Page 81 of The Order

“That clerical suit you wore into the Secret Archives theother day must have rubbed off on you. For a moment even I was convinced you were a member of the Order.”

Gabriel advanced the recording and clickedplay.

Two million euros. I deposited the money after he and the Israeli broke into the Secret Archives...

Gabriel clickedpause. “Rather clever on their part, don’t you think?”

“They obviously don’t intend to go down without a fight.”

“Neither do I.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I’m going to have a word with him.” Gabriel paused. “Face-to-face.”

“You’ve got everything you need,” said Lavon. “Let’s get out of here before some nice German police officer knocks on the door and asks if we know anything about a missing senior executive from the Wolf Group.”

“We can’t release him until white smoke rises from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.”

“So we’ll tape him to a tree somewhere in the Alps on our way down to Rome. With any luck, no one will find him until the glaciers melt.”

Gabriel shook his head. “I want to know why he has the private phone number of every major far-right leader in Western Europe. And I want that book.”

“It went up a chimney. You said so yourself.”

“Just like my grandparents.”

Gabriel turned without another word and headed downstairs to the cellar. There he instructed Mordecai and Oded to remove Estermann from the holding cell. Once again, the German offered no resistance as he was secured to the chair. At 12:42 a.m., the blindfold was removed. The camera of the Solaris phone captured the expression on Estermann’s face. Later, at King Saul Boulevard, all were in agreement on one point. It was one of Gabriel’s finest hours.

41

Munich

Natalie gave Estermanna handful of ibuprofen for his head and a plate of leftover Turkish takeaway. He swallowed the pain reliever tablets greedily but turned up his nose at the food. He likewise ignored the glass of Bordeaux she placed before him.

“She looks like an Arab,” he said when she was gone.

“She’s from France, actually. She and her parents had to immigrate to Israel to escape the anti-Semitism there.”

“I hear it’s very bad.”

“Almost as bad as Germany.”

“It’s the immigrants who are causing problems, not ethnic Germans.”

“Isn’t it pretty to think so.” Gabriel looked at the untouched wineglass. “Have some. You’ll feel better.”

“Alcohol is forbidden by the Order.” Estermann frowned. “I would have thought you knew that.” He looked down at his plate without enthusiasm. “I wonder if you might have any proper German food.”

“That would be rather difficult, given the fact we are no longer in Germany.”

Estermann adopted a superior smile. “I’ve lived in Munich most of my life. I know how it smells, how it sounds. If I had to guess, we’re in the city center, rather close to the Englischer Garten.”

“Eat your food, Estermann. You’re going to need your strength.”

He wrapped two pieces of grilled lamb in abazlamaflatbread and hesitantly took a first bite.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”