“True, but it’s still the same thing. It just slowed them down. We need to do something to actually halt Iran’s progress. Slowing them down just delays the inevitable destruction of Israel. Eventually, even the tortoise reaches the finish line.”

They started walking again.

“How was the tenachesh mi?” Nicole asked.

Nir smiled at her growing Hebrew vocabulary. Tenachesh mi meant “Guess who?” and that was what his team had taken to calling their occasional middle-of-the-night visitations.

“The good doctor assured me he’s feeling a call to a new career path.”

“I’m glad of that. I sometimes feel bad for how terrified they must be in that moment, but I know it’s better than the alternative.”

“I don’t feel bad for them at all. They know exactly what they’re doing. I doubt there are many people alive who don’t know Iran is pushing for nuclear weapons, and when they get them, they’re going to use them on us.”

Nicole stopped to look in the window of a sweetshop, where chocolates of many designs sat on intricate racks. “I don’t know. Some of them just don’t seem to think ahead. They only see the money.”

“Would you like something from this shop?” Nir asked.

Nicole laughed and moved on. “No. Just looking. Wishing I didn’t have an athletic wear photo shoot at the end of the week.”

“Then it’s good we’re leaving. I was gaining weight just looking at those.”

They walked past several more shops, then Nir said, “You know, I don’t really care if they’ve thought it through or not. The result of their work is the same. Whether you kill millions intentionally or unintentionally, millions are still dead.”

“That’s fair. I just have motives on the mind. There’s this preacher I’ve been watching online.”

Nir groaned. Again, he was happy for the big change in Nicole’s life. And if it was her Jesus that made the difference, then that was perfectly fine with him. He just wished she didn’t feel the need to talk about it all the time.

“Just listen to me. Something might actually break through that cynical, Bible-schmible wall you’ve put up in your brain,” she said, laughing and tapping the side of his head. “So this guy was talking about how when Christians are judged before God, their motives are what will be judged. It’s not so much about what you do but why you do it.”

“Okay. Interesting. Go on.”

“You can do the wrong things for the wrong reasons, and that’s wrong. You can do the right things for the wrong reasons, and that’s wrong too. The only actions that count are when we do the right things for the right reasons. Everything else will be burned up.”

Nir thought about that for a moment. “What about doing the wrong things for the right reasons?”