“That’s because you’ve been looking in the wrong book,” the President said. “Black raven with lightning in its claws. That’s the 801st Airborne. One of those outfits thrown up from nowhere by the Vietnam War. I took part in a big cleanup operation in the Delta in January of sixty-nine. They were on the left flank.”
“My God!” Teddy said.
“I know,” the President nodded. “Remember what Dillon said? Judas sounded American but denied it. He was lying for obvious reasons. If he served with the 801st, he must be American.”
“You’re damn right he must be an American and you can sure as hell bet, the kind of guy he is, that he was an officer.”
“That makes sense.” The President sat back. “As I recall, they operated out of Fort Lansing. That’s in Pennsylvania. A few of those new airborne units were based there.”
“I’m going to go and check,” Teddy said and made for the door.
The President said, “Just a minute, Teddy. If they’ve got an archives section, which they probably have, you could have a problem if you ask for details of officers who served with the regiment.”
“Somehow I don’t think Judas has his own special Maccabee sitting down there just waiting to see if anyone’s going to make that sort of check, but I’ll be more subtle. Leave it to me.”
Teddy was back within ten minutes. “Yes, they do have an archives setup. I spoke to the curator, a nice lady named Mary Kelly who was just closing up. Twelve airborne units operated out of there. I told her I’m taking time off from the history department at Columbia to do a book on airborne warfare in Vietnam.”
“That’s pretty clever, Teddy, but what in the hell are you looking for?”
“We know he told Dillon his war was the Yom Kippur War. Now that was nineteen seventy-three. He wasn’t in the Six-Day War, which was nineteen sixty-seven. Why not?”
“I take your point.” Cazalet nodded. “Because he was serving in Vietnam.”
“So I’ll check the list of officers serving with the regiment, and I’ll be looking for Jewish officers, naturally.”
“But Teddy, there were a lot of Jewish officers.”
“Sure, my old company commander for one.” Teddy was suddenly impatient and forgot himself. “For Christ’s sake, Jake, it’s better than doing nothing. I can take one of the jets from Andrews in the morning if you’ll authorize it. I’ll be there in no time.”
Jake Cazalet raised a hand defensively. “Okay, Teddy, go with my blessing.” He reached for the Codex phone. “I’ll let Ferguson know.”
Hannah Bernstein drifted up from darkness. The light was very bright from a small chandelier in the vaulted ceiling. The room was paneled in dark wood and seemed very old. The bed enormous. There was dark oak furniture, a large Persian carpet spread across a polished oak floor.
She got to her feet and stood up, swaying a little, then walked to the barred window and looked out. What she saw, although she didn’t realize the fact, was the same view that Marie de Brissac had from her room—the bay, the jetty with the speedboat beside it, the launch on the other side, a night sky bright with stars, moonlight dancing on the water.
The door opened and Aaron entered, followed by David Braun with a tray. “Ah, up and about, Chief Inspector. Coffee for you, nice and black. You’ll feel much better afterwards.”
“Like the last time?”
“I had no option, you know that.”
“Where am I?”
“Don’t be silly. Drink your coffee, then have a shower and you’ll feel much better. The bathroom is through there. This is David, by the way.”
Braun said in Hebrew to Aaron, “Chief Inspector? It’s astonishing.”
Hannah said in the same language, “Go on, get out of here, the both of you.”
He was right about one thing. The coffee helped. She drank two cups, then undressed, went into the bathroom and stood under a cold shower for a good five minutes. She toweled her short hair briskly, then finished it off with the wall-mounted hair dryer.
“All the comforts of home,” she said softly and went back into the bedroom and dressed.