Cole answered for her. “If you mean sex and virginity and stuff like that, I guess I know enough that you don’t need to be embarrassed.”
“ Me?” Kagan asked. “Embarrassed?”
“ It’s okay,” Meredith said. “I have a feeling he’ll know what you’re talking about.”
She almost sounded amused.
Good, Kagan thought. They’re distracted.
He stared out the window and managed to find the words to continue.
“ Joseph was engaged to Mary, but before they became husband and wife, Mary told him she was pregnant. Because Joseph knew he wasn’t the father, he naturally assumed she’d been with another man, but Mary swore that she’d been faithful. She said that an angel had come to her and announced that even though she was a virgin, she’d conceived through the Holy Spirit.
“ So what was Joseph to do? He could accuse Mary of infidelity and cast her aside, or else he could take her word that an angel had spoken to her about a miraculous conception.
“ It was a difficult, painful choice. Joseph felt betrayed. But at the same time, he loved Mary with all his heart. Distraught, he considered one option and then the other, weighing them, unable to decide. Anger versus love.
“ Emotionally exhausted, he fell asleep, and all of a sudden, he had a dream in which a brilliant figure-an angel-appeared before him. The angel told him the exact same thing that Mary had insisted an angel had told her: that the Holy Spirit was the father.
“ The dream is significant because the house of David to which Joseph belonged had a tradition of believing in the truth of dreams, and of being able to interpret them. But surely Joseph must have wondered if his tortured thoughts had caused the dream, or if an angel really had come to him. It all amounted to this-was he willing to reject the woman he loved because she was pregnant with a child that wasn’t his? In the end, he chose to believe in his dream. He swallowed his pride and proved his love by marrying her.”
The baby whimpered.
“ Meredith?”
“ His diaper’s still dry. Maybe he’s thirsty again. I’ll bring more of that mixture.”
As the baby’s voice rose, Kagan heard Meredith hurry into the kitchen. He heard the scrape of the saucepan as she poured what was left of the mixture into the shot glass. She rushed back and sat on the floor, lifting the baby into her arms.
A moment later, the baby was quiet.
“ He’s drinking, but he’s awfully restless,” Meredith said.
Are you sending me a message? Kagan wondered. Is this the same thing that happened when you kicked me, and I thought you were guiding me here?
He shook his head. Get real, he thought. I’m still off balance from being wounded.
“ So Joseph married her,” Kagan said. His temples felt the pressure of his urgent heartbeat. “There was a problem, though. Mary’s pregnancy would soon start to show. Too soon. Like nosy people everywhere, the good folks in Nazareth would start asking questions, and you can bet they wouldn’t believe what Mary said about the angel. The scandal would make her an outcast.
“ That’s when Mary learned that one of her relatives, Elizabeth, also was pregnant. Elizabeth lived a distance away in a town called Judah, and Mary decided to go there-‘in haste,’ Luke’s gospel says. She stayed three months, helping with the household until Elizabeth’s baby was born, but then it was time for Mary to return to Nazareth, where the townspeople would certainly have noticed that she was more pregnant than she should be. When Mary and Joseph heard about the Roman census decree, they realized they had a perfect excuse to leave town. Required by law to go to Bethlehem and register, they wouldn’t have taken long to pack.
“ Over a period of time, the Magi elicited this account from Mary. It was an amazing match to what the shepherds had told them about being visited by angels. The parallels were astonishing, and these priests who believed in dreams and magic wouldn’t have dismissed them. On the contrary, the Magi would have investigated in greater detail, questioning the people in Bethlehem, looking for inconsistencies and contradictions, anything to cast doubt on what was being said. But after all their efforts, the Magi concluded that the stories were genuine, that the disinformation they’d fed Herod in an effort to destabilize his government was, in ways too mysterious to understand, the truth.
“ I was with a group of spies when I first heard this interpretation of the Christmas story,” Kagan said. For a moment, he felt nostalgic. He’d been eighteen the first time he’d heard it. Fourteen years ago, Kagan thought.
And now I’m an old man.
“ One of those spies said he could make a case that the Magi themselves were victims of disinformation.”
“ What do you mean?” Cole asked.
“ Their sudden appearance in Jerusalem would have been widely reported. Herod’s furious reaction to what they said about the star and the newborn king would have been widely reported as well. Herod was an unpopular ruler. His fears about a rebellion were justified. Perhaps a rebel spy in Herod’s court learned that the king was sending the Magi to Bethlehem to search for the child. The rebels could have arranged for the shepherds and Mary to tell the Magi a story that elaborated on what the Magi had told Herod. Perhaps the Magi were deceived, just as they had deceived Herod.”
“ Deceived?” Meredith asked.
“ The rebels couldn’t have known that the Magi were foreign spies. They couldn’t have known that the Magi wanted to destabilize Herod’s government. So they told the Magi stories that they hoped the Magi would take back to Herod, further unbalancing the king. Perhaps the shepherds and Mary were rebels. Perhaps they wanted the same thing the Magi did, but neither side realized they were working toward a common goal.”
“ Makes my head spin,” Meredith said.
“ That’s what the spy world is like. A U.S. spymaster-who might actually have worked for the Soviets-once called espionage a wilderness of mirrors.”
“ But I don’t want to believe that Mary and the shepherds were pretending.”
“ Neither do I,” Kagan replied. “And as far as I’m concerned, the rest of the story proves they weren’t.”
The baby made a sound.
Kagan tensed.
“ He’s more restless,” Meredith said.
Kagan’s apprehension strengthened. “I’d better finish.”
“ You’re sure the same house key fits all the doors?” Andrei asked.
“ Yes,” Brody answered.
“ Good. Then this doesn’t need to be difficult. Go into the house. Act surprised when you see the intruder. Ask the natural questions about whatever traps you notice he’s arranged. Find out where the baby is.”
“ But the guy’ll see that I’m nervous,” Brody said. “He might suspect that I’m working for you.”
“ Of course he’ll see that you’re nervous. That’s the beauty of the situation. You beat up your wife. You’re terrified that she’ll leave you. You come to beg her to forgive you. Then you discover there’s a stranger in the house. Who wouldn’t be nervous? He’ll never guess what’s really going on. Just do what we rehearsed. Tomorrow morning, you and your family can open your Christmas presents. Tonight will be just a bad memory.”
“ I hope to God you’re right.”
Andrei gave Brody’s arm an encouraging squeeze.
“ You’ll do this perfectly. I have faith in you.”
He watched Brody walk uneasily through the falling snow toward the gate.
The moment Brody was too far away to hear what he said, Andrei turned to his companions.
“ Yakov, as soon as Brody’s inside, go to the left side of the house. Mikhail, go to the right. Use one of the metal chairs Brody told us about, and position it under a window in the master bedroom. Because you gave Brody your earbud and microphone, you and I will stay in contact via our cell phones while Yakov monitors the radio conversation. After we learn where the baby is and where the booby traps are, I’ll say, ‘ Merry Christmas’ to Brody. That’s my signal to both of you. A second later, I’ll shoot out the front window and attack through there.
“ At the same time, Mikhail, you’ll stand on the metal chair and go through a window in the back bedroom.
