Emerald (37 page)

“Avi, It’s good to see you. How is Baraq?”

“I am fat and sassy and my bolt of lightning is running around loose somewhere, I don’t know, but you can be sure he will flash in here as soon as he hears that you are back in town. Are you going to be here long? Isn’t it time you settled down and got pregnant like the rest of us cows.”

Sitting at the bar Miriam giggled. “No, my leash is only as long as a couple of days, and I haven’t found anyone worthy of my fabled loins, since you ask. How about pouring me one of those hideous beers you and Baraq make out in the back alley somewhere.”

Avi got a dark bottle out of the cooler, popped the top, and as she handed it to Miriam, she laughed and said, “You can be so cutting when you haven’t had any loving for a long time.”

“How do you know it’s been a long time, girl?”

“Tell me; tell me, quickly before your straight laced brother shows up.”

After a long pull at the amber bottle, Miriam responded, “There’s nothing to tell, girl. I’ve decided to become a virgin and lead a life white as snow.”

“Yeh, I bet! Anymore lies like that one and you’ll grow a tail and swing from the trees.”

Before the friendly banter and laughter rose to a fever pitch, a tall, olive-skinned, good-looking man walked into the Café, grabbed Miriam in a great bear-hug, and lifted her off her feet.

“My little sister. Bar hopping even before your come and say hello to your brother.”

Almost unable to breathe in his crushing hug, she struggled, and finally responded, “Jacob, you know you won’t let anyone into your studio before four o’clock. The last time I tried that you threw a ball of clay at me.”

Putting her down on the bar stool, he sat next to her as Avi placed a beer bottle in front of him.

“Avi, what will Sara say when I come home smelling of a brewery before supper? But I guess I can celebrate my little sister’s visit with one of you infamous brews”

Just then a bushy bearded, bear of a man came bounding into the café and walked up behind Miriam and threw his arms around her and in a deep bass voice asked, “Why are you sitting here with this wizen, string bean, when I am on the loose.”

Jacob jabbed the huge man in the ribs and responded, “Your sure on the loose, that’s right, and be careful with my little sister or you’ll crush every one of her ribs.

In another half-hour of friendly chatter and laughing, the small bar-café was filling up and Jacob and Miriam bid good-by and walked hand in hand out into the bright sunshine and along a stone path to the small stone house that she loved so well.

“How long can you stay, little sister?

“I’m not sure. Probably only a day or so.”

“The Office’s still got you on a short leash still? Where are you off to next?”

“Come on now, Jacob, you know better than to ask questions like that.”

Jacob pushed open the small iron gate in the stone wall covered with ruby Bougainvillea. They walked up to path and as they entered the cottage a voice cried out from inside, “I thought you two would never get here. Jacob, you wash up, supper’s almost ready. Miriam, come her to my kitchen and give me a hand with my baba ghanouj. The two women hugged like long lost schoolchildren and scurried around the kitchen dancing and giggling.

After supper and the table cleared, Jacob brought the unfinished second bottle of wine out to the stone patio behind the house and sank into an easy chair. Miriam and Arella soon joined him and as the evening grew quietly dark, they sipped the dusty wine with small talked until the chill chased them inside.

As she lay on the saggy bed in the guest room, before she dropped of the edge of sleep, Miriam thought, I want this life! It is time to make a break!

Back on King Saul Boulevard David and Miriam had settled into a calm platonic relationship being together while maintaining a polite civility. Levi had long ago guessed that the two had once been in love. However, the warm quality between them was missing. It did not really matter. Levi felt sure they were capable of pulling off the upcoming assignment because they had done so well in Munich.

“When we confirmed that both Neuschondorf and Gottschlag came from the Klement Compound, in Buenos Aires, we resolved to penetrate it,” Levi began.

“Excuse me Levi!” Miriam interjected. “David, do you remember that report Ringo sent us about the Klement Compound - - - you know, some time back?”

“Yes, I remember reading that, but we never did any follow up on it. It was back when we were green; we’d never overlook that now, huh?”

“As soon as we leave here, I’ll send a communiqué to Ringo.”

“That’s good, Miriam,” Levi commented, “but you’re going to meet Ringo face to face in a few weeks. I am going to send you two down to Argentina to look into that group. Now we have to figure out who will go with you to Buenos Aries. Both of you will have full command over the operation, assigning each task. Check with Ringo though. I don’t know which of our agents runs the computer system there. Find out how many agents he can let us have. We’ll need at least eight. Remember there will be no discussion on the details of the operation itself.”

“Okay, Levi. Can you explain exactly what we are to do there?” she asked.

“You and David are going to help me develop a plan. All I am at liberty to say now is we will get inside their compound so we can plant bugs all over and hear everything that goes on there. Talk about bugging a place! This will be the granddaddy of them all.

“How will we get inside, Levi” David inquired.

“That’s the primary problem we have to overcome, David, the goal that you will be free to modify after we see the layout and fully understand the obstacles.”

David was still seeing no way this assignment would work out.

Levi continued. “We must make all that goes on in that compound transparent. We have looked on from afar long enough. Now we need to find out what preparations are being made there for this anti-Jewish movement we keep hearing about in Germany. We think that compound may just be the planning base for the rise in Nazi furor in Europe. Why did four people show up in Munich a few years ago? Why did one leave then return from Geneva? Why do they have a full training field in their compound? How many are they training, and for what? All questions that need answering. Most importantly, our sadistic slasher, Hans, came directly from there, many years ago and he’s still out doing evil and we can’t catch him!” Levi’s voice had elevated as he talked. “How is he evading capture? What did they teach him that he could become so invisible to us? When we answer these questions we can put a stop to the killing of civilians and our agents!”

Levi rose from his chair, filled with adrenalin and rage. “As for Hans, Servette has come up with nothing in Geneva. Interpol has come up with nothing, and for sure, Beinschmidt isn’t cooperating in Munich - - - at least with anything that he will share - - - the bastard! Therefore, the burden rests with us to capture the creep who is murdering our people. We believe Hans has some kind of special protection because of his connection with the Klement Compound and his rise in Buenos Aires as a wealthy and philanthropic businessman. But is that all there is to him? There are many questions to be answered and I’m sure they will lead to even more, but we will explore those, too. We’re going to get that son of a bitch. We have to become as sneaky as he is. We must get inside and stay inside with our bugs until this mystery is cleared up and the Nazi compound is put out of commission.”

David and Miriam looked at each other, then at him. Neither had seen Levi so worked up. Suddenly he began wheezing and coughing.

“We’re with you, Levi.” David stood up and put his hand on Levi’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

Miriam also rose from the couch. “Levi, we will do our best. Can we resume tomorrow? I have to get a lot of information from the Buenos Aries hub so we can come up with a working plan.”

Levi recovered. “Of course. I have some things to go over, too. I will see you both tomorrow.” He walked over and slumped heavily into his desk chair.

David and Miriam walked out heading towards the computer lab. “I feel the same as Levi. I’m ready to carve that bastard up the way he carves up his victims ever since he shot me!”

“That’s understandable, David, but we have to find him first. Maybe the compound is providing some kind of protection for him. Now I see why we’ve been assigned to this mission!”

“I don’t see how we’re ever going to get inside - - - I’m so damned angry!”

“Maybe just drop a bomb and be done with it. You think we could really get away with that, David?”

“Could we make it look like an accident? I don’t know, Miriam, I’m too mad to think straight.”

Hans’ research on David Bernstein led nowhere. He discovered David’s age was thirty-five, his residence listed only as Tel Aviv, but no street information, and the university he was attending, but nothing more. He must be deep undercover, Hans concluded. He couldn’t decide if David was a double agent or if Bruno was. Solving this dilemma filled the majority of his time thinking, investigating, spying on the Chief. He would get to the bottom of things with him while he was still in Munich. It would eventually lead him to David. Just a few more months, then he’d get his emerald. Maybe then, he’d go to Australia, marry Miriam, and retire in luxury for the rest of his life, if he could just hold on that long.

For Hans, boredom was the most punishing thing he could endure. It only lead to deeper research on the Mossad and its operations. He had decided they were definitely the Jewish equivalent of the Nazi SS. He had researched them, too and learned enough about how both organizations operated so that he was awed that he had never been close to capture. It must be my lucky emerald that has kept me safe, he concluded.

He got in his car to wait for a call from
them
, waving at Tom as he reversed out of his driveway. Tom motioned that he wanted to talk, but Hans, disguised as Mike, pretended not to see. He stopped at the top of the hill, and removed his Mike disguise then put on a very elderly-looking facial apparatus that had the shaggiest wrinkles of any he had worn. No one bothers an old man, Hans thought.

Out of habit, he drove by the Munich Police Department. Nothing going on there. Last time he had caught a glimpse of the Chief with some Spanish-looking woman in the parking lot. She was showing him pictures of something and Bruno must have liked her because he was laughing. He saw him put his hand at the small of her back as he guided her inside the station. It wasn’t his wife. Maybe he was having an affair. He’d stay closer and follow him home in the evenings for a while to find out more. If Bruno left to go out after the evening meal he would follow him then, too.

At the next meeting of the GRS, Bruno brought up the Whittelsbach Emerald mystery to Gottschlag and Neuschondorf, and reached into his briefcase for his Huber Family Tree file. He looked up at the men quizzically and resumed searching again, angrily pulling every paper from the case, and piling them on the table. Suddenly, with fire in his eyes he screamed, “Somebody has been in my briefcase! The file on the Hubers was here. It’s where I’ve kept it since I got it from Brunner.”

“Who could have taken it?” Neuschondorf asked.