The Kill Artist

no identification. The doctors ask his name. He tells them his name is Yusef al-Tawfiki.
    "How did he get the wound on his back?" Gabriel wondered.
    "It was put there by a doctor connected to the Office. The boy was treated at the hospital in West Beirut, and the UN started looking for this mysterious uncle in London. It took them a week to find him. They told him what had happened to the boy. The uncle made arrangements to bring him to England."
    He was a child, thought Gabriel: thirteen, fourteen maybe. Where had Shamron found him? How had he trained him? It was too monstrous to contemplate.
    Shamron snapped his powerful fingers so loudly that Rami, standing in the drive outside the guardhouse, looked up suddenly.
    "Just like that we have an agent in the enemy's camp, a boy whose life has been torn by unimaginable brutality. A boy with fire in his belly, who loathes the Israelis. A boy who will one day become a fighter and take his revenge on the people who butchered his family."
    "Remarkable," said Gabriel.
    "When he was old enough, Yusef began moving with London's radical Palestinian set. He came to the attention of a talent spotter for Tariq's organization. They vetted him. Clean, or so they thought. They put him to work in their intelligence and planning section. The Office now had an agent inside one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations on earth. He was so valuable his material had the shortest distribution list in the history of the Office: one person, me."
    Shamron sat down and gestured toward the empty chair. Gabriel remained standing.
    "A few months ago Yusef sent us a fascinating report. There was a rumor sweeping the organization: Tariq had a brain tumor. Tariq was dying. The succession fight was on. Tariq's colonels were jockeying for position. And one other thing: Tariq didn't intend to go quietly. He intended to raise a little hell on earth before he floated off to Paradise. Kill an ambassador or two. Bomb a few airline offices. Maybe shoot down a jetliner."
    "So you come to me after Paris. You tell me this sad tale about how the Office can't shoot straight anymore. How the Office couldn't find the Office without a map. Like a fool I agree. And at the same time you whisper into Tariq's ear that I'm back and looking for him. And the game has begun."
    "His organization was rigidly compartmentalized. Even with a man on the inside, I knew he was going to be hard to take down. I had to help him make a mistake. I thought if I waved Gabriel Allon in front of him, I could make him angry. I thought I could make him charge, leave himself exposed just long enough for me to plunge a sword into his heart."
    "So you send me after Yusef, your own agent. You tell me he's vulnerable to an approach by a woman. It was in his file. I watch him for two days, he's with two different women. Were they Office too?"
    "They were Yusef's girls. Yusef never had much trouble finding women on his own."
    "I ask Jacqueline to help me. It's supposed to be a quick job. But Yusef takes an interest in her. Yusef wants to keep seeing her. I tell you to pull her out. But you force me to keep her in."
    Shamron folded his arms, set his jaw. Clearly he wanted to see how much of it Gabriel had figured out on his own.
    "Yusef tells his people he thinks he's being watched. He also tells them about a French girl he's been seeing. He tells them he thinks she might be an Israeli agent. Tariq is ecstatic. Tariq has been waiting for this. He tells Yusef to recruit the girl under false pretenses for a mission. They know Jacqueline will bite, because they know she's Office."
    "Bravo, Gabriel."
    "Did she know?"
    "Jacqueline?"
    "Yes, Jacqueline! Did she know the truth?"
    "Of course not. She's in love with you. She would never have agreed to deceive you."
    "Why didn't you just tell me the truth?"
    "Tell me something, Gabriel. If I had come to Cornwall and asked you to come out of retirement to serve as bait for Tariq, would you actually have done it? Of course not."
    "So you put my life on the line. And Jacqueline's!"
    "I'm sorry about what happened in New York. It went much further than I ever anticipated."
    "But he was already dying. Why didn't you just let the tumor kill Tariq?"
    "Because his organization would have carried on without him. It would have been more dangerous and unpredictable than before. And because my organization was in shambles. The Office needed a coup to restore the confidence of the government and the people of