The Rembrandt Affair

began absently beating the pockets of his blazer for his pipe. Four other men rose in unison and followed him across the central hallway into the living room. A log fire was burning in the open hearth; Shamron warmed his liver-spotted hands against the flames before lowering himself into the nearest chair. Navot sat next to him while Gabriel remained on his feet, pacing slowly at the edges of the room. Graham Seymour and Carter sat at opposite ends of the couch, Seymour as if posed for a clothing advertisement, Carter like a doctor preparing to break bad news to a terminal patient.
    “How long?” he asked finally. “How long before they’re able to close the deal and build their first nuclear weapon?”
    Gabriel and Shamron both deferred to their chief in name only, Uzi Navot.
    “Even the IAEA has finally concluded that the Iranians already possess the capability to produce a bomb. And if Martin Landesmann is going to sell them the top-of-the-line centrifuges they need to produce a steady supply of fuel…”
    “How long, Uzi?” Carter repeated.
    “A year at the outside. Perhaps even sooner.”
    Carter inserted his pipe into his tobacco pouch. “For the record, gentlemen, my masters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would be most grateful if you would refrain from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities now or at any time in the future.”
    “The feelings of the White House have been made clear to us.”
    “I’m just restating them now lest there be any confusion.”
    “There isn’t. And as long as we’re speaking for the record, no one wants to attack Iran any less than we do. This isn’t some faction of the PLO we’re dealing with. This is the Persian Empire. If we hit them, they’ll hit us back. They’re already arming Hezbollah and Hamas for a proxy war and priming their terror networks around the globe for attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets.”
    “They’ll also turn Iraq into a flaming cauldron and the Persian Gulf into a war zone,” Carter added. “The price of oil will skyrocket, which will plunge the global economy back into recession. And the world will blame you, of course.”
    “They always do,” Shamron said. “We’re used to that.”
    Carter struck a match and ignited his pipe. His next question was posed through a fog of smoke.
    “Are you sure about the China connection?”
    “We’ve been watching XTE for some time. The memos we dug out of Martin’s laptop merely confirmed all our suspicions.” Navot paused. “But surely you’re not surprised by China’s involvement in this?”
    “I’m not surprised by anything China does these days, especially when it comes to Iran. The Islamic Republic is China’s second-largest supplier of oil, and the state-run Chinese energy giants have invested tens of billions in Iranian oil-and-gas development. It’s clear to us the Chinese view Tehran not as a threat but as an ally. And they’re not at all concerned about the Iranians going nuclear. In fact, they might even welcome it.”
    “Because they think it will reduce American power in the Persian Gulf?”
    “Precisely,” said Carter. “And since the Chinese hold several hundred billion dollars’ worth of American debt, we’re in no position to call them on it. We’ve gone to them on numerous occasions to complain about restricted goods and weapons flowing from their ports to Iran, and the response is always the same. They promise to look into it. But nothing changes.”
    “We’re not suggesting going to the Chinese,” Navot said. “Or the Swiss, or the Germans, or the Austrians, or any other country linked to the supply chain. We already know it’s a waste of time and effort. National interest and pure greed are powerful trump cards. Besides, the last thing we want is to confess to the Swiss that we’re spying on their most prominent businessman.”
    “How many centrifuges do you think Martin has sold them?”
    “We don’t know.”
    “When was the first shipment?”
    “We don’t know.”
    “How about the last?”
    “We don’t know.”
    Carter waved a clear patch in the cloud of smoke in front of him. “All right, then. Why don’t you tell us what you do know.”
    “We know the relationship has been lucrative and that it is ongoing. But more important we also know that in the near future a large shipment is scheduled to go from China to Dubai to Iran.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “The information was contained in a temporary file we exhumed from