Nir watched as all activity in the vault room halted and every torch was extinguished. Hopefully, someone just happened to be innocently driving by. But this could also be a police car with officers sent to check out the loud noise someone reported.

The view from the security camera across the street from the warehouse wasn’t wide enough to show anything yet, and Nir caught himself holding his breath again.

Then an arc of light slowly spread into the picture, followed by the hood of a white car. The car’s cab entered the screen next, including a bar of lights attached to its roof. Even though they were 400 kilometers away, no one in the safe house moved or said a word.

Finally, the red taillights passed the camera, and the car was gone.

Tzadik waited a full five minutes before he said, “Okay, back to work. You’ve got time to make up.” Then to the man outside, “Keep your eyes open at the gate.”

Because of the narrowness of the space, it would be impractical to empty contents as each vault was opened. So as soon as one was breached, that team moved on to the next on their list. The men were efficient and very good at what they did. Even though it was winter, Nir could only imagine how hot it must be in that narrow room.

It took more than five hours of the six hours and 29 minutes to breach all the selected vaults. Then the unloading began. Stack after stack of binders—most of them black—were piled on the floor near the front doors. Nearby, towers of CDs began to grow.

When the operation clock hit six hours, the box truck returned to the courtyard and backed up to the building, followed by two more. Four cars pulled into the carport on the right side of the property. The warehouse’s metal doors slid open, and the loading began.

Nir’s anxiety ticked up. They were out in the open, and all they needed to get caught was another policeman in a cruiser or soldiers in an IRGC jeep or just someone who worked in a neighboring warehouse to drive by and get suspicious.

“Matt,” called Tzadik.

Nir turned to see his team lead pointing at him. He followed his finger and realized he’d been nervously tapping a pen on the table in front of him—a habit hard to break. Tossing the pen aside, he stepped back from the temptation.

The haul was divided between the three trucks, and then their cargo doors were shut tight and locked. One team member walked around to the passenger side of each truck and climbed in. After the warehouse doors were closed, the rest of the team hurried to the cars in the carport and loaded up. Then one by one, the vehicles left the courtyard.