on her bicycle by the railing, sipping from a coffee mug. Near her stood an older man, who wore sunglasses despite the cloudy day, pretending to watch the ducks in the canal. “I was also expecting a large balance.”
“And?”
“It’s disappointing.” In the opposite direction, where the street leveled out, lined with small shops, Lemmy saw another couple, also pretending to ignore each other, both smoking as they examined window displays. “Seems like my father-in-law made some foolish investments in the seventies, then lost a great deal on Black Monday in eighty-seven.”
“ There must be a lot left though, right?”
“ Less than a thousand dollars,” Lemmy lied, watching Tanya for her reaction. “The account’s practically empty.”
*
The two guards screamed and sprang from their chairs. One of them doubled over and vomited. The other tried to shake off a length of intestine that had hooked on his belt. He moaned as if he’d lost the ability to speak coherently.
“Oh, my God!” Itah shoved the gurney against the wall and pointed at the staircase at the end of the hallway. “Run! Second floor! Biohazard showers!”
The two of them stumbled toward the double doors.
“Strip down and scrub everything!” Itah ran ahead of them and opened both doors. “Quick! Before the virus gets in your system!”
They were cursing as they ran down the stairs. Itah let the doors close. She grinned and motioned at Rabbi Gerster to get into the room while she dealt with the nurses, who were rushing over. “Don’t worry,” he heard her yell, “just a little accident.”
Inside the room, Elie was already out of the bed. He removed the oxygen line from his nose and took off his hospital gown.
Rabbi Gerster emptied the plastic bag on the bed. “Put those on.” He gestured at the long-sleeve dress, a woman’s headscarf, shoes, and sunglasses.
Elie dressed and sat in a wheelchair, panting hard.
Itah distracted the nurses while the rabbi wheeled Elie out of the room and down the hallway. With all the commotion going on, no one paid attention to the little old woman in the wheelchair and the white-bearded man.
Downstairs, a line of taxis waited at the circular driveway outside the hospital’s lobby. By the time Elie was settled in the back seat and the wheelchair was secure in the trunk, Itah showed up.
“Take us to the YMCA,” Rabbi Gerster told the driver. “Near Agron Street.”
As the driver began to ease away from the pavement, a white sedan raced down the access road and came to a screeching halt perpendicular to the pavement, blocking the taxi. Its doors flew open, and four men jumped out.
*
“ It’s impossible!” Tanya’s voice was sharp, angry. “There’s no way! How could he lose everything?”
“Armande likes to spend,” Lemmy speculated. He noticed the man on the bridge speak to the woman while keeping his face toward the canal, his lips barely moving.
“ It wasn’t his money to spend.”
“ With Koenig gone, why shouldn’t he?”
Tanya stood inside the phone booth, her hand pressed against her forehead. “I don’t believe it. Israel needs this money.”
“ I’m sorry if you’re disappointed.”
“ That’s an understatement!” With the constant noise of people and bicycles around her, Tanya must have missed the sarcastic tone of his voice. “Did he move funds to another account? There must be a record!”
Lemmy was tired of lying to her. Tanya’s reaction had already confirmed his suspicions. It was obvious she had come for the money. “Is your team ready to grab me?”
“ What team?”
“ Take me to a safe house? Drug me up for the interrogation?”
Her face was white through the phone booth glass. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s all about the money, isn’t it? You and Elie, the same-plotting, manipulating, using other people like pawns.”
“No!” Across the street, through the pedestrians and cyclists, he saw Tanya pound her chest with a clenched hand. “It’s not about the money!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“ Lemmy, I beg you-”
“ You set me up, didn’t you?” He glanced up and down the street. Both couples were watching Tanya, barely pretending any longer. “There’s no Shin Bet, no big secrets, no conspiracy. You came for the Koenig account.” His voice rose to a shout. “ Didn’t you? ”
The two tulips stopped greeting shoppers and turned.
“That’s not true.” Tanya looked around. “Where are you?”
“Where I can see you and your team.”
“I don’t have a team! I’m alone here!” Tanya noticed him across the street and through the glass doors. She dropped the receiver and ran out of the phone booth.
Lemmy’s mind registered the rings of a coming tram while his eyes were locked with Tanya’s eyes, wide and glistening. He dropped the receiver and held up his hand. “Stop!” But he was inside the store, and the glass doors silenced his warning.
Up on the bridge, the young woman tossed her coffee cup into the canal, mounted her bicycle, and pedaled down toward Tanya.
Emerging through the sliding glass doors, Lemmy saw the tram rushing at them from the right. Now holding both hands up, showing his palms to Tanya, he yelled again, “Stop!”
The woman on the bicycle gained speed, racing at Tanya from the left, while the tram arrived from the right, and they collided, the handlebar ramming hard at Tanya’s left kidney, jolting her forward into the coming tram, which screeched and groaned, attempting to stop.
*
When the sedan blocked their way, Elie’s hand went to his side, groping for the blade that wasn’t there. All he had with him was the heavy copy of the Bible. He recognized the man who emerged from the front passenger seat. Agent Cohen yelled something at his subordinates, and the four of them sprinted across the pavement and into the hospital.
Elie let the air out of his lungs. It was time to instruct the driver to go, but he didn’t trust his voice to sound like an elderly female.
The cabby cursed, maneuvered around the white sedan, and drove off.
“Maybe they had a medical emergency,” Rabbi Gerster suggested. “One must assume good intentions.”
“They seemed healthy to me,” the woman said.
Elie recognized her. She was a TV reporter. Why was she here?
They travelled in silence. At the YMCA, Itah directed the driver to the parking lot. “My car is right there.” She pointed. “The red Mitsubishi.”
“Do you have enough gas to get to Haifa,” Rabbi Gerster asked, “or do we need to fill up?”
“I have plenty,” she answered, playing along. “Are you happy to go home, Mom?”
Elie nodded.
They got out of the taxi. Rabbi Gerster unloaded the wheelchair from the trunk while Itah paid the driver. They pretended to engage in discussion until the taxi was gone. Elie walked slowly toward the Mitsubishi.
“ Where are you going?” She pointed at the King David Hotel across the street. “I arranged a room for us.”
Realizing it was only a diversion, in case the cabby was later questioned, Elie nodded and sat in the wheelchair. “Let’s go.”
Itah looked at him closely. “Now I recognize you! You’re the creep who came to my apartment to scare me off
