Jonathan de Shalit: Traitor

Alexander looked at his commander. He could see his thoughts taking form in the shape of a plan of action. How out of the murkiness of the details a decision was forming in his mind. “Are you going to sacrifice Cobra?” he asked, his tone a mixture of admiration and awe.

“Not sacrifice him. We’ll get him out and offer him VIP resettling. But we’ll give them something that points definitively in his direction. And thus keep Viper safe. Even if we extract Cobra and he’s not in their hands, they’ll have evidence that incriminates him. They may also be onto Hexagon, our field operative in Providence. I have no idea how, but they’re keeping close to him. Aharon Levin met in Virginia with William Pemberton, that son of a bitch, and then went straight on from there to Rhode Island. Hexagon lives in Providence. That’s not a coincidence. There are no such things.”

“How do we know where Levin went?”

“SIGINT. We intercepted Levin’s call to Pemberton and then tracked his cell phone. Virginia, Providence, Boston, New York.”

“So if they’re keeping tabs on Hexagon…”

“Exactly. We can use him to provide the clue that leads them to Cobra. Instruct Hexagon to arrange for an image of himself and Cobra to be caught on the security camera footage of some antiquities store and to expose the name and location of the store by means of an item sent from there to his home. If they’re onto Hexagon, they’ll also find their way to the place from where he sent the package, and it won’t be long before they have their hands on the security footage. Aharon Levin thinks fast and has excellent contacts. He’ll get his hands on the security footage and have all the proof he needs. And even if it doesn’t go down that way, the fact that Cobra has fled Israel will serve, of course, as the damning proof. We’ll both incriminate and rescue him. But people in the intelligence game like hard evidence. And certainly when it comes to such sensitive matters. So we’ll make sure they get the evidence. And most important, Viper can remain unscathed.”

Alexander sighed. “Believe me, sir,” he said, “with all my experience and despite all the senior positions I’ve held, I have to confess that I wouldn’t have been able to choose between Cobra and Viper. Who to save and who to sacrifice in this game of bloody chess we play.”

The SVR commander sat back in his chair. It was the right time for an important lesson, and he was going to take advantage of the time in comfort. Who knows, perhaps Alexander would be sitting in this very chair one day. “Look, Alexander,” he said, “as tough a dilemma as it may seem, the solution is actually a pretty simple one. Cobra is the agent whose cover’s been blown. They have yet to reveal his true identity, but his story is the story they’re pursuing. The clues are starting to appear, and they have to catch him. They have to get their hands on someone. They aren’t going to let it slide in this case, just as we wouldn’t. We simply don’t want them to make any mistakes along the way. Look, you could have said: To protect Cobra, even at the last minute, let’s give them Viper. After all, they don’t know there are two. We’ll give them one and they’ll ease off. They aren’t going to and won’t want to believe that they have more than one traitor at such levels. But when push comes to shove, both you and I clearly know who is more important and who is expendable.” He took a sip of his ice-cold vodka and continued with the lecture he was giving, a lecture to an audience of one, a beloved friend and valued colleague.

“As an offensive-minded intelligence organization, your greatest enemy is the one whose task it is to catch you. Therefore, if you’ve made the right moves and have also been blessed with a great deal of good fortune that has allowed you to run a high-level agent at the very top of your enemy’s counterintelligence service, the last person you’re going to forsake as an agent is the counterintelligence service chief himself. The person you are up against and who poses a threat to you all the time, every second. All the others are expendable—military sources, sources high up in the political establishment, financial sector sources. But in order to survive, we have to begin by preserving the assets we have in our rivals’ intelligence services. We, after all, are the shield and sword of the Revolution. Even if everyone believes that the Revolution ended years ago, you and I know that it isn’t over yet. Blood still flows through the veins of this magnificent body. If we crumble, everything around us will come crashing down, too. If we are strong, we can safeguard everyone. And therefore, my dear friend, if we are in control of an asset the likes of Viper, if we were fortunate enough to recruit as a spy the person who now holds sway over the covert campaign against us in a specific arena, an important arena, we will safeguard him at all costs. All costs. I’m sure that’s as clear to you as it is to me.”

The head of the directorate regarded his commander with admiration. The ability to cut straight through to the heart of the matter, to make brutal decisions that would also prove to be the correct ones, that’s what lifted him a notch above his colleagues. Anyone could be ruthless and tough, but only a few were blessed with that kind of foresight, that kind of ability to separate the wheat from the chaff. Alexander himself, like every talented and ambitious senior officer, also wanted to rise to the position of SVR chief in due time. But he wasn’t in a hurry. And he was pleased to have his old and highly capable friend, who had served alongside him in the past as an operations officer in Turkey and South America, as his current commander. He would step into his shoes one day, and until then he was going to learn all his friend could teach him.

His commander was right. The loss of Cobra was a serious blow. The Israelis had exposed and eliminated one of their best resources. Agents like that were few and far between. But agents like Viper were an even rarer breed. Alexander did know—you couldn’t win every battle. Sometimes you got hit hard, but you still needed the strength and resilience to get to your feet again. The defeat in the case of Cobra was tempered by the impressive achievement of safeguarding Viper. The Israeli security services would rest on their laurels now. As far as they were concerned, they had chopped off the head of the snake, without realizing that another still slithered there among the rocks. His commander loved that imagery, and Alexander had learned to appreciate it, too. The math was simple: Viper would go on spying for them. They would continue, as always, to remain one step ahead of their bitter rivals in the Israeli Shin Bet. Yes, he thought to himself, this vodka is well deserved.

The head of the directorate and the SVR commander sat there in the pleasant silence, their bodies warmed by the icy beverage. The last bit of light filtering through the wooden shutters gradually died out. The purple shadows darkened. A welcome weariness washed through them. The SVR chief’s slender back remained upright despite the unrelenting pain. And only his sharp intelligence fired a spark in his eyes, his brain already planning the battles of tomorrow.

Jonathan de Shalitis the pseudonym of a former high-ranking member of the Israeli intelligence community. His books must pass a rigid vetting process, including the approval of the Governmental Ministers’ Committee. De Shalit has translated into Hebrew the American novel A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter, and John le Carré’s autobiography, The Pigeon Tunnel .