No Medals Today by Shlomi Tal

Author:Shlomi Tal [Tal, Shlomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-06-10T18:30:00+00:00

Thursday, October 11

After a short nap in the room adjacent to his office at the embassy on Rue Rabelais, the CDSE wakes up at five-fifteen in the morning. In a half an hour, his aide will come into his office to prepare for the coming day. His aide comes from home and brings croissants and a baguette. On his way to the office, he picks up the telegrams from the CB, and when he arrives he prepares fresh coffee in the percolator that was purchased on the first day of the war.

“Did you read Yiftach’s report on the incident at Orly yesterday?” the CDSE asks his aide as he enters his office. The CDSE doesn’t greet his assistant with a “good morning”—they just carry on with yesterday’s conversation where they left off. The aide had left for three hours, during which he managed to drive home, sleep, shower, buy the croissants and baguette, and drive back to the office. The CDSE has gotten through examining other documents and managed to fit in a short nap.

“I haven’t been able to yet. I only went through the telegrams. There was nothing urgent. Drink some coffee, and I will read Yiftach’s report.”

After a couple of minutes, the aide says, “I don’t understand much of what Yiftach has written here. It’s all in note form.”

“Yes, yes, he explained it verbally in detail, and as you know, we have a meeting this morning with some monsieur from the SDECE. Pull out Yiftach Cohen’s personal file. I want to review it again and to decide how to solve this problem with the SDECE. I remember that when the war broke out, Yiftach’s reserve unit in the IDF wanted him urgently, and it was hard to persuade them that his presence is of vital importance to us. In the end, they relented, but only because they had no choice—I informed them that they would have to send an armed rescue unit to kidnap him from here. We have to prepare for the meeting. Perhaps we should bring someone from the Mossad which is on good terms with the SDECE.”

“Yiftach has the background to do it; he left the army with the rank of captain after serving in the elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal), where he was twice decorated by the Chief of Staff for two operations carried out deep in enemy territory. After his release from the army, the Mossad recruited him, and he is on loan to the General Security Service to learn about what happens abroad as part of the embassy’s activities. His official position with us is dealing with diplomatic mail—securing its transfer from Israel to South America and West Africa. That is why they posted him here. We are lucky to benefit from his abilities during the war. Usually, his job is a routine and uninteresting one. If it were being run by an ordinary clerk, we would not be able to manage all the things we are doing.”

“Okay, leave his file, and let’s try and think what we are going to say to the man from the SDECE.

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