“I have to take this to the prime minister,” he said.

“Is it really necessary to involve the politicians?”

“Only if I want to keep my job,” Mortensen snapped. “Assuming the prime minister grants his approval—and I have no reason to think he won’t, given our past cooperation with your government—I want to be present tonight when Fawaz calls.”

“It’s likely to be unpleasant.”

“We Danes are tough people, Mr. Carter. I think I can handle it.”

“Then we would be pleased to have you there.”

“And tell your friend Allon to keep his Beretta in his holster. I don’t want any dead bodies turning up. If anyone dies anywhere in the country tonight, he’ll be our top suspect.”

“I’ll tell him,” said Carter.

The curiosity returned to Mortensen’s eyes. “What’s he like?”

“Allon?”

Mortensen nodded.

“He’s a rather serious chap and a bit rough around the edges.”

“They all are,” said Mortensen.

“Yes,” said Carter. “But, then, who can blame them?”

There are few ugly buildings in central Copenhagen. The glass-and-steel structure on the Dag Hammarskjölds Allé that houses the American embassy is one of them. The CIA station there is small and somewhat cramped—Copenhagen was an intelligence backwater during the Cold War and remains so today—but its secure conference room seats twenty comfortably, and its electronics are fully up-to-date. Carter thought they needed a code name, and Gabriel, after a brief deliberation, suggested Moriah, the hill in Jerusalem where God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Carter, whose father was an Episcopal minister, thought the choice inspired, and from that point forward they were referred to in all Agency communications as the Moriah Team and nothing else.

Ibrahim Fawaz arrived from Amsterdam at six that evening, accompanied by Oded and Yaakov. Lars Mortensen appeared at 6:15 and accepted Gabriel’s act of contrition for the sin of failing to obtain Danish authorization before barging onto Danish soil. Gabriel then requested permission for the rest of his team to remain in Denmark to see the operation through, and Mortensen, clearly starstruck to be in the presence of the legend, immediately agreed. Mordecai and Sarah joined them after breaking camp at the Hotel d’Angleterre, while Eli Lavon came gratefully in from the cold of Nørrebro, looking like a man who had been on near-constant surveillance duty for more than a week.