The Icarus Agenda (36 page)

“I promised I
wouldn’t
—”

“There are promises beyond our control of keeping, sir.”

“Stop being so fucking
polite
!” Manny coughed out his last spasm and awkwardly, painfully got to his feet. The commando purposely did not offer assistance. “Okay, soldier-boy,” said Weingrass, breathing deeply. “The place is secure—from our point of view. Let’s find my boy.”

Code Gray held his place. “Despite your less than generous personality, sir, I respect you,” said the Israeli. “And for all our sakes, I can’t permit you to accompany us.”

“You
what
?”

“We don’t know what’s on the upper floors—”

“
I
do, you son of a bitch! My
boy’s
up there!… Give me a gun, Tinker Bell, or I’ll send a telegram to Israel’s Defense Minister telling him you own a
pig
farm!” Weingrass suddenly kicked the commando in the shins.

“Incorrigible!” muttered code Gray without moving his leg. “
Impossible!
”

“Come on,
bubbelah
. A little gun. I know you’ve got one.”

“Please don’t use it unless I tell you to,” said the commando, lifting his left trouser leg and reaching down for the small revolver strapped behind his knee.

“Actually, I never told you I was part of the Haganah?”

“The
Haganah
?”

“Sure. Me and Menachem had a lot of rough-and-tumbles—”

“Menachem was never part of the
Haganah
—”

“Must have been some other baldheaded fellow. Come on, let’s go!”

Ben-Ami, the Uzi gripped in his hands in the shadows of the Sahalhuddin’s entrance, kept in touch by radio. “But why is he
with
you?” asked the Mossad agent.

“Because he’s impossible!” replied the irritated voice of code Gray.

“That’s
not
an answer!” insisted Ben-Ami.

“I have no other.
Out
. We’ve reached the sixth floor. I’ll contact you when it’s feasible.”

“Understood.”

Two of the commandos flanked the wide double doors on the right of the landing; the third stood at the other end of the hall, outside the only other door with light showing through the crack below. Emmanuel Weingrass reluctantly remained on the marble staircase; his anxiety provoked rumblings in his chest but his resolve suppressed them.

“
Now!
” whispered code Gray, and both men crashed the door open with their shoulders, instantly dropping to the floor as two robed Arabs at each end of the room turned, firing their repeating weapons. They were no match for the Uzis; both fell with two bursts from the Israeli machine pistols. A third and a fourth man started to run, one in white robes from behind the enormous ebony desk, the other from the left side.

“
Stop!
” yelled code Gray. “Or you’re both
dead
!”

The dark-skinned man in the robes of a lavish aba stood motionless, his glowering eyes riveted on the Israeli. “Have you any idea what you’ve
done
?” he asked in a low, threatening voice. “The security in this building is the finest in Bahrain. The authorities will be here in minutes. You will lay down your weapons or you will be
killed
.”

“Hello there,
garbage
!” yelled Emmanuel Weingrass, walking into the room with effort as old men do when their legs do not work as well as they once did, especially after a great deal of
excitement. “The system’s not that good, not when you’ve subcontracted five or six hundred.”

“
You!
”

“Who else? I should have blown you away years ago in Basrah. But I knew my boy would come back to find you, you
scum
of the earth. It was just a matter of time. Where
is
he?”

“My life for his.”

“You’re in no position to bargain—”

“Perhaps I
am
,” broke in the Mahdi. “He’s on his way to an unmarked airfield where a plane will fly him out to sea. Destination—the shoals of Qatar.”

“The
sharks
,” said Weingrass quietly, in cold fury.

“Ever so. One of nature’s conveniences. Now, do we bargain? Only I can stop them.”

The old architect, his frail body trembling as he breathed deeply, stared at the tall, robed black man, his voice strained as he replied. “We bargain,” he said. “And by almighty God you’d better deliver or I’ll hunt you down with an army of mercenaries.”

“You were always such a melodramatic Jew, weren’t you?” The Mahdi glanced at his watch. “There’s time. As is the custom on such flights, there can be no ground-to-air radio contact, no subsequent forensic examinations of a plane. They’re scheduled to take off with first light. Once outside I’ll place the call; the aircraft will not leave, but you and your little army of whatever-they-are will.”

“Don’t even think about any tricks, you scumball.… We deal.”

“
No!
” Code Gray whipped out his knife and lunged at the Mahdi, gripping his robes and throwing him over the desk. “There are
no
bargains, no
deals
, no negotiations
whatsoever
. There’s only your life at this moment!” Gray shoved the point of his blade into the flesh below the Chicagoan’s left eye. The Mahdi screamed as the blood rolled down his cheek and into his open mouth. “Make your call
now
or lose first
this
eye, then the
other
! After that it won’t matter to you where my knife goes next; you won’t see it.” The commando reached over, grabbed the phone on the desk and slammed it down beside the bleeding head. “That’s your bargain,
scum
! Give me the number. I’ll dial it for you—just to make sure it’s an airfield and not some private barracks.
Give
it to me!”

“
No
—no, I
can’t
!”

“The blade goes in!”

“No,
stop
! There is no airfield, no plane!”

“
Liar!
”

“Not
now. Later!
”

“Lose your first eye,
liar
!”

“He’s here! My God,
stop
! He’s
here
!”

“
Where?
” roared Manny, rushing up to the desk.

“The west wing … there’s a staircase in the hall on the right, a small storage area below the roof—”

Emmanuel Weingrass did not hear any more. He raced out of the room, screaming with all the breath that was in him. “Evan!
Evan …!
”

He was hallucinating, thought Kendrick; a person dear to him from the past was calling to him, giving him courage. The singular privilege of a condemned man, he considered. He looked up from the cot at the window; the moon was moving away, its light fading. He would not see another moon. Soon there would be nothing but darkness.

“Evan!
Evan!
”

It was so like Manny. He had always been there when his young friend needed him. And here at the end he was there to give comfort.
Oh, Lord, Manny, I hope you learn somehow that I came back! That finally I listened to you. I found him, Manny! Others will, too, I know it! Please be a little proud of me
—

“Goddamnit, Kendrick! Where the hell
are
you?”

That
voice was no hallucination! Nor were the pounding footsteps on the narrow staircase! And
other
footsteps! Jesus
Christ
, was he already
dead
? “Manny …?
Manny?
” he screamed.

“Here it is! This is the room! Break it
down
, musclehead!”

The door of the small room crashed open like a deafening crack of thunder.

“
Goddamn
, boy!” cried Emmanuel Weingrass, seeing Kendrick stagger up from his cell cot. “Is
this
any way for a respectable congressman to behave? I thought I
taught
you better!”

Tears in their eyes, father and son embraced.

They were all in Hassan’s Westernized living room on the outskirts of the city. Ben-Ami had monopolized the telephone since Weingrass relinquished it after a lengthy call to Masqat and a spirited conversation with the young sultan, Ahmat. Fifteen feet away, around the large dining room table sat seven officials representing the governments of Bahrain, Oman, France, the
United Kingdom, West Germany, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. As agreed, there was no representative from Washington, but there was nothing to fear in terms of America’s clandestine interests where a certain congressman was concerned. Emmanuel Weingrass was at that table, sitting between the Israeli and the man from the PLO.

Evan was next to the wounded Yaakov, both in armchairs beside each other, a courtesy for the two most in pain. Code Blue spoke. “I listened to your words at the Aradous,” he said softly. “I’ve been thinking about them.”

“That’s all I ask you to do.”

“It’s hard, Kendrick. We’ve been through so much, not
me
, of course, but our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers—”

“And generations before them,” added Evan. “No one with a grain of intelligence or sensitivity denies it. But in a way, so have
they
. The Palestinians weren’t responsible for the pogroms or the Holocaust, but because the free world was filled with guilt—as it damn well
should
have been—they became the new victims without knowing why.”

“I know.” Yaakov nodded his head slowly. “I’ve heard the zealots in the West Bank and the Gaza. I’ve listened to the Meir Kahanes and they frighten me so—”

“Frighten you?”

“Of course. They use the words that were used against us for, as you say, generations.… Yet still, they
kill
! They killed my two brothers and so many countless others!”

“It’s got to stop sometime. It’s all such a terrible waste.”

“I have to think.”

“It’s a beginning.”

The men around the dining room table abruptly rose from their chairs. They nodded to one another and, one by one, walked through the living room to the front door and out to their staff cars without acknowledging the presence of anyone else in the house. The host, Hassan, came through the archway and addressed his last guests. At first it was difficult to hear his words, as Emmanuel Weingrass was doubled up with a coughing seizure in the dining room. Evan started to rise. Yaakov, shaking his head, gripped Kendrick’s arm. Evan understood; he nodded and sat back.

“The American embassy in Masqat will be relieved in three hours, the terrorists granted safe escort to a ship on the waterfront provided by Sahibe al Farrahkhaliffe.”

“What happens to
him
?” asked Kendrick angrily.

“In this room, and
only
in this room, will that answer be given. I am instructed by the Royal House to inform you that it is to go no further. Is that understood and accepted?”

All heads nodded.

“Sahibe al Farrahkhaliffe, known to you as the Mahdi, will be executed without trial or sentence, for his crimes against humanity are so outrageous they do not deserve the dignity of jurisprudence. As the Americans say, we’ll do it ‘our way.’ ”

“May I speak?” said Ben-Ami.

“Of course,” answered Hassan.

“Arrangements have been made for me and my colleagues to be flown back to Israel. Since none of us has passports or papers, a special plane and procedures have been provided by the Emir. We must be at the airport concourse within the hour. Forgive us for our abrupt departure. Come along, gentlemen.”

“Forgive
us
,” said Hassan, nodding. “For not having the wherewithal to thank you.”

“Have you got any whisky?” asked code Red.

“Anything you wish.”

“Anything you can part with. It’s a long, terrible trip back and I
hate
flying. It frightens me.”

Evan Kendrick and Emmanuel Weingrass sat next to each other in the armchairs in Hassan’s living room. They waited for their instructions from a harried, bewildered American ambassador, who was permitted to make contact only by telephone. It was as though the two old friends had never been apart—the ofttimes bewildered student and the strident teacher. Yet the student was the leader, the shaker; and the teacher understood.

“Ahmat must be up in space with relief,” said Evan, drinking brandy.

“A couple of things are keeping him grounded.”

“Oh?”

“Seems there’s a group that wanted to get rid of him, send him back to the States because they thought he was too young and inexperienced to handle things. He called them his arrogant merchant princes. He’s bringing them to the palace to straighten them out.”

“That’s one item. What else?”

“There’s another bunch who wanted to take things in their own hands, blow up the embassy if they had to, anything to get
their country back. They’re machine-gun nuts; they’re also the ones who were recruited by Cons Op to get you out of the airport.”

“What’s he going to do about them?”

“Not a hell of a lot unless you want your name shouted from the minarets. If he calls them in, they’ll scream State Department connections and all the crazies in the Middle East will have another cause.”

“Ahmat knows better. Let them alone.”

“There’s a last item, and he’s got to do it for himself. He’s got to blow that boat out of the water, and kill every one of those filthy bastards.”

“
No
, Manny, that’s not the way. The killing will just go on and on—”

“Wrong!” shouted Weingrass. “You’re
wrong
! Examples must be made over and
over
again until they all learn the price they have to pay!” Suddenly the old architect was seized by a prolonged, echoing, rattling cough that came from the deepest, rawest cavities of his chest. His face reddened and the veins in his neck and forehead were blue and distended.

Evan gripped his old friend’s shoulder to steady him. “We’ll talk about it later,” he said as the coughing subsided. “I want you to come back with me, Manny.”

“Because of
this
?” Weingrass shook his head defensively. “It’s just a chest cold. Lousy weather in France, that’s all.”

“I wasn’t thinking of that,” lied Kendrick, he hoped convincingly. “I need you.”