AUSTRALIA: The Puppeteer (The Puppets of Washington Book 2)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3Fred Gibson, a black, burly fellow, bearing a striking resemblance to Louis Armstrong, was sitting at his desk when Mark entered the chief’s office. Fred raised his face from the keyboard and waved for Mark to sit down before opening his mouth. When he turned off the computer, he raised his gaze to his agent.

“All right, Mark, I’d like you to read the summary of the case, before we get to your debriefing.” Fred handed his agent a couple of typewritten pages.

“But, before I read this, could you tell me where they are, Chief?” Mark was pleading for an answer. He not only wanted to read the official report, but he also wanted to hear Fred’s take on the whole affair.

“We’ve tracked them down to Australia. They’re living at the same address where Samuel was staying after his two assignments were completed.”

“You mean they’re in Manly?”

“Yes, that’s where they’ve been located.”

“But, Chief, they’re right in the open—they’re sitting ducks in that house...”

“Perhaps they are, Mark, but we’re no longer calling the shots on this one, Mossad is.”

“Okay, but do you know what’s going to happen now?”

“No, Mark, I don’t. We can only deduce they’re after the Puppeteer. He is the only one who will be able to clear their names and that of a number of other people involved in the Sadir Affair.” Fred shot a stern glance in Khalid’s direction. “Just read the report for now and then we’ll talk about what we can do.”

Mark unfolded the two pages and began reading.

It had always been difficult for Talya to express her feelings, then more than ever. She had been confined to her apartment since the shooting. Talya Kartz had been shot seven months ago. The bullet grazed her spine and landed her in a wheelchair. Her long-time friend and physician, Dr. Aziz Hendrix, called on Khalid Saif Al-Fadir, a Saudi Arabian prince to travel to Vancouver to help her get out of her “bubble”. The prince was stopped in Ottawa by the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service (CSIS). For political reasons, the agency preferred Khalid never to have any further contact with Talya. Khalid fell in love with Talya a year or so previously and sheltered her from harm when drug and arms traffickers were after her to eliminate her. These so-called traffickers were in reality brains roaming the corridors and offices of the CIA and Mossad at a time when the Gaza Strip and Hamas were common words on the lips of news anchors across the world.

CIA agent, and friend of Abdullah Saif Al-Fadir (Khalid’s uncle), Muhammad Sadir, forced Khalid’s hand when the latter was only too willing to go chasing after the Mossad agent who shot Talya and killed another Israeli agent in the weeks prior to her returning to Vancouver. Stepping aboard the aircraft that took him to Sydney, Australia, Khalid found himself with a new identity, a new passport, accompanied of an undercover agent by the name of Mark Gilford, and a lot of doubts as to the reason for his sudden escapade to the land Downunder. In fact, Khalid wanted to kill Samuel Meshullam the day he learned of his pulling the trigger on Ben Slimane (a.k.a. Ishmael Assor) and of his shooting Talya.

The two men were on a collision course with destiny. They had to be stopped, unless they both delighted in the thought of spending their dying days in a Saudi or Israeli prison. The only thing that could have stopped either of these two men was a warrant for Samuel’s arrest. Attempted murder against the person of Talya Kartz was the subject of the warrant issued by the Canadian authorities. The Canadian Secret Intelligence Service in Ottawa had decided not to play ball with its American counterpart – the CIA. They wanted Samuel out of the way.

When Khalid and Mark arrived in Sydney, they were promptly told to return to where they came from; Paris for Khalid and Ottawa for Mark. However, Mark was asked to help the local authorities in locating Samuel who had now vanished into thin air. Everyone thought he resided in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, and wouldn’t be moving so soon after Khalid’s arrival in Australia. Yet, Mossad had preempted the move and had alerted Samuel of the prince’s imminent arrival.

Aware of the fact that Samuel had to be tracked down, arrested and extradited back to Canada, Talya and her attorney, Darlene Stovall, prepared for the impending trial. Talya was now comfortably ensconced in a suite of a B&B on Bowen Island where she and a physiotherapist by the name of Jay Kravitz, were awaiting another operation on Talya’s spine that would see her walk again in the weeks leading to the trial.

While it was an indubitable fact that Samuel had pulled the trigger that sent Ishmael Assor to the outer world, and which landed Talya in a wheelchair, the CIA, in the meantime, had discovered that Muhammad Sadir had been feeding information to a Mossad agent that led the organization to believe that Ishmael and Talya – together with Samuel – had participated in a treacherous operation that ultimately saw them accused of treason against the State of Israel. To cover their collective asses, the CIA arrested Muhammad Sadir and sent him to trial for felony murder and accessory to attempted murder.

Being suddenly cleared of the charges of murder and attempted murder against him, Samuel saw himself directed back to Vancouver where he soon faced the one person he had never forgotten – Talya. He had known Talya ten years ago and they both had enjoyed a promising life together when Talya’s mother had put an end to that dream.

The trial against Muhammad Sadir began in Washington a few months later. The prosecutor in this case was none other than Lucien Billycan, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Darlene Stovall, Talya’s attorney, was more than well acquainted with the prosecutor – she was a “very dear friend” of his. Darlene steered him in the path of the truth and while keeping her eyes wide open, she unraveled what Talya had tried to explain to her as the CIA’s plan. Billycan is faced with a quandary. He knew the defense attorney, David Simmons, together with the accused, would try his best to discredit Billycan’s material witnesses while proving that Talya and her accomplices were traitors against the State of Israel and the United States – if the US Attorney couldn’t unravel this skein of dirty wool before Sadir saw the charges against him dropped.

Meanwhile, Khalid summoned his uncle, Abdullah Saif Al-Fadir, at his side and together they devised a plan by which they were able to save Talya and Samuel from further attempts on their lives. Mossad intervened and recalled Talya and Samuel “to the fold”. Within hours of Talya testifying at Sadir’s trial, they both disappeared. Mossad needed to keep the “children of Israel” away from the mastermind who had bestowed his evil upon them – they nicknamed him, “The Puppeteer”.

Mark nodded as he handed the two pages back to Fred. “But that’s only the story for the dossier, isn’t it, Chief? And it really doesn’t read like one of our reports...”

“No, it’s the report I got from James Flaubert. Remember, every time we reached the conclusion of one of these cases that involved Talya, he would summarize the story...”

“Yeah, like he did when Talya was shot and we got together with him in Carmine’s board room for the final powwow...”

“Yes. And this time, I asked him to write the story from his perspective, since he was not directly involved in the affair and could provide an outsider’s view of what happened.”

“What about the rest of it?” Mark asked.

“The rest of it, as you call it, is for us to know and others not to find out. We’ve got to assist Mossad in this affair, Mark. We need to find the Puppeteer ourselves.”

“What about Van Dams?”

Deputy Director Van Dams had been killed in front of the CIA’s building within hours of the prosecuting attorney discovering that the Deputy Director had been less than forthcoming with the information he had on Agents Sadir and Lypsick.

“What about him?”

“Did they ever find out who shot him?”

“Not yet, Mark, and I don’t think anyone in the CIA is ever going to make that information public.”

“Did you ever find out why he didn’t arrest Lypsick when he was made aware of his collaboration with Sadir in ordering the two killings?”

“I remember talking to him about it when you reported that the US Attorney had introduced the two IM communications in evidence at the trial...”

“And what did he say?” Mark asked.

“Well..., he was vague but he said something like he couldn’t arrest Lypsick without upsetting the whole apple cart at that point. Besides, I believe the responsible party for the two assaults was Mossad. These guys had it in for Assor and for Talya from day one and they’re still after Talya and Samuel for the same reasons.”

“You mean Mossad still believe they’re traitors?” Mark sounded puzzled, not to say outraged.

Fred nodded. “Yes, Mark. I believe they’ve brought Talya and Samuel back to the fold as they said, for only that reason—to have them clear their names of the accusation of treason.”

“But didn’t they do that at the trial?”

“Oh yes, they did alright, but that was only for show. See, the only thing they proved is that Lypsick acted under their orders and that Mossad only listened to the CIA’s news feed. Now these guys want to find the person who wanted the operation destroyed originally.”

“But I thought it was the CIA who wanted that operation erased from the board.”

“I don’t think so, Mark. Look at this whole thing from the CIA’s point of view; why would they want to destroy something like that just because a secretary from Vancouver sniffed around their patch? And if you remember, at the beginning, the CIA wanted you and Talya to find Slimane. I bet they had intel on the guy and knew already that he was the rotten apple. But what they didn’t know is that he was Mossad.”

“So, what you’re saying is that Mossad thought their agent had turned sour on them and they organized his killing to prevent him from doing any more damage. But why shooting Talya then?”

His hands still lying flat on the desk, Fred stretched to the back of his chair and cracked a smile. “Because she had not come clean when Samuel showed up in Georgia. That only demonstrated to Mossad that she knew a lot more than she led on and that she was protecting someone.”

“But, Chief, we didn’t know Slimane was actually a Jewish fellow until we got to Paris after that.”

“Yes, Mark, that’s right but you forgot a little item that Mossad could not overlook...”

“What’s that?”

“You were on the road to Detroit...”

Khalid’s face lit up, but its feature quickly receded into deep concern. “And Detroit is only a stone-throw from Flint where Slimane was hiding.”

“Precisely. Mossad couldn’t help but conclude that Talya was on her way to join Slimane. And from that to conclude she knew the guy, wouldn’t have taken much of a brain to figure it out.”

“And although we didn’t know it at the time, when Talya and I killed the two Arabs on board the Marianne, it put further suspicions in Mossad’s mind. Plus, Slimane sending everyone home and seemingly protecting Talya at every turn must have sounded suspicious to Mossad, too.”

Fred’s head bobbed up and down. “Now you see how much evidence is stacking up against her?”

“Yes, Chief, but are we just going to sit back and let Mossad handle this show until they find her guilty as charged without doing anything?”

“No, Mark, we’re not.” The firmness in Fred’s voice didn’t leave any doubt in Khalid’s mind that the chief had a plan in the works—or at least he hoped he did.