Upfall

Arbel, Brom and several lesser aides and officers, including a couple of translators were already in the conference room when Mina arrived. Brom indicated that the American team occupied a couple of adjacent anterooms, evidently comparing last minute notes. Finally, at about half-past eleven the Americans emerged led by the dapper but sallow Argus Crowley. The Deputy Secretary of Defense sported a well fitted gray pinstripe, expensive tie and French cuffs. Arbel was in shirtsleeves, and Mina guessed a clip-on. Crowley's civilian aides were similarly decked out, but an American general and a pair of American colonels were in plain old digital camouflage.

The Israeli officers present wore the same olive drab fatigues the IDF had been using for a half-century.

Crowley came right to the point in English. "The President asked me to come here because he wants you to level with us."

Arbel feigned a bit of confusion over the idiom and turned to his translator. He smiled and asked Crowley in English what he wanted to know exactly.

Crowley said "First, we want you to acknowledge that you are responsible for the Iranian raid. If you do not, eventually international opinion may assume that the United States was behind it. That is unacceptable."

Arbel tried to respond to this, but Crowley put up his hand, and frowned.

"Second, we want to know what is going on at Dimona. That's it. You can end this meeting in a matter of minutes if you answer those two questions."

Arbel again used the translator, to Crowley's obvious annoyance. He'd spoken with Arbel many times and knew that the Israeli Minister's English was top notch. But diplomatic protocol meant putting up with the charade. Finally, Arbel spoke.

"Let me say Mr. Crowley, first, how appreciative we are of America's moral, military and economic support."

"Cut the crap" Crowley broke in, very undiplomatically now. "I don't think you need that translated, do you? I want answers, or I want to know that you will not provide answers, in which case I will report the same to the President."

Arbel looked at Brom and then Mina. Crowley was no friend of Israel, had never been, and was living up to his reputation. That didn't really bother Arbel. What did concern him was that an American President, generally held to be pro-Israel, would send in such a hostile interlocutor at this time.

"First" Arbel said in clear, only slightly accented English and deliberately using Crowley's phrasing "Iran has not claimed that its facility was raided, by Israel, the United States or anybody else. So I'm not sure what international censure you are concerned about."

Crowley flushed and his skin looked like it might begin to molt, but before he could reply, Arbel continued.

"Yes, obviously we did raid the facility, but that is a state secret, and while we share it with you now, we expect this information to remain confidential. As to what is going on at Dimona, we engage in peaceful nuclear research. As I tried to state before, we value America's support and friendship, and so in that spirit have I answered."

"Not by a long shot." said Crowley, who laughed Arbel's description of Dimona, and went on to accuse the defense minister of dissembling at best, lying at worst.

Mina turned the babble out and thought on technical issues she and her brother had discussed the night before concerning the reactor and transport device. When she finally looked at her watch Arbel, Crowley and their various aides and translators had been going at it for better than an hour.

The gist was that the Americans indeed suspected Israel had developed some kind of fusion device, and had for some time. They suspected a link between the reactor and the Iranian raid, but did not know what it was. American intelligence assets had monitored both the immense power surge from the Dimona facility and the almost simultaneous destruction of the Natanz facility. Yet it quickly became clear to the Americans that the Nantaz operation was a commando raid—which seemed to have little to do with nuclear research or power surges in Dimona. Crowley, and by extension the America's research and intelligence assets, could not reconcile the two events, but clearly believed that they were related.

Pressed heavily, Arbel not only conceded the raid, but also admitted that Israel had made significant strides in fusion research— but with a lot of jockeying, refused to say more. He had not needed Mina so far, and none of the Americans had addressed her. She was hoping that she might be able slink off at a break and go home. Then following a further round of tough questioning by the predatory Crowley, Arbel offered Mina up to the Americans.