She had called the man she knew as Saul from a payphone after landing in Tel Aviv that morning, and he had not missed a beat at hearing her voice. It was difficult to surprise a man who had sent as many people to their deaths as he had. He had simply set the time and place of their meeting as he always had, using the old code words she knew so well. She had suggested a different spot, using the code word for the café in her old neighborhood and he had agreed, then they had hung up.

“You disappeared, ’yala, I assumed you would be living in wedded bliss by now.” he smiled, his broad bearded face and wise eyes full of genuine affection, despite the lie he had just told.

“You know as well as I that I never got what I went to find in America, old friend.” she looked at him with pensive eyes, but they were not as sad as he would have expected given that his reports on her told him that her relationship with Barrett had failed. He had been faced with the potential for having to order her termination after her retirement from the service. He knew her well and he had been relatively sure that she would confess her true job in Israel to Barrett once she had retired. But despite that fact, Saul also knew that the Ayala he knew would never tell the man any details, or betray any of her colleagues. This fact, combined with the fact that he also knew from the agency’s extensive file on her unsuspecting husband that he was not a threat to them had led him to let her go in peace.

He had let her live as a reward for thirty years of unfailing service to Israel. It had been a rare concession on his part.

But now here she was, standing in front of him. And she had a secret in her eyes, one he knew she was not going to tell him. Well, ’yala, he thought, let’s see what you have come for. What do you know that you want me to know, and, more importantly, what do you know that you do not want me to know.