Slightly out of breath, he entered Levi’s office. David was looking forward to the assignment whatever it might be, but when his eyes fell on Miriam, sitting on Levi’s couch facing away from him, he almost stopped breathing. He stared speechless, then walked past her quickly over to the window and stared out, seeing nothing. If this was some kind of joke that Levi was playing on him… He tried to calm himself, his back to both Levi and Miriam, but instead felt his apprehension and blood pressure rising. The atmosphere in the office was like a courtroom just before the jury returned with its verdict.
Levi noted that Miriam did not look at David until he walked to the window. “Come on you two! Say hello! It’s been a quite a while since you saw each other, so whatever happened, this is a new day, and I need you both for an important mission in back in Munich. You get to go in disguise! Now say hello. Let’s get this awkward moment over with.”
“Hello, David,” Miriam said with no feeling what so ever. Just saying the words she realized she could handle the situation, that she was over him. “How have you been?”
David knew anything more than a casual reply would reveal his feelings. She was being pretty calm about this, so why couldn’t he be that way also? “The body is fine, Miriam, thank you. How are you?”
“Couldn’t be better.” Now all she had to do was stick with the party line and everything would be fine.
“How was retirement? You get bored and decide to come back? Were you living in your brother’s kibbutz, that one you tried to get me into?”
“Retirement?” She started laughing, “Levi, you old goat, did you say I was retired?” They both looked at Levi.
“David, I didn’t want you knowing about Miriam’s assignment, and Miriam, I didn’t want you knowing what David was doing either. So there! I can be devious, too. You can tell each other anything you want now. I’m going to step out and get us all some coffee. I’ll be right back.” He left, hoping that while he was gone they would find a way to communicate again.
After a long silence David asked, “So where were you?” Just being able to speak to her again seemed to calm him down a bit.
“Rome. I worked at the Rome station. I really liked the work, had a great crew, but there wasn’t any field action. I missed that. Now, I hope Levi has something for us. You don’t have to worry about me, David. I’m not the same person I was.
David focused on the job she did in Rome and asked more questions. By the time Levi finally returned with the coffee, they had relaxed a little more. Levi took the floor.
“Are things a little better now?” Levi inquired, looking between the two of them. Then he realized that wasn’t what he should have said. “Look, I have a very important assignment in Munich and only you two can pull it off. You both know the city, you both know Chief Beinschmidt and I damned well know you can work together like no other team I’ve had before.”
David was angry that Levi would simply assume he could work again with Miriam. How could he show so little respect for his feelings? He glanced over at Miriam sitting there looking like she owned the world. There was a tranquility about her that he’d never seen before. Yes, she had changed, and, maybe it was time for him to change, too. Reluctantly he began to focus on what Levi was saying.
“On this trip to Munich you are going to see if you can get the goods on Chief Beinschmidt.”
“Good old Bruno?” asked Miriam, shocked. “What’s he done?”
Levi and David filled her in, including details about the SS-slashing deaths of the couple who owned the safe house where she and David had stayed. Miriam said it had been her fault then because Bruno had followed her home from the hospital, and thus he knew the address, but they reassured her that he could have found that out easily from the phone number and that was some time ago, when they still trusted him. Levi told her that Inspector Servette sent Max to Munich over a year ago and once when he was in the Chief’s office questioning him he noticed Hans’ file half hidden on the Chief’s desk, even though Bruno had made no mention either to Piet or me he even knew anything about Hans when he spoke to us. Then the chief suddenly dropped all talk about Hans, making all of us suspicious. No suspects for the SS slasher killings had ever been picked up for questioning as far as we know.
“Beinschmidt has some files, including Hans’, and I want to get my hands on that. I want a copy of that file, and I need anything on the two officers who replaced Marvin and Herzog, you know, anything that would show us that there was a connection between Hans and their deaths It’s beginning to look like there might be a connection between Hans and Beinschmidt.” When David and Miriam started to break in Levi held up his hands. “I know…I felt the same way when I first heard. Bruno is more closed off than ever before, and we’re determined to get to the root of it before we share any more information with him. It will be tough to break into the Munich police station, but that’s exactly what I need you two to do. David, Malcolm tells me that you are a wiz at copying documents with that new miniature camera you’ve been working with.”
Levi had their attention now. “We’ll do a broad daylight maneuver. You will come to Munich as Mr. and Mrs. Phillipe Sanchez from Madrid. Miriam, you name is Maria. I believe you both can pass as Spaniards with no problem, and I know you can speak the language pretty well.”
David looked at Miriam. Of all the roles Levi could have cast them in, being a married couple was the worst and they both knew it. Could this be some game Levi was playing? They became suspicious. Was he serious? They began to protest.
Levi was expecting this response and had it covered. There was no choice in the matter he said. This was business, very serious business, their futures were on the line, and if they pulled this off, he had an even more critical assignment in Buenos Aries for them. They had once proven to be the best team in the Mossad. It was about time they proved they still were. Too much time had been spent lately in front of computers and too little out in the field. If there was a problem he wanted to know, but only if it was one that could affect the success of the assignment. He hadn’t the time or the patience to deal with any petty personal matters now.
David and Miriam fell silent as he continued to fill them in, then Levi gave them airline tickets for next Monday.
Mirtha brought in lunch on a tray, and they spent the rest of the day being briefed. They were told to report back at five the next morning. Levi wasn’t going to allow them time to talk amongst themselves and mess up this assignment. Before they left back to Munich on Monday, he had every hour filled.