Leon Uris Read Online Free PDF Page A

of officers here leaving for Palestine.”
    “There’s going to be a war, Kitty.”
    “Why ...? I don’t understand.”
    “Oh, lots of reasons. Lot of people around the world have decided they want to run their own lives. Colonies are going out of vogue this century. These boys here are riding a dead horse. This is the soldier of the new empire,” Mark said, taking a dollar bill from his pocket; “we’ve got millions of these green soldiers moving into every corner of the world. Greatest occupying force you’ve ever seen. A bloodless conquest ... but Palestine ... that’s different again. Kitty, there’s almost something frightening about it. Some people are out to resurrect a nation that has been dead for two thousand years. Nothing like that has ever happened before. What’s more, I think they’re going to do it. It’s these same Jews you don’t like.”
    “I didn’t say I didn’t like Jews,” Kitty insisted.
    “I won’t debate with you now. Think real hard, honey ... since you’ve been on Cyprus. Have you heard anything or seen anything that might be, well, unusual?”
    Kitty bit her lip in thought and sighed. “Only the refugee camps. I hear they are overcrowded and in deplorable condition. Why do you ask?”
    “I don’t know. Just say I’ve got an intuition that something very big is happening on Cyprus.”
    “Why don’t you just say you’re naturally nosey by profession?”
    “It’s more than that. Do you know a Major Fred Caldwell? He’s aide to Brigadier Sutherland.”
    “Terrible bore. I met him at the governor’s.”
    “He met me in my room before you got in. Why would a general’s aide be sitting on my lap ten minutes after I landed on a matter that is seemingly trivial? Kitty, I tell you the British are nervous about something here. I ... I can’t put my finger on it, but five will get you ten it’s tied up with those refugee camps. Look ... would you go to work in those camps for me for a few weeks?”
    “Certainly, Mark. If you want me to.”
    “Oh, the hell with it,” Mark said, setting down his drink, “us two kids are on vacation. You’re right ... I’m nosey and suspicious by profession. Forget it, let’s dance.”

Chapter Six
    O N A RSINOS S TREET in Famagusta, facing the wall of the old city, sat a large and luxurious house belonging to a Greek Cypriot named Mandria, who was owner of the Cyprus-Mediterranean Shipping Company as well as owner of a great number of the island’s taxicabs. Mandria and David Ben Ami waited anxiously as Ari Ben Canaan cleaned up and changed into dry clothing after his swim ashore.
    They both knew that the appearance of Ari Ben Canaan on Cyprus meant a top-level mission for Mossad Aliyah Bet. British policy for many years had been to exclude or extremely limit the Jewish immigration to Palestine. They had the Royal Navy to execute this policy. The Mossad Aliyah Bet was an organization of Palestinian Jews whose business it was to help smuggle other Jews into Palestine. However, as fast as the British Navy caught the Mossad boats trying to run the blockade the refugees would be transferred to detention camps on Cyprus.
    Ari Ben Canaan, in a fresh change of clothing, entered the room and nodded to Mandria and David Ben Ami. The Palestinian was a big man, well over six feet and well built. He and Ben Ami had long been intimate friends but they played a role of formality in front of Mandria, the Cypriot, who was not a member of their organization but merely a sympathizer.
    Ari lit a cigarette and got right to the point. “Headquarters has sent me here to stage a mass escape from the detention camps. The reasons are obvious to all of us. What is your opinion, David?”
    The thin young man from Jerusalem paced the room thoughtfully. He had been sent to Cyprus months before by the secret army of the Jews in Palestine called the Palmach. He and dozens of other Palmachniks smuggled themselves into the compounds of refugees without the