Mishka Ben-David - Forbidden Love in St. Petersburg

It wasn’t the knowledge that they were around me that was disturbing but its implication. That the Mossad insisted on returning me home. I felt my hands were tied. I didn’t want to escape alone and couldn’t do so with Anna, revealing this crazy tale to her and, so it seemed to me, then losing her.

A number of days passed without there being any development. What other plans did the Mossad have?

Yoav’s team didn’t continue to follow us beyond the time allotted, and one day they all disappeared from view. I assumed–an assumption that proved to be correct–that others were filling in for them. And then, waiting for me, was yet another surprise.

AT FIRST HE simply tried to ignore me, Yoav said in the meeting that took place in the Mossad chief’s bureau. For Yoav to be in Netzach’s presence was a huge experience but he managed to deliver his report of what had happened to him fluently. I’m sure he recognized me, he said. Although there was no one else around, he seemed to be behaving the way we are taught to when suddenly encountering an acquaintance during an operation abroad. But he continued to ignore me and in the end was aggressive and threatened to have the restaurant’s doorman deal with me.

But you managed to deliver the message to him? Udi repeated what he already knew from an earlier briefing to make things clear to the chief.

Yes, though it was brief. I told him that the Mossad demanded he come back because Anna Petrovna Starzava is a spy catcher.

And how did he respond? the chief wanted to know.

He shrugged me off and went into the restaurant, saying nothing. But you could see the look of worry on his face. I think he was in shock.

Tell us about Rosy, Udi said.

Yes, Yoav continued. We sent one of the operatives whom he doesn’t know into the restaurant and she reported that he ate nothing. There was food on the table, but he didn’t touch it. And afterwards, on the way back, once he’d had time to digest what I’d said, he not only ignored my demand, but also threatened to beat me up.

It’s not the sort of thing you internalize in half an hour, the chief said. And your team continued to sit on him and saw nothing unusual?

Debbie was in the shop when he got back, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Later on he’d clearly identified us, linked the faces he saw on the days before with those that appeared on the days after, and still continued to maintain his regular routine. He either doesn’t realize the seriousness of the situation or he’s playing a game.

I want to play devil’s advocate for a moment, Udi said. What if he’s already realized that Anna is who she is and he’s toying with her? Perhaps he’d already had some slight suspicions and what Yoav told him confirmed them, and now he has to continue the game until there’s an opportunity for him to escape?

It’s a bit farfetched, isn’t it? the chief said.

But it could also explain why he ignored Yoav and the team. That way he was actually protecting them. If she’s a spy catcher and he’s under some sort of surveillance, Yoav’s team would have been arrested if Paul had not ignored them.

But he really was in shock, Yoav said.

One doesn’t contradict the other, Udi insisted. And I’ll tell you something else. Perhaps him leaving the office and opening the shop was intended to distract the FSB from what we were doing?

Look, we do live in an extremely manipulative world, a world of reverse psychology. But it seems to me that you’ve gone too far with your assumptions, the chief said. Our working assumption has to be that he’s made up his mind to sever contact with us and stay with her despite knowing that we’ve found him and despite hearing from us that his girlfriend is a spy catcher. What’s the new team reporting now?

We’ve sent out a very young team. They’ve come straight out of the course. They’re practically the only ones that Paul doesn’t know. This is, in fact, their first experience of real work but some of them are graduates of the Shin Bet operational unit and some learned the ropes in the police undercover unit. So there aren’t any real novices among them. In any case, they’ve been instructed to keep their distance from him. Gonen, the commander of the team, reports that Paul and his partner are keeping to their routine.

OK; that’s to say, things are not OK, Netzach commented after thanking Yoav and asking him to leave the room. If, a week after Yoav warned Paul in the clearest possible way he’s still carrying on as usual, then we have a problem. We cannot allow this situation to continue for too long, nor can we simply leave him there. We’ve reached the point where we have to start deciding on kidnapping options.

I just want to say that the fact that Yoav’s team got back in one piece shows that Paul hasn’t defected, Udi said.

When I read this remark of Udi’s in the transcripts, and despite everything he did to me afterwards, I couldn’t but appreciate his attempts, at that stage, to protect me.

You may be right, but not necessarily so, Netzach told him. He has perhaps crossed the line but hasn’t turned into such a SOB as to cause the arrest of his ex-teammates. A sentimental deserter. And perhaps it’s also clear to him that if he betrays the guys, the next team will put a bullet in his head and that he’s better off keeping quiet.

Nonetheless, I’m still for having one more go at convincing him before we decide on a kidnapping, Udi suggested. Look, Yoav doesn’t have a common history with him, he doesn’t owe Yoav anything. I don’t believe that he would ignore me or Levanon in the same way. It’s worth a try.

I agree, the chief said. Where is Levanon?

He should be getting back from the Gulf tomorrow evening.

On what documentation?

His French documents.

Let him buy a fur coat and fly to Russia. I don’t want you to do it. You’ve now got three or four teams abroad haven’t you?

Five.

So you continue running your operations. Levanon’s in the Gulf working on a delegation from Venezuela isn’t he?

Udi confirmed that he was.

Has he got to be there till tomorrow evening?

Most of the work has been done and the rest is planned for tonight.

So let him leave tomorrow morning. He can sleep on the plane. Have him briefed in detail.

I also want to try something else in the meantime. I want to slip our Russian, Roman, into the shop to have a bit of a sniff. Mainly around Anna.

Just as long as he doesn’t also fall in love. Oh, I forgot to ask Yoav if she’s really worth all of this.

He didn’t say anything, so apparently he wasn’t particularly taken by her, Udi replied.

I didn’t notice Roman as he walked around the shop. He’d possibly arrived while I was out for lunch. In any event, his report which I read a long time afterwards exonerated Anna: Anna Petrovna, Roman wrote, gives the impression of being an experienced bookseller. I approached her pretending to be a student of comparative literature seeking material on existentialist writers from different periods and various countries. She suggested I read Ibsen and Kierkegaard to get an idea of the origins of existentialism in literature and philosophy and pointed in particular to Peer Gynt’s dictum ‘unto thine own self be true’. It’s difficult to imagine an inexperienced saleswoman, or someone working undercover, being able to cite such a thing–although she didn’t mention its source– Hamlet . I only found this out when I looked up the quotaion. Then she referred me to Heidegger and his Dasein . She also, of course, suggested I read Nietzsche and then took me to a shelf of French books picking out Camus and Sartre. Despite that maybe seeming obvious, she did, for example, know the difference between Sartre’s idea of freedom in his philosophical writings and in his trilogy The Roads to Freedom . She was extremely knowledgeable about existentialism in Russian literature but that, I suppose, is no big deal.