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A very pleased CIA Director informed his President of a successful conclusion to the mission.

Sam and Rebecca sailed through customs and immigration. Their false identities worked perfectly. As Rebecca pointed at the link that would take her to her internal flight to Nice, it was time to say farewell. Sam was about to say goodbye when he thought better of it. He was a United States serviceman, retired but ultimately the job being undertaken by Rebecca was to safeguard the US and, as such, he had a duty to assist. He had already discovered that James Lawson was spending the day and evening with the president, so he was going to be hanging about in any event.

“How far is Nice?”

“About 90 minutes,” replied Rebecca.

“So I could be back in Paris in plenty of time for a midnight visit to Mr Lawson?”

Rebecca smiled. “I don’t see why not!”

While Sam bought a ticket to accompany her to Nice, she called Ben. The news was not good. He informed her of the bombing of Baker’s hideaway, assuring her that he had nothing whatsoever to do with it. He then brought her up to speed on Deif.

Rebecca watched as Sam paid for his ticket. She didn’t want him to leave. For the first time in a very long time, she was enjoying someone else’s company. If she told him about the bombing, he would leave immediately. She would hold off until after the job in Nice, she thought. Then she’d tell him.

“Everything OK?”

“Perfect. He’s still there, a team from the Paris office have been watching him.”

“What, they’ve not taken him in?”

“Oh no, he’s mine. I made someone promise me a long time ago that I would be allowed to take this guy down.”

“We’ll be there by 12.30 and the last flight back is at 20.55, , so you’ve got me for another eight hours.”

“Excellent,” beamed Rebecca, fighting her better judgment.

Having managed to secure his seat at the last minute, Sam was forced to sit next to a rather loud and annoying Brit who, by 11 am, was already on his fourth G and T and about whom, by the end of the flight, Sam knew pretty much everything. He was in shipping and had decided somewhat belatedly to take a last minute holiday down to Cannes. He’d been in business in Paris and just thought, sod it, what’s the point. He’d spent the last month trying to find a ship that could get a shipment from China to France, anywhere in France and had failed. In the middle of a worldwide recession, he couldn’t get hold of a boat. God alone knew where they all were. As far as he was aware, nobody had been able to find a ship for months, they were all at bloody sea. Of course they were at bloody sea, he had screamed as he recounted the story to Sam, they’re ships, that’s where they’re supposed to be! Anyway, with no ships to hire he’d thought sod it, a week in the sun and I’ll worry about it when I get back.

Sam was very happy to reacquaint himself with Rebecca who laughed as he recounted his ear bashing. She, on the other hand, had sat next to the most charming gentleman who had offered her a trip on his yacht if she were free over the next few days.

Sam couldn’t help feeling the tiniest bit jealous as he thought Rebecca may be interested in the offer. He was very much relieved when she added the creep had given her a card after kissing her hand. She promptly produced the card and threw it in the nearest bin.

A small toot alerted Rebecca to the Paris Head who was waiting for her in a small Renault Twingo. As far as Sam was concerned, all European cars were small but the French and Italians had, it seemed, made it an art-form. Sam squeezed into the back, all six foot two of him, into a space meant for what Sam could only assume was a small child under the age of five. Rebecca introduced Sam as a colleague and left it at that. Sam noticed the demeanor of the Mossad Paris Head who would be considered very senior within Mossad. Rebecca was very obviously his senior.

The Paris Head briefed them both on the way to Deif’s location, some 60km away, in a small coastal village called Anthéor. The villa was, as the Head described, rather spectacular. Set on the top of a small cliff, it was very secluded and extremely secure with only two points of entry. The main gate and a set of stairs that led up from a private beach to the main house some 50 meters up the cliff. His men had used a boat and gone as near as they dare without being spotted. An eight-foot gate protected the entry point at the beach. The whole perimeter was surrounded by a security wall topped with razor wire. Its owner was a wealthy Arab, not on any watch lists, well, until then, of course. His name was Yousif Fayyad.

“Jesus, all sounds a bit extreme.”

“Actually it’s fairly standard down here. Most of these villas sit empty for eleven months of the year. Burglars used to have a field day but not anymore.”

“So what’s the plan?” asked Sam.

“Simple, we’re going to walk right up to the front door and invite ourselves in.”

Sixty minutes later and after securing some handguns from the team on site, Rebecca and Sam, wearing shorts and t-shirts, did exactly that.

Rebecca rang the bell next to the gate and waited for an answer. It never came. She knew Deif was still there. She rang again and again, making it clear she wasn’t leaving.

“What?” came the gruff voice in very poor French.

Rebecca had spotted the camera and knew she was being watched. “Yousif, it’s me, I thought I saw you were there,” she answered in perfect Palestinian Arabic.

“Yousif is not here, I am a friend,” he continued to speak in French.

“A friend of Yousif, is a friend of mine! I am Noor, buzz me in. Yousif always lets us use his pool,” she switched to French with an Arabic accent.

“I’m sorry, I’m busy,” replied Deif, again keeping to French.

“That’s OK, we’ll be quiet, I promise.”

“Look, I’m very sorry but I’m very busy.”

“Well I’m just going to stay here until you let us in.”

Sam was embarrassed at her persistence and that was despite knowing why they were there.

Deif gave in and hit the buzzer. He didn’t want to attract attention and if she kept up her theatrics that was exactly what she was going to do. He didn’t want to kill one of Yousif’s friends; particularly one so cute but he had no choice. He had warned them but their persistence was their downfall. He could not be exposed. He’d deal with those two idiots and move to one of his alternative safe houses. Italy was just as nice this time of year, he thought. He walked towards the door and held it open slightly. The silenced pistol was hidden by the door. As soon as they got inside, he’d kill them.

She really was very beautiful he thought. Yousif was going to be very pissed off. He had always liked the ladies and could imagine this one was one of his favorites. Both laughed and joked as they neared the house. Deif actually felt quite guilty as he began to open the door to Yousif’s friends who were just looking to laze by a beautiful pool.

If he had to tell you what happened next, he’d swear he had no idea. One moment he was opening the door and preparing to shoot the two as they walked in and the next, he was lying on the floor, his arm most obviously broken as the pain and angle of his elbow joint proclaimed.

It had been quite simple. As they neared the door, Rebecca had begun to remove her t-shirt, catching Deif’s attention. Sam launched himself at the door and smashed through it and Deif like a tornado. Deif crashed to the floor and landed on his arm in a most unnatural position, instantly blacking out as the pain overwhelmed his nervous system.

He woke up to find his arm hanging limply and the pain searing through him. The very beautiful woman was staring at him with nothing short of absolute rage and it seemed was being restrained with some difficulty by the man. Deif was in trouble, a great deal of trouble.

Saul kicked off his boots and sat back in his chair. He had refused to work late. He needed to be home that evening. His daughter was coming over with their granddaughter and they had not seen nor heard from them since the blackout. All communications had now been out of action for a week. His wife normally spoke to his daughter twice a day. To say she was looking forward to the visit would have been an understatement and something Saul had been assured by his wife, in a tone that left no room for maneuver, he did not want to miss.

Saul had heard snippets from other dock workers that the blackout was not just in the Haifa area, contrary to what the police and army had informed them. Rumor was spreading that it was in fact the whole of Israel that had no communications. His daughter worked for the Intelligence Department and he was very keen to know what her take was on the situation. If anything untoward was really going on, she would know. Only that day, Saul had talked to one of the truck drivers, something the army were keen to avoid but when you’ve got to go to the bathroom, you’ve got to go! He had told Saul that Tel-Aviv was also blacked out, no phones, TV, radio, nothing. He said it was like living in the 1800s. So it was confirmed, Haifa was not on its own. If Tel-Aviv was out, the rumors about the whole country were probably true. Saul began to piece everything together. The massive increase in work at the docks, the total lack of communications across the country, the lack of food. They weren’t heading for war, he thought, they were already at war! He prayed for his sons and wondered if they were even alive.

He watched and waited for the door to open but nothing. His daughter and granddaughter never arrived. They couldn’t call to check where they were. They couldn’t contact the hospitals or police to find out if she was OK. They just sat there and at midnight, turned out the light and went to bed. Neither slept. His wife cried into her pillow while Saul grieved for his perhaps already dead sons.

At 2 a.m., both were startled by a knock at the door. Saul feared the worst. His worst nightmare had come true. He rushed to the door pulling on his dressing gown and undid the dead bolt. A key turned on the other side and his daughter stood in front of him.

“Jesus, Dad, you don’t need a bloody deadlock. What’s the point of me having a key if you deadbolt the door?”

Saul reached out to hug his daughter but was unceremoniously shoved out of the way by his wife who, on hearing her daughter’s voice careered towards her, arms outstretched. After almost squeezing the life out of her, she set about preparing her a plate of food for her “too skinny” daughter who wasn’t looking after herself properly.

Satisfied that her daughter was not dying from anorexia and getting all of the news on her grand-daughter, she eventually let Saul find out the news on what was happening to the country.

“I’m afraid I know very little,” she said, trying to answer her father’s tirade of questions which all came down to two - what was happening and was there any news on her brothers? “Every day we go through a list of action plans, it’s like some massive project. We each have very specific duties and none of us know what the others are doing but the workload is massive. I didn’t get finished until gone midnight tonight and I’m due back at 6.00 a.m. It really is crazy.”

“And your brothers?” prompted Saul.

“They’re fine,” she answered nonchalantly. She was more interested in unloading her issues. “My department’s moving in the next day or so. We don’t know where to yet, maybe one of those new fancy buildings in Jerusalem.”

“What? The whole department?”

“Yep, in fact we’re the last ones left. All five floors below us are now empty.”

“It seems everyone is moving!” blurted Saul’s wife.

Both looked at her. “What do you mean?” asked Saul.

“The supermarket. Every day I go. It’s the only way to get food. Anyway, every day, the line is shorter and shorter. When I ask where so and so is, I just get a ‘oh they moved away’ but nobody ever knows where!”

Saul looked at his daughter in search of an answer but she simply shrugged her shoulders adding. “I’m stuck inside an office all day long. People are in their beds when I go to work and when I get home.”

The more they talked, the more mysterious it all became. Eventually, as she was leaving, Saul returned to her brothers.

“So have you heard from your brothers?”

“Not since they went overseas!” she replied, opening the door.

“When did they go overseas?” both parents asked in unison.

“Months ago,” she replied.

“No, you’re mistaken,” said Saul taking a note from the side table in the entrance hallway and passing it to his daughter.

She read it and looked at them in bewilderment. The note was from her brother and showed him pictured on a tank on the Israeli border. She looked at the date, it was just two weeks earlier. Saul handed her another two, likewise, showing her brothers and all dated at a time she knew they had been posted overseas.

“Rebecca, Rebecca! Calm down! You have to remain calm!” Sam held her back but it was futile, the moment he let her go, she’d go straight for Deif.

Deif it seemed had resigned himself to his fate and sat quietly in the small kitchen chair they had perched him on. A small grimace appeared as each wave of pain from his broken arm hit home.