Page 30 of The Cellist

“I don’t need bodyguards,” replied Gabriel. “I have Christopher.”

Lavon peered into the empty backseat. “I never knew he was so good.”

Smiling, Gabriel turned onto the access road and followed it along the edge of the airfield. “How was the flight?” he asked as an inbound jetliner passed low overhead.

“Lonely.”

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Private air travel? I suppose I could get used to it. But what happens when the pandemic is over?”

“The next director-general of the Office won’t be flying El Al.”

“Have you given any thought to which unlucky soul will succeed you?”

“That’s the prime minister’s decision.”

“But surely you have a candidate in mind.”

Gabriel gave Lavon a sideways glance. “I’ve been meaning to have a word with you about your future, Eli.”

“I’m too old to have a future.” Lavon smiled sadly. “Only a very complicated past.”

Like Gabriel, Eli Lavon was a veteran of Operation Wrath of God. In the Hebrew-based lexicon of the team, he had been anayin, a tracker and surveillance specialist. When the unit disbanded, he settled in Vienna, where he opened a small investigative bureau called Wartime Claims and Inquiries. Operating on a shoestring budget, he managed to track down millions of dollars’ worth of looted Holocaust assets and played a significant role in prying a multibillion-dollar settlement from the banks of Switzerland. Brilliant and unyielding, Lavon quicklyearned the contempt of senior Swiss banking officials. TheNeue Züricher Zeitung, in a scathing editorial, had once referred to him as “that tenacious little troll from Vienna.”

He stared gloomily out his window. “Do you mind telling me why I’m back in Switzerland?”

“A problem with a bank.”

“Which one is it this time?”

“The dirtiest bank in the world.”

“RhineBank?”

“How did you guess?”

“Their claim to the title is undisputed.”

“Ever had any dealings with them?”

“No,” said Lavon. “But your mother and grandparents did. You see, the distinguished RhineBank AG of Hamburg financed the construction of Auschwitz and the factory that produced the Zyklon B pellets used in the gas chambers. It also trafficked in dental gold removed from the mouths of the dead and earned enormous fees through the Aryanization of Jewish-owned businesses.”

“It was a profitable venture, was it?”

“Wildly. Hitler was very good for the bank’s bottom line. The relationship went beyond mere expediency. RhineBank was all in.”

“And after the war?”

“The bank trimmed its sails and helped to finance the German economic miracle. Not surprisingly, its senior executives were all staunch anti-Communists. There were rumors that several were on the CIA’s payroll. The director was a guest at Eisenhower’s second inaugural in 1957.”

“All was forgiven?”

“It was as if Auschwitz never happened. RhineBank learned that it could get away with anything, and they’ve tested the proposition time and time again. In 2015, the Americans fined the bank two hundred and fifty million dollars for helping the Iranians to evade international sanctions.” Lavon shook his head slowly. “They’ll do business with anyone.”

“Including a high-profile Russian who’s stashing his ill-gotten money here in the West.”

“Says who?”