Six months later, after Segan and his people had almost forgotten about the affair, Alan Ross called Segan's office and set an appointment. The two men met again at the wine bar and this time Segan didn't even bring his bodyguards. Ross said that he had compiled a list of targets that comprised some key Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers as well as intelligence officers that played a role in the nuclear weapons program. The list included a dozen names and Ross promised a payment of three million dollars for each successful job (the words murder, targeted killing, elimination or even termination were never used in public by professionals just in case someone was recording them or lip-reading). He repeated his instructions that the jobs should be carried out within a short timeframe, forgetting that it was Seagn's suggestion. Segan proposed a different payment method — he said that the first job would be free, the second would cost one million Euros, the third two million and each consecutive job would cost one million Euros more than the previous one. Ross thought about it and agreed. Then Segan said that in cases like this collateral damage was inevitable and Ross just said that he understood that in some cases innocent bystanders may suffer and that didn't bother him as long as the objective received the proper treatment.
The two men shook hands on the deal and Ross left a London telephone number that would accept messages 24/7. The messages should be very short and include two or three words that corresponded to the initials of the eliminated target. Segan thought that this was a stupid arrangement but agreed to comply with this childish code.
Vienna was the site of the first job that Segan's people carried out. Segan called the telephone number he was given and said "Another apple appeared" and hung up, thinking that he must have had a mental blackout when he composed this triple A sentence. The meaning was that Dr. Ali Abdul Abadi had been eliminated in a quiet manner by Ruby who distracted the scientist and Sam who squirted the poison into Abadi's ear.
A couple of days later Segan called again and left another short message "Another Romantic Knight" in reference to Professor Ahmad Riza Kadoura's early demise in a tragic train accident in Barcelona, implemented by Sam. Segan hoped that Ross would know the difference between Knight and Night and not bust his brains looking for an Iranian scientist with the initials ARN. He knew that the message was quite stupid, to say the least, but was glad to verify that one million Euros was received in his bank account.
Three more days passed before Segan called the same number with the news about Dr. Mahmoud Al-Baida's unfortunate mishap when he and his wife fell to their death from a cliff in Taormina, Sicily, when Sam "accidentally" stumbled into them. Segan just said "Miniature boats" as he figured that the prefix Al was not really a part of the name. Once again he wasn't sure that the message would be correctly understood. So he was relieved when two million Euros appeared in the bank account the next day.
The job in London was more complicated as it involved recruiting the Chinese masseur and his daughter, but the payment was also higher — three million Euros, so the elimination of Dr. Mustafa Fahami took place almost at the same time as the one in Sicily. Segan himself carried out the neck-wringing after he persuaded the Chinese father and daughter to collaborate with a "carrot and stick" tactic: he promised them a quarter million pounds if they successfully cooperated and allowed the fake "masseur" to take over during the massage and combined that with a threat that he would report their illegal status to authorities if they did not oblige. After Fahami's neck was broken he made a local call to the London number saying "Many foxes", which again he thought was a brainless way of passing the good news.
A day later Segan made another call saying "Jolly toffee" after Dr. Jaafar Taghi consumed some bad oysters in Stockholm that were spiced by Ruby in her guise as a French scientist. The four million Euros arrived promptly in the Swiss account. These last three jobs were carried out more or less simultaneously by Sam in Sicily, Segan in London and Ruby in Stockholm.
Four days later Hassan Sadeq suffered a bizarre ski accident in Chamonix as he was nudged down a precipice by Ruby and Sam who posed as a couple of skiers. This was the sixth job carried out by Segan's team and the five million Euros that were deposited in the account helped ease the conscience of the Israelis. After all, they were convinced that they were carrying out a patriotic mission.
There were a few other names on the list that Ross handed over but the intended targets didn't leave Iran. No sane Iranian scientist, and they were all wise people, wanted to risk foreign travel as rumors spread that so many of their number had suffered mysterious accidents. When Segan calculated his revenues from the project he realized that he should have accepted Ross's original offer of three million dollars per capita. He laughed to himself as he reckoned that Iranians were reputably known for their business acumen and negotiation skills. When he heard about the bombing in Isfahan in which three more scientists were killed he figured out the Iranian opposition had gained confidence from his own work and carried out this job on their own, but he could not take credit for it.
Chapter 9
By the time Shimony and David had finished the bottle of Ouzo that David had brought from Cyprus both lowered their guard and relaxed in each other's company, as good friends who trust each other do. David felt free to bring forth a wild idea that had been on the back of his mind for some time "I am sure that the Iranians are holding our people as hostages for some reason. There must be an element of revenge for the series of mishaps that their nuclear scientists suffered but I feel that there is something else involved here. After the nuclear deal and removal of the international sanctions against Iran in return for curtailing their attempts to obtain fissile materials and cessation of their military nuclear program the stranglehold of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Mullahs on the Iranian people has weakened. This has encouraged the opposition groups and secular population to raise their heads and increase their instigation against the religious leadership. What if the elimination of the scientists was orchestrated by the opposition and the regime is now retaliating against Israel because they think that we worked in cohorts with the opposition? You and I know that Mossad had nothing to do with the Iranian scientists but what if some wise guy in the PM's office launched an independent project without our knowledge but with the PM's tacit approval or even without it? After all, such things had happened in the past." He was referring to an operation that was carried out by amateurs that were recruited by the IDF military intelligence in Egypt in 1956. This operation literally blew up in the face of one of the perpetrators and resulted in a scandal that almost toppled the government of Israel a few years later when details of the affair were revealed.
Shimony was momentarily at a loss for words and pondered the idea for a long time before saying "David, are you implying that there is a renegade within Mossad. Someone who has interpreted suggestions that came up in our meetings and took a personal initiative right here under our nose."
David immediately rejected this idea "Haim, there is no way that this could happen here without your knowledge. But what if former Mossad agents were behind this? What if your ex-deputy, Segan, who was driven away with disgrace, decided to do something like this? He could be doing this to redeem his reputation, to undermine the interests of Israel as a means of seeking revenge for his dishonorable discharge or even because he is just out of his mind."