The Pure

well do this in style,’ said Uzi.
    ‘And this is only the beginning. When it’s over, we’ll be able to leave it all behind and live in luxury for the rest of our lives. Together.’ Uzi had a sudden impulse to reach over and kiss her, but Leila was totally focused on the mission; even their relationship was being factored in like an operational concern. ‘The intel we have is as follows. We have an agent codenamed Omid sitting right in the heart of the Tel Aviv regime. He has been delivering an uninterrupted stream of intel about Operation Desert Rain, mainly Mossad cables. It is all highly encrypted; a decoding team based at Little Tehran has been working on the intel round the clock. So far, they have ascertained exactly when – and how – the air strikes are going to take place. At midnight Iranian time, three Israeli fighters will fly in from the north-east, violating Iranian air space. That will be a decoy to draw our attention away from the real target. As soon as the Iranian Air Force has engaged, five Israeli jets armed with American-made GBU bunker-busters will come in under the radar from across the Caspian Sea, hit the target and run. Simple but effective. Or so the Israelis hope.’
    ‘Sounds clear enough. So what is the target?’
    ‘That’s where we need your help. As you know, there are five different nuclear sites in Iran.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Uzi. ‘There’s the heavy water plant at Arak, the secret enrichment plant at Qum, the uranium enrichment centre at Natanz, the uranium conversion centre at Isfahan, and the nuclear power station at Bushehr.’
    ‘Full marks. With your background, I would have expected nothing less,’ said Leila ironically. ‘Now, two of these – Qum and Natanz – have underground bunkers deep enough to store the yellowcake. The problem is that the decoding team at Little Tehran have been unable to figure out which the Israelis are targeting.’
    ‘I’m not surprised.’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘For the last eighteen months, the Mossad has been using a code that has an entirely different system for targets.’
    ‘That would explain it.’
    ‘The MOIS hasn’t worked that out until now?’
    Leila flushed.
    ‘Where is the yellowcake really stored? Natanz or Qum?’ said Uzi directly.
    ‘I can’t tell you that. Not now. The point is, the Israelis might be planning to bomb the wrong place – after all, we’ve gone to some lengths to feed them false intel. On the other hand, they might have the right target.’
    ‘So you need to know which site they’re going to strike.’
    ‘Exactly. Look at it this way. When the Israelis decide to hit a target, they’ll hit it – nothing and nobody will stop them. So if they have the right target, we’ll have to move the yellowcake elsewhere. But transporting it is a dangerous business. For a start, the Israelis will have the target under surveillance – we’d need to get the yellowcake out without arousing their suspicion. Then there’s the question of safety. At the moment it’s stored deep underground, and it will be difficult for the Israelis to destroy it. But once the material is above ground and on the move, in the back of a truck or whatever, it’s much more vulnerable. If the Israelis spotted it, they wouldn’t need bunker-buster bombs – they could just fire a missile and boom. No more yellowcake. Or it could be hijacked by bandits or tribesmen. Or the truck could have an accident. Anything could happen.’
    ‘So what you’re saying is, you don’t want to move it unless you have to.’
    ‘Absolutely.’
    ‘So you want me to decode the intel and tell you where the Israelis are going to drop their bunker-busters.’
    ‘That’s right. The intel is from a Mossad source, so the encryption methods should be familiar to you.’
    ‘You don’t think the Israelis might be planning to bomb both?’
    ‘All of our intel points to only one attack.’ She paused, searching his face. ‘Iran needs you, Uzi. I know you’ve got what it takes. I know you’ve got the strength to see this through.’
    Uzi’s face hardened. ‘Peace can only be made between equals. That’s my guiding principle.’ He sat back, looked out of the window. ‘Maybe it’s the altitude. Everything seems simpler from up here.’
    There was a pause.
    ‘There’s something special about this operation,’ said Leila. ‘We’re changing the lives of millions of people. We’re like a force of nature, a tsunami – that kind of power. I’m