The Kill Artist

intelligence work set in. Before it had been an adventure, something she did to make herself feel that she was more than just a face and a body. But this was the true nature of Ari Shamron's secret war. It was dirty and violent, and now she was caught in the middle of it. She had to think of some way to gain control of the situation. Perhaps she could discover his plans. Maybe she could find some way to warn Gabriel and Shamron. Maybe I can find some way to survive.
    "They'll come for you," she said. "Half the police in Canada and America are probably looking for us right now. You'll never get to New York."
    "Actually, I doubt anyone's looking for us but your friends Gabriel Allon and Shamron. I suspect they can't ask the Canadians for help, because the Canadians and Americans probably don't know they're here. If they found out now, it could prove very embarrassing to your service."
    He reached into his pocket and handed her a handkerchief for her head. "By the way, we knew you were working for the Office the moment you walked into Yusef's life."
    "How?"
    "Do you really want to know this?"
    "Yes."
    "All right, but first you have to answer a few questions for me. Are you really French?"
    So, she thought, he doesn't know everything. She said, "Yes, I'm French."
    "Are you also Jewish?"
    "Yes."
    "Is Dominique Bonard your true name?"
    "No."
    "What is your real name?"
    She thought: What is my real name? Am I really Jacqueline Delacroix? No, that was just the name Marcel Lambert gave to a pretty young girl from Marseilles. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die with the name I was born with.
    "My name is Sarah," she said. "Sarah Halévy."
    "Such a beautiful name. Well, Sarah Halévy, I suppose you're entitled to know how you ended up in a mess like this." He looked at her to see her reaction, but she stared back at him with icy hostility. "By the way, if you wish, you may call me Tariq."
    He spoke for nearly an hour without stopping. He was clearly enjoying himself. After all, he had outmaneuvered one of the most feared intelligence services in the world. He told her how they had learned Gabriel had been brought back to the Office to find him. He told her about the security alert they had issued to all their operatives in the field. He told her how Yusef had immediately informed his control officer about the contact with the attractive French woman.
    "We told Yusef to continue seeing you while we checked out your cover story in Paris. We discovered a flaw; a minor flaw, but a flaw nonetheless. We made photographs of you in London and compared them with photographs of a woman who worked with Gabriel Allon in Tunis. We told Yusef to deepen his relationship with this Dominique Bonard. We told him to develop an emotional bond with her: a bond of trust."
    She thought of their long conversations. His lectures about the suffering of the Palestinian people. His confession about the scars on his back and the horrible night in Shatila. All the while she had believed that she was controlling the game-that she was the deceiver and the manipulator-when in reality it was Yusef.
    "When we felt your relationship had progressed to that point, we told Yusef to ask a very special favor of you: Would you be willing to accompany a Palestinian dignitary on an important secret mission? You put up a very convincing argument, but in the end you said yes, of course, because you're not Dominique Bonard, a secretary from a London art gallery, but Sarah Halévy, an agent of Israeli intelligence. Ari Shamron and Gabriel Allon assumed correctly that this Palestinian dignitary was in reality me, since I have a history of using unsuspecting women in my operations. They placed you in this extremely dangerous situation because they wanted me. But now I'm going to turn the game against them. I'm going to use you to bring Allon to me."
    "Leave him," she said. "He's suffered enough because of you."
    "Allon has suffered? Gabriel Allon murdered my brother. His suffering is nothing compared to the suffering he inflicted on my family."
    "Your brother was a terrorist! Your brother deserved to die!"
    "My brother fought for his people. He didn't deserve to be shot like a dog as he lay in bed."
    "It was a long time ago. It's over now. Take me instead of Gabriel."
    "That's very noble of you, Sarah, but your friend Gabriel is not going to lose another woman to me without a fight. Close your eyes and get some rest. We have a long way to go tonight."
    It was nearly dawn as