Free The Jerusalem Diamond by Noah Gordon

I was.”
    â€œWilson thought it was you.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œWilson. The guy in the room next to mine. How come you didn’t stay?”
    â€œ … You were busy with baseball.”
    â€œA lousy practice? I could have left.”
    â€œI didn’t want to disturb you, and I couldn’t wait. Listen, I’ve got to go away. Business.”
    â€œHow long will you be gone?”
    â€œIt’s open-ended. As long as it takes.”
    â€œWill you be back in two weeks?”
    â€œI don’t know. Why?”
    â€œThat’s when school ends.” Jeff hesitated. “I don’t want to go to camp. Mom said maybe you could put me to work.”
    â€œThat’s a terrific idea,” Harry said carefully. “But if we get bogged down in negotiations, the trip could use a good hunk of my summer.”
    â€œWhere are you going, anyway?”
    â€œIsrael.”
    â€œCould I come over there when school lets out?”
    â€œNo,” Harry said firmly.
    â€œYou treat me like a baby.” His son’s voice cracked with rage. “I can’t hunt, I have to go to summer camp. That camp sucks.”
    â€œThis will be your last year there. I promise you.”
    Jeff said nothing.
    â€œI’ll visit you when I get back. We can talk some more about a job. Okay?”
    â€œ … Yeah.”
    â€œGoodbye, Jeff.”
    â€œBye.”
    He called him right back.
    â€œLook. When school lets out, suppose you work for Saul Netscher? You’ll learn something at his place. When I get back, you’ll work with me. Deal?”
    â€œAll right!”
    â€œI’ll fix it with Saul. He’ll be glad to get you but he’ll work your ass off. Errands, sweeping, oiling machinery. Anything.”
    â€œThat’s really great, Dad! Can I learn to be a cutter?”
    â€œThat takes years, you know that. And it’s very hard.”
    â€œIf you did it, so can I.”
    He laughed. “Okay, then. Take care. I love you, kid.”
    â€œI love you, too,” his son said dutifully.
    Harry sighed.
    Three days before he left, a plain white envelope came to him in the morning mail. There was no clue as to the sender, though he could guess. It was a dossier on the man he was going to Israel to meet.
    Hamid Bardissi, also known as Yosef Mehdi. Born Nov. 27, 1919, in Sigiul, Egypt, to Salye (Mehdi) and Abou Yosef Bardissi Pasha. His father was Egyptian ambassador to Great Britain for three years (1932–1935) and military governor of Assoiut Province for four years (1924–1928). From young manhood, Abou Yosef Bardissi Pasha was friend and advisor to Ahmed Fuad Pasha, who in 1922 became the first king of Egypt when Great Britain withdrew its protectorate
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    Hamid Bardissi was born ten months earlier than Farouk, the son of King Fuad. Almost from the first, he was the prince’s assigned and constant playmate. They were tutored together. At the age of 16 he accompanied Farouk to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England. After only one term there, they were recalled to Egypt by Fuad’s death
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    When Bardissi Pasha died in 1939, Hamid Bardissi came into 7,500 feddans of cotton land (equivalent to 3,150 hectares, or 7,780 acres). He married twice, as allowed by Moslem law, but stopped living with his first wife in 1941. His second wife, whom he married in 1942, died the following year while delivering a stillborn child
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    Although he never held an official job, Bardissi was widely hated and feared as Farouk’s man. He destroyed political opponents without hesitation and was credited with corrupting the Wafd Party, which was transformed from a virulent antiroyalist movement to become Farouk’s political front. Reportedly, both the king and he were slated for assassination by the Moslem Brotherhood. If so, this probably was prevented by the coup d’etat which drove Farouk from his throne in 1952
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    On July 26, 1952, when Farouk was