Ring of Lies Read Online Free

see you.”
    He heard her deep breathing. “It’s not such a good idea . . .”
    His heart dropped.
    â€œA quick visit, just to see you.”
    She took a deep breath. “I still need to be alone . . .”
    Through the phone, he heard a door close and footsteps going down stairs.
    The long silence was discomfiting. Suddenly he saw her, and his breath caught in his throat.
    She was walking alongside a red mountain bike, the phone was at her ear, and her face was gaunt and sad. She didn’t appear to have seen him.
    â€œI love you, little girl . . .”
    â€œI know . . .”
    He wanted to cry but couldn’t. He yearned to open the car door and run to her, but his body stayed glued to the seat.
    She disappeared behind a wall of cypress trees.
    â€œLater, Dad.” She hung up.
    â€œYes, later,” he said to the air, and leaned his head back.
    With her uncompromising gentleness, she had driven a wedge between them.
    He waited to be sure their paths wouldn’t cross, and then he sped back down the winding road, his teeth clenched.

BERLIN, GERMANY | 14:48
    The weather along the short flight path from Florence to Berlin was turbulent. The plane bobbed like an empty bottle in a stormy sea.
    Reuven called on the secure satphone. “Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan called a press conference and demanded that Israel apologize to Turkey and Iran for its crimes. He announced that he’s ordered the expulsion of our consular staff from Ankara. Are you in Berlin yet?”
    â€œSoon.”
    â€œWe found a lawyer to represent Galia, but the Turks won’t let him see her in the hospital. He believes he’s been hired by a Dutch human rights organization. The Turkish media reported that soldiers from the Turkish antiterrorism squad are guarding the hospital. We managed to get a photo of her medical report. It’s blank. They didn’t even record her temperature or blood pressure.”
    Alex felt as if someone was hammering a nail into his head.
    â€œWe’re fucked, Reuven.”
    The chief was silent.
    â€œI’ll get whatever I can out of Justus,” Alex said. “I’ll see you in the office tonight and think about what to do.”
    Reuven still said nothing.
    Keep silent, deny, ignore. In retrospect, sending a Mossad team into the heart of a country as problematic as Turkey hadbeen a big mistake, even despite the valuable intel that General Karabashi had given them.
    Reuven hung up.
    Now the PM and Reuven were going to hide themselves behind the defensive shield known as “no comment.” No admission of guilt—no responsibility. And with no responsibility, they could keep their jobs.
    Though he was exhausted from the sleepless night, he was too upset to doze on the plane. His thoughts went to Galia, her isolation, her distress, her pain. He tried to remember whether Turkey had capital punishment.
    The growing pressure in his ears interrupted the mounting anxiety of his thoughts. The pilot descended, landing at Tegel Airport.
    He usually managed to avoid Berlin. He’d had to go there twice. First in the early ’80s, on the hunting expedition where he met Jane. The second time was about two years ago, when he’d spent only a few hours there.
    Alex disembarked from the plane on shaky legs.
    A limousine whisked him to the modern terminal. A stone-cold voice announced the last call for a flight to Moscow. A chill went through his body. The guttural sound of German filled his mouth with a metallic taste.
    The rubber stamp came down on his forged passport.
    A taxi took him into the most scarred city in the world.
    Here the Third Reich was born, and here Kristallnacht took place. Here blood-soaked World War II was launched, and the final solution to Europe’s Jewish problem was plotted. Here an empire was created and then razed to the ground. Here Adolf Hitler flourished and then took his life. Here the dividing wallbetween the East