The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [89]
‘Plus Goliath.’
‘Goliath is more Morris’s private asset, essentially his attack dog.’
‘But technically part of the cell.’
‘Yes, but if we didn’t know about them already, the only one he could implicate is Morris.’
‘And presumably the others also have their own assets whose identities they don’t give away.’
‘Exactly. Any member of a cell can have a private asset, known only to him. And an asset of one cell member can be the head of his own cell. If his recruiter wants something done, he may call on his asset and the asset in turn is able to call on other members of his cell who are unknown to the recruiter who owns the asset.’
‘So Senator Morris may be an asset of someone in another cell who can call on him to get the kind of results that he specializes in. Morris would either do what he’s asked to do or tell them that he can’t do it.’
‘Exactly. And by the same token, Goliath could have his own cell to help him implement the senator’s wishes. Although I suspect not.’
‘So is it possible that Carmichael was one of Professor Tomlinson’s assets?’
Dov gave this a moment’s thought. ‘It’s unlikely. If it were the case, then the professor wouldn’t have been so anxious to kill him.’
‘Why not? Maybe they saw him as trouble.’
‘Well, it was apparently Carmichael’s research that alerted them to the possibility of using the plague against us.’
‘But doesn’t that prove my point?’
‘Not really. You see, Carmichael didn’t set out to work against us. He just made them aware of the fact that the plague could be revived in certain circumstances. He was a senile old man whose occasional lapses into lucidity gave them a heads-up on a plausible strategy to advance their nefarious agenda.’
‘And it was those same lapses into lucidity that made him a threat to them. In short, he knew too much for his own good.’
‘Exactly. They got some useful info from a paper that he had written and was trying to get published. But at any time he might have realized that he was being played for a sucker and start rocking the boat.’
‘And so they got Goliath to kill him.’
‘Yes.’
‘And they also tried to kill Gusack, Klein and Mansoor.’
‘And damn nearly succeeded. But I think we can rule out Mansoor as the main target. It was Klein and Gusack they wanted to silence.’
‘And now we’re giving them shelter.’
‘Well, there’s no reason not to.’
‘So we’re not worried about all that stuff about Joseph and Moses.’
‘Why should we be? There’s nothing new in it. The theories have been around for ages, and as you said, we can’t bump them off just for challenging the Bible.’
‘Okay, but what about the plague? Any danger that they brought it with them on their clothes?’
‘They arrived in swimsuits that they had just bought in Taba. And before we picked them up, they’d already taken a plunge in the Gulf of Eilat.’
‘So they were in water?’ she asked, nervously.
‘Saltwater. Trust me on this, Sarit: the worst they can manage is to ruffle the feathers of a few religious fundamentalists. They’re not going to bring the walls of Jericho tumbling down.’
Chapter 73
Participating in the open-air Samaritan Passover celebrations on Mount Gerizim was a rare privilege. Ordinary members of the public were not allowed into the fenced-off area – for logistical and security reasons – although several thousand came to witness the event from every vantage point they could find. Apart from the seven-hundred-strong Samaritan community and the police and soldiers on security duty, the only people who were allowed in were invited guests – the media, politicians from both Israel and the Palestinian Authority and people with the right connections.
So Daniel and Gabrielle could consider themselves highly honoured just to be there.
Unlike the Jewish seider in which any type of kosher meat or fish can be eaten, the Samaritan feast consisted of lamb, recalling the paschal lamb that the Israelites slaughtered and ate on the eve of the slaying of the firstborn son and the Exodus.
The celebration commenced in the afternoon, well before sunset,