Headhunters

Chapter Forty-Seven

Blum was gone for a long time. Milton had no idea what his absence signified. It could, for all he knew, have been an opportunity for him to contact Bachman to tell him that Milton had been apprehended. Or, if he was fortunate, it could denote that Ziggy’s booby-trapped flash drive had done what it was supposed to do. There was no way of knowing what had happened, no way of knowing whether his gambit had been successful or whether it had failed and he had signed his own death warrant by bringing himself here.

If it had worked? The consequences would cause chaos, and Blum would need to be briefed as to the damage that had been caused. And, if it became obvious that their network security had been breached, perhaps Blum would need to take instructions from the government. Blum had survived as the head of the Mossad for years. That was an impressive feat. Longevity in a role such as that was not common and, to manage that, Milton knew that he would have extensive political contacts. It was not impossible that he would need to take soundings before he could make a decision.

And then the lights went out, the room was plunged into darkness, and Milton knew that the ruse had worked. Ziggy’s virus was loose and they were trying to cage it.

Time passed in the darkness. Milton estimated that it was thirty minutes, but it was difficult to be sure. Eventually, the lights came back on again. Some time after that the door was unlocked and opened, and Blum came back inside. His face was a deep purple, the purest fury.

“You are a brave man, Mr. Milton. And one with clever friends.” He spoke tersely, his voice dripping with rage. Some of that splenetic anger was reserved for Milton, but, he knew, most of it would have been directed at himself for falling for Milton’s artifice. Two hours ago, Milton had presented Blum with the opportunity to rid himself of the problem that Avi Bachman had caused him. Now, because he had been fooled, the problem had been doubled.

“I had no choice. I’m not going to apologise. You put me in that position.”

“Quite,” Blum said as he sat down opposite him.

“You said it yourself, sir. This isn’t my first time doing this. If there’s a knife fight, I’m bringing a gun.” Blum stared at him evenly, and Milton drove his advantage home. “I don’t know how much your technicians have told you, but let me be clear. I’m sure you’ve been told this already, but the worm on that stick will have replicated itself across your network by now. I noticed you shut off the power, but that won’t make any difference. It will have opened a port for my friend, and he will have taken everything that we need. All of your operational data, Director. Everything. We’ll go through it all later, but we’ll obviously have information in there that you won’t want to be publicised. It’ll make whatever it is Bachman’s been holding over your head look like nothing. But you know that.”

“Very good, Mr. Milton.”

“As you say, I have clever friends.”

“You’ve put me in a difficult position. Whichever choice I make, there are serious consequences for my agents. For my country.”

“Avi is to blame. If you had him under control, none of this would have happened.”

“What do you want, Mr. Milton?”

“You know what I want.”

“I can’t give you Avi. And I’m not going to have him killed.”

“I don’t want you to kill him. He’s my problem to fix. I just want a level playing field. I don’t want him to have any backup. Pull the agents back.”

“I can’t. He’ll release the information.”

“Then you have to think about which set of data is the most damaging. Bachman’s data is ten years old. Most of it is historic. I imagine you’ve already started to take steps to minimise the damage if it ever gets out.”

Blum just scowled at him.

“Mine is fresh. You can’t take steps to minimise the damage. You can pull your agents out, but it’ll destroy everything you’ve been working on. Every operation, every sleeper you’ve spent years inserting, every double agent, every mole — I’ll burn every one of them. You can insulate yourself with Bachman. It’ll be inconvenient, but you’ll adapt. But I’ll tear everything down.”

“So? I call the agents off. Then what?”

“I need a reason for Avi to come to me.”

“He doesn’t need a reason, Mr. Milton. He’s coming whatever you do.”

“I want it to be on my terms. I want to control the environment. And I need leverage for that. His associate. Who is it?”

Blum bit his lip, thinking about the request. “Fine,” he said, after a moment. “His name is Meir Shavit.”

“And?”

“Meir is Bachman’s old commanding officer from when he was in the IDF. They were always very close. He was like a father to Avi. He’s the only person in the world he trusts.”

“Where is he?”

“In Croatia. The Alsatian Coast.”

“I’ll need everything you have on him.”

Blum nodded. “And then?”

“I’m going to go and see him. I’ll make sure Avi knows where I am. When he gets to me, pull your agents back. You can leave the rest to me. It’s between us now.”

“You think it will be as easy as that? ‘You can leave the rest to me’? It won’t be easy, Mr. Milton. Avi is the most dangerous man I have ever sent into the field. You can’t fight him straight up. He’ll kill you.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“He’s beaten you twice already. He nearly killed you in New Orleans. And he had you beat in Australia. I know. I read the reports.”

“He gave me a bit of a beating. But maybe the third time’s a charm.”

“I read your file. You were good, but that was a long time ago. Avi never stopped. He stopped working for us, but he’s never stopped killing. You know that, don’t you, Mr. Milton? Avi Bachman is a machine.”

Milton stood up. “You’re wrong, sir. I didn’t stop killing, either.”