The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 22

As a desk officer in the small tightly-knit Mossad, Dovi Shamir could be handling upward of a hundred cases at any one time. Often this meant little more than speed-reading a report from a katsa (field-based case officer). But at times he missed the cut and thrust of field work himself. That was why he had been only too happy to come out of retirement when a special assignment arose to eliminate a Hamas terrorist who had participated in the murder of two Israeli soldiers and who was planning a major operation in London.

However he had been seriously compromised and could not now work in the field or indeed anywhere outside Israel. Technically wanted for murder on an Interpol warrant, he had to stay in Israel, unless he travelled in disguise under a false identity.

But his experience made him a very good desk officer too. Of the many cases that he was covering, the one that concerned him most was the one that Daniel Klein had got caught up in. Although not a “Sayan” — i.e. a co-optee or asset, run by a field officer — Daniel was a non-Israeli Jew who had recently stumbled into a conspiracy that could have led to the deaths of millions of Israelis, had he not acted on his own initiative with courage, wisdom and haste.

For this reason alone, Dovi Shamir considered Daniel to be under his “protective wing” and the fact that Daniel was now in a British gaol awaiting trial for a murder that he almost certainly did not commit was most displeasing to Dovi. Accordingly, he was taking a personal interest in the case.

But there was a limit to what he could do. It had taken a lot of diplomatic string-pulling to save Dovi himself after the British police had him “bang to rights” on a charge of murdering Ismail Shahaid on British soil. The fact that his face had been plastered all over the news media made it even harder for the British to let him go, as to do so would be seen as a sign of favouritism to Israel, fuelling all the old conspiracy theories about the Zionists running the world. Even the Israeli authorities themselves had been ready to throw Dovi to the wolves.

In the end, what saved Dovi’s neck was the fact that he had done for Britain what Daniel Klein had done for Israel: saved a lot of innocent lives using his own initiative and working practically alone. Specifically, Dovi had prevented Ismail Shahaid’s terrorist colleagues from blowing up the wreck of the Richard Montgomery — a munitions ship from the Second World War that was sunk in the Thames Estuary and lay precariously on the seabed off the coast of Sheerness for several decades thereafter packed with unstable explosives.

This successful thwarting of a terrorist operation that would have left thousands of British citizens dead and caused millions of pounds worth of damage, gave the Israeli authorities enough leverage to bargain with and gave Dovi personally enough kudos to enable the British to release him with a nod and a wink. However, the international warrant was still open and technically he was still a wanted man.

Daniel Klein had also fallen afoul of the Metropolitan Police in London, when he had come under suspicion of murdering his mentor, the late Harrison Carmichael. He also came under suspicion over an attempt on the life of Egyptian Minister for Antiquities Akil Mansoor and for stealing antiquities from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, but these were all cleared up by further evidence and some adroit diplomacy.

So right now, all Dovi could do was sit tight and wait for these events to play out. From what he had been able to ascertain from local sources, the case against Daniel wasn’t all that strong. He had been lured into a meeting and then ambushed. Dovi even had proof that there was a plan to kill Daniel and of who was behind it. If necessary, this information could be made available to the British authorities through the appropriate diplomatic and shared intelligence channels. But Dovi wasn’t ready for that yet. Once they went down that route, it might tip off Shomrei Ha’ir that the authorities were on to them. Dovi wanted to play his cards close to his chest for a while longer, even if that meant that Daniel Klein would have to sit it out behind bars for a while longer.

Yet it was hard to understand why they had even arrested, let alone charged, Daniel. It was obvious that he had come close to being killed himself. He clearly had no motive to kill Martin Costa and phone company records would show that he had been lured there. And why kill by starting a fire? Then Dovi remembered that Harrison Carmichael had been killed by violent blows and then his house burnt down. The parallels were remarkable.

But Daniel had been cleared in that case. Did the police in this case really think that he was guilty in the Harrison Carmichael case after all? Or had the copper in charge of the present case just got hold of the wrong end of the stick? Dovi hoped that when the matter came to the remand hearing, wiser counsel would prevail. But in the meantime, he decided to hold tight. However, all that came to an abrupt end when a report came through on his eMail.

Internet Intercept summary — 9 August, 2012 — 16:30 IST

Client user(s): “Baruch Tikva” (Identified by IP address, MAC number, username and password) [on file]

Client computer locus: Mea She’arim, Jerusalem, Israel

Client computer IP address: 86.44.87.146

Client computer Mac no.: A7-DB-3C-9A-E0-6B

Respondent server owner: lastminute.com [listed organization]

Respondent server locus: Zurich, Switzerland

Respondent server IP no.: 2.17.241.8

Respondent server Mac no.: D2-FE-78-2C-29-A7

Reason(s): 1) Client user on SHaBaK watch list for monitoring.

SUMMARY:

Subject booked airline tickets in name of “Baruch Tikva” for travel to London on 10 August, 2012 at 07:10 IST on British Airways, Flight BA162.

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Dovi realized immediately that this had to have something to do with Daniel Klein still being alive despite the ambush and Sam Morgan’s arrival in Israel. He would liaise with SHaBaK, who were keeping tabs on Morgan and the Tikvas — father and son. But right now he had a more urgent priority.

He logged on to lastminute.com and seeing that there was only one place remaining on that flight booked a ticket in the name of Siobhan Stewart. Then he picked up the phone and called an all too familiar mobile phone number.

“Hi Sarit. I have an urgent assignment for you.”