week?”
“I’m hopeful. The director made it abundantly clear that this is a fast-track operation and that time is of the essence.”
“Help me understand it better. This group has a…device, the twin of the one detonated in Somalia…and, what else?”
“He said that the weapons were removed from Iraq during the invasion. By Mossad agents who were inserted during the battle for Baghdad for that purpose – or rather, he believes the devices were removed by them, and that they’d kept quiet about locating them. All three men on the team wound up leaving the service within a year or so after the mission, which was reported as a failure, with nothing found. But now, it appears the operatives weren’t entirely truthful, and for whatever reason, kept the find to themselves.”
“So Saddam actually did have nukes?”
“Apparently so. The intel we got was that he grabbed them during the Kuwait invasion back in 1990. Kuwait purchased them from an ex-Russian KGB colonel who ran a smuggling operation, among other things. Typical Russian mob stuff. Of course, it also might have been the Russian government selling them the devices through the back door, using a deniable cutout. Hard to tell with the way things go over there. Be that as it may, the intelligence suggested that the Iraqis got two Russian suitcase nukes before leaving Kuwait and had them secreted in a bunker somewhere in Baghdad, under heavy guard, in a top secret location. It came from a reliable source – a former party official and confidant of Saddam’s who was negotiating for his life.”
Matt’s eyes roved over the other diners as he fished some peso notes from his pocket and slid them under his saucer.
“Wait. Ex-Mossad agents have been sitting on Russian bombs they stole from Iraq, who in turn stole them from Kuwait, who had them for unknown purposes…and now are nuking Somali scrub? Come again?”
“They don’t have all the pieces yet, but there have been rumors for years of an ultra-conservative group of very powerful Israelis who believe that the country has lost its way and needs to be more aggressive. A clique that makes the hawks there seem mild in their views. About eight years ago, rumors started surfacing about that group having established a dirty-tricks arm – a black-ops division, if you will. Again, we’re dealing with snippets of information and very vague, low-level scuttlebutt. But if that’s the case, and if they’re working with the ex-Mossad agents, and if they have the Russian nukes, well, you can see where it becomes frightening pretty quickly.”
“What’s the objective? I mean, I get that nukes are bad. And in any rogue organization’s hands, disastrous. But what would a bunch of ultra-conservatives want with nukes?”
“That’s a big question mark. The prevailing fear is that they’ll decide to take out a regime they feel is a threat to their interests. That’s the most obvious. Iran comes to mind. There are certainly others. Can you imagine what would happen if a nuke went off in Tehran? It would be a game-changer. Everyone knows that Israel is the only nuclear-equipped nation in the region. So that’s where the blame would fall, and it would be catastrophic.”
“Where are these ex-Mossad operatives located? Do they have any leads?”
“That’s one of the problems. Nobody seems to know.”
“Great. You’re walking into a snake pit of hypotheticals, with no hard answers, and you’re in charge of stopping Armageddon. Tell me there’s a good part to this. Because otherwise, it sounds like you’re in deep shit, and I better start looking for real estate as far from the Middle East as possible. Like maybe Antarctica. Am I missing anything?”
Jet shook her head. “No, that’s about right. The hope is that by the time I get to Israel they’ll have made some progress and we’ll have a trail to follow. Right now, it’s all theoretical, based on hearsay and innuendo.”
“I wouldn’t pick
“I’m hopeful. The director made it abundantly clear that this is a fast-track operation and that time is of the essence.”
“Help me understand it better. This group has a…device, the twin of the one detonated in Somalia…and, what else?”
“He said that the weapons were removed from Iraq during the invasion. By Mossad agents who were inserted during the battle for Baghdad for that purpose – or rather, he believes the devices were removed by them, and that they’d kept quiet about locating them. All three men on the team wound up leaving the service within a year or so after the mission, which was reported as a failure, with nothing found. But now, it appears the operatives weren’t entirely truthful, and for whatever reason, kept the find to themselves.”
“So Saddam actually did have nukes?”
“Apparently so. The intel we got was that he grabbed them during the Kuwait invasion back in 1990. Kuwait purchased them from an ex-Russian KGB colonel who ran a smuggling operation, among other things. Typical Russian mob stuff. Of course, it also might have been the Russian government selling them the devices through the back door, using a deniable cutout. Hard to tell with the way things go over there. Be that as it may, the intelligence suggested that the Iraqis got two Russian suitcase nukes before leaving Kuwait and had them secreted in a bunker somewhere in Baghdad, under heavy guard, in a top secret location. It came from a reliable source – a former party official and confidant of Saddam’s who was negotiating for his life.”
Matt’s eyes roved over the other diners as he fished some peso notes from his pocket and slid them under his saucer.
“Wait. Ex-Mossad agents have been sitting on Russian bombs they stole from Iraq, who in turn stole them from Kuwait, who had them for unknown purposes…and now are nuking Somali scrub? Come again?”
“They don’t have all the pieces yet, but there have been rumors for years of an ultra-conservative group of very powerful Israelis who believe that the country has lost its way and needs to be more aggressive. A clique that makes the hawks there seem mild in their views. About eight years ago, rumors started surfacing about that group having established a dirty-tricks arm – a black-ops division, if you will. Again, we’re dealing with snippets of information and very vague, low-level scuttlebutt. But if that’s the case, and if they’re working with the ex-Mossad agents, and if they have the Russian nukes, well, you can see where it becomes frightening pretty quickly.”
“What’s the objective? I mean, I get that nukes are bad. And in any rogue organization’s hands, disastrous. But what would a bunch of ultra-conservatives want with nukes?”
“That’s a big question mark. The prevailing fear is that they’ll decide to take out a regime they feel is a threat to their interests. That’s the most obvious. Iran comes to mind. There are certainly others. Can you imagine what would happen if a nuke went off in Tehran? It would be a game-changer. Everyone knows that Israel is the only nuclear-equipped nation in the region. So that’s where the blame would fall, and it would be catastrophic.”
“Where are these ex-Mossad operatives located? Do they have any leads?”
“That’s one of the problems. Nobody seems to know.”
“Great. You’re walking into a snake pit of hypotheticals, with no hard answers, and you’re in charge of stopping Armageddon. Tell me there’s a good part to this. Because otherwise, it sounds like you’re in deep shit, and I better start looking for real estate as far from the Middle East as possible. Like maybe Antarctica. Am I missing anything?”
Jet shook her head. “No, that’s about right. The hope is that by the time I get to Israel they’ll have made some progress and we’ll have a trail to follow. Right now, it’s all theoretical, based on hearsay and innuendo.”
“I wouldn’t pick
Similar Books
