Prince of Fire

instant her gaze seemed to connect with his. He reached out and took what remained of her hand. The hard scar tissue, as always, made Gabriel feel violently cold. She’d been agitated during the drive. Now she seemed calm, the way she always looked when Gabriel visited her in the solarium. He peered through his porthole again, toward the window on the fourth floor.
    “Is it you?”
    Gabriel, startled by the sound of Leah’s voice, looked up sharply—too sharply, he feared, because her eyes seemed suddenly panicked.
    “Yes, it’s me, Leah,” he said calmly. “It’s Gabriel.”
    “Where are we?” Her voice was thin and dry, like the rustling of leaves. It was nothing like he remembered it. “This feels like Paris to me. Are we in Paris?”
    “Yes, we’re in Paris.”
    “That woman brought me here, didn’t she? My nurse. I tried to tell Dr. Avery—” She cut herself off in mid-sentence. “I want to go home.”
    “I’m taking you home.”
    “To the hospital?”
    “To Israel.”
    A flicker of a smile, a gentle squeeze of his hand. “Your skin is burning. Are you feeling all right?”
    “I’m fine, Leah.”
    She lapsed into silence and looked out the window.
    “Look at the snow,” she said. “God, how I hate this city, but the snow makes it beautiful. The snow absolves Vienna of its sins.”
    Gabriel searched his memory for the first time he’d heard those words and then remembered. They’d been walking from the restaurant to the car. Dani had been sitting atop his shoulders. The snow absolves Vienna of its sins. Snow falls on Vienna while the missiles rain down on Tel Aviv.
    “It’s beautiful,” he agreed, trying to prevent a note of despondency from creeping into his voice. “But we’re not in Vienna. We’re in Paris. Do you remember? The girl brought you to Paris.”
    She was no longer listening to him. “Hurry, Gabriel,” she said. “I want to talk to my mother. I want to hear the sound of my mother’s voice.”
    Please, Leah, he thought. Turn back. Don’t do this to yourself.
    “We’ll call her right away,” he said.
    “Make sure Dani is buckled into his seat tightly. The streets are slippery.”
    He’s fine, Leah, Gabriel had said that night. Be careful driving home.
    “I’ll be careful,” she said. “Give me a kiss.”
    He leaned over and pressed his lips against Leah’s ruined cheek.
    “One last kiss,” she whispered.
    Then her eyes opened wide. Gabriel held her scarred hand and looked away.
    M ADAME T OUZET poked her head from her apartment as Martineau entered the foyer.
    “Professor Martineau, thank God it’s you. I was worried to death. Were you there? Was it terrible?”
    He had been a few hundred meters away from the station at the time of the explosion, he told her truthfully. And yes, it was terrible, though not as terrible as he had hoped. The station should have been demolished by the destructive force of three suitcase bombs. Obviously something had gone wrong.
    “I’ve just made some chocolate. Will you sit with me and watch the television? I do hate to watch such a horrible business alone.”
    “I’m afraid I’ve had a terribly long day, Madame Touzet. I’m going to turn in early.”
    “A Paris landmark, in ruins. What’s next, Professor? Who could do such a thing?”
    “Muslims, I suppose, although one never knows the motivations of someone who could commit an act as barbaric as this. I suspect we may never know the truth.”
    “Do you think it might have been a conspiracy?”
    “Drink your chocolate, Madame Touzet. If you need anything, I’ll be upstairs.”
    “Good night, Professor Martineau.”
    T HE BODEL , a fawn-eyed Moroccan Jew from the Marais named Moshe, arrived at the safe flat an hour later. He carried two bags. One contained a change of clothing for Gabriel, the other groceries for the pantry. Gabriel went into the bedroom and stripped off the clothing the girl had given him in the house in Martigues, then stood for a long time beneath the showerhead and watched the blood of Khaled’s victims swirling down the drain. He changed into the fresh clothing and placed the old things into the bag. The living room, when he went out again, was in semidarkness. Leah was asleep on the couch. Gabriel adjusted the flowered quilt that covered her body, then went into the kitchen. Navot was standing in front of the stove, with a spatula in one hand and a tea cloth tucked into the waistband of his trousers. The bodel was sitting at the