The Rembrandt Affair

'Apparently, it stretches from here to the Isles of Scilly. They say that when the wind is right you can hear the tolling of church bells.'

'It's known as Lyonesse, the City of Lions, and it's nothing but a local legend.'

'Like the one about an archangel living atop the cliffs of Gunwalloe Cove?'

'Let's not get carried away with the biblical allusions, Julian.'

'I'm a dealer of Italian and Dutch Old Master art. Biblical allusions are my stock-in-trade. Besides, it's hard not to get carried away in a place like this. It's all a bit isolated for my taste, but I can understand why you've always been drawn to it.' Isherwood loosened the buttons of his overcoat. 'I remember that lovely cottage you had over in Port Navas. And that dreadful little toad who used to watch over it when you weren't around. Remind me of the lad's name.'

'Peel,' said Gabriel.

'Ah, yes, young Master Peel. He was like you. A natural spy, that one. Gave me a devil of a time when I came looking for that painting I'd placed in your care.' Isherwood made a show of thought. 'Vecellio, wasn't it?'

Gabriel nodded. 'Adoration of the Shepherds.'

'Gorgeous picture,' said Isherwood, his eyes glistening. 'My business was hanging by the thinnest of threads. That Vecellio was the coup that was going to keep me in clover for a few more years, and you were supposed to be restoring it. But you'd disappeared from the face of the earth, hadn't you? Vanished without a trace.' Isherwood frowned. 'I was a fool to ever throw in my lot with you and your friends from Tel Aviv. You use people like me. And when you're done, you throw us to the wolves.'

Isherwood warmed his hands against the tarnished aluminum teapot. His backbone-of-England surname and English scale concealed the fact that he was not, at least technically, English at all. British by nationality and passport, yes, but German by birth, French by upbringing, and Jewish by religion. Only a handful of trusted friends knew that Isherwood had staggered into London as a child refugee in 1942 after being carried across the snowbound Pyrenees by a pair of Basque shepherds. Or that his father, the renowned Paris art dealer Samuel Isakowitz, had been murdered at the Sobibor death camp along with Isherwood's mother. Though Isherwood had carefully guarded the secrets of his past, the story of his dramatic escape from Nazi-occupied Europe had managed to reach the ears of the legendary Israeli spymaster Ari Shamron. And in the mid-1970s, during a wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in Europe, Shamron had recruited Isherwood as a sayan, a volunteer helper. Isherwood had but one assignment—to assist in building and maintaining the operational cover of a young art restorer and assassin named Gabriel Allon.

'When did you speak with him?' Gabriel asked.

'Shamron?' Isherwood gave an ambiguous shrug of his shoulders. 'I bumped into him in Paris a few weeks ago.'

Gabriel, by his expression, made it clear he found Isherwood's account less than credible. No one bumped into Ari Shamron. And those who did rarely lived to recall the experience.

'Where in Paris?'

'We had dinner in his suite at the Ritz. Just the two of us.'

'How romantic.'

'Actually, we weren't completely alone. His bodyguard was there, too. Poor Shamron. He's as old as the Judean Hills, but even now his enemies are ruthlessly stalking him.'

'It comes with the territory, Julian.'

'I suppose it does.' Isherwood looked at Gabriel and smiled sadly. 'He's as stubborn as a mule and about as charming. But a part of me is glad he's still there. And another part lives in fear of the day he finally dies. Israel will never be quite the same. And neither will King Saul Boulevard.'

King Saul Boulevard was the address of Israel's foreign intelligence service. It had a long and deliberately misleading name that had very little to do with the true nature of its work. Those who worked there referred to it as the Office and nothing else.

'Shamron will never die, Julian. Shamron is eternal.'

'I wouldn't be so sure, petal. He didn't look well to me.'

Gabriel sipped his tea. It had been nearly a decade since Shamron had done his last tour as chief, and yet he still meddled in the affairs of the Office as though it were his private fiefdom. Its ranks were filled with officers who had been recruited and groomed by Shamron—officers who operated by a creed, even spoke a language, written by him. Though he no longer had a formal position or title, Shamron remained the hidden hand that guided Israel's security policies. Within the corridors of the Israeli security establishment, he was known only as the Memuneh, the one in charge. For many years, he had devoted his formidable power to a single mission—persuading Gabriel, whom he regarded as a wayward son, to assume his rightful place in the director's suite of King Saul Boulevard. Gabriel had always resisted; and after his last operation, Shamron had finally granted him permission to leave the organization he had served since his youth.

'Why are you here, Julian? We had an arrangement. When I was ready to work, I would make contact with you, not the other way around.'

Isherwood leaned forward and placed a hand on Gabriel's arm. 'Shamron told me about what happened in Russia,' he said softly. 'Heaven knows I'm no expert, but I doubt even you have the power to erase a memory like that.'

Gabriel watched the seagulls floating like kites above the tip of Lizard Point. His thoughts, however, were of a birch forest east of Moscow. He was standing next to Chiara at the edge of a freshly dug grave, his hands bound behind his back, his eyes fixed on the barrel of a large-caliber pistol. At the other end of the gun was Ivan Kharkov, Russian oligarch, international financier, arms dealer, and murderer. Enjoy watching your wife die, Allon. Gabriel blinked and the vision was gone.

'How much did Shamron tell you?'

'Enough to know that you and Chiara have every right to lock yourselves away in that cottage and never come out again.' Isherwood was silent for a moment. 'Is it true she was pregnant when she was taken from that road in Umbria?'

Gabriel closed his eyes and nodded. 'Ivan's kidnappers gave her several doses of sedative while they were moving her from Italy to Russia. She lost the baby while she was in captivity.'

'How is she now?'

'Like a newly restored painting. On the surface, she looks wonderful. But underneath...' Gabriel's voice trailed off. 'She has losses, Julian.'

'How extensive?'

'There are good days and bad.'

'I read about Ivan's murder in the newspapers. The French police seem convinced he was killed on orders from the Kremlin or by an angry business rival. But it was you, wasn't it, Gabriel? You were the one who killed Ivan outside that posh restaurant in Saint-Tropez.'

'Just because I'm officially retired now doesn't mean the rules have changed, Julian.'

Isherwood replenished his teacup and picked reflectively at the corner of his napkin. 'You did the world a favor by killing him,' he said quietly. 'Now you have to do one for yourself and that gorgeous wife of yours. It's time for you and Chiara to rejoin the living.'

'We are living, Julian. Quite well, actually.'

'No, you're not. You're in mourning. You're sitting an extended shivah for the child you lost in Russia. But you can walk the cliffs from here to Land's End, Gabriel, and it will never bring that baby back. Chiara knows it. And it's time for you to start thinking about something other than a Russian oligarch named Ivan Kharkov.'

'Something like a painting?'

'Exactly.'

Gabriel exhaled heavily. 'Who's the artist?'

'Rembrandt.'

'What condition is it in?'

'Hard to say.'

'Why is that?'