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  “Is that really necessary? There will be security everywhere at Belgrave Mews. They won’t even let you carry it inside the Ambassador’s residence.”

  “It’s going into the car’s glove box,” Abel replied.

  Natasha persisted. “It’s been almost a month. Do you really expect trouble?”

  He donned his trench coat. “How should I know?” he asked as he helped her into her raincoat. “Take a scarf. It’s going to snow.”

  She pulled one off the closet shelf and took his arm.

  As they walked together from the bedroom, the doorbell of their flat buzzed.

  Jon opened the closet door and ducked into the hallway, heading toward his room.

  He could hear his mother speaking with the sitter. “Don’t let Jon stay up past eleven. And make sure he completes his algebra homework.”

  Jon turned back down the hallway to the living room.

  The sitter, Rakhel, a young, dark-eyed, rail-thin woman, was nodding in response to Natasha’s instructions.

  His mother pulled him to her and kissed the top of his head, tousling his brown hair. “Why are you always making trouble?”

  Jon knew, self-consciously, that the prominent black eye he’d received at school had prompted his mother’s question, but he deflected her attention. “Mum, I’m not a baby.” He pointed to the sitter. “I don’t need her.”

  Abel hugged his son. “Don’t argue, son. You’re almost an adult. Behave like one.”

  Jon frowned and turned away. “My point exactly.” He stood as tall as he could, close to his father, measuring how much taller he needed to be. “There were three of them. They were all bigger.”

  Abel turned away. Seeing Jon’s homework papers on the desk, he stepped over to them and pointed to one. “Jon, this equation. What does it represent?”

  Jon’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve been reading on game theory. Someone named John von Neumann. Anyway, it’s just calculus. I applied it to valence theory from a psychologist named Kurt Levin. Tried to forecast a person’s or a group’s intentions. I’ve modified it so it now shows the distance between intention and the probability of success as a separate variable.”

  His father scanned the page in more detail. “I see. You’ve been reading more math and now, social psychology.” He paused over the page. “So what we have here is the beginning of a method to predict human behavior.” He scanned the page, his forefinger pointing at the string of variables. “Tomorrow, I’ll go through this from top to bottom.” He stopped at something on the page. “Jon, I think you made a mistake here. One of the parameters. This should be a subtraction, not a division.”

  Jon gawked at the page.

  Abel buttoned his trench coat. “Tomorrow.”

  With that last sentence, his parents were gone from the flat, leaving Jon alone with Rakhel.

  “An urgent message from Betakill.” The young operative handed an encrypted text to the gray-haired man. “Natasha Sommerstein said they were being followed by a repeater. Plate number A16-248, London. I have their location on GPS.” The operative handed the older man the cell phone.

  The older man pressed a few buttons. He viewed the screen and muttered, “Rats.” He reached for his coat and ordered the comm officer, “Tell the team to hurry. We need to find them before it’s too late.”

  By the time they were in the garage, the driver had the car ready and waiting.

  It took less than ten minutes for their Bentley to reach the location of Jon’s parents.

  Jon looked up from his calculus formulas when the doorbell rang. The babysitter sat near him, listening to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony playing on the stereo.

  He rubbed his black eye. He thought of the battle he’d engaged in when the bully and his friends tried to take his lunch money. He had to fight, or else the bullies would pick on him every day. His mistake was fighting fair. A kick to the monster’s balls would have given him a fleeting advantage. The next time, he’d be ready.

  The doorbell rang a second time and he looked toward the door, expecting that his parents had arrived home much earlier than he’d expected. What had happened at their party?

  Rakhel answered the door and let in a thin man with graying hair and a short-cropped white beard. He wore a black business suit with no necktie. Closing the door behind him, the old man whispered into the young woman’s ear, his voice like the raspy crumpling of paper. His language was nothing Jon had ever heard before. The only word he understood was the sitter’s name, “Rakhel.”

  She gasped and her face fell.

  Something was wrong. Jon started for the front door where they stood to hear better what they were saying. But before he could get there, he heard another knock at the door, and Rakhel let five tall men into their flat. Their bearing indicated this was serious. No one spoke to him; they totally ignored him. He was no longer merely curious. Now, he was worried.

  The visitors shut all the window shades and moved on to the bedrooms. He could hear low, urgent voices, and doors and drawers opening and closing.

  A few minutes later, there was another knock at the front door of the flat. Rakhel looked through the peephole and admitted two men who announced themselves as police detectives. They spoke with her briefly, in hushed tones. She nodded grimly.

  The detectives remained at the door, talking with Rakhel. He could feel his pulse quicken. What were they saying? Did this have to do with his parents? His stomach did loops.

  When the detectives left, she asked him to sit next to her on the living room couch. Without any preamble, she said, “Jon, your mom and dad were in a serious car accident. I’m afraid they’re never coming home.”

  Jon examined her face for some sign that this wasn’t true, but all he saw were the reddened edges of her eyes. She’d been crying.

  He shook his head. This had to be a lie. “Why are you telling me this? Where are they? Really?”

  She moved closer and reached a hand out to lift his chin. “I’m so sorry.”

  All the elegant equations in his head dissolved into a void. His world grew smaller, containing him like a steel net. He stared at his formulas on the page, damp with his tears. He jolted as he heard himself curse. There was no way mathematics could express the deaths of his mother and father.

  His fists clenched and he pounded at her. He heard a scream but it couldn’t be his voice, could it? Every muscle in his body stiffened, and he bawled on and on.

  She grabbed his hands. He wrenched away and stormed around the room, throwing anything he could reach through the air. He smashed a lamp, and pounded another into shards. The fragments of broken glass embedded in his hands didn’t even hurt.

  How could they die? He felt his heart turn from anger into a sinking sorrow at this sudden loss. He ran into their bedroom and Rakhel followed him and grasped him, hugging him to her.

  The gray-haired man entered the bedroom and nodded to her. She left the room. The older man didn’t move at all. He stared at Jon and the words came in a slow rasp. “I’m so sorry. Someday you will understand. I promise.” He touched Jon’s head and followed the path Rakhel had taken to the front door of the flat where they whispered.

  She returned and took a single step toward him and stopped. “I will stay with you, along with these others who arrived.” She pointed to the younger men. The young woman’s accent now was different from the voice she’d been using to talk with him before. Less British, more like that of his parents when they were rushed or argued. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

  Jon remembered earlier this evening, the last time he ever saw his mother and father. He thought of their reprimand that he behave himself. It was the last thing they told him.

  His eyes shifted down, the weight of loss heavy on him.

  He’d never even had the chance to say he loved them before they were gone forever.

  Twelve Years Later

  Chapter Two

  Close to Heathrow Airport, London

  February 21, 11:38
a.m.

  Lisa Gabriel twisted the new gold band on her left ring finger as if it were aflame. Her eyes shifted to her side, where Jon Sommers stared back. She’d been quiet since they’d climbed into the cab, thinking about this new conundrum. Drifting rain distracted her as it blew across the highway. The taxi slowed, shifting lanes as it drew within sight of Heathrow.

  The cabbie’s radio played an old Beatles song, “Back in the USSR.” The cab was redolent of her exotic Mitsouko perfume. I’ve used too much. She reached across and stroked Jon’s hand. She was sure her silence filled him with a mixture of concern and trepidation. “A lot will change now. I have to tell Mother, face to face. It’s better if you don’t come.”

  His face closed in concentration. She’d learned him so well she could almost imagine his thoughts. She knew he was about object to her traveling alone to the Middle East. She wanted to smile but crushed her lips together.

  He had a temper when it came to others who pushed him too hard.

  It had taken her months to break through his defenses. What she found had surprised her. The boy was naïve. The man was bright, capable of elegant solutions to complex 14 problems. This contradiction between Jon’s two states was what she’d fallen in love with.

  She’d known long ago he would be her undoing.

  Jon faced her. “I’d intended that we spend the two weeks I have off before I start working at Dreitsbank, just the two of us at your apartment. Think of it. Pure bliss.”

  “You know I have to go.”

  “Why can’t you bring me along?”

  “I’ll take you to see Tel Aviv soon. Mother and I need to talk alone. It’s just for two weeks.”

  She waited, summoning thoughts to counter his inevitable reply.

  The taxi pulled to the curb. He was out of time, his eyes downcast. “Yeah. I guess while you’re gone, I’ll work on the paper I’ve been writing on Islamic banking. Still, I was hoping—”

  “We’ll have forever after I return.” She slid toward the door. His graduation ceremony was yesterday. Jon now had his MBA and, if she had her way, his life would soon be full of even bigger changes.

  He shifted toward her, brushing away a lock of his brown hair that had fallen on his angular face. His eyes scanned her, as if he were searching for some change in their relationship.

  She smiled to cover her lies and make her face unreadable. “While I’m gone, look into converting to Judaism. It’s what you promised. And when I return, I’ll tell you all my secrets.”

  “Secrets?” His jaw moved but she shook her head and touched his lips with her fingers.

  “Not now.” She kissed him goodbye and reached for her bag. I wonder if he’ll forgive me when I reveal my true self?

  When she exited the cab and stepped to the curbside, the drizzle had become a downpour.

  Chapter Three

  Mountain cave complex,outside the village of Upper Pachir,Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan

  February 22, 8:06 a.m.

  As the morning sun streaked through thin, high clouds, Tariq Houmaz walked from the limestone caves of the mountain complex that housed him and his senior officers. He closed the top button of his winter topcoat and spread the small prayer rug on top of a large flat rock. The wind blustered as he looked east.

  Things had calmed down in the years since the Americans had gone home. Soon, his mujahidin would start their day of training. Muzzle flashes, the sound of gunfire, and the smell of cordite would fill the air.

  He pulled a flask of water from his coat. Washing his hands, he gazed up. He prayed, chanting in Pashto the ancient rhymes and prose given to Mohammed by Allah.

  When he was finished, he remained kneeling, his eyes still focused on heaven. “Please, Allah, just one wish. Save my people from the will of infidels who run our government. Keep us pure, bound to you and your land. We have suffered too long. Keep us strong to do your will.”

  He took a deep breath and started to rise, but stopped and settled back again. “Please, please also help my brother. Pesi has become too fond of the conveniences offered us by the West. Help him see his error. Help him focus on our tasks.”

  When he rose, he saw a young boy playing with a piece of wood shaped to look like an AK-47. Houmaz smiled as the child stretched his arms. He picked up the boy and touched his lips to the boy’s head. When he dropped the child, the youngster aimed the stick at Houmaz and yelled, “Pow, pow.”

  In the clearing, he opened the cover of the aluminum case containing the secure satellite phone Prince Hamid, his benefactor, had given him.

  Standing against the wind, he keyed the number for his Bank of Trade account and checked its balance. He ended the call, and punched in Pesi’s number, in Riyadh. Seconds later, he heard the connection complete.

  Tariq spoke in Arabic. “Listen carefully, Pesi. As of this morning, the infidels sent us the money we need to destroy them.”

  “Are you sure they didn’t place a tracer on the transfer?”

  Tariq tightened his grip on the phone. It was too late for Pesi to beg off the mission. “The funds are in our account at the Chechnya branch of the Bank of Trade. No tracers are possible at that bank. I told the fools it’s for a limited operation on the border with Pakistan.”

  He heard Pesi laugh.

  Maybe Pesi had just wanted confirmation. He gave it. “Yes. This is what we’d hoped they’d assume. We now have enough to pay for the mission. Our friends in Vladivostok will sell us everything we need. Within six months we’ll be ready.”

  Prince Hamid had told him that the senior management of the Russian mafiya was principally Jewish. They sold weapons from the defunct Soviet empire out of their warehouses on the wharfs in Vladivostok. The weapons he intended to buy would be used against Israel. He restrained the urge to chuckle at the irony.

  The Americans were in denial about the reality of the Jewish origin of the Russian mafiya and also its arms sales to Third World governments. But even Hollywood knew. They had made it the subject of a movie starring Nicolas Cage, Lord of War.

  His brother squawked, “Too short a time for me to find and train crews. I need more time.”

  Tariq stiffened. “Too late now to complain. Find us two crews. Search your list of contacts as fast as you can.”

  Pesi’s voice faded in volume. “I’ll do my best, but —”

  “As fast as you can, then. Don’t fail me.” Tariq terminated the call and walked back toward the cave. This time when he passed the child, he had a sneer on his face.

  Ever since his father had disowned him, he’d been looking for a way to make the old man regret his decision. Now he could show his father how powerful he’d become. If Allah willed it, he’d have scrubbed the world of at least a million, and possibly tens of millions of infidels. All the other attacks he’d completed were insignificant compared to this. The connections he’d worked so hard to find and exploit in the Islamic banking world would make it all come to fruition. He could finally earn the respect he deserved. It was a straightforward plan, blunt and simple.

  He gritted his teeth, walking through the icy wind. Soon, he would visit his banker in New York, to arrange funding.

  Chapter Four

  Near the coast of Spain,35,000 above sea level

  February 22, 10:14 a.m.

  From 35,000 feet up, Aviva Bushovsky pulled the cell phone from her purse and punched in a number. “I’m on my way. I’ll see you tomorrow, as planned.”

  The gruff voice on the other side of the line was just above a whisper. “Good. I’m worried about your recent behavior.” Aviva could hear raspy breathing. She waited, but Mother said nothing more.

  Aviva idly scanned Spain’s Mediterranean coast from the aircraft’s window. When she couldn’t take the silence any longer, she said, “I hope you can see this my way.”

  Mother terminated the call. So like Mother, Aviva thought. She wondered how much Mother knew. Would what she’d done with Crane become a problem for them all? Sooner or later, she th
ought, Mother will find out everything, and hell will truly rain on me.

  She had been overly protective of her fiancé. How could he believe so much in things that were obvious illusions?

  Mother had met Jon when he was twelve, the night his parents died. The man he’d become was so similar to the boy Mother had met so long ago.

  She’d lied to Jon, telling him that her father had died in the war with Lebanon. His response was to hug her, offering comfort. Was that what had made her fall in love with him? She shook her head, her lips forming the word “no” in silence. The person in the adjacent seat looked up, and she shook her head again.

  She plucked the photo of the two of them from her purse. There was another copy of it, framed, in her apartment. She stared at his handsome face, partially covered by the locks of brown hair that were always falling in front of his eyes. She studied it intently, as if she could conjure him there beside her by doing so.

  Once more, she twisted the new ring on her finger. Things had gone so far off the path Mother had directed.

  She’d committed treason for her lover. Didn’t MI-6 and the Mossad cooperate? It was an honest mistake. How could she make Mother understand that? Crane had threatened to have Jon “taken down” if she didn’t cooperate, and she was sure her cooperation, to save Jon’s life, was in the best interest of both intelligence services. She rehearsed an argument about how Jon’s survival and recruitment were worth the concessions Crane demanded. Would this appease Mother?

  It would be difficult to win this one. Caught between Crane and Mother, she feared what either could do to her, to Jon. She wiped the tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

  At least Jon would never learn the truth.