Lotte Muller followed him inside while Sarah stayed by the car. ‘Put it there.’ She pointed to a corner, close to a rubbish bin, which is where she would have preferred him to deposit it.
He dropped the carpet where he was told, raising a cloud of dust.
‘I have a favour to beg.’
She stared at him, her patience beginning to wear thin. ‘The Herren is through there on the left.’
‘Not that kind of favour.’
They drove south until they picked up the autobahn close to Nordhausen and Jamie turned east, following the signs for Halle and Leipzig. The atmosphere in the car was like a physical barrier between them. He deliberately kept his eyes on the road, but he could feel her anger building as if it was the heat from an open fire. It couldn’t go on. There were things that had to be said and there might not be another chance to say them. He pulled off the motorway at the next turn-off and drew in to a car park overlooking a series of man-made lakes. He got out of the car and waited until she followed. They stared out over the nearest lake, avoiding each other’s eyes. When Sarah eventually spoke her words were an explosive mix of pain and suppressed fury. ‘What the fuck is going on, Jamie? When are you going to tell me what the hell you found in that bunker?’
‘I’m not certain yet.’
‘Then where the fuck are we going?’
‘South.’
‘I have eyes. I can see that.’
‘I need you to trust me.’
‘You what?’
‘I need you to trust me . . . and I need to know exactly what’s going on.’
She turned to stare at him and now the anger had been replaced by something else, but he couldn’t read what it was. ‘Who do you think you are, Jamie Saintclair? Haven’t I trusted you every day since we goddam met? I thought we were partners? I thought we were more than partners.’
‘We are.’
‘Partners don’t hide things from each other. People who love each other don’t hide things from each other.’
There it was. The first time either had dared to mention love, even though its presence had grown so powerful it had sometimes threatened to suffocate them. It took all his resolve not to surrender. ‘No, they don’t, Sarah, and that’s why I need you to tell me the truth. The time for games is past. If I’m going to save our lives I have to know everything.’ He knew he’d won when the first tear rolled down the velvet of her cheek.
When she spoke it was as if each word was being torn from her. ‘First I was to follow you. Then they wanted me to get close to you. When you fell under that train I thought it was over before it had begun, but it gave me my chance.’
‘Who is they?’
She hesitated, reluctant to take the next irrevocable step. ‘Israeli intelligence. My controller. I don’t know how, but they somehow learned about the Sun Stone and the link to Walter Brohm. My family is Jewish and I spent a year in Tel Aviv doing my Masters degree. They were on the lookout for people with backgrounds like mine. That’s where I was recruited.’
He’d known, or at least he’d suspected. All those handy little criminal skills. The way she handled a gun so expertly. He remembered the meeting in the Kensington pub. Simon’s ever so cooperative friend. ‘Is David your controller?’
She sniffed. ‘That’s one of the names he uses.’
‘So it was all just part of the job, getting close to me and the rest of it? You played me for a sucker and I fell for those big brown eyes of yours. Dumb old Jamie Saintclair rolled over to have his tummy tickled whenever Sarah Grant smiled. Jesus, you must have had some laughs.’
‘No.’ She shook head so hard he felt her tears on his face. ‘Not the rest of it. That was my choice. You have to believe me, Jamie. What happened between us mattered. Don’t taint it by thinking it had anything to do with them. I tried to stop this. I tried to get you to turn back, but you were too damn stubborn.’ He wanted to reach out to her, but it wasn’t yet time.
‘And then?’
‘We had a team close by all the time. They were to provide protection and as soon as we’d located the Sun Stone I was to call them in.’
His laugh was short and sour. ‘Protection? Your Mossad geniuses didn’t make much of a job of it. Where the hell were they while we were dodging bullets in the Harz?’
‘My phone, I was supposed to contact them . . .’ She swallowed and took a deep breath. ‘So now you know . . . everything.’
The unspoken question hung between them. He answered it by taking her in his arms and kissing her eyes, tasting the tart salt of her tears.