“Really, sir?” Lacey grinned and turned to Parry. “Ah, well, we find it breaks the monotony.”
Dillon walked toward the Daimler and found only Hannah Bernstein inside. He got in. “The great man too busy, is he?”
“He’s waiting at the office.” She pulled his head down and kissed him on the cheek. “You had me worried, you bastard.”
“Now, then, that’s bad language for a nice Jewish girl.” He lit a cigarette and opened the window. “Let’s blow the passive smoke away.”
She ignored him. “What happened? What was it all about?”
So he told her.
When he was finished, she said, “This is monstrous.”
“Yes, you could say that.”
“And this Judas. He must be mad.”
“Yes,” he said. “You could say that.”
The Brigadier, at his desk in his office at the Ministry of Defense, listened to everything. When Dillon was finished, Ferguson sat there thinking about it, and finally spoke.
“It’s the most fantastic thing I’ve ever heard of. I mean, is this man for real?”
“I questioned Gagini about Hakim,” Dillon said, “and I believe you’ve had his report.”
“Yes, a right old blood bath.”
“Judas and his Maccabees mean business, Brigadier. As I said, your worst nightmare, but real enough.”
“So what do we do?”
“All right,” Dillon said. “Let’s try him out.” He turned to Hannah. “Access the main Secret Intelligence Service computer. Tell it to select Judas Maccabeus and the Maccabees.”
She turned to Ferguson, who nodded. “Do it, Chief Inspector.”
She went out and Ferguson said, “That poor woman with you out there, she must be terrified.”
“She’s quite a lady. She’ll cope,” Dillon said.
“Cope?” Ferguson said savagely. “He’s going to kill her.”
“No, he won’t, because I’ll kill him first,” Sean Dillon said, his face like stone, and Hannah returned.
“Nothing, sir, a total blank. The computer has never heard of Judas Maccabeus and the Maccabees.”
“Good,” Dillon said. “So now we wait and see if he phones me on the special mobile,” and he took it from his pocket and placed it on the desk.
Ferguson said, “Chief Inspector, you’ve heard what Dillon has to say about the worries the Maccabees have about the future of Israel, their fears and so on. As a Jew, what do you think?”
“My grandfather is a rabbi, as you know, sir, my father very orthodox, and yet they give me loving support, even when I must break the laws imposed by my religion because of the demands of my profession. I am very proud to be Jewish, and I support Israel.”
“But?” Ferguson said. “You appear to hesitate.”
“Let me put it this way, sir. During the Second World War, the Nazis did terrible things, the British did not. They behaved as we would expect. There are Arab terrorist groups who butcher women and children. I do not expect such actions from Israelis. However, there are minority fundamentalist groups, the kind who applauded Rabin’s murder, who are as bad as any of them.”
“And you don’t approve?”
“If my grandfather, the rabbi, were here now, he would tell you that it is a fundamental tenet of Jewish law that one cannot secure one’s own survival by deliberately depriving another of life.”
“So what does that tell you about Judas?” Dillon asked.
“That this man is no religious fanatic. A practical nationalist is my guess.”
“Just like the original Judas Maccabeus?”
“Exactly.”
“And you are sure you have no sympathy for him?”
She bridled. “Why? Simply because I’m a Jew?”
Ferguson held up a placating hand. “I had to ask, Hannah, you know that.”
The mobile phone tinkled. Dillon picked it up. “Dillon here.”
“Ah, there you are, old buddy. Request to Number Three Delta computer, source, Chief Inspector Hannah Bernstein, for any information regarding the Maccabees. Response nil.”
“Yes, we are aware of that. Do you want to speak to Brigadier Ferguson?”
“What for? Just tell him to get his arse over to Washington. Time is running out, and tell Hannah Bernstein shalom and that I’m a big admirer.”
The line went dead. Dillon said, “He knew all about the inquiry.”
“That’s incredible,” Ferguson said.
“No, it’s the invisible people.”
“One of his network of Maccabees,” Hannah said.