The English Assassin

could feel sutures tearing in his hands.
    He threw his leg over the top and tried to drop onto the other side, but his coat had become tangled on a spike, and he dangled there helplessly, his head exposed, blinded by the flashlight. He twisted his body violently until the spike released him, and he fell into the opposing garden.
    The envelope slipped through his coat and dropped into the snow. Gabriel scooped it up, shoved it back into his trousers, and started running.
     
    ABURST of halogen lamplight turned the night electric white. Somewhere an alarm screamed. Gabriel ran along the side of the villa until he reached another wall, this one shielding the villa from the street. He scaled it quickly and dropped onto the other side.
    He found himself in a narrow street. Lights were coming on in the neighboring villas—the Swiss and their legendary vigilance. As he ran down the street, Ari Shamron’s Eleventh Commandment played in his head: Thou shalt not get caught!
    He came to Krähbühlstrasse, the wide boulevard where he had parked. He sprinted down the gentle curving slope of the street until he spotted his car. He skidded to a stop and came crashing to the pavement. Two men were peering into the interior with flashlights.
    As he clambered to his feet, the men trained their flashlights on him. He turned in the opposite direction and headed back up the hill. Thou shalt do anything to avoid being arrested!
    He drew the Glock he had taken from the man in the study and kept running. He was beginning to tire. The cold air was searing his lungs, and his mouth tasted of rust and blood. After a few steps, he saw headlights coming down the hill: a big Audi sedan, wheels spinning on the new snow.
    He glanced over his shoulder down the hill. The two men were chasing him on foot. No side streets, no alleys—he was trapped. Thou shalt shed innocent blood if necessary!
    The Audi was speeding directly toward him. He stopped running and leveled the Glock in his outstretched hands. When the car fishtailed and slid to a halt a few feet away, he took aim at the silhouette behind the wheel. Before he could fire, the passenger door flew open.
    “Get in, Gabriel!” Anna Rolfe shouted. “Hurry.”
     
    SHEdrove with the same intensity with which she played the violin—one hand on the steering wheel, the other gripping the stick shift. Down the Zürichberg, across Limmat, into the quiet streets of the city center. Gabriel took a long look over his shoulder.
    “You can slow down now.”
    She eased off the gas.
    “Where did you learn to handle a car like that?”

    “I was a Zurich girl with a lot of money. When I wasn’t practicing the violin, I was tearing around the Zürichsee in one of my father’s cars. I’d wrecked three by the time I was twenty-one.”
    “Congratulations.”
    “Bitterness doesn’t suit you, Gabriel. My cigarettes are in the console. Do me a favor and light one.”
    Gabriel opened the console and took out the pack of Gitanes. He lit it with the dashboard lighter. The smoke caught at the back of his throat and he nearly choked.
    Anna laughed at him. “Imagine, an Israeli who doesn’t smoke.”
    “What the hell are you doing here?”
    “That’s all you have to say? If I hadn’t shown up, you’d have been arrested.”
    “No, if you hadn’t shown up, I’d be dead. But I still want to know what the hell you’re doing here. Did Rami give you permission to leave the villa?”
    “I suspect that by now he’s probably discovered that I’m not there.”
    “How did you get away?”
    “I went upstairs to my studio to practice. I rolled a tape on a particularly long piece. I suppose you can guess the rest.”
    “How did you get off the grounds?”
    “Carlos told Rami that he was going into the village to do some marketing. I was in the back beneath a blanket.”
    “It’s safe to assume several dozen members of my service are now engaged in a frantic and pointless search for you. That was a very stupid thing to do. How did you get to Zurich?”
    “I flew here, of course.”

    “Directly from Lisbon?”
    “Yes.”
    “How long have you been here?”
    “About two hours.”
    “Did you go inside your father’s house?”
    She shook her head. “When I arrived I saw two men waiting outside in a parked car. At first I thought they might be private security. Then I realized something was wrong.”
    “What did you do?”
    “I didn’t feel safe waiting in the car, so I drove around the