After several weeks she came to him one day with a mission. “Dov, I have a favor to ask.”
Immediately Dov turned suspicious.
“The Mossad people know you were in Auschwitz and they have also found out that you are an expert counterfeiter.”
“So?”
“There is a new man here from Palestine. Joab Yarkoni tells me he wants to talk to you. His name is Ari Ben Canaan. He needs passports and documents and could use your services.”
“So that’s it! That’s why you made friendsl So you could get me to work.”
“Oh, shut up, Dov. You don’t even believe that yourself.”
“Well,” Dov grumbled, “if they want me so badly they can come and ask me themselves.”
“How can anyone ask you anything when you won’t even talk to them?”
“And why should I work for them?”
“Because they’re working for you.”
“Hell they are. They’re working to save themselves.”
“All right. Take your side of it. They are no worse than the Germans, and if you could make American dollars for them you can certainly make passports for the Mossad.”
“You’re always so damned smart with the answers.”
“Dov. I’ve never asked a favor of you. What shall I tell them?”
“Tell them I might, but a lot of things have to be made clear.”
Karen took his hand and smiled. “Why don’t you make them clear? Ben Canaan is waiting for you.”
“I’ll see him here.”
Dov secretly liked Ari Ben Canaan. He was direct and to the point and let Dov know that if he didn’t work he was going to be the last Jew out of Caraolos. But more, Dov liked that quality of leadership in the man-the same quality Mun-dek had had. He went to work in the Palmach headquarters in one of the schoolrooms. Still, to everyone else in Caraolos but Karen, Dov Landau was incorrigible. He spoke only in anger. She was always called upon to calm his sudden eruptions.
She saw in him things that no other person saw-wonderful strength and pride. There were other things that she could not explain that made her like him very much.
Two and a half weeks after Ben Canaan’s arrival on Cyprus, David Ben Ami gave Dov a list of three hundred names of children to be fixed on documents resembling British transfer orders. The three hundred were supposed to be moved from Caraolos to the new compounds near Larnaca. Dov knew that this was the escape! Neither his name nor the name of Karen was on the list of transferees.
Dov told David that he wanted to speak to Ben Canaan, and it was then that he put his demands to Ari that he and Karen be included in the escape. And Ari agreed to his demands.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: The final steps in Operation Gideon were twenty-four hours away.
Ari Ben Canaan called a meeting of his chiefs in the home of Mandria, their Cypriot compatriot.
David Ben Ami gave Ari the transfer papers that Dov Landau had just completed. Ari looked them over and commented that the boy was a real artist. The papers could have fooled anyone. David reported that he had taken care of the hundred odds and ends, from security to putting kosher food on the ship for Orthodox children.
Joab Yarkoni, the Moroccan, reported that all the trucks were in ready condition and could be moved from the 23rd Transportation camp to Caraolos in twenty minutes. He gave the elapsed time of trial runs from Caraolos to Kyrenia by several alternate routes.
Zev Gilboa said that the three hundred and two children would be loaded on the lorries in a matter of minutes after the convoy arrived at Caraolos. He would brief the children as to what was going to happen a few minutes before the trucks departed.
Hank Schlosberg, the American skipper of the Exodus, said he would take the ship out of its Larnaca berth at dawn and steam up to Kyrenia and be there at least a full hour or two before the convoy was due to arrive.
Mandria reported that he had a system of lookouts posted along the escape route who could notify the convoy of any unusual British activity. He also had watchmen on a half dozen alternate routes. Mandria said that he would wait, as ordered, in Famagusta in his home. The minute the convoy passed through he would telephone Mark Parker in Kyrenia.
Ari rose and looked over his lieutenants. They were nervous, all of them. Even the usually placid Yarkoni was looking
at the floor. Ari did not congratulate them or wish them luck. There was time for congratulations. As for luck, they’d make their own.
“I did not want to make the escape for three more days until the British themselves began moving children from the children’s compound. Nevertheless we have received information that Major Alistair is suspicious of our activities. We even have reason to believe he has gone to London for instructions over Brigadier Sutherland’s head. Therefore we must make our break at once. Our trucks arrive at Caraolos at nine o’clock. By ten o’clock I hope we have loaded the children and are passing your house here in Famagusta. The minute we turn off the Larnaca road we have two crucial hours. We have no reason to believe our convoy will be stopped. Our trucks are well known all over Cyprus. But . we must act under the assumption that we are under suspicion. Any further questions?”
David Ben Ami, the sentimentalist, could not let the occasion pass without proposing a toast. Ari tolerated the younger man’s frivolity. “Le chaim,” David said, raising his glass. “Le chaim,” the rest of them answered. “I have heard that le chaim from you boys often,” Mandria said. “What does it mean?”
“It means ‘to life,’” David answered, “and to Jews that is no small request.”
“ ‘To life,’ ” Mandria repeated. “That is nice.” Ari walked up to Mandria and hugged him in the Palmach manner. “You have been a friend,” he said. “I must go meet Parker now.”
Mandria stood there with tears streaming down his cheeks for he knew that this kind of affection was reserved for one of their own and to receive it from Ari Ben Canaan meant that he had been accepted fully as one of them.
A half hour later Ari, dressed as Captain Caleb Moore, met Mark on the terrace of the King George Hotel. Mark was a bundle of nerves.
Ari seated himself, refused a cigarette, and ordered a drink. “Well?” Mark asked impatiently. “Tomorrow. We will be at Caraolos at nine.” “I thought you were going to wait until the British started cleaning out the children’s compound.”
“It would have been better but we can’t wait. A friend at CID tells us that Alistair is on to something. But relax,” Ari said. “It is almost over. The British still don’t know what they’re looking for. Now you understand everything.”
Mark nodded. He would send a cable asking for an extension of his vacation. Bradbury in London would know by the signature, Mark, that Operation Gideon had been a success and would turn loose the story Mark had sent with a commercial pilot a week earlier.
“Suppose I don’t get a phone call from Mandria at ten.”
Ari smiled. “Then I’d suggest you get the hell off Cyprus unless you want to cover my hanging.”
“That might be nice,” Mark said. He finished his drink.
“By the way,” Ari said, looking out to the water, “Kitty hasn’t been in the camp since we were forced to put Karen on the Exodus list.”
“That’s right. She’s with me at the Dome.”
“How is she?”
“How in hell do you think she is? She’s miserable. She doesn’t want Karen to go on the Exodus. Do you blame her?”
“I don’t blame her but I feel sorry for her.”
“That’s nice. I didn’t know you felt sorry for anyone.”
“I feel sorry that she has let her emotions get the best of her.”
“I forgot. You don’t know anything about human emotions.”
“You’re nervous, Mark.”
Mark was angry at Ari’s placidness. He remembered Kitty’s anguish when she returned to Kyrenia and told him that Karen was going on the ship. “What do you want? Kitty has suffered more than one person has a right to suffer.”