A Spy in Exile

BRUSSELS, JANUARY 2015

“What we’re looking for is a weak spot,” Ya’ara said to her cadets. “Information that will allow us to get closer to Hamdan. And we probably have more chance of doing so when he’s on the move, when he’s not guarded by walls and fences and steel gates. Surprise and determination are the elements that will tip the scales in our favor. Our desire to take him out surpasses their will to protect him.”

“I hope they know that, too,” Assaf mumbled.

They were all dressed in designer wear, tailored in neat and clean lines. Batsheva also boasted a necklace of gleaming pearls, and she flashed a smile conveying both enjoyment and self-irony at her reflection in the mirror. “I could get used to this,” she said with a sigh.

“It’s not really that different from the way you always dress,” Assaf said, and Batsheva said yes, perhaps, without going into the small details of the line of the skirt and the name of the designer.

Ya’ara didn’t miss an opportunity to offer them a brief lesson. “In truth,” she said, “it’s practical. These are the uniforms that make it easier for us to blend in. Elegance is a way to observe and not be seen.”

“Okay,” Nufar said, her eyes on the screen, “I need some quiet now. You wanted a weak spot, so give me a moment and stop talking about clothes.”

Ya’ara wondered if she should remark on Nufar’s chutzpah, but decided instead to alter course.

“Let Nufar work,” she declared.

• • •

She finally found what they were looking for.

“Okay, look here,” she said. “They’re in the open while en route from the detention center to the courthouse. As a safeguard, they travel in convoy. A van carrying the prisoners, and two escort vehicles. And they travel along a different route every time. Here, look.” Nufar pointed to a folder belonging to the unit responsible for escorting prisoners. “The computer marks out a different route for every trip, and then relays it to the GPS systems of the vehicles in the convoy. The escort teams don’t have to memorize the route because the GPS directs them. The changes are random, there’s a limited number of ways to go from point A to point B, but even the security personnel themselves are made aware of the route at the last minute.”

“Aside from being able to see their computers, are you able to mess with them, too?” Batsheva felt Ya’ara’s gaze focus on her.

“Go on,” Ya’ara said to Batsheva.

“Because if we’re able to override the computer and feed them a route of our choosing, we can separate the prisoners’ vehicle from the escort vehicles, and lead the prisoners’ vehicle wherever we want. I think that’s what you were talking about earlier, Ya’ara, about the possibility of creating a decisive advantage at a specific point in time and space.”

“That’s an angle of approach with potential,” Ya’ara said with restraint. “Provided Nufar can do it.” Can you, her look inquired.

“Theoretically, I can actively override their system. It just needs to be done at the right time, and in a manner that can’t be detected. If only I had some help here. I need to be able to take a more in-depth look into their system. And to do so with caution, to avoid detection.”

“I want us to be able to run a pilot within a week,” Ya’ara said. “So we can see if this whole concept works. Our goal for the pilot will be to divert the convoy of inmates traveling from the prison to the courthouse next Monday, and to see if things run smoothly, if we manage to pull it off without being detected, if the vehicles do in fact follow the route we’ve plotted for them. We have lots of work to do. Nufar needs to study the system, in depth. We need to get to know the routes and to prepare an alternative path that is going to make sense to them. And already now we also need to start planning the route Hamdan will take on the way to his encounter not with Belgian justice but with ours.”

• • •

She couldn’t fall asleep that night. She still didn’t know whether Hamdan would be the only prisoner in the vehicle, or whether he’d be one of a group of inmates. According to the information they had gathered thus far, the vehicle would contain a driver and probably one escort, perhaps two. All armed. The fundamental planning principles for the operation called for no casualties apart from Hamdan himself. No prison guards and none of the other detainees. And still, the expected confrontation would see her and her team up against armed guards who were tasked with protecting their prisoners or preventing them from escaping.

That said, the element of surprise and the element of determination would play in their favor. The Belgian prison guards weren’t going to be in any hurry to die defending their posts. Particularly if she and her team managed to show them that their lives weren’t in danger, that the threat wasn’t being directed at them. They might also have a small numerical advantage. There’d be four of them. Against three guards. And if Goran kept his promise, they’d be armed with stun grenades, too. But Ya’ara couldn’t ignore the fact that she’d be leading an unskilled team. That they’d be operating in an environment that would soon turn hostile and dangerous. A manhunt for them would begin within minutes.

Should she be launching the operation under such circumstances? Her thoughts became clouded as sleep closed in on her. Before finally dropping off, she pictured a blurred image of the scene of the operation, tinged with the glowing colors of the sunset. She saw the ashen face of Yael Ziv, her large dark eyes. She watched her spiral down into a bottomless pit right there in front of her. She closed her eyes.