The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 37

“Are you incapable of getting anything right!”

Shalom Tikva was unable to contain the rage inside him that was prompting him to pour out his scorn on his own flesh and blood. His son had let him down once again and he well knew why: arrogance! Baruch had tried to do what was beyond him. How could he kidnap the girl all on his own with no back up and without even being fully qualified to drive? The operation was doomed from the start.

Maybe, Shalom Tikva could console himself, by accepting that it was the will of Hashem. But would it have failed had his son not been so arrogant?

And yet, what choice had their been? He knew that Baruch couldn’t go back to Chienmer Lefou after the previous fiasco. It had taken a long time to win her trust and to learn to trust her. And now she would probably never trust either of them again. His son had burnt a bridge there. And yet…

There was another thought nagging at Shalom Tikva’s mind.

How far can we trust her?

This was what lie at the heart of the problem. For it was becoming increasingly clear that some one was trying to stop them. But it was some one who knew what they were up to. Could it be that Chienmer Lefou was playing a double game? Had she arranged to help Baruch kill Daniel Klein and then betrayed him? That didn’t make sense. It was her own men that she sent along, or at least criminals whom she had hired.

Maybe she considered them expendable? She had that quiet aura of a ruthless matriarch.

But why did she help them in the first place? Why not refuse? And what, in that case, would she be trying to do? What was her game? If she wanted merely to kill Baruch, there were simpler ways.

Maybe she wanted to discredit Shomrei Ha’ir. After all, they believed in Judaism — a religion she hated. They believed in the Talmud — a document that she despised. And they believed that the Seven Laws of Noah were obligatory upon the Gentiles — a concept that she found abhorrent, not because she necessarily wanted to commit murder or theft or adultery or incest — nor even because she was against the creation of law courts — but simply on principle. Was it possible that a woman in such a mental state could really be trusted to help them, just because she hated the Zionists even more?

The more he thought about it, the more convinced Shalom Tikva became that it was Chienmer Lefou who had betrayed them.

But there was just one problem. Chienmer Lefou had known nothing of this last operation. Baruch hadn’t told her about his plan to kidnap Daniel Klein’s niece. That put her in the clear. And yet it was too much of a coincidence that this man on the motorbike had been able to turn up twice and foil both the assassination attempt and the kidnapping. There had to be a spy in the camp.

But who?

It was inconceivable that any one of his own people could have betrayed them. Indeed, with the exception of two other rabbis in the movement, no one knew what they had been planning. He had conferred with the two other rabbis, because although he was recognized as the most learned scholar among them in the finer points of Jewish Law, he considered himself to be first among equals and he wanted to be sure that he stood on halachically safe ground when he authorized the kidnapping. This wasn’t even the abduction of a goy, but rather of a Jewish girl. So he had to tread carefully.

But the other rabbis agreed that it was permitted if it was in the service of Hashem. And so he authorized it. But evidently, HaKadosh Baruch Hu was displeased with them, for he reached out and smote them, foiling their endeavours. Only there must have been some human agent involved. For when Hashem sends down the Angel of Death, even against the Jews, it is through the hand of man that he works.

And then HaTzadik realized that there was one man who was not of their people who knew at least part of what they were planning. That man supposedly did not speak Hebrew, but maybe he understood more than he let on. And that man was standing only a few feet away from him now.

Shalom Tikva put the phone down and turned to Sam Morgan with a look of anger in his eyes.

“It was you wasn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” asked Morgan, the apprehension rising in his voice.

“It was you who betrayed us! You warned them what we were planning!”

“Planning? I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Klein’s niece! You knew we were planning to kidnap her!”

“What!”

“You warned them.”

“Warned who?”

“The police! Or some one!”

“I didn’t! I swear!”

The fear in his voice was palpable. But that meant nothing to HaTzadik.

“You were the only one who knew! The only one who could have told them.”

“I didn’t know. And I can’t believe you would do such a thing. But I… I…”

“Ata medaber Ivrit? Yiddish?”

“I… I don’t understand”

Shalom Tikva was testing him to see if he understood either Hebrew or Yiddish. Because they hadn’t actually told him the plan. So the only way that Morgan could have told anyone was if he had overheard them talking and understood.

But then something else occurred to HaTzadik. Who would Morgan have warned? If he had told Daniel Klein or his family, they would have avoided the area altogether and not let it come to the brink. And if he had told the police they would have relocated them and put them under police protection. They would not have used the little girl as bait. And if they had then the place would have been swarming with police and Baruch would not have been able to get away as he did.

No, this plot was foiled by just one man, on a motorbike. And the last one had been stopped in exactly the same way. And this man on the motorbike had been highly proficient with a gun.

Could it be some one from Israel perhaps? A former soldier or some one from Israeli intelligence? If so they were doing pretty well, considering that they were operating in foreign territory. But then again that’s what intelligence people were trained to do. But therein lie the problem for Shomrei Ha’ir. For neither Baruch, nor any other member of their sect, was trained to operate in England.

Now they did have members in London, in the Stamford Hill area to which Baruch had quickly moved, in order to avoid Golders Green where his cover might have been blown. But they were as unworldly and closeted as Baruch. They would hardly be in a position to do anything remotely resembling a covert operation — especially when their beards and black frock coats made them stand out like a sore thumb. No what they needed was some one who could blend in — some one who had already shown himself to be a man of cunning and duplicity.

Shalom Tikva looked at Sam Morgan.

“I want you to go back to England and join Baruch.”

“Why?”

The fear on Morgan’s face was obvious. He and Baruch Tikva had never really liked each other.

“I want you to work together.”