Upfall

"Yes, with Brom, on the way back. At that Chinese place."

"You could have brought me something" he said a bit petulantly.

"I didn't think you would be home" she said quickly, but realized that she hadn't even thought of it. He seemed to be slipping into one of his morose, almost childish moods. Feldhandler might be the smartest man on earth, but that didn't mean that he had good temperament or the best judgment.

"So?"

"What can I say? It didn't go well. Brom thinks that Arbel will advise the PM to give the Americans what they want."

"And what's that?"

"Pretty much everything."

He curled his lower lip. "What do you think?"

She was tired and irritated. Between Arbel, the Americans, Brom and now her brother, she found herself thinking that she just wanted a lukewarm shower, clean sheets and sleep. "What do I know about such things? You could have gone yourself. Arbel would have preferred that."

"The Americans too no doubt" he said. "Tell me something - anything."

"I don't know" she said with a shrug. "But if I had to guess, I'd say Brom was right. The days running our own fusion reactor and playing with the space /time continuum are numbered."

"Okay" he said, with some vigor. "We've known this day would come, and planned well for it. You are still with me, right?"

"Yes. I'm not sure I like it so much anymore, but yes."

"Don't worry. It won't affect you—"

"You don't know that for sure" she said with some emotion. "And besides, it means losing you. That affects me."

He reached out awkwardly for her. She pulled away. So much for tenderness in the Feldhandler family they both thought, and then recognizing their common wavelength, laughed.

"What chance does Brom give on Slingshot?" he asked, getting back to business.

"Low. But they are proceeding according to plan. By tomorrow the sayeret will be assembled, fully equipped and ready to go. It's just a matter of getting them in the capsule..."

"And me—and Perchansky too."

"So you are taking her?" Mina asked. "You know she will hate you, and not in just a feminine way. She will truly hate you."

"They all will" he said resignedly. "But what choice do I really have. It's too much of a risk to leave her—she knows too much. She could make life for you hell. And I will probably need her on the other side. You know I get too much credit for what I do."

"That's certainly true. But you don't want to leave her."

"What's this with you and Brom?" he asked, ignoring her comment about Perchensky. Mina was too composed a woman to blush, but the question embarrassed her anyway.

"We had dinner after a long day. End of story. Do you have your own gear?" she asked, changing the topic again.

"Yes, it's taken care of. Menachem, in the armory has it all for me, ready to go. I just have to grab it. It took a few shekels—he's a greedy man."

"What will be his story?"

"That I circumvented security and stole everything. I am the smartest man in the world after all" he said happily.

Mina smiled at him, saddened by his determination, but relieved that the discussion was done. It was time for that shower and a nice clean bed.

Chapter 7

The capsule looked a bit like a pharmaceutical but in fact was about the size of a midget submarine, ten meters long and 1.7 meters in circumference. Eight foldable seats ran along each side of the interior of the capsule, each with a set of shoulder harnesses. A control panel adjoined the forward-most seat on the left side, which was accessible to a strapped-in soldier. However, the men inside the capsule had little need to manipulate the controls. The capsule was almost entirely managed from the mission center deep within the Dimona facility.

The capsule theoretically accommodated sixteen combat troops. In actual deployments, both in testing and during the Natanz raid, loads were constrained by a combination of mass calculations, and the desire to limit losses in the case of a mishap. For Operation Slingshot twelve troops were approved, with all their personal equipment, plus an additional load of support weapons and gear. Slingshot was designed to go on the fly. The moment the Israelis received actionable intelligence on a movement by Mughniyeh, Yatom and his team would be alerted, strapped into the capsule and ready to go within ten minutes.

On the morning of May 24, two days after Arbel's difficult meeting with the Americans at Ramat David, Yatom assembled the sayeret. All but Second Lieutenant Itzak Belete were veterans of the Natanz raid. He briefed them again about the mission objectives and laid out the requirements of their alert status. All twelve members of the sarayet would remain on station within at or near their special barrack within the facility, with personal weapons, ammo, load bearing harnesses, night vision goggles, radios, helmets and flack vests available at all times.