political safety net could be thrown in to save me. If theMossad got their hands on me, they would probably do the samething to me that the Jordanians would, and no one would say a word.I put the cigarette I'd just taken from the pack into my mouth; I hadn'tyet had a chance to light it. Moving only my eyes, I looked at Albert,and with the best smile I could muster, I said, "Tell your man to shootme or light my cigarette, whichever, but please do it fast. I need asmoke."Everybody in the room began to laugh, the gorilla with the guntoo. He put the gun back in his belt and moved to stand in front ofme. His hand was outstretched, and he was grinning. "It is my job totry and catch you, see?" he said in English. "No hard feelings, Ihope?"I took his hand and shook it hard. "None at all. You do your job,and I'll do mine." He took a lighter out of his pocket and lit mycigarette."Can we get something to eat around here?" Fadllal said in a loudvoice. "Why don't you just order a table," he said to Albert. "We aregoing to be here for some time."When Albert went to the phone to make the order, Fadllal turnedback to me. "Tomorrow we will see if we can really trust you. Thetwo of us will go on a day trip, and then we will know for sure.""Where are we going?""That you will see tomorrow. Now we will eat, andn-he openedthe small bar in the room-"have a drink. What will you have?"THE OTHER SIDE OF DECEPTION / 169"I'll have a tequila, if there is one."There was more than one, and we all had a drink except theheavyset man and his assistant, who declined on religious grounds."So, Isa, what can we do about the Mossad agents that we have inour midst?""You can find them." Ephraim had gone over this with me severaltimes; we were not giving them anything that they couldn't arrive aton their own. It was standard procedure, and there was no wayaround it. But coming from me, it was like hearing it from the burningbush. If they did follow the procedure I was recommending, agentswould be falling out of the few trees they had in this piece of desert,something that would more than likely force a reevaluation of theMossad leadership."Well," asked Albert, sipping his brandy, "how do you proposewe do that?""First you have to identify the group they belong to. What I meanis, there are several types of agent. One is the basic type, working in amenial job at a hospital or a fire department. He could pass on what iscalled tactical information. For example, if a hospital gets ready totake in casualties by expanding the number of beds it has, or the firedepartment calls in the reserves, we can see the first stages of a countrygoing on a war alert. To find these people, you'd have to spend thenext five years interviewing and pounding the sidewalks. The resultswill be negligible, especially since most of them don't realize what it isthey're doing."They were looking at me and nodding; up to this point, I wasn'tteaching them anything new. "Then there is the second level ofrecruits. They're from the civil service, the foreign office, that isdiplomats,etc. Again, they'd be difficult to detect. At the top of thehierarchy, we find the military officers who've been recruited and areworking at the moment. They're the most important group and themost vulnerable to detection.""So how is that done?" the heavy man asked, leaning forward, hisface taking on a pinkish color. The man was hooked, I could feel it. Iwas about to tell him exactly how it could be done, but then I rememberedwhat Ephraim had repeated again and again: You are there tomake money, don't lose sight of that. "Well, I would really like tooblige you, but I seem to have a slight problem.""What is that?" Albert quickly asked, seemingly ready to tacklewhatever it was."What will I get out of this? I came \ere in good faith, and I wantto know what it is you are willing to pay me."