The clock struck midnight as a motley crew of experts and officials from different corners of the world descended onto the quiet tarmac of Tel Aviv Airport. It wasn’t just the hour that made the night feel eerie. They were here on an unusual mission—a task that none of them had anticipated when they left their home countries. The mission: recover the communication devices used in the recent terrorist attacks. But this wasn’t a simple retrieval. No, they had to buy them, from Hezbollah, of all people.
At the forefront of this group was Erwin, a retired European Union import and export control officer, a relic of an era when pagers were the height of communication technology. Thirty years ago, Erwin had tested pagers in a quiet office in Brussels. Today, his expertise brought him back into the game—only this time, the stakes were much higher. Alongside him stood Jean, a younger colleague from the same department, knowledgeable about the ins and outs of modern communication devices, but with far less experience in navigating the murky waters of international conflict.
The mission had been hastily assembled after Japan, the United States, and Europe jointly called for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Both sides had suffered massive casualties, and the international community hoped that the ceasefire would not only halt the violence but open the door for peace talks.
Joining Erwin and Jean were several other key players: Kenji, a technical inspector from a leading Japanese communication device manufacturer, a meticulous man with a sharp eye for detail; Miriam, a trade department official from Israel, whose presence ensured that no corners would be cut on their side of the deal; and two interpreters—Jiang, a Taiwanese interpreter who lived in the United States, and Zohar, an Israeli-American who had seen enough of the region’s turmoil to know that even a ceasefire offered no guarantees of safety.
Adding to the strangeness of the group was an unnamed woman from the United States, accompanied by a gruff customs official who seemed more concerned with protocol than with the tense situation they were walking into. Their task was straightforward: secure the fragments of communication devices, primarily pagers and walkie-talkies, used in the recent attacks. These devices had been developed by a Taiwanese company and manufactured in Budapest, but tracking their origins had become a logistical nightmare. As each subcontractor passed the production to another, the trail had grown cold, making the devices nearly impossible to trace back to their source.
But as the team disembarked and gathered at the airport, Erwin couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. They had been informed, only after leaving their home countries, that they wouldn’t actually be recovering the devices—they would be buying them. Hezbollah had already collected the fragments of the exploded pagers, and now they were offering them for sale to the highest bidder. A sales contract had already been drawn up in some shadowy backroom.
At dawn, the team made their way into Lebanon, driving to a suspicious building in an isolated part of the city. Inside, they were greeted by several Hezbollah members. The air was thick with tension, and it didn’t help that the Israelis in the group were visibly uncomfortable. The Hezbollah members motioned for them to sit in a large room, and for a moment, it seemed like everything was going to proceed smoothly.
But then, one of the Hezbollah members, with a wry smile, looked at the group and said, “There are no pagers here.”
The room went silent. The Israelis immediately grew furious, and Miriam was about to protest when the man continued, “You brought an FBI dog.” His tone was accusatory, as though the presence of someone—or something—on the team had tipped them off. Zohar quickly translated, her voice strained.
Erwin exchanged glances with Kenji and Jean, trying to figure out what had just happened. The mission had been turned upside down in an instant. The pagers they had come to retrieve, the devices at the heart of the terrorist attacks, were nowhere to be found.
As tensions in the room mounted, Erwin’s mind raced back to his quiet days of testing pagers in Brussels. How had things come to this?
All names of people and organizations appearing in this story are pseudonyms.
U.S. and allies propose 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah
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