The Kill Artist

wristwatch: three minutes past two. He thought: He's not going to show. They've spotted Karp's team, and they're aborting. He said, "Where the fuck is he?"
    "Be patient, Gabe."
    A moment later Gabriel saw Yusef emerge from Westbourne Street and dart across the road in front of a charging delivery truck. Karp snapped a couple of photographs as Yusef entered the park and strolled around the fountains. During the middle of his second circuit, he was joined by a man wearing a gray woolen overcoat, face obscured by sunglasses and a felt hat. Karp switched to a longer lens, took several more photographs.
    They circled the fountains once in silence, then during the second circuit began to speak softly in English. Because of the noise from the wind and the fountains, Gabriel could make out only every third or fourth word.
    Karp swore softly.
    They circled the fountains for a few minutes, then walked up a small rise to a playground. The girl who had been feeding the ducks walked slowly after them. After a moment the surveillance van was filled with the joyous screams of children at play.
    Karp pressed his fists against his eyes and shook his head.
    Karp delivered the tape to Gabriel at the listening post three hours later with the resigned air of a surgeon who had done all he could to save the patient. "I fed it through the computers, filtered out the background noise, and enhanced the good stuff. But I'm afraid we got only about ten percent, and even that sounds like shit."
    Gabriel held out his hand and accepted the cassette. He slipped it into the deck, pressed play, and listened while he paced the length of the room.
    "… needs someone… next assignment…"
    A sound, like static turned up full blast, obliterated the rest of the sentence. Gabriel paused the tape and looked at Karp.
    "It's the fountain," Karp said. "There's nothing I can do with it."
    Gabriel restarted the tape.
    "… check out her… in Paris… problems… thing's fine."
    Gabriel stopped the tape, pressed REWIND, then PLAY.
    "… check out her… in Paris… problems… thing's fine."
    "… not sure… right person for… sort of…"
    "… be persuasive… if you explain the importance…"
    "… what am I… tell her exactly?"
    "… vital diplomatic mission… cause of true peace in the Middle East… routine security precaution…"
    "… it supposed to work…"
    The audio level dropped sharply. Karp said, "They're walking toward the playground right now. We'll get coverage in a moment when the girl moves into position."
    "… meet him… de Gaulle… from there… to the final destination…"
    "… where…"
    An injured child cries out for its mother, obliterating the response.
    "… do with her after…"
    "… up to him…"
    "… what if… says no…"
    "Don't worry, Yusef. Your girlfriend won't say no to you."
    STOP. REWIND. PLAY .
    "Don't worry, Yusef. Your girlfriend won't say no to you."
    And the next thing Gabriel heard was a mother berating her son for scraping a lump of chewing gum off the bottom of the seesaw and putting it into his mouth.
    That evening Jacqueline picked up curry after work and brought it to Yusef's flat. While they ate they watched an American film on television about a German terrorist on the loose in Manhattan. Gabriel watched along with them. He muted his own television and listened to Yusef's instead. When the film was over Yusef pronounced it "total crap" and shut off the television.
    Then he said, "We need to talk about something, Dominique. I need to ask you something important."
    Gabriel closed his eyes and listened.
    Next morning Jacqueline stepped off the carriage at the Piccadilly Underground station and floated along with the crowd across the platform. As she rode up the escalator she looked around her. They had to be following her: Yusef's watchers. He wouldn't let her loose on the streets of London without a secret escort, not after what he had asked her to do last night. A black-haired man was staring at her from a parallel escalator. When he caught her eye he smiled and tried to hold her gaze. She realized he was only a lecher. She turned and looked straight ahead.
    Outside, as she walked along Piccadilly, she thought she spotted Gabriel using a public telephone, but it was only a Gabriel look-alike. She thought she saw him again stepping out of a taxi, but it was only Gabriel's nonexistent younger brother. She realized there were versions of Gabriel all around her. Boys in leather jackets. Young men in