Julia said "I had only heard rumors about this face recognition algorithm and had no idea that it was used against Israeli citizens who were not on a police "most wanted" list."
David smiled "Julia, you are so young, so naïve and so beautiful that it makes me ache". In fact, David was a bit younger than Julia, but he felt like the older of the two.
She smiled at the compliment and said "Well, I agree with the last part of your sentence and we'll have to see if your ache can be somehow relieved."
After they had satisfied their hunger pangs and unwound a little with a glass of cognac the conversation became more personal. David told her, without being prompted "You have probably heard on our grapevine that my relationship with Orna is over."
Julia laughed quietly and said "This is common knowledge in Mossad gossip. I am now officially divorced after quite a long period of not having an effective marriage."
This was hardly earth shattering news to David who was aware of the extremely high divorce rate among Mossad employees. The circumstances of their work often made them find themselves in strange countries and unusual situations where normal family life was impossible to maintain. Julia didn't beat around the bush and asked him "What are your plans for the night? Have you booked a hotel?"
David just smiled "I am completely free and at your service until the morning flight back to Tel-Aviv".
They exited the pub together and took a taxi to Julia's apartment where they spent the night satisfying each other's needs and releasing the tension that their jobs induced.
Before boarding his flight to Tel-Aviv David called Shimony's office and set an appointment. An official car was waiting for him at the airport and rushed him directly to Mossad head's office. David reported the deal he had made with Sam and Ruby and although Shimony was not pleased with the de facto pardon given to the two former field agents he complied and called in his secretary to attend to the issuance of two new passports. He asked David if they had chosen their new names and David smiled and said that they wanted to be known as Anna and Kristoff Berliner. He laughed and said that the first names were probably influenced by the main characters in Disney's animated film Frozen and the last name by their city of residence. Shimony failed to see anything funny in the selected names and said that Elsa and Hans would be more appropriate for that particular couple.
Shimony instructed David to hand over the passports only after getting the information he sought about the operations of Segan's firm. The passports were ready the next day — Mossad had good connections with the passport office in the Ministry of the Interior — after all they were one of its best customers, and were always in a rush to get the passports they needed. David made sure that the Mossad experts doctored the passports so it appeared that they were issued in Tel-Aviv 24 months earlier and that they contained a few stamped pages of leaving and entering Israel as well as several other countries outside the European Community. On second thought he reckoned that it would have been simpler to take two passports that were seized by Mossad and switch the photos and personal details to those of the personas requested by Sam and Ruby. Of course, this could also be done with passports from other countries, not only with Israeli passports.
Chapter 10
David's flight to Berlin was uneventful and he managed to take a short nap between the incessant interruptions for meals, duty free items, announcements by the captain that they were over this country or mountain range and the preparation for landing. David particularly disliked the film clip explaining how to buckle the seat belt and what to do in case the plane had to land on water (bend forward with your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye, was what he thought more appropriate). He even had a stronger dislike, not to say revulsion, from the older planes in which the cabin attendants (stewards and stewardesses to the older generation of passengers) actually stood in the aisle and clicked the seat belt closed and released it as if it was some kind of ancient ritual (it was). To him it was like the stories his grandfather had told about crossing the equator on board a cruise ship and the passengers who dipped in the swimming pool and were adorned in symbolic feathers and received a certificate for being fearless travelers. He had also heard that a similar ritual, this time in freezing water, was customary for those sailing to Antarctica and crossing the Southern Polar Circle. At least in that case they had to brave the freezing water to earn their free glass of cheap cognac.
Anyway the reception he received from Julia was as far from freezing as paradise was from hell, that is if you believed those who had been in both places and returned to tell about their experience. He told her briefly that he had to meet privately with Sam and Ruby and that this had to be done without Segan hearing about it, so he asked Julia if she could distract Segan somehow. She said that he would immediately get suspicious if she tried to contact him or have him invited to a social event organized by the Embassy, but she could use one of German colleagues from the BND to summon him under some excuse like checking his resident status or that his office complied with the fire regulations. David liked the idea and said that he would inform her when his meeting with Sam and Ruby was to take place so she could set things in motion.
The call to Sam's private cell phone was answered by the voice mail box. David left a short message with his prepaid phone number and waited for the return call. A couple of hours later he received a call with a cryptic message that the owner of the phone will be out of town for the next two days. He told Julia about that and suggested that they both pay a visit to the couple's apartment just in case Ruby was there.
When they reached the apartment building they saw a light in one of the windows but when they knocked on the door there was no reply although they could hear sounds that must have come from a radio or television set. Julia pulled a small leather wallet out of her purse and within 15 seconds the Yale lock on the apartment door opened with a soft click. David called "Hello, is anyone home?" and when there was no response stepped through the living room and checked the bedroom and bathroom before calling Julia to join him. There were no signs of Ruby being in the apartment. Julia shrugged and said that the couple must have left the light and radio on with a timer in order to deter burglars or simply confuse whoever tried to follow them. David responded that they were much too sophisticated for this naïve ploy. They surveyed the apartment meticulously and David spotted a small camera lens inside the smoke detector. He pointed at it and said to Julia "Smile, you are on candid camera" and then waved his hand at the camera in a silent salute and took off his imaginary hat in a theatrical gesture of respect.
Julia was a bit disgusted with this whole affair and led the way out of the apartment making sure that the Yale lock on the door automatically locked the door behind them. When they were back on the street she asked David how he intended to spend the next two days as the week-end had just started. David grinned at her and said that he needed to spend as much time in bed as possible to catch up on his sleep, and that in any case the weather was getting chilly and an unseasonal cold front was approaching. As soon as they got back to Julia's apartment she went to her laptop and put on Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Snowflakes and suggested that they drink a hot cup of tea spiced with some brandy as an antidote to the snowflakes. David said he preferred the more popular Waltz of the Flowers but Julia responded that she would consider his request in the Spring and meanwhile they had to get away from the snowflakes and what better place than under the warm blankets.