Everyone on the two inflatables turned back in the direction of the yacht so they could see the distant fireball.

Suddenly, Nir thought of the Filipino steward. And it wasn’t just him. A whole crew was on board.

“Five…” counted Liora.

No innocents. That’s a Mossad creed. Israel doesn’t do collateral damage, if at all possible.

“Four…”

Nir jumped up and tried to say something, but he broke into a coughing fit.

“Three…”

The coughing grew until he fell back to his seat. Doron grabbed hold to steady him.

“Two—”

“Stop,” Nir gasped.

“We’ve got you, achi,” said Doron.

“One—”

“Stop! You don’t understand. It’s—”

Chapter 62

CHAPTER 62

CARL, MOSSAD HEADQUARTERS, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—20:22 / 8:22 P.M. IDT

Stop!” The power of the ramsad’s voice startled Nicole.

“Hold, hold, hold!” Liora called out.

There was silence on the coms and silence in the room. All eyes were on Ira Katz.

“Tavor, talk,” the ramsad commanded.

“Ha’mefaked, we can’t launch yet.” Nicole could barely hear Nir’s strained words.

“I need a very good explanation as to why, because we are one button push away from accomplishing the entire mission—exactly as you laid out, I might add.”

“You’re right. But I have new information. This will not wash out the mission. It will only delay it.”

“Talk.”

“There are—” Nir’s voice cracked, and there was a pause. “Thanks,” he said to someone nearby. When he spoke again, his voice was much clearer. “In the Mossad, we take the lives of the guilty while striving to protect the innocents as much as is possible, right? Proportionality is what I was taught in training. If innocents must be caught up in the operation, it must be for a very good reason and there must be no other option. That was true when we planned out this mission.”

“I would think that protecting Israel and the rest of the world from a nuclear Iran is a proportional cause,” the ramsad said.

Nicole wasn’t sure where Nir was going with this, but one thing was becoming evident. Her night of worrying about his safety was not over.

“It is. The proportional criteria is met. However, now that I’ve been onsite, I see another option. Ha’mefaked, according to our intel, there are typically twenty-four crew on board this yacht at any given time. We didn’t think we could save them. Now I believe we can.”

Cohen cut in. “Nir, we talked about this. It is tragic, but there is a price for working for a gunrunning, terrorist-supporting billionaire.”

“But do they know that’s who he is? I thought so before, but now I don’t.”

“Why?” asked the ramsad. “What made you change your mind? You know you’re asking men to risk their lives for these people?”