“Let’s do this in an orderly fashion,” Michael said. “You’ve all received a copy of Ya’ara’s report. Now let’s see what we’ve learned. Adi?”
“Okay, here goes,” Adi began. “In the late 1980s and early nineties, the KGB was running a top-level Israeli agent code-named Cobra. He may still be active today, but that we don’t know.
“Cobra’s handler went by the name of Brian Cox—or rather, he used a Canadian passport in that name for his trips to Israel to meet with and brief Cobra. The name in all likelihood isn’t his real one or even the name under which he lives or operates in the framework of his permanent cover, since Katrina told Ya’ara that after arriving in Europe they’d receive new passports with which to travel to Israel for their mission. Brian Cox is a Russian KGB officer who is living deep undercover in the United States. He has the ability to pass himself off as an American for all intents and purposes. He lived at the time in a region of the United States in which the Christmas period is cold and snowy. He may still be living there today. My guess is that he lived on the East Coast, but that’s just a gut feeling. There are several other cold and snowy places in America, but not with renowned schools. So we’re probably looking for a professor of ancient history, of the Near East perhaps, maybe even of art history, at a prestigious university in the eastern United States.
“Cobra in the late 1980s was probably in his thirties, or early forties perhaps. Average height, slim, straight dark hair. Katrina’s description. It doesn’t tell us much. It could fit thousands of people.”
“Cobra has a birthday in late January or early February,” Ya’ara added. “And we know that he traveled at least once to Geneva, Switzerland, to meet with his handlers.”
“Cobra was in Geneva in late March or early April of 1989,” Adi said.
“How do we know that?” Michael asked.
“According to Hagar, Igor Abramovich traveled abroad just twice after immigrating to Israel,” Adi responded. “Once with his wife to Cyprus, and once, in the late 1980s, to Germany. That second trip corresponds with the time and place of Brian Cox’s series of meetings with Cobra in Geneva. Katrina met up with Igor in Heidelberg, Germany, immediately after Geneva. I found Igor’s passport in one of the boxes Ya’ara received from his daughter. Based on the stamps, he left Israel and entered Germany on April 5, 1989. He returned to Israel a week later, on April 12. The meetings with Cobra took place just before then, either at the end of March or the beginning of April 1989.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes,” said Ya’ara. “I think the feelings Katrina displayed to me were authentic. I think that she really tried through me to touch on that deep love she shared with Igor Abramovich. It appears in the operational report. Katrina knew from the very first moment that I wasn’t who I had said I was. She knew right away that I wasn’t Igor’s daughter. She even said so in no uncertain terms.”
“And what does that tell you, Ya’ara?” Michael asked, as if to test her.
“That we were lucky. Katrina had her own reasons for speaking to me—revenge or anger, perhaps a desire to make amends. In any event, I think it tells us that we’re in a race against time. At some point, very soon, the Russians will learn that we’re after their man. It could already be happening as we speak. I’m not saying that Katrina is going to speak to someone about me, about us. But she herself knows. It’s like the gun in Chekhov’s play. It has already appeared and will be fired in one of the coming acts.”
“I can see that your theater studies have had an effect on you,” Aharon remarked dryly, and Ya’ara remained silent, choosing not to remind him that she was studying film. “But you do have a point.”
“And don’t forget the black car that showed up in operational mode to stake out Katrina’s residence,” Aslan said. “That only reinforces what Ya’ara’s been saying. Although we did manage to leave Russia without any problems, making sure, too, that no one was on our tail. Sticking to our cover story, we went on to Kazan and then returned to Moscow. We checked ourselves in both cities and we were clean. It may take them a while to check all the facts, Katrina may not be helping them, things may move slowly there. But if they have started to sniff around, they’ll realize eventually that something is going on. If they’re still in contact with Cobra, they may warn him. We need to move fast.”
“So what are we doing now?” Michael asked, his gaze taking in the full team.
“I’m making progress with the database of potential suspects,” Adi said. “Theoretically, we can now start checking the names against dates of birth. Late January, early February; I’d say from January 15 to February 15, 1950, through to 1960. Remember, Cobra, according to Katrina, was thirty to forty years old in the late 1980s. We can also check who left the country during the two weeks leading up to April 5, 1989. After all, we know Cobra was in Switzerland at that time.”
“What do you mean by being able to start running the check in theory? Why only theoretically?”
“Only theoretically because we don’t have access to the Interior Ministry computers. We’re undercover, remember?”
“It may be less theoretical than it appears,” Amir said. “I have a friend, not really a friend, more like a contact, at the Interior Ministry. He’ll do my bidding, or he’ll try to at least. After all, we’re two Tiberias boys who served together in the army in a support company.” He smiled.
“Excellent, excellent,” Aharon Levin declared, appearing to suddenly shake himself from another world somewhere. “Very important. And I think the time has come for a short trip to the U.S. The American side to the story is critical. We have to try to get to this professor, Cobra’s handler. This Brian Cox guy. Maybe the CIA has a lead that’s linked to our case. I’ll meet with Bill and we’ll take it from there.”
“Who’s Bill?”
“It’s a long story. A single evening wouldn’t nearly suffice to tell it all. In short, however, Bill is William Ahab Pemberton. He was the CIA’s station chief in Moscow in the 1990s. He served for more than a decade at one station—unprecedented. He subsequently served in other positions, including as head of the Psychological Warfare Unit. His final post was head of the Russia Division at CIA headquarters. He retired just a few months ago. He was rumored to be too old and too extreme for some people’s tastes. A somewhat strange man, an odd man for sure. A fanatic, belligerent. Very devout, American style. A confirmed bachelor. Interested only in his agents. And ancient religious texts. A self-taught aficionado, but very knowledgeable on the subject, and a real expert in early Christianity. That may also have been something that connected him to us. Anyway, we ended up working together on several occasions. He had a great deal of interest in a certain contact of mine in the Soviet Union. We spent many nights in each other’s company, the two of us and a bottle of Wild Turkey, of which nothing much remained come morning. The Soviet Union fascinated him, but he was strictly a bourbon man when it came to alcohol, not vodka. Yes, we need to meet with him as soon as possible. Ya’ara and Michael, I want you to come with me.”
They nodded, their faces serious.
“And Amir. Find out if your contact can run a check on the list of names Adi’s compiling. How many do you have so far?”
“Several hundred. It’s a shot in the dark. I’m trying to draw up a list of people who could fit the definition of a top-level asset in Israel. It’s a list, actually, of officeholders. I’m then adding the particulars I find on the Net. It’s pretty disheartening, to be honest. I have no idea of my chances of coming up with a hit. Cobra, after all, could also be an aide to an aide of someone on the list. And if so, he won’t even show up on the list at all.”