Honour Among Thieves

added. 'We'll have to give Kratz a little more time.' 'Enough time to tell me what the whopper is?' asked Hannah. 'Good,' said the General, when Kratz didn't react to the needle being jabbed into his big toe. 'Now we can find out all we need to know. But to begin with, some simple questions. Your Mossad rank?' 'Colonel,' said Kratz. The secret was to tell them only facts you felt confident they already knew. 'Your initiation number?' '78216,' he said. If in doubt, assume they know, otherwise you could be caught out. 'And your official position?' 'Councillor for Cultural Affairs to the Court of St James in London.' You are allowed three testing lies and one whopper, but no more. 'What are the names of your three colleagues who accompanied you on this mission?' 'Professor Scott Bradley, an expert on ancient manuscripts,' - the first testing lie - 'Ben Cohen, and Aziz Zeebari.' The truth. 'And the girl, Hannah Kopec, what is her rank in Mossad?' 'She is still a trainee.' 'How long has she been with Mossad?' 'Just over two years.' 'And her role?' 'To be placed in Baghdad to discover where the Declaration of Independence was located.' The second lie. 'You are doing well, Colonel,' said the General, looking at the long, thin cardboard tube he held in his right hand. 'And was this your overall responsibility as her commanding officer?' 'No. I was simply to accompany the safe from Kalmar.' The third lie. 'But surely that was nothing more than an excuse to locate the Declaration of Independence?' Kratz hesitated. Experts had been able to show that even under the influence of a truth drug a highly trained agent would still hesitate when asked a secret he had never revealed in the past. 'What was the true purpose of your bringing the safe to Baghdad, Colonel?' Kratz still remained silent. 'Colonel Kratz,' said the General, his voice rising with every word, 'what was the real reason you brought the safe to Baghdad?' Kratz counted to three before he spoke. 'To blow up the Ba'ath Party headquarters with a tiny nuclear device secreted in the safe, in the hope of killing the President along with all the members of the Revolutionary Command Council.' The whopper. How Kratz wished he could see the General's face. It was Hamil who was hesitating now. 'How was the bomb to be activated?' Again Kratz did not reply. 'I will ask you once again, Colonel. How was the bomb to be activated?' Still Kratz said nothing. 'When will it go off?' shouted the General. 'Two hours after the safe has been closed by anyone other than the Professor.' The General checked his watch, rushed to the only phone in the room and shouted to be put through to the President immediately. He waited until he heard Saddam's voice. He didn't notice that Kratz had fainted and fallen from his chair to the floor. Scott eased himself into the corner before once again checking the little sulphur dots on his watch. It was 5.19. He and Hannah had been in the safe for an hour and seventeen minutes. 'I'm going to push now. If you hear anything, shove as hard as you can. If there's anyone still out there our only hope will be to take them by surprise.' Scott began to exert the minimum amount of pressure on the corner of the door with the tips of his fingers, and it eased open an inch. He stopped and listened, but could hear nothing. He took a look through the tiny crack, and could see no one. He pushed another inch. Still no sound. Both of them now had a clear view of the corridor. Scott looked at Hannah and nodded, and together they shoved as hard as they could. The ton of steel shot open. They both leaped into the corridor, but there was no one to be seen. There was an eerie silence. Scott and Hannah walked slowly down the short corridor, keeping to the sides until they reached the Chamber. Still no sound. Scott put a foot into the Chamber and glanced to his left. The Declaration of Independence was still hanging on the wall next to the portrait of Saddam. Hannah moved silently to the far end of the Chamber and looked into the long corridor. She then turned back to Scott and nodded. Scott checked the spelling of 'Brittish' before saying a silent hallelujah. He pulled out three of the nails, then eased the Declaration over the remaining nail in the top right-hand corner, trying to forget that he had spat on a national treasure and rubbed it in the dust. He gave Saddam one last look before rolling up the parchment and joining Hannah in the corridor. Hannah slid along the wall, then