Moscow Rules

then we would have lost him forever.”
     
     
    “Because the police and security services were protecting him?”
     
     
    “Correct.”
     
     
    “Just like the FSB and the Kremlin are protecting Ivan.”
     
     
    “Ivan Kharkov isn’t Adolf Eichmann. I shouldn’t think I’d need to explain the difference to you. I lost most of my family to Eichmann and the Nazis. So did you. Your mother spent the war in Birkenau and she bore Birkenau’s scars until the day she died. You bear them now.”
     
     
    “Tell that to the thousands who’ve died in the wars that have been stoked by Ivan’s guns.”
     
     
    “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Gabriel. If Ivan were to stop selling the warlords guns today, someone else would do it for him tomorrow.” Shamron lifted his hand toward Carter. “Who knows? Perhaps it will be your good friend Adrian. He and his government poured weapons into the Third World whenever it suited their needs. And we’ve been known to sell to some pretty atrocious customers ourselves.”
     
     
    “Congratulations, Ari.”
     
     
    “For what?”
     
     
    “Achieving a new personal low,” Gabriel said. “You have just compared our country to the worst man in the world in order to win an argument.”
     
     
    Gabriel could see that Shamron’s resistance was beginning to weaken. He decided to press his advantage before the old warrior could reinforce his defenses.
     
     
    “I’m doing this, Ari, but I can’t do it without your support.” He paused, then added, “Or your help.”
     
     
    “Who’s stooping to personal lows now?”
     
     
    “I learned from the master.”
     
     
    Shamron tamped out his cigarette and regarded Gabriel through the remnants of the smoke. “Have you given any thought to where you’re going to put her?”
     
     
    “I was thinking about letting her move into the apartment in Narkiss Street with Chiara and me, but we really don’t have enough room for her and the children.”
     
     
    Shamron, by his dour expression, let it be known he didn’t find the remark even faintly amusing. “Resettling Elena Kharkov in Israel is completely out of the question. When Russia finally permitted its Jews to immigrate to Israel, a large number of non-Jewish Russians slipped into the country with them, including several serious organized crime figures. You can be certain that any number of these fine fellow countrymen of yours would be more than willing to kill Elena on Ivan’s behalf.”
     
     
    “I never contemplated keeping her in Israel, Ari. She would have to go to America.”
     
     
    “Drop her in Adrian’s lap? Is that your solution? We’re not talking about resettling some KGB colonel who’s used to living on government wages. Elena Kharkov is an extremely wealthy woman. She’s grown accustomed to a lifestyle few of us can even contemplate. She’ll become a problem. Most defectors eventually do.”
     
     
    Shamron looked to Adrian Carter for affirmation, but Carter knew better than to inject himself into the middle of a family quarrel and maintained a mandarin silence. Shamron removed his glasses and absently polished them against his shirtfront.
     
     
    “At the moment, the long-term emotional well-being of Elena and her children is the least of your problems. The first thing you have to do is devise some way of getting her back into Russia, alone, without Ivan becoming suspicious.”
     
     
    Gabriel dropped an envelope on the coffee table.
     
     
    “What’s that?” Shamron asked.
     
     
    “Elena’s ticket home to Moscow.”
     
     
    Shamron slipped on his spectacles and removed the letter from the envelope. He had no trouble reading it; Russian was one of his many languages. When he had finished, he inserted the letter back into the envelope, carefully, as though trying not to leave fingerprints.
     
     
    “It’s not a bad start, Gabriel, but what about the rest of it? How are you going to get her into that apartment without Ivan’s private security service sounding the alarm? And how are you going to get her out of the country safely after she’s stolen those disks? And how are you going to keep Ivan occupied while you kidnap his children?”
     
     
    Gabriel smiled. “We’re going to steal his airplane.”
     
     
    Shamron dropped Elena’s letter on the coffee table.
     
     
    “Keep talking, my son.”
     
     
    It did not take long for Shamron to fall under Gabriel’s spell. He sat motionless in his chair, his