Obsession (Year of Fire) Read Online Free Page A

easygoing, if somewhat melancholy nature and strong artistic inclinations. He liked to paint and draw—Guillermo had to admit that he was good at it at least—and shape the dough that Roberta kneaded. He was so kindhearted that he used to feel sorry for the insects that were gassed to death in the fields. His father would have hit him if his mother hadn’t intervened. Finally, at sixteen he expressed his desire to study art.
    “You’ll study chemical engineering in Santa Fe. End of discussion.”
    However, Ernesto showed that German blood ran in his veins after all. He abandoned the paternal household and ran off to Buenos Aires to study fine art. In the bohemian environment that surrounded the painterQuinquela Martín, Ernesto had room to develop his talent. There, he met a woman who, in time, would become the most famous painter in Argentina, Enriqueta Martínez Olazábal, whose paintings generally sold in the showrooms at Sotheby’s and Christie’s for around a hundred thousand dollars. He was still good friends with Enriqueta. Though Ernesto didn’t become famous, his religiously themed works had a good reputation in the local market, and he made a comfortable living; of course, every year he also received his portion of the dividends from his father’s businesses.
    In Don Guillermo’s opinion, the only masterwork Ernesto ever created was his son Roy, the most brilliant young man the German had ever met. He saw himself reflected in his grandson: the same slender appearance, stature, penetrating and attentive blue eyes, and the same keen intelligence. From an early age, he had shown an affinity for science. Roy, his pride and joy, would carry on the Blahetter name.
    The beloved grandchild didn’t study any of the subjects that his grandfather might have chosen for him: chemical engineering, law or business. Instead, he decided upon physics, so, at the age of sixteen (he had already finished high school), he majored in physics at IMAF (the Institute of Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics) in Córdoba. But his real goal was located several miles farther south, in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche: the Balseiro Institute. Two years later, once he had taken and passed the Balseiro’s entrance exams, he started to study nuclear engineering, eventually graduating with honors. Immediately afterward, he traveled to the United States to continue his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
    Somewhat bored of reading about the academic achievements of the blonde girl’s husband, Al-Saud returned to his real subject: Blahetter the elder and his empire. The laboratories had affiliates in several major American and European countries; they were currently in negotiations to open an office in Shanghai. The document ended with the affirmation: “It is thought that Guillermo Blahetter has cooperated with Mossad in the past.” Al-Saud knew the name that The Institute gave to its Jewish collaborators in the Diaspora: sayanim in plural, sayan in singular. “He actively participated in one of the first of the Israeli agency’s operations, Operation Garibaldi, in 1960.” This was the famous operation in whichRafi Eitan, a legendary figure in the world of espionage, hunted down the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind of Hitler’s “final solution,” in Buenos Aires and took him to Israel, where he was tried and executed. “It is believed that, after the attack on the Israeli embassy and the bombing of the AMIA building in Argentina, Blahetter has begun to collaborate with Mossad again.” Eliah had little doubt about the nature of this collaboration. The question was whether he could find proof. Blahetter’s laboratories in Córdoba and Pilar, in the province of Buenos Aires, were built to be impregnable fortresses. Of course for Eliah and his men, nothing was impregnable. With just 10 percent of its airspace protected by radar, Argentina was extremely vulnerable. Entering in secret would be