Daniel Silva - The Black Widow

This is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollins Publishers

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2016

Copyright © Daniel Silva 2016

Daniel Silva asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers 2017

Cover photographs © Elisabeth Ansley/Trevillion Images (figure);

© Shutterstock.com(background)

Map designed by Nick Springer

Islamic pattern © DamienGeso/Shutterstock, Inc.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Ebook Edition © JULY 2016 ISBN: 9780007552375

Source ISBN: 9780007552382

Version: 2018-09-24

For Stephen L. Carter, for friendship and faith.

And, as always, for my wife, Jamie, and my children, Lily and Nicholas.

The black flags will come from the East, led by mighty men, with long hair and beards, their surnames taken from their home towns.

—THE HADITH

Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life.

—MURIEL SPARK, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Foreword

Map

Part One

Chapter 1: The Marais, Paris

Chapter 2: Rue de Grenelle, Paris

Chapter 3: Beirut

Chapter 4: Beirut—Tel Aviv

Chapter 5: Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Chapter 6: Ma’ale Hahamisha, Israel

Chapter 7: Ma’ale Hahamisha, Israel

Chapter 8: Narkiss Street, Jerusalem

Chapter 9: The Marais, Paris

Chapter 10: Rue Pavée, Paris

Chapter 11: Amsterdam—Paris

Chapter 12: Paris

Chapter 13: Amman, Jordan

Chapter 14: Gid Headquarters, Amman

Chapter 15: Gid Headquarters, Amman

Chapter 16: Jerusalem

Chapter 17: Jezreel Valley, Israel

Chapter 18: Nahalal, Israel

Chapter 19: Nahalal, Israel

Chapter 20: Nahalal, Israel

Part Two

Chapter 21: Nahalal, Israel

Chapter 22: Nahalal, Israel

Chapter 23: Aubervilliers, France

Chapter 24: Rue du Lombard, Brussels

Chapter 25: Northern France

Chapter 26: Northern France

Chapter 27: Seraincourt, France

Chapter 28: Paris

Chapter 29: Aubervilliers, France

Chapter 30: La Courneuve, France

Chapter 31: Aubervilliers, France

Chapter 32: Santorini, Greece

Chapter 33: Santorini, Greece

Chapter 34: N Street, Georgetown

Chapter 35: N Street, Georgetown

Chapter 36: Raqqa, Syria

Chapter 37: Eastern Syria

Chapter 38: Palmyra, Syria

Chapter 39: Palmyra, Syria

Chapter 40: Anbar Province, Iraq

Chapter 41: Anbar Province, Iraq

Chapter 42: Anbar Province, Iraq

Chapter 43: Anbar Province, Iraq

Part Three

Chapter 44: Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris

Chapter 45: Seraincourt, France

Chapter 46: Paris—Tiberias, Israel

Chapter 47: Amman, Jordan

Chapter 48: Arlington, Virginia

Chapter 49: Alexandria, Virginia

Chapter 50: Georgetown

Chapter 51: Aubervilliers, France

Chapter 52: Hume, Virginia

Chapter 53: Liberty Crossing, Virginia

Chapter 54: Dulles International Airport

Chapter 55: Arlington, Virginia

Chapter 56: Key Bridge Marriott, Arlington

Chapter 57: The White House

Chapter 58: Alexandria, Virginia

Chapter 59: Key Bridge Marriott

Chapter 60: The White House

Chapter 61: The Lincoln Memorial

Chapter 62: Liberty Crossing, Virginia

Chapter 63: Georgetown

Chapter 64: Café Milano, Georgetown

Chapter 65: Wisconsin Avenue, Georgetown

Chapter 66: Wisconsin Avenue, Georgetown

Chapter 67: Café Milano, Georgetown

Chapter 68: King Saul Boulevard, Tel Aviv

Chapter 69: Hume, Virginia

Chapter 70: Arlington, Virginia

Chapter 71: Hume, Virginia

Chapter 72: Arlington, Virginia

Chapter 73: Hume, Virginia

Chapter 74: Hume, Virginia

Part Four

Chapter 75: Washington—Jerusalem

Chapter 76: Nahalal, Israel

Chapter 77: Petah Tikva, Israel

Chapter 78: Jerusalem

Chapter 79: Jerusalem—Tiberias

Chapter 80: Bethnal Green, London

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also Written by Daniel Silva

About the Publisher

I COMMENCED WORK ON THIS NOVEL before the Islamic terrorist group known as ISIS carried out a wave of shootings and bombings in Paris and Brussels that left more than 160 people dead. After briefly considering setting aside the typescript, I chose to complete it as originally conceived, as though the tragic events had not yet occurred in the imaginary world where my characters live and work. The similarities between the real and fictitious attacks, including the links to the Brussels district of Molenbeek, are entirely coincidental. I take no pride in my prescience. I only wish that the murderous, millenarian terrorism of the Islamic State lived solely on the pages of this story.

IT WAS TOULOUSE THAT WOULD prove to be Hannah Weinberg’s undoing. That night she telephoned Alain Lambert, a contact at the Interior Ministry, and told him that this time something would have to be done. Alain promised a swift response. It would be bold, he assured Hannah, boldness being the default response of a fonctionnaire when in reality he planned to do nothing at all. The following morning the minister himself paid a visit to the site of the attack and issued a vague call for “dialogue and healing.” To the parents of the three victims he offered only regrets. “We will do better,” he said before returning hastily to Paris. “We must.”

They were twelve years of age, the victims, two boys and a girl, all Jewish, though the French media neglected to mention their religion in the first reports. Nor did they bother to point out that the six attackers were Muslim, only that they were youths who resided in a suburb, a banlieue, east of the city center. The description of the attack was vague to the point of inaccuracy. According to French radio, an altercation of some sort had occurred outside a patisserie. Three were injured, one seriously. The police were investigating. No arrests had been made.

In truth, it had not been an altercation but a well-planned ambush. And the attackers were not youths, they were men in their early twenties who had ventured into the center of Toulouse in search of Jews to harm. That their victims were children seemed to trouble them not. The two young boys were kicked, spat upon, and then beaten bloody. The girl was pinned to the pavement and her face slashed with a knife. Before fleeing, the six attackers turned to a group of stunned bystanders and shouted, “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya-Yahud!” Though the witnesses did not know it, the Arabic chant was a reference to the seventh-century Muslim conquest of a Jewish oasis near the holy city of Medina. Its message was unmistakable. The armies of Muhammad, the six men were saying, were coming for the Jews of France.