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IT WAS LUNCHTIME, Don Orsati’s favorite time of the day. They adjourned to the terrace outside his office and sat at a table laid with mounds of Corsican bread, cheese, vegetables, and sausage. The sun was bright, and through a gap in the laricio pine Gabriel could glimpse the sea shimmering blue-green in the distance. The savor of the macchia was everywhere. It hung on the cool air and rose from the food; even Orsati seemed to radiate it. He dumped several inches of bloodred wine into Gabriel’s glass and then set about hacking off several slices of the dense Corsican sausage. Gabriel didn’t inquire about the source of the meat. As Shamron liked to say, sometimes it was better not to ask.
“I’m glad we didn’t kill you,” Orsati said, raising his wineglass a fraction of an inch.
“I can assure you, Don Orsati, the feeling is mutual.”
“More sausage?”
“Please.”
Orsati carved off two more thick slabs and deposited them on Gabriel’s plate. Then he slipped on a pair of half-moon reading glasses and examined the photograph of the man from Les Palmiers. “He looks different in this picture,” he said after a moment, “but it’s definitely him.”
“What’s different?”
“The way he’s wearing his hair. When he came to see me, it was oiled and combed close to the scalp. It was subtle,” Orsati added, “but very effective.”
“Did he have a name?”
“He called himself Paul.”
“Last name?”
“For all I know, that was his last name.”
“What language did our friend Paul speak?”
“French.”
“Local?”
“No, he had an accent.”
“What kind?”
“I couldn’t place it,” the don said, furrowing his heavy brow. “It was as if he learned his French from a tape recorder. It was perfect. But at the same time it wasn’t quite right.”
“I assume he didn’t find your name in the telephone book.”
“No, Allon, he had a reference.”
“What sort of reference?”
“A name.”
“Someone who hired you in the past.”
“That’s the usual kind.”
“What kind of job was it?”
“The kind where two men enter a room and only one man comes out. And don’t bother asking me the name of the reference,” Orsati added quickly. “We’re talking about my business.”
With a slight inclination of his head, Gabriel indicated he had no desire to pursue the matter further, at least for the moment. Then he asked the don why the man had come to see him.
“Advice,” answered Orsati.
“About what?”
“He told me he had some product to move. He said he needed someone with a fast boat. Someone who knew the local waters and could move at night. Someone who knew how to keep his mouth shut.”
“Product?”
“This might surprise you, but he didn’t go into specifics.”
“You assumed he was a smuggler,” said Gabriel, more a statement of fact than a question.
“Corsica is a major transit point for heroin moving from the Middle East into Europe. For the record,” the don added quickly, “the Orsatis do not deal in narcotics, though, on occasion, we have been known to eliminate prominent members of the trade.”
“For a fee, of course.”
“The bigger the player, the bigger the fee.”
“Were you able to accommodate him?”
“Of course,” the don said. Then, lowering his voice, he added, “Sometimes we have to move things at night ourselves, Allon.”
“Things like dead bodies?”
The don shrugged. “They are an unfortunate byproduct of our business,” he said philosophically. “Usually, we try to leave them where they fall. But sometimes the clients pay a bit extra to make them disappear forever. Our preferred method is to put them into concrete coffins and send them to the bottom of the sea. Only God knows how many are down there.”
“How much did Paul pay?”
“A hundred thousand.”
“What was the split?”
“Half for me, half for the man with the boat.”
“Only half?”
“He’s lucky I gave him that much.”
“And when you heard the English girl had gone missing?”
“Obviously, I was suspicious. And when I saw Paul’s picture in the newspapers …” The don’s voice trailed off. “Let’s just say I wasn’t pleased. The last thing I need is trouble. It’s bad for business.”
“You draw the line at kidnapping young women?”
“I suspect you do, too.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“I meant no offense,” the don said genuinely.
“None taken, Don Orsati.”
The don loaded his plate with roasted peppers and eggplant and doused them in Orsati olive oil. Gabriel drank some of the wine, paid a compliment to the don, and then asked for the name of the man with the fast boat who knew the local waters. He did so as if it were the furthest thing from his thoughts.
“We’re getting into sensitive territory,” replied Orsati. “I do business with these people all the time. If they ever find out I betrayed them to someone like you, things would get messy, Allon.”
“I can assure you, Don Orsati, they will never know how I obtained the information.”
Orsati appeared unconvinced. “Why is this girl so important that the great Gabriel Allon is looking for her?”
“Let’s just say she has powerful friends.”
“Friends?” Orsati shook his head
