Although the coastal town he was in sat northwest of Tehran, the time here was 30 minutes later. While everyone else in this global time zone slice added four hours to Greenwich Mean Time, the Persians had decided to add only three and a half. The way it was explained to him, long ago someone had noticed their nation was divided between two time zones and decided they’d split the difference.

It’s a good thing they hadn’t lived in Russia. Who knows what they would have done with that country’s eleven time zones?

Overall, a lot more important reasons to dislike Iran were at play, but this one certainly was a pain when trying to plan an operation that had to be timed to the exact minute.

In the next room Nir had a team of six Kidon agents. He was confident that if he needed them in action, they would get the job done. In the hierarchy of lethality in Israeli intelligence, Nir knew that the Mossad is the spear. On the end of that spear is the sharp, iron head of Caesarea, and at the end of the spear’s head is the nasty little tip of Kidon. The name itself meant “tip of the spear,” and when a target needed to be eliminated or an operation had to be swiftly and silently executed, Kidon regularly got the call. But as ready as he and his team were for action, Nir hoped they would have a boring night.

First, as an Israeli, he had no interest in crossing the border into Iran. But second, if he and his team were called, that meant the operation was collapsing and Nicole was in serious danger.

Still, you hope for the best and plan for the worst. So before he’d walked into this main room, he’d checked all his weapons and gear. And he knew that even as the operation was progressing, his number two man, Yaron Eisenbach, would be rechecking everything just to make sure Nir hadn’t missed anything.

A hush filled the room when the digital wall clock reached 22:59. The tension was heavy, and the anticipation was almost overwhelming. When the numbers transformed to 23:00, the room erupted in voices, most of them speaking Hebrew-accented Azeri into communications headsets. Nir pressed a button on his watch to start the timer.

On cue, a box truck appeared on the camera feed of the warehouse’s courtyard. The rear gate was gently dropped, and operators began to jump out. They were all dressed fully in black and wore odd-shaped helmets. While most of the men unloaded equipment, two of them ran to the large faded blue doors and started working on the lock. Nir tensed as he watched this part, hoping Nicole had been able to do her job with the alarm. A gap opened between the doors, and they were slid to the sides.