The Rembrandt Affair

their claims of moral superiority. Say what you like about Swiss greed, they assured themselves, but never once had it plunged the entire planet into recession. That would forever be a singularly American achievement.
    But economies, like ecosystems, are dynamic, and a threat to one species does not necessarily mean a threat to all. In fact, it can often mean opportunity, as was the case for the enterprise housed in the leaden office building located at the Kasernenstrasse, on the banks of the Sihl Canal. But that was the beauty of corporate security. Trouble tended to be oblivious to the business cycle.
    Strangely enough, Ulrich Müller’s Kellergruppe did not actually operate from the cellar of Zentrum headquarters. Quite the opposite, it occupied a suite of spacious offices on the top floor, a testament to the significant contribution made by the unit to Zentrum’s healthy bottom line. Several senior staff members were on duty that evening, keeping careful watch over a pair of sensitive operations. One was a blackmail job in Berlin; the other, an “account termination” in Mexico City. The Mexico case was particularly critical since it involved a crusading government prosecutor who was poking his nose into matters that didn’t concern him. The wet work itself was being handled by a local subcontractor, a professional hit man often used by Mexican drug lords. That was the Kellergruppe’s preferred method of operation. Whenever possible, it utilized the services of skilled professionals and career criminals who had no idea whom they were working for. This reduced exposure for the firm and limited potential damage in those rare cases when an operation did not go as planned.
    Despite the extreme sensitivity of the Berlin and Mexico City operations, Ulrich Müller was not present at Zentrum headquarters that evening. Instead, for reasons not yet known to him, he was parked in a deserted lot several miles south of the city center along the western shore of the Zürichsee. The location had been chosen by a man named Karl Huber, a former underling of Müller’s at the Dienst für Analyse und Prävention, the Swiss domestic intelligence service. Huber said he had something important he needed to tell Müller. Something that couldn’t be discussed over the phone or in an enclosed room. Huber had sounded worried, but Huber usually did.
    Müller glanced at his wristwatch, then looked up again to watch a car approaching from the south. Huber, he thought, right on schedule. The car turned into the lot, headlamps doused, and parked a few inches behind Müller’s bumper. Müller frowned. As always, Huber’s tradecraft was impeccable. A moment later, the DAP man was slumped in Müller’s passenger seat, a laptop computer on his lap, looking as though someone had just died.
    “What’s the problem, Karl?”
    “This.”
    Huber powered on the laptop and clicked on an icon. A few seconds later, Müller heard the voice of Zentrum’s owner having an extremely private conversation with his wife. It was obvious from the quality of the audio that the conversation was being conducted face-to-face and was being picked up by a microphone several feet away. Müller listened only for a moment, then, with a sharp wave of his hand, instructed his former underling to shut it down.
    “Where did you get this?”
    Huber glanced at the ceiling but said nothing.
    “Onyx?”
    Huber nodded.
    “What’s the source?”
    “Landesmann’s mobile phone.”
    “Why is the internal security service of Switzerland eavesdropping on the private conversations of Martin Landesmann?”
    “We’re not. But obviously someone else is. And they’ve managed to get to more than just his mobile.”
    “What else?”
    “His laptop.”
    Müller went pale. “What are you seeing?”
    “Everything, Ulrich. And I mean every thing.”
    “Onyx?”
    Huber nodded. “Onyx.”

    T HE TWO MEN were not referring to the translucent form of quartz, but the signals intelligence service of the Swiss government. A scaled-down version of the National Security Agency’s Echelon program, Onyx had the capability to intercept global communications and cellular traffic, as well as activity on the World Wide Web. Shortly after its completion in 2005, Onyx discovered one of the world’s most explosive secrets when a ground station high in the Swiss Alps intercepted a fax between the Egyptian foreign minister and his ambassador in London. The fax would eventually help lead