The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [130]
‘You were fifteen when we met. It wasn’t my religion that stood in the way. Hell, I don’t even have a religion, except in name. It was my sense of responsibility.’
‘Oh, you have such a great sense of propriety, don’t you? But only on personal matters. Not on the issues that really count!’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Do you remember when we worked together on a dig in Jerusalem two years ago?’
He looked at her, confused. ‘Yes. What about it?’
‘We didn’t dig on Friday or Saturday. One Friday morning I was in an expanding Jewish suburb where building work was taking place, and there was this bulldozer and it was knocking down some olive trees that belonged to the nearby Arab village. The bulldozer was being driven by a soldier. I asked why they were doing it and someone told me that the olive trees were being used as cover for children to throw stones at cars driven by people from the Jewish neighbourhood. And there was this kid – she couldn’t have been more than four or five – standing in front of the bulldozer…’ The tears were welling up in her eyes again. ‘And the bulldozer… it wouldn’t stop… and I just stood there frozen… too frozen to speak… it wouldn’t stop… and the girl’s mother was screaming… and I was screaming in my mind… and it wouldn’t stop…’
She broke down in hysterical tears.
Daniel moved towards her and tried to put a comforting arm around her, but she brushed him off.
‘Don’t touch me! If you want to make a moral stand, make it over injustices like that instead of remaining silent!’
There were a thousand things he could say. About the injustices on the other side too. About not judging a nation by individual instances, even if they could be strung together to present a negative picture. But none of that was a valid answer to her criticism. If that child was killed in the way she said and if the driver of the bulldozer was not held to account, then a grievous wrong had been done.
Sarit returned. Ignoring Gabrielle’s tearful hysterics – or at least pretending to – she got back into the car and drove it across the border into Israel.
‘I’ve notified the authorities in Israel and they’ll be sending up flares and soldiers to look out for him. But I’d like us to keep driving around the lake in case we see him. We’re the only ones who know what he looks like.’
Chapter 106
Goliath pulled up and got out of the car. He was at the spot. He took the white linen shroud and began walking to the water’s edge. There were people about, but what did it matter? They were hardly going to stop him throwing a piece of white linen into the lake.
He felt gripped by that sensation of the power that he had whenever he killed someone: that feeling of being in control. That feeling that he was doing God’s work for which he would be richly rewarded, if not in this life then in the next.
He was at the water’s edge. Now all he had to do was throw it.
About fifty yards away, Sarit had seen him. Although she couldn’t make out the facial features from this distance, the height made him unmistakable. She slammed on the brakes, causing the car to skid to a halt.
She regretted this because the noise caused Goliath to turn his head and see them. But in the distance – and in the darkness – all he could see was the car, not its occupants. Her Mossad training had included shooting through a car window from the inside – a skill that is learned by only the most elite of fighting forces.
She had aimed for the torso, the broadest part of the body – and Goliath was a big target. So she knew she had hit him with her ‘double tap’ even before he clutched his chest and staggered backwards. But Goliath was a strong man, and he was down but not out. She leapt out of the car intending to finish him off with a second shot. Gabrielle and Daniel followed her out and as she levelled the gun for the coup de grâce, Gabrielle jumped on her and tried to grab the gun, both women crashing to the ground.
Unsure of what was happening