The Sunday meeting had just finished oh the assessment of the Syrian situation, and everybody was shutting down laptops and untangling the mass of power cables. Everybody except Eyal, noted Yaakov, a clear sign he had another topic in mind. He approached Eyal and invited him to his office.
“What’s going on, my friend? Are you not comfortable with our intelligence about the jihadist groups, in the Golan Heights?”
“Not at all, I just had a thought. Do you remember the Sean Ewals story? Did you really buy the CIA’s version of it?”
“Still thinking about that? It’s been more than six months now. Anyways, no, I did not buy it - at least not all of it. I do not see what else we can do though. Greg Russo showed up in person the last time we had the review meeting in Cyprus, he is reporting to the Deputy Director of Operations, so if we think he is a liar we would have to get to the CIA director, just one notch below the President. Which, for us, means placing a call to our foreign minister. And remember they have us on the plank with the two researchers. Is it really worth the trouble?”
“I don’t know, it’s quite strange. First, they confirm our discovery, that Sean is George McKilroy. Then they pretend it is not their cover, but someone else’s, and come up with all the narco evidence, which I have to admit is quite credible, with the girlfriend and the fake burial company. For some reason, though, this billionaire decided to start doing business with drug traffickers and changed lives. And obviously, the business is linked to the companies he was working with, even if we do not see a clear connection. It’s all about these life-extending drugs. What sounds strange is, if it is not from the CIA, why didn’t Greg try to cooperate more openly with us? Are they covering organized crime? There is something they do not want to let us know, but what? I got the feeling, they wanted to drop it and made sure we also dropped it.”
“Indeed,” continued Yaakov, “because from their side they found out that in the Israeli companies Sean was working with, we had two experts in drones and biotechnologies under cover. So they suspect we are passing some sensitive war technology to the narcos. It is not true, but we do not want to enter this conversation with the Americans now. Just like when we started developing nuclear weapons and fighter jets, we have to complete the mission first and then tell our friends.”
“And taking into account that Sean has disappeared into thin air, the assessment is to archive the whole story until some new evidence comes up, if ever,” Eyal completed. “We have no other choices, I agree, yet we should keep our eyes open.”
“What is frightening you so much? You know, Sean never showed up again since you gave him the warning….looks like your scare tactics worked out, at least here.”
“I am just lining up the evidence. We have stumbled across a group powerful enough to operate on a global scale, with access to large financial resources, and the latest biotechnology research. This group has been able to get the protection of big name organizations like the CIA or the narcos, or both, which means they have resources or information that are of real value. And for some reason they have gotten in touch with Erez Yisrael. After two years of research, they are still elusive and we have no clear idea of who they are, what they do, or what they want. Good for you, if you can sleep at night!”
“Well, I would put them two notches above the Syrian jihadists on the danger scale, and 14 notches below the Iranian nuclear program,” Yaakov said with a half smile. “Now, if that makes you feel better, I must issue a note to all our agents and sayanim to report tu us anything unusual or new they find in the drug markets. Deal?”
“Deal,” ended Eyal, “I need a double shot espresso now.”