“Not exactly. The Mossad head has been in the game for decades, and he knows the Iranians well. If we just took photos, Tehran would say we faked them, and the UN would undoubtedly jump to their side. So the ramsad—with the prime minister’s approval, of course—has decided we’ll break into the vaults, steal it all, and take it back to Israel. Hard to argue against hundreds of binders filled with Iranian secrets.”

Nicole sat stunned. “They’re going to steal it—all of it.”

“Yep.”

“And then haul it two thousand kilometers back to Israel.”

Nir laughed. “I know.” He’d leaned forward and tilted the wine bottle over Nicole’s glass. But when nothing came out, he placed the bottle back on the coffee table in front of them and settled into the couch.

“It’s called Operation Deep Sleep. At the end of January, we’ll disable their alarm system, override their security cameras, and send a team in to steal the contents of thirty-two vaults, all in under seven hours.”

Nir’s mood changed, and he again let out a deep sigh. “Nicole, they want you to be the lead tech. That means going on the ground in Iran. They can’t use any Israeli agents because it will be an international incident and a death sentence if we get caught. The team in-country will be made up of Azerbaijanis who live in Iran but work for us. They’re loyal and good at what they do, but…”

“But none of them do what I do.” A feeling in her stomach wavered between excitement and fear.

“I can’t stress enough how important this mission is. Iran is racing toward a nuclear bomb. Once they get it, two things will happen. First, they’ll have much more influence on the world stage. When you can dangle a nuke over people’s heads, you’re in a much stronger bargaining position. Second, the risk of Israel’s annihilation increases exponentially.”

“Do you think they would really use it if they had it?”

“Maybe, maybe not with this regime. But who knows who’s coming in next? It’s not like Iran has a track record of increasing sanity in their leadership. Besides, I’m more concerned with their putting a nuke into the hands of one of their proxy militias, like Hezbollah. With this solid information, though, we can prove to the world that despite their protests of innocence, Iran truly is racing toward possession of a nuclear bomb.”

That dinner had been six weeks ago. Now here she was sitting in a freezing van with stage one of the operation complete—the alarm system disarmed. Stage two, the recording of video, was underway.