“Not much. The fuel tank exploded, and the fire consumed just about everything, including the bodies, I’m afraid.”

“How did he get away?”

“He hopped on the back of a motorcycle. Gone in a matter of seconds.”

“Any sign of him?”

“Nothing, boss.”

“Any leads?”

“If there are any, the Paris police aren’t sharing them with me.”

“What about the other members of the team?”

“Gone too. They were good, boss. Damned good.”

“Who’s the dead girl?”

“An American.”

Shamron closed his eyes and swore softly. The last thing he needed now was the involvement of the Americans. “Have the Americans been told yet?”

“Half the embassy staff is on the bridge now.”

“Does this girl have a name?”

“Emily Parker.”

“What was she doing in Paris?”

“Apparently she was taking a few months off after graduation.”

“How wonderful. Where was she living?”

“ Montmartre. A team of French detectives is working the neighborhood: poking around, asking questions, trying to pick up anything they can.”

“Have they learned anything interesting?”

“I haven’t heard anything else, boss.”

“Go to Montmartre in the morning. Have a look around for yourself. Ask a few questions. Quietly, Uzi. Maybe someone in her building or in a local café got a look at lover boy.”

“Good idea, boss.”

“And do me one other favor. Take the file photographs of Tariq with you.”

“You think he was behind this?”

“I prefer to keep my options open at this point.”

“Even if they got a look at him, those old photographs won’t be any help. He’s changed his appearance a hundred times since then.”

“Humor me.” Shamron jabbed at the winking green light on the telephone and killed the connection.

It was still dark as Shamron’s Peugeot limousine sped across the coastal plain and rose into the Judean Mountains toward Jerusalem. Shamron removed his spectacles and rubbed the raw red skin beneath his eyes. It had been six months since he had been pulled from retirement and given a simple mission: bring stability to an intelligence service badly damaged by a series of highly publicized operational blunders and personnel scandals. His job was to rebuild morale. Restore the esprit de corps that had characterized the Office in the old days.