“Because he gave us free will, the possibility of choice. In that lies the only true meaning of salvation.” He held her hands. “Trust in what you believe is right, child, do what you have to do. You have my blessing as always.”
She kissed his forehead. “I must go. I’ll see you soon.”
She went out. He sat staring at the door, then started to pray for her.
TEN
The ambulance was parked in the street, Brown’s black Escort behind it, and he stood beside it. As she came out of the gate of the small garden in front of her grandfather’s house, she had to pass the Escort and the ambulance to get to her Mini car. Brown knocked on the rear doors of the ambulance and spoke to her at the same time.
“Detective Inspector Bernstein?”
She paused instinctively, turning toward him. “Yes, who are you?”
The doors of the ambulance opened and Moshe jumped down, grabbed her arm, and pulled her between the doors. Aaron reached down and lifted her inside. Moshe followed and produced a pistol with a silencer.
“Now be good, Chief Inspector. If he had to shoot you, no one would hear a thing.” Aaron took her handbag, opened it, and removed her Walther. “I’ll look after this.”
“Who are you?”
“Jews like you, Chief Inspector, and proud of it.”
“Maccabees?”
“You are well informed. Wrists, please.” He cuffed them in front of her with plastic handcuffs. “Now behave yourself.”
He got out and closed the doors. Brown said, “I’ll be right behind. I’ll join you in Dorking.”
“Let’s get moving, then,” Aaron told him, and he got behind the wheel and drove away.
Moshe said, “You want a cigarette?”
“I don’t smoke,” she said in Hebrew.
He smiled delightedly and replied in kind. “But of course, I should have known.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“You’ll never get away with it.”
“I’m ashamed of you, Chief Inspector, that’s just a line from a bad movie. We are Maccabees, as Dillon must have told you. We can do anything. We kidnapped the President’s daughter. We kidnapped Dillon and where is he now? On a slab in a Washington morgue.”
“So you animals did that, too? I wasn’t sure, now I know. How do you justify that?”
“He served his purpose, but Dillon was the kind of man who could have become a serious liability.”
“You had him murdered?”
“Sometimes the end does justify the means and our cause is just. More important than the life of a man like Dillon.”
“That sounds familiar.” Hannah nodded. “Ah, yes, Hermann Göring, nineteen thirty-eight. Don’t let’s get upset over the deaths of a few Jews, that’s what he said.”
Moshe was pale and the pistol trembled in his hand. “Shut your mouth!”
“Gladly. Actually, I’d rather not talk to you at all,” Hannah Bernstein told him.
• • •
In his office, Ferguson checked his watch. It was just after five and no sign of Hannah yet. At that moment, his phone rang and he switched on the Codex. “Ferguson.”
“It’s me,” Dillon said. “Just hit Farley Field. Thanks for the RAF Range Rover.”
“Straight down to the Ministry,” Ferguson told him. “So much traffic in and out of our garage, you’ll be swallowed up.”
“No one would recognize me, anyway.”
“One good thing. No directional microphones in here. I’ve had a fresh detection outfit brought in so we’re secure.”
“All except for our computer system,” Dillon said. “See you soon.”
Aaron reached Dorking within half an hour and pulled into the parking lot of a huge supermarket crammed with vehicles. Brown parked his car and came round and Aaron leaned out.
“Okay, you get in the back. Afterwards, drive back here in the ambulance, dump it, and clear off in your own car.”
“Fine.”
Brown went round, opened the rear door and climbed in, closing it behind him. Hannah looked him over as the ambulance drove away, and a kind of realization dawned. “Well, now, you wouldn’t be George Brown by any chance?”
Brown was put out. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, an informed guess. Put it down to twelve years as a copper. One develops a nose for these things.”