Triple by Ken Follett Read Free Book Online Page B

lit face, while fear of the unknown knotted
    and writhed in his stomach and made him nauseous.
    In the faint, shifting light, Borg looked like the giant in a fairy
    story. He had heavy features: thick lips, broad cheeks, and protruding
    eyes shadowed by thick brows. As a child he had been told he was ugly,
    and so he had grown into an ugly man. When he was uneasy-like now-his
    bands went continually. to his face, covering his mouth, rubbing his
    nose, scratching his forehead, in a subconscious attempt to hide his
    unsightliness. Once, in a relaxed moment, Dickstein had asked him, "Why
    do you yell at everybody?" and he had replied, "Because they're all so
    fucking handsome."
    They never knew what language to use when they spoke. Borg was
    French-Canadian originally, and found Hebrew a struggle. Dickstein's
    Hebrew was good and his French only passable. Usually they settled for
    English.
    Dickstein had worked under Borg for ten years, and still he did not like
    the man. He felt he understood Borg's troubled, unhappy nature; and he
    respected his professionalism and his obsessional devotion to Israeli
    Intelligence; but in Dickstein's book this was not enough 'cause to like
    a person. When Borg lied to him, there were always good sound reasons,
    but Dickstein resented the lie no less.
    He retaliated by playing Borg's tactics back against him. He would refuse
    to say where he was going, or he would lie about it. He never checked in
    on schedule while he was in the field: bLe simply called or sent messages
    with peremptory demands. And he would sometimes conceal from Borg part
    or all of his game plan. This prevented Borg from- interfering with
    schemes of his own, and it was almost more secure--for what Borg knew,
    he might be obliged to tell the politicians, and what they knew might
    find its way to the opposition.
    39

Ken Folleff
    Dickstein knew the strength of his position-he was responsible for many
    of the triumphs which had distinguished Bores career--and he played it for
    all it was worth.
    The CitroL% roared through the Arab town of Nazarethdeserted now,
    presumably under curfew-and went on into the night, heading for Tel Aviv.
    Borg lit a thin cigar and began to speak.
    "After the Six-Day War, one of the bright boys in the Ministry of Defense
    wrote a paper entitled 'The Inevitable Destruction of Israel! The
    argument went like this. During the War of Independence, we bought arms
    from Czechoslovakia. When the Soviet bloc began to take the Arab side,
    we turned to France, and later West Germany. Germany called off all deals
    as soon as the Arabs found out. France imposed an embargo after the
    Six-Day War. Both Britain and the United States have consistently refused
    to supply us with arms. We are losing our sources one by one.
    "Suppose we are able to make up those losses, by continually finding new
    suppliers and by building our own munitions industry: even then, the fact
    remains that Israel must be the loser in a Middle East arms race. The off
    countries will be richer than us throughout the foreseeable future. Our
    defense budget is already a terrible burden on the national economy
    whereas our enemies have nothing better to spend their billions on. When
    they have ten thousand tanks, well need six thousand; when they have
    twenty thousand tanks, we'll need twelve thousand; and so on. Simply by
    doubling their arms expenditure every year, they will be able to cripple
    our national economy without firing a shot.
    . "Finally, the recent history of the Middle East shows a pattern of
    limited wars about once a decade. The logic of this pattern is against us.
    The Ambs can afford to lose a war from time to time. We can't: our first
    defeat will be our last war.
    "Conclusion: the survival of Israel depends on our breaking out of the
    vicious spiral our enemies have prescribed for us."
    Dickstein nodded. "It's not a novel line of thought. It's the usual
    argument for 'peace at any price.' I should think the bright boy