Triple by Ken Follett Read Free Book Online

Russia which she recalled vaguely in monstrous
    nightmare images. She had sat under a fig tree in the heat of the day,
    varnishing a chair she had made with her own gnarled hands, and talked
    about Dickstein like a clever but mischievous schoolboy.
    "Mere were eight or nine of them, some from the university, some working
    men from the East End. If they ever had any money, they'd spent it before
    they got to France. They hitched a ride on a truck to Paris, then jumped
    a freight train to Marseilles. From there, it seems, they walked most of
    the way to Italy. Then they stole a huge car, a German Army staff car,
    a Mercedes, and drove all the way to the toe of Italy." Esther's face was
    creased in smiles, and Karen thought: She would love to have been there
    with them.
    "Dickstein had been to Sicily in the war, and it seems he
    35

Ken Folleff
    knew the Mafia there. They had all the guns left over from the war.
    Dickstein wanted guns for Israel, but he had no money. He persuaded the
    Sicilians to sell a boatload of submachine guns to an Arab purchaser, and
    then to tell the Jews where the pickup would take place. They knew what he
    was up to, and they loved it. The deal was done, the Sicilians got their
    money, and then Dickstein and his friend stole the boat with its cargo and
    sailed to Israell"
    Karen had laughed aloud, there under the fig tree, and a grazing goat
    looked up at her balefully.
    "Wait," said Esther, "you haven't heard the end of it Some of the
    university boys had done a bit of rowing, and one of the other lot was a
    docker, but that was all the experi.ence they had of the sea, and here they
    were sailing a fivethousand-ton cargo vessel on their own. They figured out
    a little navigation from first principles: the ship had charts and a
    compass. Dickstein had looked up in a book how to start the ship, but he
    says the book did not tell how to stop it So they steamed into Haifa,
    yelling and waving and throwing their hats into the air, just like it was
    a varsity rag--and ploughed straight into the dock.
    "lley were forgiven instantly, of course-the guns were more precious than
    gold, literally. And that!s when they started to call Dickstein The
    Pirate'."
    He did not look much like a pirate, working in the vineyard in his baggy
    shorts and his spectacles, Karen thought. AN the same, he was attractive.
    She wanted to seduce him, but she could not figure out how. He obviously
    liked her, and she had taken care to let him know she was available. But he
    never made a move. Perhaps he felt she was too young and innocent. Or maybe
    he was not interested in women.
    His voice broke into her thoughts. "I think we've finished."
    She looked at the sun: it was time to go. "You've done twice as much as
    me."
    'Tm used to the work. Ive been here, on and off, for twenty years. 'Me body
    gets into the habit."
    11ey walked back toward the village as the sky turned purple and yellow.
    Karen said, "What else do you do-when you're not here?"
    "Oh ... poison wells, kidnap Christian children."
    Karen laughed.
    36

TRIPLE
    Dickstein said, "How does this life compare with Californiar,
    "This is a wonderful place," she told him. "I think theres a lot of work
    still to be done before the women are genuinely equal."
    "That seems to be the big topic at the moment."
    "You never have much to say about it."
    "Listen, I think you're right; but it's better for people to take their
    freedom rather than be given it."
    Karen said, "That sounds like a good excuse for doing nothing."
    Dickstein laughed.
    As they entered the village they passed a young man on a pony, carrying a
    rifle, on his way to patrol the borders of the settlement Dickstein called
    out, "Be careful, Yisrael." The shelling from the Golan Heights had
    stopped, of course, and the children no longer had to sleep underground;
    but the kibbutz kept up the patrols. Dickstein had been one of those in
    favor of maintaining vigilance.
    -rm going to read to Mottie," Dickstein said.
    "Can