The Pure

from his pint.
    ‘But what they don’t tell you,’ Liberty went on, ‘is that this is a life sentence. You can’t escape. Even when you quit the service, you can’t get away. You’re branded. For life.’
    ‘You didn’t think about that in the beginning?’ asked Uzi.
    ‘You did?’
    ‘That was the reason I joined,’ said Uzi wryly.
    A man walked past them in the direction of the toilet; they fell silent until he had passed.
    ‘But don’t you get tired?’ said Liberty in an undertone, once they were alone again. ‘Isn’t it exhausting being alone? Just you against everyone else?’
    ‘I don’t know what it means to be tired. I’ve never known what it means to sleep.’
    ‘Oh come on, Uzi. You can’t have been always like this.’
    ‘As far back as I can remember.’
    ‘Well, I haven’t. I remember the person I used to be.’
    ‘And what would you say to her now?’
    Liberty paused. ‘I would say I was sorry.’ She looked down at the table, tracing a small circle with a fingertip. Uzi watched his hand moving across the table and cupping hers. The spell was working. Two hands, so much blood. Their eyes met, their fingers tightened. Uzi hesitated, tried to pull his hand away, but she held on to it. She smiled, and his fingers relaxed. ‘Have another drink,’ she said. He shrugged, then nodded.
    At closing time, they got a cab back to Home House. He still didn’t know where she lived. Liberty walked him to the door of his room, holding his arm, her breasts still touching his biceps; now he wanted to press her against the wall and fuck her. She thanked him, and he thought it was genuine. She said it had been the most normal evening she had had in a long time. Nobody was around. Both of them were light-headed, happy. Below them, music pounded. He wanted to give her the intel he had been mulling over all day; the words kept bubbling in his head to ask her into his room. But he didn’t trust himself. He was drunk. There was something seductive about her, in her hoodie and trainers. He had to protect himself. But on the other hand – there they were, they had had a normal evening, perhaps they should end it the way normal people would. Anyway, he was losing his self-control. His body was a Frankenstein’s monster, and this woman seemed suddenly vulnerable. He was drunk, he was happy. She had him.

 
30
    The curtains were drawn against the day. A watery light filtered through a tiny chink in the curtains. The people in the bed didn’t care. Neither of them was asleep. Uzi, who had just had a hushed conversation with the Kol in the bathroom, lay with his arm behind his head, smoking a cigarette as if it were a golden hookah. The orange point of light glowed as he inhaled. Liberty was standing by the minibar, in a pair of black briefs.
    ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘I feel like we’ve got something to celebrate.’ She held up a bottle of Moët, condensation beading on its dark green skin.
    ‘Bring it here,’ said Uzi. ‘I have something to tell you before you suck my dick again.’
    Liberty laughed and slipped into bed beside him, scooping her hair over one shoulder, exposing the side of her neck as if she were offering herself as a sacrifice. Uzi popped the cork and dropped it, spinning, on top of the coffee table. He drank from the steaming bottle, then she did. Then he drank again.
    ‘So?’ she said. ‘Are you going to propose to me?’
    ‘I’m going to propose we do some business.’
    Liberty sighed. ‘No work. That’s for tomorrow. We’re on holiday today. We agreed.’
    ‘Fine. I just wanted to give you some more intel, that’s all. Make you some money.’
    Liberty raised herself on her elbows and the sheets fell away from her breasts. ‘You’ve persuaded me,’ she said. ‘Give it here. Then no more work.’
    Uzi felt a frisson of excitement. When he gave her jumbo, saw the expression of admiration and excitement on her face, he felt like the most powerful man in the world. He leaned over to the bedside table, pulled out the top drawer and turned it upside down. Underneath was a pad of brown tape; he peeled it away to reveal a USB stick.
    ‘What’s this?’ she said.
    ‘You can’t wait?’ said Uzi playfully.
    ‘Just tell me.’
    ‘It’s a list of the Office’s secret unit in the Playground. I haven’t encrypted it so you can read it at your leisure.’
    ‘The Playground?’
    ‘Mossad’s codename for Washington.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Washington. The Playground.