“I wouldn’t think we’d be out for more than a couple days, three at the most,” Dani replied. She sat down on a bar stool on the opposite side of the kitchen island and just watched Stonewall as he seemingly danced about the kitchen. Clearly, the kitchen was his world and she a mere spectator. However, she had to admit, watching Stonewall in the kitchen without a shirt was very seductive.
“Have to agree with you there. Just how far is it up to Camp Yitzhak?” Stonewall asked.
“It’s something like two, two and a half hours, but we’ve got plenty of time. I think I’m going to wash up real quick. I’ll be right out,” Dani said over her shoulder to Stonewall as she walked into their bedroom.
“You sure about that?” Stonewall replied with his back to her as he continued with breakfast, setting out a carton of eggs, half a dozen potatoes, and a New York steak they had planned on having that evening.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” she replied in a much more subdued voice and coming from their living room, clearly catching Stonewall off guard.
He turned around to see her leaning against the end of the ebony baby grand piano in the corner of the living room, wearing nothing but the Lion of Judah Mezuzah pendant necklace he had given her when they moved into the apartment, and acutely aware of the picture she presented. The sterling silver pendant, which hung vertically from a silver chain and featured an inlaid eighteen karat gold lion, hung just above her breasts which, while not large, accentuated a perfectly sculptured figure with her washboard abs and perfectly toned legs. Her olive complexion, which still retained some of her workout glow, and long thick raven hair, now cascading down behind her shoulders, accented a figure that rivaled that of Artemis.
“My God, you’re beautiful,” Stonewall exclaimed as he approached her. “Sure your name isn’t Diana instead of Dani?”
“Well, you’ll just have to find out for yourself. But, you’re quite the Adonis, yourself, you know,” Dani replied as she reached to untie his shorts.
“Does that bother you much?” Dani asked Stonewall as they reclined on their bed.
“What’s that?”
“Your eye and the scar across the left side of your face?”
“Nah, I mean, initially, it sure did but that was more fear of the unknown. I got hit in northern Iraq and Ferro patched me up as best he could but I was really banged up. At some point, I lost consciousness and then woke up in Landstuhl, Germany, with the entire left side of my face covered in bandages. Of course, my left arm and shoulder were totally immobilized as well. As you can tell, they got carved up pretty good, too. But now, a few years later, I don’t even think about it. People are going to accept me for who I am regardless. However, I would think, from a woman’s perspective, that scar across your left arm and side here,” Stonewall said, as he traced the scar that ran below her left breast with his fingers, “would be more of an issue than mine. I mean, your Victoria’s Secret modeling career is over,” he teased.
“Oh, please, I need something a little more challenging than that,” Dani replied as she threw a pillow at him. “But you’re right, every time I’m in a bikini at the beach, there’s no escaping it. And, yeah, at first it was an issue but now, it’s just part of the job. Well, I’m going to hit the shower,” she continued as she got off the bed and walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open.
“Yeah, we probably need to get going,” Jackson agreed as he headed into the kitchen and put the steak and eggs back in the refrigerator. He then headed back into the bedroom.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Dani playfully asked him as he joined her in the shower.
“Well, we both need a shower.”
“I see,” she replied wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a rather passionate kiss while the water flowed over the two of them.
“Okay, we really need to get going,” Dani said as they both exited the shower.
“I’ll finish up with breakfast and then work on getting everything ready. I still need to check in with Jim as well and see how things are back home. It doesn’t sound good.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Okay, I’ll give him a call as soon as I’m finished in the kitchen.”
“Give me a few minutes and I’ll be out.”
“You got it,” Jackson replied. Five minutes later, Dani emerged from the bedroom wearing a pair of khaki cargo pants and a black T-shirt.
“Good timing, breakfast is almost ready. So, Hezbollah. Have you worked on them that much?” Jackson asked.
“No, I haven’t. We took our team into Lebanon several times looking for any information we could dig up on Iran in the past few years but I’ve never spent much time studying them. Why?”
“I haven’t spent a lot of time on them, either, but how does a regional terrorist group like Hezbollah get the moxie to send a couple hundred scuds on four container ships and then coordinate an attack like this? Something’s not adding up. Tamir’s statement that ‘they have connections’ is pretty loaded.”
“That it is but Tamir knows what he’s talking about. He wouldn’t even mention something like that if he didn’t have some solid evidence. However, if it is Hezbollah, you can bet they had help. There goes your phone. I bet its Jim.”
“You’re right,” Jackson said checking his cell phone laying on the kitchen island. “Jim, we just left Tamir. He filled us in on everything.”
“Anything solid?”
“Dani seems to think so,” Jackson replied.
“Hi, Jim,” Dani said. “Tamir’s convinced its Hezbollah and that they obviously had some help. He hasn’t indicated who helped them but I think he has a pretty good idea.”
“Does he have any evidence?” Jim asked rather abruptly.
“He didn’t say, but I wouldn’t think he’d have even mentioned that without something to back it up,” Dani replied.
“Okay, thanks Dani. I’ll be talking with Tamir shortly. Stonewall, what are you up to right now?”
“We’re heading up to Palmyra looking for four Israeli pilots shot down last night. Not sure how long we’ll be up there but don’t expect to be too long.”
“Okay, as soon as you’re back, clear your schedule and give me a call. I need you digging into this, probably up in the Latakia area.”
IV
“Mr. President, I’m terribly sorry to hear of what happened yesterday,” Russian Ambassador Dimitri Chekov said as he entered the Oval Office.
“Thank you for that, Dimitri,” President Barre replied.
“I’d offer any assistance you might need but I’m sure you have things well under control.”
“I appreciate that, and in that spirit, I’d like to know why two of the ships involved in yesterday’s attack were Russian. As you can see from these photos, the two ships here, the MV Admiral Ushakov and the MV Tibor Szamueli, which each launched fifty missiles, are clearly flying a Russian flag.”
“Mr. President, I can assure you, my government had nothing to do with this attack,” Chekov replied, clearly surprised by the photos.