A Death in Vienna

take care, Herr Becker. Your continued good health and safety are of the utmost importance to me.”
    “I’m so pleased to hear that. I look forward to receiving the chancellor’s letter.”
    The banker returned the account ledger to his attaché case and closed the lid.
    “I’m sorry, but there is one more formality that slipped my mind. When discussing the account, it’s necessary for you to tell me the account number. For the record, Herr Vogel, will you recite it for me now?”
    “Yes, of course.” Then, with Germanic precision: “Six, two, nine, seven, four, three, five.”
    “And the password?”
    “One, zero, zero, five.”
    “Thank you, Herr Vogel.”
    TEN MINUTES LATER,Becker’s car stopped outside the Ambassador Hotel. “Wait here,” the banker said to the driver. “I won’t be more than a few minutes.”
    He crossed the lobby and rode the elevator to the fourth floor. A tall American in a wrinkled blazer and striped tie admitted him into Room 417. He offered Becker a drink, which the banker refused, then a cigarette, which he also declined. Becker never touched tobacco. Maybe he would start.
    The American held out his hand toward the briefcase. Becker handed it over. The American lifted the lid and pried loose the false leather lining, exposing the microcassette recorder. Then he removed the tape and placed it into a small playback machine. He pressedREWIND , thenPLAY . The sound quality was remarkable.
    “For the record, Herr Vogel, will you recite it for me now?”
    “Yes, of course. Six, two, nine, seven, four, three, five.”
    “And the password?”
    “One, zero, zero, five.”
    “Thank you, Herr Vogel.”
    STOP.
    The American looked up and smiled. The banker looked as though he had just been caught betraying his wife with her best friend.
    “You’ve done very well, Herr Becker. We’re grateful.”
    “I’ve just committed more violations of the Swiss banking secrecy laws than I can count.”
    “True, but they’re shitty laws. And besides, you still get a hundred million dollars.And your bank.”
    “But it’s not my bank any longer, is it? It’syour bank now.”
    The American sat back and folded his arms. He didn’t insult Becker with a denial.
    14
    JERUSALEM
    GABRIEL HAD NOidea who Erich Radek was. Rivlin told him.
    Erich Wilhelm Radek had been born in 1917 in the village of Alberndorf, thirty miles north of Vienna. The son of a police officer, Radek had attended a local gymnasium and showed a marked aptitude for mathematics and physics. He won a scholarship to attend the University of Vienna, where he studied engineering and architecture. According to university records, Radek was a gifted student who received high marks. He was also active in right-wing Catholic politics.
    In 1937, he applied for membership in the Nazi Party. He was accepted and assigned the party number 57984567. Radek also became affiliated with the Austrian Legion, an illegal Nazi paramilitary organization. In March 1938, at the time of the Anschluss, he applied to join the SS. Blond and blue-eyed, with a lean athletic build, Radek was declared “pure Nordic” by the SS Racial Commission and, after a painstaking check of his ancestry, was deemed to be free of Jewish and other non-Aryan blood and accepted into the elite brotherhood.
    “This is a copy of Radek’s party file and the questionnaires he filled out at the time of his application. It comes from the Berlin Documentation Center, the largest repository of Nazi and SS files in the world.” Rivlin held up two photographs, one a straight-on shot, the other a profile. “These are his official SS photographs. Looks like our man, doesn’t it?”
    Gabriel nodded. Rivlin returned the photographs to the file and continued his history lesson:
    By November of 1938, Radek had forsaken his studies and was working at the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, the Nazi institution that waged a campaign of terror and economic deprivation against Austria’s Jews designed to compel them to leave the country “voluntarily.” Radek made a favorable impression on the head of the Central Office, who was none other than Adolf Eichmann. When Radek expressed a desire to go to Berlin, Eichmann agreed to help. Besides, Eichmann was ably assisted in Vienna by a young Austrian Nazi named Aloïs Brunner, who would eventually be implicated in the deportations and murders of 128,000 Jews from Greece, France, Romania, and Hungary. In May 1939, on Eichmann’s