Exodus - Leon Uris [243]
Ben Moshe took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on. “Ari, you have such a pleasant way of persuasion,” he said. “We are going into the Acre jail and take Akiva and Little Giora out.”
“That is what I thought. When?”
“The day after tomorrow.”
“I am going with you.”
Nahum started to protest but Ben Moshe held up his hand to be quiet.
“You give your word the Haganah does not know about you being here?”
“You have it.”
“What is his word?” Nahum said.
“I take the word of a Ben Canaan.”
“I still do not like it,” Nahum said.
“That is too bad then. You know what this means of course, Ari. We have mobilized our greatest strength. You have been in the Acre jail ... you know what it is like. If we can do this thing it will break the British backs.”
“Acre is an all-Arab city. The jail is the toughest stronghold they have in Palestine. Let me see your plans.”
Ben Moshe opened the desk and took out a sheaf of blueprints. Everything in the Acre area had been covered: there was a layout of the town, the exterior approaches to the prison, the escape roads. The diagrams of the prison’s interior were perfect as far as Ari could judge. They must have been drawn up by people who had been prisoners. The guard stations, the arsenal, the main communications center were all pinpointed on the maps.
Ari studied the timetables of the attack. They were masterpieces. Heavy explosives, grenades, and land mines, all manufactured by the Maccabees, were ingeniously employed.
“What do you think, Ari?”
“Everything is perfect—up to a point. I see how you are going to get in and get them outside but the escape from Acre”—Ari shook his head—“this will never work.”
“We cannot hide conveniently at the nearest kibbutz,” Nahum Ben Ami snapped.
“We know the chance of complete escape is very slim,” Ben Moshe agreed.
“It is not very slim. It is nil. Of course I know you Maccabees pride yourselves on being dead heroes. Unless you set up better getaway plans, that is what you’re going to become.”
“I know what he is going to suggest,” Nahum said. “He will suggest we co-operate with the Haganah and the kibbutzim ...”
“That is exactly what I am going to suggest. If you don’t you’ll have a lot of new martyrs. Ben Moshe, you are brave but you are not crazy. As the matter stands now you have possibly a two-per-cent chance. If you allow me to set up more complete escape plans your chances will become fifty-fifty.”
“Watch him,” Nahum said, “he talks too slickly.”
“Go on, Ari.”
Ari spread the master map out on the desk. “I suggest that you take an extra ten or fifteen minutes inside the prison and use that time to free every prisoner in the place. They will scatter in twenty directions and force the British to chase them all and thereby cut the British strength.”
Ben Moshe nodded.
“Now, our own groups should also break up into small units and each unit head out a different way from Acre. I will take Akiva with me and you will take the boy.”
“Go on,” Nahum Ben Ami said. As he listened he realized Ari was making sense.
“For my route I will break for Kfar Masaryk. There I will change transportation to throw them off and use back roads to go up to Mount Carmel south of Haifa. I have trusted friends in the Druse village of Daliyat el Karmil. The British won’t even begin to look up there.”
“It sounds good,” Nahum said. “The Druses can be trusted ... better than some Jews I know.”
Ari ignored the insult. “The second unit carrying Dov Landau will go up the coast road to Nahariya and split. I can arrange sanctuary in a half dozen kibbutzim in the area. I suggest that Landau be taken to Mishmar kibbutz on the Lebanese border. I was there at the building of Mishmar; the area is filled with caves. Your brother David was with me at Mishmar in the second world war. We have used it for years as a hiding place for our leaders. Landau will be absolutely safe there.”
Ben Moshe sat like a statue, looking over his plans. Without these hiding places he knew he had no more than a dramatic suicide mission. With