A Death in Vienna

weren’t about to allow him to unlock an account filled with two and a half billion in Holocaust loot. We quietly moved against Herr Becker and his bank. Radek doesn’t know it yet, but he’s never going to see a penny of that money.”
    Gabriel reached down, pressedREWIND , thenSTOP , thenPLAY :
    “Your comrades provided generously for those who assisted them in this endeavor. But I’m afraid there have been some unexpected . . . complications.”
    “What sort of complications?”
    “It seems that several of those who were to receive money have died recently under mysterious circumstances. . . .”
    STOP.
    Gabriel looked up at Carter for an explanation.
    “The men who created the account wanted to reward those individuals and institutions who had helped fleeing Nazis after the war. Radek thought this was sentimental horseshit. He wasn’t about to start a benevolent aid association. He couldn’t change the covenant, so he changed the circumstances on the ground.”
    “Were Enrique Calderon and Gustavo Estrada supposed to receive money from the account?”
    “I see you learned a great deal during your time with Alfonso Ramirez.” Carter gave a guilty smile. “We were following you in Buenos Aires.”
    “Radek is a wealthy man who doesn’t have long to live,” Gabriel said. “The last thing he needs is money.”
    “Apparently, he plans to give a large portion of the account to his son.”
    “And the rest?”
    “He’s going to turn it over to his most important agent to carry out the original intentions of the men who created the account.” Carter paused. “I believe you and he are acquainted. His name is Manfred Kruz.”
    Carter’s pipe had gone dead. He stared into the bowl, frowned, and relit it.
    “Which brings us back to our original problem.” Carter blew a puff of smoke toward Gabriel. “What do we do about Erich Radek? If you ask the Austrians to prosecute him, they’ll take their time about it and wait for him to die. If you kidnap an elderly Austrian from the streets of Vienna and cart him back to Israel for trial, the shit will rain down on you from on high. If you think you have trouble in the European Community now, your problems will be multiplied tenfold if you snatch him. And if he’s placed on trial, his defense will undoubtedly involve exposing our links to him. So what do we do, gentlemen?”
    “Perhaps there’s a third way,” Gabriel said.
    “What’s that?”
    “Convince Radek to come to Israel voluntarily.”
    Carter gazed at Gabriel skeptically over the bowl of his pipe.
    “And how would you suppose we could convince a first-class shit like Erich Radek to do that?”
    THEY TALKED THROUGHthe night. It was Gabriel’s plan, and therefore his to outline and defend. Shamron added a few valuable suggestions. Carter, resistant at first, soon crossed over to Gabriel’s camp. The very audacity of the plan appealed to him. His own service would have probably shot an officer for putting forward so unorthodox an idea.
    Every man had a weakness, Gabriel said. Radek, through his actions, had shown he possessed two: his lust for the money hidden in the Zurich account, and his desire to see his son become chancellor of Austria. Gabriel maintained that it was the second that had led Radek to move against Eli Lavon and Max Klein. Radek didn’t want his son tarred by the brush of his previous life, and he had proven that he would take almost any step to protect him. It involved swallowing a bitter pill—making a deal with a man who had no right to demand concessions—but it was morally just and produced the desired result: Erich Radek behind bars for crimes he committed against the Jewish people. Time was the critical factor. The election was less than three weeks away. Radek needed to be in Israeli hands before the first vote was cast in Austria. Otherwise their leverage over him would be lost.
    As dawn drew near, Carter posed the question that had been gnawing at him from the moment the first report of Gabriel’s investigation crossed his desk:Why? Why was Gabriel, an Office assassin, so determined that Radek be brought to justice after so many years?
    “I want to tell you a story, Adrian,” Gabriel said, his voice suddenly distant, as was his gaze. “Actually, maybe it would be better if she told you the story herself.”
    He handed Carter a copy of his mother’s testimony. Carter, seated next to the dying fire, read it from beginning to end without uttering a