Honor Among Thieves

Hannah replaced the handset and typed out a note explaining that she had gone home as she wasn’t certain whether the Deputy Foreign Minister would be returning that day. As long as he didn’t check his messages until after five o’clock, there would be no reason for him to become suspicious.

In the privacy of her little room, Hannah exchanged her office clothes for the traditional black abaya with a pushi covering her face. She checked herself in the mirror before once again leaving the building, silently and anonymously.

* * *

“I’m almost sure it’s her coming out of the Ministry,” said the voice into the mobile phone, “but she’s changed into traditional dress and is no longer wearing glasses. She’s heading towards Victory Square again. I’ll keep you briefed.”

Hannah was back in Victory Square before the first cleaner was expected to arrive for work. Although the crowd was now smaller, she was still able to remain inconspicuous. She looked across the road towards the courtyard. The safe was no longer to be seen, and the crane too had disappeared. The truck was now backed up against the wall.

Hannah strained to see if Kratz was one of the figures sitting in the front of the truck, but she couldn’t penetrate the haze of smoke.

Hannah turned her attention to a building she had never entered but felt she knew well. A full-scale plan of each floor was attached to a board in the operations room of Mossad’s headquarters in Herzliyah, and you couldn’t take the second paper of any exam on Iraq without being able to draw every floor of the building in detail. Information was added all the time, from the strangest sources: escaped refugees, former diplomats, ex-Cabinet Ministers who were Kurds or Shi’ites, even the former British Prime Minister Edward Heath.

The first cleaner arrived a few minutes before three, presented her pass and then hurried across the tarmac before disappearing into a side door of the building. The second appeared a few moments later, and followed the same procedure. When Hannah spotted the third making her way along the far side of the sidewalk, she slipped across the road and filed in behind her as she walked towards the barrier.

“She’s crossed the road, reached the barrier and the guard is now checking her pass,” said the voice into the mobile phone. “As instructed, they’ve let her through. She’s now walking across the tarmac and following another woman through the side door. She’s in, the door’s closed. We’ve got her.”

“Now you open the safe,” said Major Saeed.

Scott swiveled the dials to their coded numbers, and the first bulb turned green. The Major was impressed. Scott then placed the palm of his hand on the white square, and a few seconds later the middle bulb turned green. The Major was mesmerized. Scott leaned forward and spoke into the voice box, and the third light turned green. The Major was speechless.

Scott pulled the handle and the door swung open. He jumped inside and immediately extracted the cardboard tube from the inside of his trouser leg.

The Major spotted it at once, and flew into a rage. Scott quickly flicked off the cap, took out the poster of Saddam Hussein and unpeeled it, letting the backing paper fall to the ground before he strolled to the far side of the safe and fixed the portrait of Saddam to the wall. A smile returned to the Major’s face as Scott bent down, rolled up the backing paper and slid it into the tube.

“Now I teach you,” said Scott.

“No, no, not me,” said Major Saeed. He held his phone up in the air and said, “We must return to the yard.”

Scott felt like swearing as he stepped out of the safe, dropping the tube and allowing it to roll across the floor to the darkest corner. The plan he had so carefully prepared with Kratz would no longer be possible. He reluctantly left the open safe and joined the Major as he marched quickly towards the Council Chamber, this time not allowing Scott any opportunity to hold him up.

* * *

Once Hannah had joined the other cleaners inside the building, she told them that her mother had been taken ill and that she had been sent to cover for her. She tried to assure them that it was not the first time she had done so, and was surprised when they asked no questions. She assumed that they were fearful of being involved with a stranger.

Hannah picked up a box of cleaning equipment and made her way down the back stairs. The plan displayed on the walls at Herzliyah was proving impressively accurate, even if nobody had managed the exact number of steps to the basement.

When she reached the door that led into the bottom corridor she could hear voices coming from the direction of the Council Chamber. Whoever it was must be heading for the elevator. Hannah backed up against the wall so she could just see them through the thick pane of wire-mesh glass in the center of the door.

The two men passed. Hannah didn’t recognize the Major, but when she saw who was with him, her legs gave way and she almost collapsed.

Once they were back in the courtyard, the Major dialed a number. Scott strolled over to Kratz, who was standing behind the truck.

“Did you manage to switch the Declaration?” were Kratz’s first words.

“No, I didn’t have time. It’s still on the wall of the Chamber.”

“Damn. And the copy?”

“I left it in the tube on the floor of the safe. I couldn’t risk bringing it out.”

“So how are you going to get back into the building?” asked Kratz, looking towards the Major. “You were meant to use the time—”

“I know. But it turns out he’s not the one who’ll be in charge of the safe. He’s getting in touch with whoever it is I’ll have to instruct.”

“Not what we needed. I suspect that with the Major our first plan would have been a lot easier,” said Kratz. “I’d better brief the others so we can work on an alternative if things go wrong again.”

Scott nodded his agreement, and he and the Mossad leader strolled over to the truck where Aziz and Cohen were sitting in the cab smoking. As the Colonel climbed into the front, two cigarettes were quickly stubbed out. Kratz explained why they were still waiting, and warned them that this could be the professor’s last chance to get back into the Council Chamber. “So when he comes out next time,” he explained, “we must be ready to go. With a little luck, we might still make the border by midnight.”