Part 21 (1/2)

'Miss Malandra's business in Rome is purely private. I gave her permission to go, I am afraid.'

'As a comrade she has no private business, and you have no right to give such permission. The request should have been reported and permission obtained from me. What is this business?'

'Her father's estate. She was left some land which is being sold, I think.'

'You mean she is rich?'

'There is some money. I don't know how much, comrade Salah.'

'Well, she shall tell us herself when she returns. Understand that, in future, permission to make journeys must always be obtained.'

'Yes, comrade Salah.'

'Now. You wanted a list. Here it is.'

I glanced at the paper he handed me. There were four names on it. One of them was Salah Ya.s.sin, the others I didn't know. I looked up.

'One question I must ask, comrade Salah,'

'What question? You have the list.'

The port authorities may ask to see papers. Will the papers these persons carry have the same names as those on this list?'

'Of course. We are not fools.'

'I only wish to be sure that all the arrangements I make will go smoothly, comrade Salah.'

'Quite right, comrade Michael. No, don't go. And don't stand there. Sit down.'

I obeyed and waited.

'Since you are so anxious that arrangements go smoothly there is another matter you can help us with.'

'Gladly, comrade Salah.'

For some reason my compliance annoyed him.

'Gladly, comrade Salah.' He mimicked my accent as he repeated it and added a servile whine. 'How easily the words come and what a lot of thoughts they hide. I can almost hear them, comrade Michael. I can almost hear them clicking away. What does he want now? What will it mean to me? Can I refuse? How much is it going to cost me? Click, click, click!'

I smiled amiably. 'Force of habit, I am afraid, comrade Salah. As you yourself said, I think like a businessman.' No harm now in reminding him of those lost backgammon games. 'And why not? That is what I am.”

'And therefore superior to the stupid soldier, eh?'

Obviously he had needed no reminder from me about the lost games; they were still rankling. He probably had a slight hangover too.

'I know nothing of the soldier's art, comrade Salah.'

'No, you only see the surface of the plan. A s.h.i.+p, an electronic exploder, charges laid ash.o.r.e. The rest of the work you take for granted. The businessman thinks it all easy.'

'Far from it. I can imagine some of the difficulties.'

He snorted derisively so I went on.

'The explosive for the charges for instance. That had to be obtained and taken across the border into Israel. Not easy at all. Then, it had to be conveyed, disguised as something else no doubt, to a secret dump or dumps. Again not easy. The same is true of the detonators made here and the firing mechanisms. They, too, have had to reach their planned destinations, the right places at the right times. Then the charges have to be a.s.sembled, and, once a.s.sembled, planted without discovery in carefully chosen places. Even a businessman can see the complexities.'

'Very good.' He seemed slightly mollified but he still couldn't let it alone. 'You can imagine difficulties and complexities, but could you find solutions for them? If I ordered you to obtain a hundred airline flight bags, say twenty-five each of four of the airlines using the Tel Aviv airport at Lod, what would you say?'

'Is that what you wish me to do, comrade Salah?'

'If I did wish it what would you say? Bags from Pan-American, Swissair, KLM and Sabena, for example, twenty-five of each. Well?'

'I would say that it would be difficult. I would say that they would have to be stolen.'

”Then you would be wrong.' He was feeling better now. 'Quite wrong. It required careful planning and much thought, but they were all obtained quite legally.'

To contain the charges, I suppose.'

'Naturally. In all those crowded tourist coaches and hotels what could be more innocent than an airline flight bag waiting patiently for its owner to claim it?'

'I thought that all flight bags were searched at Lod.'

He sighed at my ignorance and simplicity. 'Flight bags are searched before Israeli-bound pa.s.sengers board the planes. Obviously ours will not be carried by arriving pa.s.sengers. They are already in the country, ready to be armed and distributed to their final destinations.'

'A most ingenious plan, comrade Salah.' It had, at least, the merit of simplicity. I wondered if Barlev had had the wit to deduce it from my account of the test. Probably not. I wasn't even certain that I had used the description 'flight bag'. I could have just said 'bag'. It had been a Pakistani bag anyway, and the Pakistani airline didn't fly to Israel. If they had used a Swissair or El Al bag I might have cottoned on but they hadn't; and in any case there was nothing I could do about it now. There was no way of getting the word to Barlev, even if it had been useful to do so. What could he have done at that stage? Banning all airline flight bags wouldn't have been a very practical proposition.

'Can you see any weaknesses?'

'None, comrade Salah, absolutely none.' If his organisation and planning were as good as he thought they were, it would be up to the Amalia Howell to inject the necessary weakness into the plan later.

'Unfortunately, not all our affairs go so well. Minor hitches occur. I was speaking to you last night about diesel engines. In that connection you can make yourself useful.'

For a moment I had an absurd vision of myself haggling with the Mercedes-Benz agency in Damascus over the price of a re-conditioned fuel pump. Then he went on.

'Do you know what a Rouad coaster is?'

'Yes, comrade Salah.”

'Good. We have the use of one of these vessels. It is used to bring in supplies from the north.'

'I see.' And I thought I did see. Barlev had said that the PAF received supplies smuggled through Turkey.

'It has a diesel engine.'

'An auxiliary engine you mean?' The Rouad coaster is a schooner, a sailing vessel.

'An engine,' he said firmly. 'We cannot wait for fair winds in our work. It is with that engine that you will concern yourself.'

'This is the one with the defective fuel pump?'

'It was. We are not the fools you seem to think. Your brilliant suggestion that a new pump should be installed had been antic.i.p.ated. The new pump has already been fitted. However, the engine still does not work properly.'