Shamron thought: Poor little Lev. He has no idea who he’s fucking with.

“Zev Eliyahu was a personal friend of mine,” the prime minister said as Shamron took his seat. “Who did this to him?”

He poured coffee and slid the cup across the desk, his placid brown eyes fixed on Shamron. As usual Shamron had the feeling he was being contemplated by a sheep.

“I can’t say for certain, but I suspect it may have been Tariq.”

Just Tariq. No last name. None necessary. His résumé was engraved on Shamron’s brain. Tariq al-Hourani, son of a village elder from the Upper Galilee, born and raised in a refugee camp outside Sidon in southern Lebanon, educated in Beirut and Europe. His older brother had been a member of Black September, assassinated by a special unit led by Shamron himself. Tariq had dedicated his life to avenging his brother’s death. He joined the PLO in Lebanon, fought in the civil war, then accepted a coveted post in Force 17, Yasir Arafat’s personal bodyguard and covert operations unit. During the eighties he had trained extensively behind the Iron Curtain-in East Germany, Romania, and Moscow -and was transferred from Force 17 to the Jihaz el-Razd, the PLO’s intelligence and security apparatus. Eventually he led a special unit whose mission was to wage war on the Israeli secret services and diplomatic personnel. In the early nineties he split with Arafat over his decision to enter into negotiations with Israel and formed a small, tightly knit terror organization dedicated to one end: the destruction of Arafat’s peace process.

Upon hearing Tariq’s name, the prime minister’s eyes flashed, then resumed their calm appraisal of Shamron. “What makes you think it was Tariq who did this?”