Mishka Ben-David - Forbidden Love in St. Petersburg

The group crowded on to the two benches that had been placed at the entrance to the hangar. Udi patted Naphtali on the shoulder and suggested he drink a lot and apply some cream to his throat. Together with Levanon and the close combat instructor, Udi stood facing the operatives to propose ways of improving the drill.

Though they had quite a lot of suggestions to make, Udi and Levanon concluded by saying that the group had made significant progress, and that these plans for a kidnapping had a chance of success. On the face of it, kidnapping in the street is faster, but in the shop the violence it involves is not visible to the public, Udi commented. Meanwhile, both options are possible. The shop drill is taking you twenty-five seconds. The street drill fifteen. We have to cut each by at least five seconds and we will then begin to think about other things that may happen and our responses: someone else coming into the shop, pedestrians getting involved, intervention by drivers passing by, and so on. You have the whole of tomorrow for this by which time, after you’ve completed the drills, I want to present a fully completed exercise to the head of the Mossad, including even a location that resembles the real one in St Petersburg. I’ve asked our administrative officer to find us a suitable shop and street in Tel Aviv.

In the meantime, Levanon added, we’ve made progress with the details of the plan, and I want you to devote this evening to studying it and the intelligence. You have to get to know St Petersburg well before you land there. The intelligence officers will arrive in an hour, so get ready for a long evening. After that, go back home to sleep. Pack, say goodbye to your partners, take the children to their kindergartens and schools tomorrow morning. We’ll meet here at 10 a.m. and continue with the preparations until you leave for the airport. Your tickets have already been ordered. You’ll be travelling in two groups of three, and one as a couple, to Berlin, Vienna and Budapest. By the following evening all of you will be in position in St Petersburg.

When they got back to their offices, Udi and Levanon found a summons from the head of the Mossad to come and see him.

I’ve just got back from Jerusalem, Netzach informed them. The prime minister didn’t like the idea of a kidnapping in Russia. He said there were some very sensitive negotiations taking place about the nuclear reactor in Bushehr which was about to be completed. An operation mounted by us in Russia would cost us dearly.

So we’ve wasted a day exercising for nothing, Levanon said.

Suddenly you’re for a kidnapping? the chief chided him. And anyway, kidnapping is not off the table, because the prime minister understands the danger involved in leaving Paul there. But he wants it to be a last resort.

We’re keeping to the timetable, Udi said. The drills look good. If you want, you can see a rehearsal tomorrow afternoon, and tomorrow night the team will be leaving. By the next evening they’ll be set up in St Petersburg.

Great! And another thing, the chief said. The prime minister wants someone senior on the ground. You, Udi, will be the one going. He also wants the fine details to be absolutely clear as well as the limitations on the risks to be taken. So you and I are going to meet him tomorrow at 6 a.m. before he starts his working day.

The prime minister duly received the two of them in his private office in the government building, sitting at his desk. He had been going over the morning’s newspaper cuttings.

Udi, right? I remember you, the prime minister said without getting up or offering to shake his hand.

You’ll be the commander in the field?

The team has a commander who’s with them on the ground, but I’ll be there, in touch and within eye contact, and I’ll be the one with overall responsibility.

So listen, I want this to be clear. The bottom line is pretty simple. There are to be no screw ups in this operation. Meaning, there can be a mishap with that bandit, what’s he called? Pierre, Paul, yes, Paul. With him you can mess up a bit, not desirable but still not a disaster. If you have to, use force against him. That, let’s face it, is liable to happen in such an operation. What absolutely mustn’t happen is that one of you gets caught or that the Russians even know that you’ve been there. Is that clear?

Udi nodded.

Great! Then I leave everything else to you.

TWO DAYS AFTER Udi, Boaz, and their team landed in St Petersburg, the group met up in the apartment Alex had rented for operational use in a housing complex close to ours on the other side of the island. Because of the sensitivity of the operation Alex, who headed the department for Russia and the former Soviet Republics, was also there. With him he brought Boris, a man who’d grown up in St Petersburg and had now replaced Roman as the second of the infrastructure personnel. Udi, Boaz, and the Russian speakers toured the streets of the city in cars which Alex and Boris hired, explored its various sites, and checked out our neighbourhood and bookshop.

I’ve understood the conditions here, Udi said to his people. For the moment I think the kidnapping option has to be put on standby. True, there is a plane waiting at the airport, but sailing in a yacht is virtually impossible and, in any case, very unusual. So I don’t see a way of complying with the prime minister’s proviso to absolutely avoid running into any problems with the Russians. I cannot guarantee one hundred per cent that someone won’t call the police who, bless them, are on every street corner, and I can’t even begin to think about a chase on ice.

What do you mean by ‘put on standby’? Boaz asked.

It means that the infrastructure personnel will continue with the preparations, but you and your team will now work full time on the second plan, incrimination.

But they’re so sweet together! Nitza said.

Nitza! Boaz rebuked her.

What? the young woman protested. You were with me yesterday evening when we ‘took’ them to the café. You saw how they were holding hands and kissing, like a couple of young lovers!

Wow, Zohar sighed in a somewhat phoney rejoinder. I also saw them the day before yesterday walking home, embracing each other. She’s ever so pretty and he’s just so so.

Zohar! Boaz ticked her off as well. Be serious all of you, OK?

Boaz, Udi suppressed a smile, you’ve got to familiarize yourself with the house, the shop, the area, and I want you now to prepare a plan with your team to bug the apartment’s phone line and also to assign people to document Anna leaving the shop. I want photos that can be modified to include another person. Also, when she’s in a restaurant, alone or with Paul–we might cut Paul and everything that identifies the restaurant out of the photo and insert someone else into it. We’ll see. When you’ve finished come up to my room in the hotel with a detailed plan for approval.

I have to say that this is not my cup of tea either, Kent said. Udi looked at him disapprovingly, ending Kent’s intervention.

Later when I read the summaries of the reconnoitring and the probes, it actually gave me a few moments of satisfaction to see that at least some of the participants had felt outraged by their assignments.

Boaz prepared a plan for break-ins, installing wire taps, and taking pictures. He and most of those in his team had already participated in such operations in Europe and this time too, the plan didn’t deviate from the norm.

I want to mount observations of Paul and Anna’s house over the course of two consecutive days, to learn the routine in the building, Boaz told Udi as he presented his plan. I then want to gain entry into the building to locate the connection box into which all the tenants’ phone wires run, identify Paul and Anna’s specific line, connect into it and plant a small transmitter that will radio their conversations to the safe house. Alternatively, I want to enter the stairwell to check the lock of the apartment and then go in and hook up to the internal phone line. The pictures will be shot while Anna is followed on foot and from a moving vehicle, including having either a couple or just one person going into a restaurant immediately after her. The plan is no different from an operation in Switzerland, Boaz concluded.