She went on. “Afterward, I trailed you back to the hotel, but I was too late. Some of our team had already been through the room. You arrived soon after they’d left. I didn’t have time to get inside. Once, I thought you might have seen me. It was in the woods behind the hotel.”
Jonathan recalled sensing the presence nearby and looking into the tree line, but he’d seen nothing.
Suddenly, he’d had enough. He wasn’t interested in the who, what, and when. It was all just window dressing. He wanted to know why. “What’s this about, Em?” he said quietly. “What are you involved in?”
“The usual,” she replied, never taking her eyes from the road.
“You’re supplying Parvez Jinn with restricted equipment to enrich uranium. That hardly qualifies as the usual.”
“Nothing he wasn’t going to get sooner or later.”
“Don’t act like that.”
“Like what?”
“Cynical. Like you don’t care.”
“It’s because I care that I’m doing what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing? Who do you work for? The CIA? The Brits?”
“The CIA? God no. I’m at Defense. The Pentagon. Something called Division.”
“But Simone said she was with the CIA.”
Emma considered this, brushing her cheek with her fingers. “Really? Actually, I didn’t know about her until today.”
“Why would the CIA want to kill someone who works for the Pentagon? We’re both on the same side, aren’t we?”
“Power. They want it. We have it. The tug of war’s been going on for a couple of years.”
“But I thought you hated the American government.”
A thin smile told him that he was way off base. Another illusion gone.
“So, you’re American?” he asked.
“God, I wanted to wait to get into all of this. It’s so bloody complicated.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Yes, Jonathan, I’m American. If you’re wondering about the accent, it’s real. I grew up outside London. My father was with the U.S. Air Force stationed at Lakenheath.”
“Did he steer you into this?”
“In the beginning, it was because of family, I suppose. Daddy being in the military and all. But I stayed because I’m good at it. Because I’m making a difference for something I believe in. Because I like it. I keep doing it for the same reason that you keep being a doctor. Because our job is who we are and nothing much else matters.”
“Is that why you picked me?”
“At first, yes.”
“You mean something changed?”
“You know what changed. We fell in love.”
“I fell in love,” said Jonathan. “I’m not sure you did.”
Emma looked at him sharply. “I didn’t have to stay with you. No one forced me to marry you.”
“They didn’t stop you, either. Who better to slide you into position for your assignments than a doctor who actually enjoyed serving in hardship posts? What exactly did you do in all those places? Did you kill people? Are you an assassin like that guy you shot back there?”
“Of course not.” Emma dismissed the suggestion as if she’d never fired a gun, let alone shot and killed two human beings within the last thirty minutes.
“What then?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You and Blitz and Hoffmann were selling uranium enrichment equipment to Iran. Jinn believed that you supplied the equipment in order to start a war. He said that we made a mistake going into Iraq without proof that they possessed WMD and that we weren’t going to do it again.”
“Did Parvez say all that? May he roast in hell forever.”
“That’s a nice way to talk about a man you screwed.”
“Fuck you, Jonathan! That’s not fair.”
“Not fair? You lied to me for eight years. You pretended to be my wife. Don’t tell me what’s fair.”
“I am your wife.”
“How can you say that when I don’t even know your name!”
Emma looked away. If he’d been expecting a tear, he was disappointed. Her expression was set in stone.
“Well?” he demanded. “Is it true? Are you trying to start a war?”
“We’re trying to stop one.”
“By handing out nukes?”
“We’re only hastening matters along, so we can control how the situation develops. We supply Iran with the technology they so desperately want now, and then expose their work to the world. It’s about being proactive. We can’t afford to be caught unawares. Not this time. And besides, it won’t be a war. It will strictly be an air campaign.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“Don’t be so damned naïve. Some people can’t be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. If Iran gets them, you can jolly well bet that the really bad boys will have them soon after. That’s all there is to it.”
“And what’s going to happen when they retaliate?”
“With what?” Emma asked. “We gave them the equipment to make a little enriched uranium. Now we’re going to take it away.”
“Jinn said they have cruise missiles. If anyone attacks their enrichment facilities, they won’t hesitate to use them. The president of his country is planning to announce all this to the world next week.”
“Jinn was lying,” said Emma with the same unalloyed confidence, but her face had gone pale. “Iran doesn’t have any cruise missiles.”
“He called them Kh-55’s. He said that they’d come into possession of four of them a year ago and that they’re at their base in Karshun on the Persian Gulf.”
“He was bullshitting you.”
“Can you take that chance? If the United States or Israel bombs Iran, the mullahs in Teheran will turn right around and launch on Jerusalem and the Saudi oil fields. Then what do you think will happen?”
“Christ.” Emma frowned, the muscles in her jaw working furiously. “Kh-55’s? You’re sure of it?”
“You know what they are?”
“The Russians called them the Granat, or pomegranate. They’re long-range subsonic cruise missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. They’re old as sin and the guidance systems are out of date, but they work.”
“Not good,” said Jonathan.
“No, not good at all.” Emma frowned. “He talked about having a surprise for me when I saw him in Davos. Double-dealer.”
Jonathan saw that he’d struck a nerve. “If you’re so sure of yourself, why did you have to disappear?”
“Sure of myself? God, do you really believe that?” Emma looked over at him. “Do you know what a drone is?”
“More or less. One of those remote-controlled planes that fly around forever taking pictures. I know they can fire missiles, too.”
“There’s one in Switzerland now being readied for an attack. I wasn’t supposed to know about it, but Blitz let it slip. He was my controller, the only one who was allowed to see the whole picture. He said it was going to be the most important thing we’d ever done. It was the boss’s personal mission.”
“You mean, it’s you guys-it’s Division-that’s planning on taking someone out with it?”
“Not someone. Something. A passenger jet.”
“They’re going to shoot it down here? In Switzerland? My God, Emma, we’ve got to tell the police.”
“They already know. At least, some of it. The man who tried to stop you back there in Davos is running the investigation. His name is Marcus von Daniken. He heads up the Service for Analysis and Prevention, the Swiss counterespionage service. He’s convinced that you’re masterminding the plot.”
“Me?”
“Essentially, it boils down to the fact that von Daniken believes that you are me.”
“Because I was at Blitz’s house?”
“Among other things, yes. You were smart not to go to the police. You’d have spent the rest of your life in jail. Killing the policemen was the least of it. You knew too much about Thor…about Division. We have friends who would have seen to it. Anyway, that’s why I had to disappear. I decided that I have to stop this whole thing. I have enough blood on my hands, but until now, it’s never come from innocents.”