To tell you the truth...
Gabriel wondered if she were even capable, or whether she knew the truth from a lie.
She sat down at the edge of her cot, with her knees together and her feet flat on the concrete floor. She wore fur-lined suede moccasins with no laces. There was nothing in the cell she might use to harm herself. It seemed a needless precaution to Gabriel. The Rebecca Manning he had encountered on the banks of the Potomac was not the suicidal type.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t come,” she said.
“Why?” asked Gabriel candidly.
“Because I would have killed you that day were it not for—”
“I admire your honesty,” said Gabriel, cutting her off.
She smiled at the absurdity of his remark. “It doesn’t bother you?”
“To meet with someone who once tried to kill me?”
“Yes.”
“I seem to make a habit of it.”
“You have many enemies in Moscow,” she pointed out.
“More now than ever, I suspect.”
“Perhaps I’ll be able to temper the SVR’s opinion of you when I take up my new post at Moscow Center.”
“I won’t hold my breath.”
“Don’t.” She smiled without parting her lips. Perhaps Gabriel had been wrong about her. Perhaps she belonged in a cage. “Actually,” she continued, “I doubt I’ll be dealing much with the Middle East. The Great Britain desk is the most natural place for me.”
“All the more reason why your government shouldn’t even consider handing over a traitor like you.”
“It’s notmygovernment, and I’m not a traitor. I’m an agent of penetration. It’s not my fault the British were foolish enough to hire me and then promote me up the line to H/Washington.”
Feigning boredom, Gabriel pondered his wristwatch. “Graham said there was something you wanted to discuss with me.”
She frowned. “You disappoint me, Monsieur Allon. Is there really nothing you wish to ask me?”
“What would be the point? You’d only lie.”
“It might be worth a try, no? Going once,” she said provocatively. “Twice...”
“Heathcliff,” said Gabriel.
She pouted. “Poor Heathcliff.”
“I suppose you were the one who betrayed him.”
“Not by name, of course. I never knew it. But Moscow Center used my reports to identify him.”
“And the address of the safe flat?”
“That came directly from me.”
“Who told you?”
“Who do you think?”
