“So what are you saying?”

“That you need backup, my fine Irish friend, and here I am.”

“It’s not your kind of game.”

“Two tours in Vietnam, Dillon, and I’ve killed a few times in the FBI. It’s beyond argument.” Blake turned to Ferguson. “Tell him, Brigadier.”

Ferguson smiled. “Frankly, I rather took it for granted. I even brought a jump suit and flak jacket for myself.”

“Now I know the world’s gone mad,” Dillon said.

“Yes, on reflection, I’ll stay with the boat. Useful, that flak jacket, though, if we come under fire, but I’m hungry. Sergeant Kersey!”

Kersey came through from the galley. “General?”

“I keep telling you, it’s Brigadier in the British Army. I don’t know what these two want, but I’d like tea, toast, and marmalade. I’m just in the mood.”

“Coming right up, General,” Kersey said deliberately and returned to the galley smiling.

In his study, Colonel Dan Levy, also known as Judas, was standing at the window looking out, an unlit cigar in his mouth, when there was a knock at the door and they all came in, led by Aaron, and stood in a semicircle.

Levy turned to face them. “Good morning, gentlemen.”

“Colonel.” Aaron nodded. “You sent for us.”

“The operation is obviously at a critical point. The President has to make the decision to sign Nemesis day after tomorrow.”

It was David Braun who spoke. “Colonel, do you really think he will?”

“I don’t know. The one thing I’m certain of is that I will surely execute his daughter if he does not. My mind is fixed on that.” He looked hard, incredibly determined. “Is there anyone here who doubts that?”

He looked from one to another searchingly. “Is there anyone here who doubts the cause we fight for?”

It was Aaron who spoke. “Of course not. We’re with you to the end. Whatever it takes.”

“Good. So, the next forty-eight hours is critical. How are the women, David?” he asked Braun.

“I took the Bernstein woman back to her own room for the night.”

Levy cut in. “Not the Bernstein woman, David. Give her the proper title. Personally, I admire her greatly. They could do with her in the Jerusalem Criminal Investigations Department.”

David Braun looked uncomfortable. “I took the Chief Inspector back to her own room for the night. I haven’t taken her to join the countess yet because I was leaving breakfast until after this meeting.”

“Give them anything they want.” He laughed harshly. “A champagne breakfast. Why not?”

“Any further orders, Colonel?” Aaron asked.

“Not that I can think of. Frankly, we have nothing to worry about. As I’ve told you before, I have eyes and ears everywhere. Navy Seals are not going to attack us, gentlemen, Special Forces are not going to parachute in, and not just because they don’t know where we are, but because the President of the United States knows that if he made one move, his daughter would die on the instant. Isn’t that so, Aaron?”

“Of course, Colonel.”

“So simple it’s a work of genius,” and Levy threw back his head and laughed. “Come to think of it, I am a genius,” and his eyes glistened.

They shifted uncomfortably and Aaron said, “We’ll get moving then, sir.”

“Good. Usual two prowler guards tonight in the grounds. Two hours on, four hours off. Dismissed, gentlemen.”

Once outside, Moshe, Raphael, and Arnold moved away, leaving David Braun with Aaron. Braun was agitated, and Aaron said, “Have you got a problem?”

“For the first time, I’m beginning to think he’s mad. Maybe some of that Sinai sun got into his brain.”

“Let him hear you talk like that and you’re dead, you fool. Now pull yourself together and get their breakfast.”

Braun got Hannah from her room and took her along the corridor. “I hope you slept well?”

“You don’t give a damn whether I slept well or not, so why pretend?”

He unlocked the door to Marie de Brissac’s room and ushered Hannah in. “I’ll have breakfast ready in a little while.”

Marie came out of the bathroom. “What was that?”

“Just Braun. He’s gone to get breakfast.”

“He’s late this morning. I wonder why?”

Hannah went to the window and peered through the bars. There was a fishing boat passing by not too far from the bay. “Now if only it was flying the flag of its country, we’d know where we were. Roughly.” Hannah laughed.

Marie gestured to her easel. “What do you think?” The charcoal sketch was fleshed out in color now and was quite excellent. “Watercolors wouldn’t have been right, so I had to use crayon.”

“It’s marvelous,” Hannah said. “Can I have it? I’d love to have it framed.”

In the same moment, realizing what she’d said, she burst out laughing. “Well, that’s optimistic, anyway,” Marie told her.

Ten minutes later, the door opened and Braun pushed the trolley in. “Scrambled eggs and sausages this morning.”

“Are they kosher?” Hannah asked.

“Oh, we take what we can get.” He lifted the cover of a dish. “The bread is locally baked and the honey is local, too. Coffee is in the thermos flask.”

“And the champagne?” Marie asked and took the bottle from the ice bucket. “Whose idea is this, Judas’s?”

Braun shifted uncomfortably. “Well, yes, he thought it might cheer you up.”

“The condemned man ate a hearty breakfast?” Hannah put in.

“Very hearty if he had this to go with it,” Marie said. “Louis Roederer Cristal, nineteen eighty-nine. Judas has taste, I’ll say that for him. Mad, of course, but tasteful.”

“He’s a great man,” Braun burst out. “In the Yom Kippur War, when the Egyptians took us by surprise, Judas was in command of some of the most strategic bunkers, with a hundred men under him. They fought like lions in that burning Sinai heat. When they were relieved, there were only eighteen left alive.”

“A long time ago,” Marie said. “I’d have thought he’d have got over it by now.”

Braun was angry. “Got over what? Arab hatred, the constant attacks by terrorist groups like Hamas? What about Lebanon, and the Gulf, when Iraq targeted us with missiles?”

“All right, we hear you,” Hannah told him.

“No, you don’t, and you a Jew. You should be ashamed. What about Aaron’s brother shot down over Syria and tortured? What of my two sisters, blown to pieces in a student bus?”

He was very agitated and Marie said, “David, calm down, just calm down.”

“And Judas.”

There was a pause and Hannah said softly, “What about him?”

“His mother, his married sister, decent people over from America to spend time with him, killed in a Jerusalem bus station bomb. More than eighty people killed or wounded. This is funny?”

“David, nobody thinks it’s funny,” Marie told him.

He opened the door and turned. “You think I enjoy this, Countess? I like you. I like you a great deal. Isn’t that a huge joke?”

He went out, locking the door, and Hannah said, “Poor boy, I do believe he’s in love with you.”

“Well, it won’t do him any good or me,” Marie said. “But let’s get on with the scrambled eggs, and we might as well open the champagne.”

“Why not?” Hannah said. “You know the story about Louis Roederer Cristal and why it’s the only champagne bottle you can see through?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“It was designed by Tsar Nicholas of Russia. He said he wanted to be able to look at the champagne.”

“And look how he ended up,” Marie de Brissac said and popped the cork.

At that moment the Cretan Lover, Stavros at the wheel, passed Castle Koenig a few miles off shore. Aleko was also in the wheelhouse, Yanni and Dimitri worked at the draped nets. Aaron, on the battlements with Moshe, focused a pair of Zeiss glasses, bringing the boat into sharp focus. He lowered them.

“Just a fishing boat.”

Moshe took the glasses from him and took a look. “The Cretan Lover. Yes, I’ve seen that one tied up in Vitari when I go for supplies.”