The Pure

sipped, Avner spoke again. ‘Fact is, they fucked me. They demoted me to Bodel – a courier, for fuck’s sake – the sort of job that goes to someone fresh out of the army. Me, a Katsa, with all my experience. I’m a laughing stock. It’s humiliating.’
    ‘You can’t complain,’ said Uzi. ‘Using the Office’s surveillance equipment to blackmail the Johns on the Tel Baruch beach? You played the fucking fool.’
    ‘How was I to know the guy was a Shabak officer?’
    ‘That’s not the point.’
    ‘No, my brother, that’s not the point. You want to know the point? This is the point. I’m going to cut loose from the Office, but I’ve got a chance to make some big money first. Forty million dollars, my brother. Forty million. And I want you in on it. Sixty-forty.’
    ‘I’m listening.’
    ‘There’s an election coming up in the homeland.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘I have friends in the opposition party. They want me to help . . . facilitate their victory.’
    ‘You have friends on the political left?’
    ‘Left-wing, right-wing, it’s all the same to me. Corrupt bastards, to a man. It’s a travesty, the state of our country. I just network, you know? I network.’ Avner smiled.
    Uzi raised his eyebrows. ‘Go on.’
    ‘Like I said, they’re offering us forty million dollars. We split it sixty-forty. My job will be to set everything up. I’ll do all the work. All you have to do is talk to WikiLeaks.’
    ‘About what?’
    ‘Operation Cinnamon.’
    ‘No way.’
    ‘Hear me out. If Operation Cinnamon hit the news, the prime minister would be impeached quicker than Richard Nixon. The right-wingers get voted out, the left-wingers get voted in. We get our forty million dollars. Game over.’
    Uzi shook his head. ‘You actually thought I would agree to this? You fucking idiot, Avner. Do I look suicidal to you?’
    Avner laid a hand on his arm. ‘Listen to me. The PM used the Office – used you – for his own ends. I know you’re burning up about it, and with good reason. Now is the time to redress the balance. You want to change the course of history? You want to stand up for peace? You want to get stinking fucking rich? Then this is how.’
    ‘Stand up for peace?’ said Uzi. ‘Leaking top secret information is standing up for peace?’
    ‘Getting rid of this government is standing up for peace. It would be to you, anyway. Helping the peaceniks. Isn’t that what you want these days? With your left-wing principles?’
    ‘I’m not about politics. I’m no left-winger. I’m just a soldier who knows that when the PM uses the secret services to kill his opponents, it’s time to get the hell out. I’m not a fucking crusader or anything. I don’t give a shit about the government.’
    Avner winced. ‘You need to look at the bigger picture,’ he said. ‘Do you want the government to bomb Iran?’
    ‘What do you think? Of course I don’t want them to bomb Iran.’
    ‘Well, then. The attack plans are already drawn up, my brother.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I’m telling you. Operation Desert Rain. A daredevil air strike to destroy Iran’s supposed nuclear materials – pinpoint and covert, not enough to spark a war. Or so the PM hopes. The voters will love it. A trumped-up target, a nighttime bombing raid, and there you have it: an election winner for our friends in the government.’
    ‘But there is no credible Iranian threat.’
    ‘We both know it. The Iranian nuclear programme is nothing but a paper tiger. The Americans fucked it with that cyber attack last winter – it’ll be years before Iran even thinks about turning their uranium into yellowcake. But that doesn’t matter to our beloved government, especially when an election is approaching.’
    ‘Fuck. You’re sure of your source?’
    ‘Cast iron. This is big time, my brother. The dogs of war are barking.’
    ‘You sound like you care, Avner.’
    ‘Like I said, I’m in it for the money. But you care, my brother. I know you do.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘So if you leak Operation Cinnamon, the world will learn about this little scheme too. There will be a scandal. Operation Desert Rain will be aborted. Those GBU-28s will stay sitting in the warehouse for a few more years, rather than being dropped on Iran this year. And it will all be down to you. Plus, you’ll be a rich man. Did I mention that?’
    Uzi passed a hand across his face and drained his coffee. ‘The Office would kill me.’
    ‘They wouldn’t.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘You’ll