Ken Follett - Triple (1991)

The plane began its descent. Dickstein fastened big seat belt. It was all done now, the scheme in place, the preparations made. Ile cards had been dealt. He knew what was in his hand, and he knew some of his opponents' cards, and they knew some of his. All that remained was to play out the game, and no one could foretell the outcome. He wished he could see the future more clearly, 'he wished big plan were less complicated, he wished he did not have to risk his life once mom, and he wished the game would start so that he could stop wishing and start doing things. Cohen was awake. "Did I dream all that?" he said. "No." Dickstein smiled. There was one more unpleasant duty he had to perform: he had to scare Cohen half to death. 'I told you this was important, and secret." "Of course, I understand." "You don't understand. If you talk about this to anyone other than your wife, we will take drastic action." "Is that a threat? What are you saying?" "I'm saying, if you don't keep your mouth shut, we will kill your wife." Cohen stared, and went pale. After a moment he turned away and looked out of the window at the airport coming up to meet them.

Chapter Thirteen

Moscow's Hotel Rossiya was the largest hotel in Europe. It had 5,738 beds, ten miles of corridors, and no air-conditioning. Yasif Hassan slept very badly there. It was simple to say, "The Fedayeen should hijack the ship before Dickstein gets there," but the more he thought about it, the more terrified he was. The Palestine Liberation Organization in 1968 was not the tightly-knit political entity it pretended to be. It was not even a loose federation of individual groups working together. It was more like a club for people with a common interest: it represented its members, but it did not control them. The individual guerrilla groups could speak with one voice through the PLO, but they did not and could not act as one. So when Mahmoud said the Fedayeen would do something, he spoke only for his own group. Furthermore, in this case it would be unwise even to ask for PLO cooperation. The organization was given money, facilities and a home by the Egyptians, but it had also been infiltrated by them: if you wanted to keep something secret from the Arab establishment, you had to keep it secret from the PLO. Of course, after the coup, when the world's press came to look over the captured ship with its atomic cargo, the Egyptians would know and would probably suspect that the Fedayeen had deliberately thwarted them, but Mahmoud would play innocent and the Egyptians would be obliged to join in the general acclamation of the Fedayeen for frustrating an Israeli act of aggression. Anyway, Mahmoud believed he did not need the help of the others. His group had the best connections outside Palestine, the best European set-up, and plenty of money. He was now in Benghazi arranging to boxTow a ship while his international team was gathered up from various parts of the world. But the most crucial task devolved on Hassan: if the Fedayeen were to get to the Coparelli before the Israelis, he would have to establish exactly when and where Dickstein!s hijack was to take place. For that, he needed the KGB. He felt terribly uneasy around Rostov now. Until his visit to Mahmoud he had been able to tell himself he was working for two organizations with a common objective. Now he was indisputably a double agent, merely pretending to work with the Egyptians and the KGB while he sabotaged their plans. He felt different-he felt a traitor, in a way-and he was afraid that Rostov would observe the difference in him. When Hassan bad flown in to Moscow Rostov himself had been uneasy. He had said there was not enough room in his apartment for Hassan to stay, although Hassan knew the rest of the family were away on holiday. It seemed Rostov was hiding something. Hassan suspected he was seeing some woman and did not want his colleague getting in the way. After his restless night at the Hotel Rossiya, Hassan met Rostov at the KGB building on the Moscow ring road, in the officeof Rostov's boss, Feliks Vorontsov. There were undercurrents there too. The two men were having an argument when Hassan entered the room, and although they broke it off immediately the air was stiff with unspoken hostility. Hassan, however, was too busy with his own clandestine moves to pay much attention to theirs. He -sat down. "Have there been any developments?" Rostov and Vorontsov looked at one another. Rostov shrugged. Vorontsov said, "The Stramberg has been fitted with a very powerful radio beacon. She's out of dry dock now and heading south across the Bay of Biscay. The assumption would be that she is going to Haifa to take on a crew of Mossad agents. I think we can all be quite satisfied with our intelligence~-gathering work. The project now falls into the sphere of positive action. Our task becomes prescriptive rather than descriptive, as it were." "They all talk like this in Moscow Center," Rostov said irreverently. Vorontsov glared at him. Hassan said, "What action?" "Rostov here is going to Odessa to board a Polish merchant ship called the Karla," V6rontsov said. "Shes an ordinary cargo vessel superficially, but shes very fast and has certain extra equipment-we use her quite often." Rostov was staring up at the ceiling, an expression of mild distaste on his face. Hassan guessed that Rostov wanted to keep some of these details from the Egyptians: perhaps that was what he and Vorontsov had been arguing abouL Vorontsov went on, IrYour job Is to get an Egyptian vessel and make contact with the Karla in the Mediterranean." "And then?" Hassan said. 'We wait for T`yft aboard the Copawift, to tell us when the Israeli hijack takes place. He will also tell us whether the uranium is traiisferred from the Coparelli to the Stroynberg, or simply left aboard the Coparell! to be taken to Haifa and unloaded." "And then?" Hassan persisted. Vorontsov began to speak, but Rostov forestalled him. "I want you to tell Cairo a cover story," he said to Hassan. "I want your people to think that we don!t know about the Coparelft, we Just know the Israelis an planning something in the Mediterranean and we are still tying to discover what." Hassan nodded, keeping his face impassive. He had to know what the plan was, and Rostov did not want to tell binif He said, 'Tee, Ill tell them that-if you tell me the aotual plan.- Rostov looked at Voronstov and shrugged. Vorontsov said, "After the hijack the Karla will set a course for Dickstein!s ship, whichever one carnes, the uranium, The Karla Will coIlide with that ship."

"Your ship will witness the collision, report it, and observe that the crew of the vessel are Israelis and their cargo is uranium. You will report these facts too. There will be an international inquiry into the collision. The presence of both ls~ raefis and stolen uranhun. on the ship will be established beyond doubt. Meanwhile the uranium will be returned to its rightful owners and the Israelis will be covered with opprobrim." 'Me Israelis will fight," Hassan said. Rostov said, "So much the better, with your ship there to see them. attackus and help us beat them off." "It's a good plan," said Vorontsov. "It's simple. All they have to do is crash-the rest follows automatically."

'Theirs a good plan," Hassan said. It fitted in perfectly with the Fedayeen plan. Unlike Dickstein, Hassan knew that Tyrin was aboard the Coparelli. After the Fedayeen had hijacked the Coparelli and ambushed the Israelis, they could throw Tyrin and his radio into the sea, then Rostov would have no way of locating them. But Hassan needed to know when and where Dickstein intended to carry out his hijack so that the Fedayeen could be sure of getting there first. Vorontsov's office was hot. Hassan went to the window and looked down at the traffic on the Moscow ring road. "We need to know exactly when and where Dickstein will hijack the Coparelli," he said. 'Vhy?" Rostov asked, making a gesture with both arms spread, Palms upward. "We have Tyrin aboard the Coparelli and a beacon on the Stromberg. We know where both of them are at all times. We need only to stay close and move in when the time comes." "My ship has to be in the right area at the crucial time~" 'Men follow the Stromberg, staying just over the horiZon-You can pick up her radio signal. Or keep in touch with me on the KaAm Or both." "Suppose the beacon fails, or Tyrin is discoveredr, Rostov said, "Me risk of that must be weighed against the danger Of tipping our hand if we start following Dickstein around apin-&ssuming we could find him." "He b~fts a Point, though," Vorontsov said. It was Rostovs turn to glare. Hassan unbuttoned his collar. "May I open a windowr 'They don't open," said Vorontsov. "Haven't you people heard of air-conditioningr, "InMoscow?" Hassan United and spoke to Rostov. 'Think about it. I want to be Perfectly sure we nail these people." "I've thought about it," Rostov said. 'Vere as sure as we can be. Go back to Cairo, organize that ship and stay in touch with me." You patronizing bastard, Hassan thought. He turned to Vorontsov. "I cannot, in all honesty, tell my people I'm happy with the plan unless we can eliminate that remaining uncertainty." Vorontsov. said, "I agree with Hassan."