Evira was barely hearing him. A classic strategem was being employed. The insurgent cells in Teheran had been infiltrated by Israelis.
What have I stumbled upon here? Israelis posing as students in Tehran?
A large group that had settled in the area and then departed, possibly leaving some of their number in place.
“Do you want to see your surprise?” Kourosh was asking.
She nodded, and he went back to tearing the brown bag apart until he could gently lift the contents from inside and hold them out for her to see.
“What do you think?”
She looked at him speechless, for her means of access to the royal palace and Hassani were before her.
Kourosh was holding the uniform of a palace servant.
The two women approached the heavy front door of the stone house in Falmouth, England, unconcerned about being seen. Clearly the house was too isolated for neighbors to be a problem, and if someone had unexpectedly been in the vicinity one of them would have felt their presence earlier.
The smaller of the two led the way, the larger one bringing up the rear with the graceful menace of a jungle cat. She was exceedingly tall for a woman, six inches over six feet not counting the boots she was never without. She moved soundlessly, except for the slight creaking of her skin-tight leather pants and matching waist-length jacket. Her hair was cut close and sharply edged in punk style, with wisps jutting in every direction. The smaller woman had a tomboy haircut but was dressed like a schoolgirl in plaid skirt and green sweater. Her persistent smile seemed as false as the larger one’s ever-present scowl looked natural.
The door opened just as the two women began ascending the steps.
“What are you two doing here?” It was the puzzled voice of the Arab power broker Mohammed Fett.
“We have come for the boy,” the smaller one said.
“Ah, Tilly,” Fett said, “you are too late. He was moved to the other location two days ago.”
“Other location,” the taller one echoed.
“On whose orders?” Tilly asked.
“Rasin’s, of course.”
Tilly turned behind her to the large figure in black leather. “Lace, did you hear what he said?”
“Regrettable,” Lace said. She stepped forward until she was next to Tilly.
“What’s wrong?” Fett asked.
“Rasin sent us to kill the boy,” Lace told him.
“What?” the flabbergasted Fett exclaimed, and then he realized what had happened. “Evira! It must have been Evira’s doing. Of course! She must have — But I know where he was taken. I can send you there.”
Lace shook her head. “He won’t be there any longer.”
“You shouldn’t have been so careless,” Tilly added immediately.
“It’s all right,” Fett assured them, stepping out onto the porch. “I’ll alert my people. The boy will be found, I assure you.”
“Yes,” Lace said as her hands darted up from her hips and closed on Fett’s head. “He will.”
With that she lifted Fett effortlessly off the stone until his head was even with hers and his toes were dangling. He was still trying to speak when she twisted his head violently to the right. There was a snap, and his whole body spasmed. Lace pressed him close against her then to feel his final breath against her face as it fled from his dangling body. He was suddenly quite cold.
“Fool,” she said, and tossed him aside. She felt very hot. “Tilly,” she called.
The smaller woman opened the door and passed through ahead of Lace, who dragged Fett’s body behind her. She placed him in a chair and arranged him so he could watch what transpired with his dead eyes. There were only two things Lace enjoyed doing, and it was nice when they could be done in sequence, for that heightened the pleasure of both. She kissed the corpse once on the lips and turned to find Tilly already on the floor with her skirt and panties torn off and fingers stroking her vagina.
“It was beautiful, Lace,” she said to her friend, who was pulling off her leather jacket. “Beautiful.”
“Like you, Tilly. Like you.”
And then Lace was on top of her. Their mouths met in a hot passion as Lace’s hand replaced Tilly’s over her clitoris. The smaller woman’s fingers raked through the stubbly blond hair of her partner, as the dead eyes of Fett looked on.
“Beautiful,” they said almost in unison.
Chapter 15
McCracken and Patty Hunsecker spent six miserable hours atop RUSS before the navy search planes out of Guam finally spotted them late Monday afternoon. Blaine greeted their universal drop-wing signal that they’d sighted him with no small degree of relief; he had feared days more would pass before they found him. He also knew that Patty could not go much longer without medical attention. When she failed to come to during their first hours at sea, Blaine feared she had slipped into a coma.
Dusk was fast approaching when a jet-powered helicopter, adorned with navy colors, hovered over them and lowered a line. McCracken sent Patty up ahead of him and found her already being worked on by paramedics when he joined her inside the cabin.
“Guam,” he told the pilot with a healthy smirk. “And step on it.”
Patty Hunsecker regained consciousness in the early hours of Tuesday morning after being hospitalized at the naval base. Blaine was at her side when she awoke, glad for the opportunity to talk before he had to leave the island.
“Managed to save RUSS, though,” he said, after doing his best to apologize for what he had cost her. “Crew on the chopper wasn’t exactly overjoyed.”
“I’m sure you didn’t give them much choice.”
“I was a perfect gentleman about it. Merely threatened to break their fingers one by one.”
“How’d you explain to the Navy what happened?”
“Some double-talk about an explosion. It’ll hold long enough for me to sneak off the island.”
“Probably help if I backed you up.”
“The thought had crossed my mind.”
“Just tell me what you told them.”
When he was finished, Blaine’s tone turned apologetic. “When all this is over I’ll make sure the government picks up the tab to re-outfit you.”
“How do you plan on managing that?” she asked, skeptically.
“Let’s just say they owe me lots of favors. In the meantime, why don’t you rest up at Bel Air? Get reacquainted with your family. They really are concerned.”
“You spoke with them?”
“In your condition I thought next of kin should be advised.”
“You’re a bastard, McCracken.”
“Go home, Patty.”
“Stop running, you mean.”
He took her hand. “I have to go.”
“But you waited until I regained consciousness.”
“It was the proper thing to do.”
“And if it had taken another day?”
Blaine shrugged.
“You’re a strange man, McCracken.”
“I do my best.”
The Mossad chief, Isser, conferred with the prime minister of Israel at least once a day and often more frequently than that. Seldom, though, did they meet in person because of the security problems posed by Isser’s secret identity. The head of Mossad needed anonymity to perform his duties and never compromised that if it was at all possible.
Today it wasn’t. Isser had requested an in-person meeting and the prime minister was wise enough not to ask why. They met in the older man’s private study in his home. He had feigned illness earlier in the day to establish the ruse, and Isser was waiting for him when he stepped through the door, white hair flung wildly across his scalp and still wearing his bathrobe. The sickness might have been a ruse, but Isser felt saddened by how stooped his shoulders had become, how frail and old he looked.