Chapter 20
Eyal was looking at the latest satellite pictures from the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli Defence Forces were fighting against Hamas since the beginning of July 2014, in the so-called Operation Protective Edge. It was now the beginning of August, and his team was analyzing the evidence from the destruction of the tunnel system built by Hamas to smuggle militants and weapons into Israel.
Together with the Army Chief of Staff, Shin Bet had to prepare a report for the government to evaluate if the conditions were suitable to declare an open-ended cease fire with Hamas. In other words, if the damage to Hamas’ infrastructure was serious enough to grant Israel several months or even a few years of tranquility before the next eruption happened.
He was discussing the effects of the last airstrike with his team, when Yaakov slammed the door of Eyal’s office wide open and gave an undecipherable glance to him.
Eyal broke the silence that followed, to ask his team to leave them alone.
As soon as the last person left his office, Eyal set the tone.
“I hope this is urgent, as the Army Chief of Staff is waiting for our report in three hours to review it before the meeting of the Cabinet. In any case, you have half an hour maximum.”
“More than enough for a run-through. You can go over the details tonight. I am sorry that you have to cancel your date with Ruth, but I bet you will find this more interesting,” responded Yaakov, placing a printout on the desk, between Eyal and himself.
“Do you remember our old friend George McKilroy aka Sean Ewals? He is back, and we have identified the full gang.”
“Where did he show up?”
“It all started from a report from David Schneersohn, our resident in Bangkok, who is also covering the rest of South East Asia. Around one year ago, he detected the arrival of a new type of drug in the Thai jet-set. He started to investigate and he found out that it was spreading all across the region.
The thing that caught his attention is that this one was not based on heroin, as usual, but rather on a mix of cocaine and a synthetic component. He found it strange, so he did some research, and it turns out that the new stuff is being distributed by the same organizations that controlled heroin, which are now pushing the market to this new drug. David then got in touch with his contacts in Hong Kong, who confirmed that the Chinese gangs had decided to move away from classic drugs on the high end market, thanks to a deal they struck with the Europeans. With some patience, he was also able to have one of his agents take a picture of one of the emissaries, just a few days ago. And here he is.”
The picture left no doubt, even if it was taken with a long telescope lens. It was the face of George McKilroy, hurrying out of the ICC Tower in West Kowloon and diving into a limousine.
“So we were right...there is big crime behind this guy,” whispered Eyal.
“I wish it was that simple.” continued Yaakov. “In the meantime, David had managed to get some of the drug samples and sent them to us to analyze. I did not notify you, because it seemed ordinary procedure. One was just cocaine, not even top quality, while the synthetic one is impossible to figure out. Our best researchers at Technion are going crazy over it.
Since we could not sort it out alone, we discreetly activated our sayanim among leading biochemists and pharmacologists around the world. And guess what we got? It seems that both the Russians and the Americans are dealing with the same issue.”
“Why did they not report it right away?,” burst Eyal. “We lost precious time!”
“Eyal, that’s how it works with the sayanim. They normally do not take initiative unless they see a clear danger for Israel. Otherwise they stay dormant, waiting for our specific request. In addition to all of this exciting news, our friends in the Russian Academy of Science reported a rumor that the best minds of the biochemistry labs have been working for months to formulate a new drug based on samples they receive directly from the FSB. For reasons you can imagine, they excluded all Jewish researchers from the project.
We even got information from a woman in the United States, who works as executive assistant at a very important pharma corporation, that her boss kept attending meetings with the head of drug research and someone unknown, she believed he was from government. We showed her some photos and she recognized Skip Ross, the new deputy operations director of the CIA.”
“Skip Ross?,” repeated Eyal in disbelief. “You mean the not-so-brilliant Homeland Security department guy who ruined Greg’s career with the negligence scandal four months ago, and got the much coveted DDO position for himself?”
“In flesh and bones.” Yaakov continued, “We were just wondering what the scandal was, that undermined the career of Greg, who has been demoted to hell as head of the US Coast Guard. I sent Ben to talk to him three weeks ago.
Ben told me that Greg is seething with resentment. You can imagine his mood after going from master of the secret universe, to boss of the baywatchers. So a bit out of revenge and a bit out of our friendship, he talked very openly and all the pieces came together. He also gave us the complete file that Skip had built around Sean Ewals.”
“Great, were there any new facts I should know about?”
“Well, now it is clear that Sean is not the real master. The drug is manufactured somewhere in Europe, by one of his friends. We are working on the connection graph created by the Homeland Security. We are closing down on dozens of subjects. The most important point is these guys have also made a deal with the Russians. Skip demonstrated that with information he received from Pfizer, and used this to nail down Greg for his failure.
Basically, Skip had found out everything but Greg blocked him and the result is that now Russians have their hands on it, or at least partially. Skip managed to find this out thanks to his idea of involving one of the top bosses of Pfizer into the game. Last fact is Skip genuinely dislikes us. Greg told us loud and clear that Skip is convinced we helped Greg frame him one year ago.”
Eyal looked at the clock on the wall. Still five minutes to go.
“Alright, the puzzle looks finished now. But why did you rush to tell me? After all, it is a story fully in your foreign jurisdiction. I do not see major implications for Israel’s security, apart from adding another row in the illegal substance list and another check to do at our borders.”
“Because, there is this last bit. Up to now we worked on the assumption that this is mostly a narcotic story. It is not. The drug is actually a life extender, it is that powerful. And we got the information from a completely different source. It comes from our connections at the Vatican. Straight from the top.”
“Yaakov, I am not aware of any secret calls from Pope Francis to Bibi Netanyahu. It would have gotten to me somehow, by now.”
“Eyal, come on. You do not send this type of news by wire or letter. It has to go by trusted word of mouth that can be denied, without evidence, if anything leaks. What day was last Friday?”
“Um, August 15th, what about it?”
“You should know that August 15th is an important Catholic solemnity. They celebrate the Ascension of the Virgin Mary to Heaven. Well, last Friday Cardinal Tim Dolan of New York City decided to celebrate the evening Mass in the parish of St. Matthews, in Brooklyn Crown Heights, right on the Eastern Parkway. And you must know what else is located on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway.”
Eyal knew by heart. At 770 East Parkway were the world headquarters of the Lubavitch Chabad Hasidic Jews, one of the most orthodox and influential bodies of all Judaism.
“So you mean the Cardinal went to the synagogue? Or the Rabbi went to the church?”
“No, since Friday was also the eve of Shabbat, the Cardinal invited the Rabbi to a short evening meeting in the Parish house, where he offered some kosher snacks and spent a few minutes alone with him in an obscure room that no one would think to enter.”
“Is the information coming from the Cardinal or from Pope Francis directly?”
“What the Rabbi told us, is known by Pop
e Francis alone and very few trusted Cardinals. However, there is no official document going around in the Vatican, I would even bet no document at all.”
“And the content?”
“The content verifies all we have been collecting so far. Basically, the drug is not a simple life extender. It makes people effectively immortal. It is controlled by a restricted group of people. One of the members is an Italian and he is most likely the source from the Vatican. But they have added five other people to the list, two of which are women. This is in line with what we know. This team is starting to feel increasingly insecure and has decided to start spreading the drug. And this is exactly what we are seeing.”
Eyal looked at the clock. Five minutes past the half an hour. He gathered the papers from the middle of the table.
“Now I understand why you came to me. Over a short time, the news will spread worldwide. That means we have to be ready to activate Plan Lot. Why do you think the Vatican decided to tell us?”
“The Rabbi asked the same question to Cardinal Dolan. He got a political answer. He said they are worried that something bad will happen to us when the news starts spreading and this way, we can prepare for the worst.”
“Well,” said Eyal, “He certainly cannot say that he knew the Rabbi would somehow tell the Mossad. Do you plan to intercept and neutralize the group?”
“Read the details in the file. It is evident that a mindless action would lead to a faster diffusion, which we do not want, but I agree we need to take some action with these guys. As soon as we finish identifying them.”