“You just bought yourself one more hour, Ari.”

Shamron turned to Chiara. “Can you get those documents to Gabriel securely?”

“No problem.”

THE E-MAIL and supporting documentation were five pages in length. The computer technicians converted them to an encrypted PDF file and fired it to Gabriel over the secure link. It arrived on his computer at the Métropole at 7:05 local time, accompanied by the number for Ulrich Müller’s mobile phone and his private e-mail address. Locating them had not been difficult. Both appeared hundreds of times in the memory of Martin’s Nokia N900. Gabriel quickly prepared an e-mail to Müller with two PDF attachments and dialed his number. There was no answer. Gabriel killed the connection and dialed again.

ULRICH MÜLLER was driving past the floodlit Gstaad Palace Hotel when his mobile rang for the first time. Because he did not recognize the number, he did not answer. When the phone immediately rang a second time, he felt he had no choice. He tapped the CALL button and lifted the phone to his ear.

“Ja?”

“Good morning, Ulrich.”

“Who is this?”

“Don’t you recognize my voice?”

Müller did. He’d heard it on the surveillance tapes from Amsterdam and Mendoza.

“How did you get this number?” he asked.

“Are you driving, Ulrich? It sounds to me as if you’re behind the wheel of a car.”

“What do you want, Allon?”

“I want you to pull over, Ulrich. There’s something you need to see.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to send you an e-mail, Ulrich. I want you to look at it carefully. Then I want you to call me back at this number.” A pause. “Did your phone capture this number?”

“I have it.”

“Good. After you look at the e-mail, call me back. Right away. Otherwise, the next calls I make are to the Swiss Federal Police and the DAP.”

“Don’t you need my e-mail address, Allon?”

“No, Ulrich, I already have it.”

The connection went dead. Müller pulled to the side of the road. Thirty seconds later, the e-mail came through.

Shit…

MÜLLER DIALED. Gabriel answered right away.

“Interesting stuff, don’t you think, Ulrich?”

“I don’t know what any of this means.”

“Nice try. But before we go any further, I want to know whether my people are alive.”

“Your people are fine.”

“Where are they?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

“Everything is my concern, Ulrich.”

“They’re in my custody.”

“Have they been mistreated?”

“They committed a serious crime in Martin Landesmann’s home last night. They’ve been treated accordingly.”

“If they’ve been harmed in any way, I’m going to hold you personally responsible. And your boss.”

“Mr. Landesmann knows nothing about this.”

“That’s very admirable of you to try to take the blame for your employer, but it’s not going to work, Ulrich. Not today.”

“What do you want?”