Read Online Sabra Zoo by Mischa Hiller - Free Book Online

dark glasses as he approached us.
    Bob took a swig of beer and stood up, picking up the camera.
    â€˜You good-looking guys want to be on TV ?’ he said to the men. They both grinned and Bob winked at me. ‘It works every time,’ he said.
    Back through the Green Line, I started to breathe again.
    â€˜When did you last go to east Beirut?’ Bob asked when Samir stopped to drop me off.
    â€˜Never,’ I told him.
    It was getting dark on Najwa’s balcony. I sucked in cigarette smoke like it had life-enhancing properties.
    â€˜Turns out Nabil is an Israeli informer,’ Najwa said.
    â€˜Nabil?’
    â€˜The guy you exchanged envelopes with at the university.’
    â€˜Shit.’ I inhaled more smoke, looking out at the lights in east Beirut; west Beirut was in darkness. I imagined Nabil over there, laughing at us over here suckered into a summer of solidarity with him. He was probably eating fish in the very restaurant I’d lunched at that day, giving my description to a Mossad officer. ‘Are you telling us, Nabil dear friend, that this is the best you can come up with?’ Of course they’d probably taken photographs.
    â€˜Does he know where you live?’ asked Najwa, gulping red wine like it was iced water.
    â€˜No, we only met at the university.’
    We both looked questioningly at each other, thinking back to any contacts we had had with Nabil. It occurred to me that Nabil might know where Najwa lived, but surely we wouldn’t have been sitting in her apartment if that was the case. I kept a nervous eye on the front door anyway.
    â€˜In that case we might have to use your apartment. If it isn’t compromised, that is. We’ll give it a few days to make sure.’
    â€˜Use it for what?’ I asked, thinking maybe they needed to store things in it, documents or forging equipment.
    â€˜Nabil knew where one of our cadres was staying. He moved as soon as we realised what had happened but he can’t stay where he is for long. Your place isn’t known to anyone.’
    I nodded, not wanting to speak in case I betrayed my reluctance. It meant the end of waking up to Eli in my bed. I wished I’d been conscious to see her get into it.
    â€˜Are you going to be alright with this, Ivan?’
    â€˜Yes. Yes of course.’
    â€˜What about Samir, do you still see him?’
    â€˜I bump into him occasionally. He’s harmless.’
    She didn’t look convinced. ‘ OK . Listen. There’s going to be a meeting of cadres in a few days. I need you to watch the place where the meeting happens. Look out for anything suspicious.’ Najwa refilled my glass then her own.
    â€˜Is a meeting a good idea? I mean, getting all those people together in one place,’ I asked. Maybe I was just fearful about being in close proximity to such a gathering given the news about Lazy Eye, or maybe I was just curious, but judging by the look Najwa gave me I seemed to have forgotten my place.
    â€˜Just come back in a couple of days, Ivan.’
    I was surprised to find my apartment full of people, but then I remembered I’d given Eli a key that morning. Asha, John, Eli, Faris, Samir and Liv were there, as well as some others I didn’t know. Joan Baez was on the turntable. The smell of hashish came from the living room, the smell of frying garlic from the kitchen. I followed the garlic. Asha, shaking a frying pan over a flame, gave me a one-armed hug and a professional once-over.
    â€˜I heard about your petit mal,’ she said. Chicken joints lay on the side; Samir was finely chopping a huge bunch of parsley to go into his salad.
    â€˜This recipe has been handed down from generation to generation in my family,’ he told Eli, winking at me.
    We sat around the coffee table in the living room after dinner. Asha passed a joint from Samir to Liv without it touching her lips.
    John, exclaiming that he’d nearly forgotten, handed me a