Newton’s Fire

II

The Prime Minister of Israel still had sleep in her eyes as she arrived in the cabinet room. The Interior Minister and the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Finance and Intelligence were already there, while the Defence Ministry was represented by the Chief of the General Staff. And each of them were attended by flurries of frantic aides checking their devices and whispering breaking news into their bosses’ ears.

‘Are our captives from the Mount of Olives talking yet?’ she asked.

‘Not yet, Prime Minister,’ said Interior.

‘How are Gaza and the West Bank?’

He nodded briskly. ‘We have multiple reports of disorder, including several settlers’ homes on fire. At least a dozen rockets have been fired. No word on casualties yet.’

‘We’re taking fire in the north too,’ said the Chief of the General Staff. ‘Mortar shells mostly.’

‘Hezbollah?’

‘We imagine so.’

‘Any casualties?’

He shrugged. ‘If not yet, then soon.’

‘This is going to turn hot?’

‘It’s already hot. How much hotter it gets depends on the Dome. If these people bring it down …’ He shook his head. ‘We have to mobilize,’ he said.

‘If we mobilize, all our neighbours will mobilize too. It’ll only make things worse.’

‘With respect, Prime Minister, things already are worse. The moment the Dome comes down, we’ll be at war. We need to be ready.’

She looked around the table. Intelligence, Finance and Interior nodded, but Foreign Affairs was occupied with passing out copies of some new briefing paper. ‘What’s this?’ she asked.

‘Excuse me, Prime Minister,’ he said. ‘That list of prisoners they want released: these are their biographies.’

‘Any pattern?’

‘Not that we can tell.’

The Prime Minister studied her copy of the list. She recognized most of the names, and the ones she didn’t recognize fell into similar categories: Israeli citizens held on various charges in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. A mix of soldiers, spies, criminals and ordinary citizens who’d become victims of the region’s power games. ‘What do you think?’ she asked. ‘Manageable?’

Foreign Affairs nodded. ‘We’re already in the middle of exchange talks for many of them. We should be able to expedite.’

‘Prisoner exchange?’ scowled Interior. ‘It’s their damned Dome.’

‘We have to give up something,’ said the Prime Minister, ‘or they’ll blame us for it.’

‘They’ll blame us anyway. They always do.’

Intelligence had just received a briefing paper of his own. ‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘But I think we may have found out who’s behind this.’

‘And?’

‘His name’s Avram Kohen. We’ve had our eye on him for some time.’

‘You’ve had your eye on him?’ said Finance. ‘And yet he’s taken the Dome?’

‘With respect, if you didn’t keep cutting our budget-’

‘Enough!’ said the Prime Minister. This was no time for turf wars. ‘What makes you think it’s this man Kohen?’ she asked.

‘We’ve put equipment in the homes and offices of various people we’re watching. The moment this broke, we ran a roll-call. All were accounted for, except Kohen and some of his suspected associates. And we have an additional asset for Kohen: a live-in nephew. He assured us just a fortnight ago that nothing imminent was planned.’

‘He was lying?’

‘Maybe. Or maybe they rumbled him and were using him to feed us misinformation.’ He looked up from his notes. ‘He’s supposed to check in every other day, if he can; but we didn’t hear from him last night and he’s not answering his cell or his home phone. And, like I said, several of Kohen’s other suspected associates have also vanished.’

‘It’s them, then.’

‘Yes, Prime Minister.’ He grimaced to indicate worse to come. ‘The thing is, Kohen isn’t a settler or a nationalist, the kind who might credibly want Jewish prisoners released. He’s an out-and-out Third Temple fanatic.’

She slapped her hand on the list. ‘Then why these demands?’

‘A smokescreen, Prime Minister,’ said the Chief of the General Staff. ‘He wants us negotiating rather than sending in Special Forces.’

‘Yes. But if he wants the Dome down, why not just bring it down? We’re assuming it’s already rigged to blow, right? Why play for time?’

‘Maybe they’re waiting for the media to get there,’ suggested Foreign Affairs. ‘Prime time in America.’

‘Or maybe they’re hoping to spark some kind of popular uprising.’

Intelligence had just received another memo. He scanned it and looked up. ‘Prime Minister,’ he said. ‘We’ve been running checks on all Kohen’s known associates. He has links to a group of American evangelists. They want a Third Temple for their own reasons, as I’m sure you’re aware.’

‘Fucking rapture-heads,’ muttered Interior.

‘One of their go-betweens is an arms dealer called Vernon Croke. He has close ties to the CIA, so we can’t do anything about him; but we keep an eye on him all the same. The thing is, he was seen with a senior American counterterrorism officer during yesterday’s dirty bomb flap in London. And then he left City Airport on his private jet late last night. He’s due to land at Ben Gurion around dawn.’

Silence fell around the room. No one here believed in coincidences, not on days like this. ‘That’s what Kohen’s waiting for,’ murmured the Prime Minister. ‘He’s waiting for Croke.’

‘Or for whatever he’s bringing,’ said the Foreign Secretary.

‘But what?’

The Chief of the General Staff leaned forwards. ‘When those three on the Mount of Olives took out the generator buildings, they also brought down the Golden Gate. According to our soldiers in the valley, they hit it at least six times. Predator missiles are GPS controlled; they’re accurate to a metre. That is to say: they hit the Golden Gate because the Golden Gate was what they were aiming at.’

The Prime Minister shook her head. ‘What’s your point?’ she asked.

‘The Golden Gate is the one prophesied by Elijah,’ said Interior. ‘That’s why the Arabs blocked it up five hundred years ago. That’s why they built a cemetery in front of it, to render unclean anyone passing through.’

‘Prophesied by Elijah?’ She looked utterly perplexed.

Foreign Affairs coughed into his hand, a little embarrassed by her ignorance. ‘Prime Minister, Elijah prophesied that when he came, he’d enter Jerusalem by the Golden Gate.’

‘When he came? When who came?’

‘Prime Minister,’ said the Chief of the General Staff. ‘He was talking about the Messiah.’