Portrait of a Spy
Gabriel Allon, secret agent, assassin and master art restorer, returns in a spellbinding novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling authorEurope is exploding. And one man must find out why.For Gabriel Allon and his wife Chiara, it was supposed to be the start of a romantic weekend in London. But nothing is ever that simple when you’re an off-duty spy and assassin.Bombings in Paris and Copenhagen have put him on edge and when Gabriel notices a man exhibiting several traits common to suicide bombers, he follows him into the Covent Garden throng. He’s determined to prevent the carnage he fears is about to take place, but before Gabriel can draw his sidearm, he is knocked to the pavement by two plain-clothes police officers.A moment later he looks up to find a scene from his nightmares.From the streets of New York and London,to the unforgiving landscape of the Saudi desert,Gabriel Allon is in a race to the death against a calculating mass-murderer that he dare not lose…
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PORTRAIT OF A SPY
DANIEL SILVA
Dedication
For my wonderful children, Nicholas and Lily,
whom I love and admire more than they will ever know. And, as always, for my wife, Jamie, who makes everything possible.
Epigraph
Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie
and as British as afternoon tea.
ANWAR AL-AWLAKI, AL-QAEDA PREACHER AND RECRUITER
One person of integrity can make a difference,
a difference of life and death.
ELIE WIESEL
Contents
Dedication
Epigraph
PART ONE
Chapter 1 - The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall
Chapter 2 - Paris
Chapter 3 - St. James’s, London
Chapter 4 - Covent Garden, London
Chapter 5 - Covent Garden, London
Chapter 6 - Covent Garden, London
Chapter 7 - New Scotland Yard, London
Chapter 8 - New York City
Chapter 9 - The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall
Chapter 10 - Lizard Point, Cornwall
Chapter 11 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 12 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 13 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 14 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 15 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 16 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 17 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 18 - Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 19 - Volta Park, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 20 - The Palisades, Washington, D.C.
PART TWO
Chapter 21 - New York City
Chapter 22 - Madrid-Paris
Chapter 23 - Paris
Chapter 24 - Paris
Chapter 25 - Seraincourt, France
Chapter 26 - Montmartre, Paris
Chapter 27 - Paris
Chapter 28 - Seraincourt, France
Chapter 29 - Seraincourt, France
Chapter 30 - Seraincourt, France
Chapter 31 - Seraincourt, France
Chapter 32 - Seraincourt, France
Chapter 33 - Seraincourt, France
Chapter 34 - St. James’s, London
Chapter 35 - Zurich
Chapter 36 - Lake Zurich
Chapter 37 - Lake Zurich
Chapter 38 - Paris
Chapter 39 - Zurich
Chapter 40 - Langley, Virginia
Chapter 41 - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Chapter 42 - Nejd, Saudi Arabia
Chapter 43 - Nejd, Saudi Arabia
Chapter 44 - St. James’s, London
Chapter 45 - St. James’s, London
Chapter 46 - Langley, Virginia
Chapter 47 - The Palisades, Washington, D.C.
PART THREE
Chapter 48 - The Plains, Virginia
Chapter 49 - The Plains, Virginia
Chapter 50 - The Plains, Virginia
Chapter 51 - The City, London
Chapter 52 - The City, London
Chapter 53 - The City, London
Chapter 54 - Dubai
Chapter 55 - Dubai International Airport
Chapter 56 - Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai
Chapter 57 - Langley, Virginia
Chapter 58 - Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai
Chapter 59 - Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai
Chapter 60 - Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai
Chapter 61 - Dubai
Chapter 62 - Deira, Dubai
Chapter 63 - The Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia
Chapter 64 - The Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia
Chapter 65 - The Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia
Chapter 66 - The Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia
PART FOUR
Chapter 67 - Paris-Langley-Riyadh
Chapter 68 - The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall
Chapter 69 - New York City
Chapter 70 - Langley, Virginia
Chapter 71 - The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Daniel Silva
Copyright
PART ONE
DEATH IN THE GARDEN
Chapter 1
The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall
IT WAS THE REMBRANDT THAT solved the mystery once and for all. Afterward, in the quaint shops where they did their marketing and the dark little seaside pubs where they did their drinking, they would chide themselves for having missed the telltale signs, and they would share a good-natured laugh at some of their more outlandish theories about the true nature of his work. Because in their wildest dreams there was not one among them who ever considered the possibility that the taciturn man from the far end of Gunwalloe Cove was an art restorer, and a world-famous art restorer at that.
He was not the first outsider to wander down to Cornwall with a secret to keep, yet few had guarded theirs more jealously, or with more style and intrigue. A case in point was the peculiar manner in which he had secured lodgings for himself and his beautiful but much younger wife. Having chosen the picturesque cottage at the edge of the cliffs—by all accounts, sight unseen—he had paid the entire twelve-month lease in advance, with all the paperwork handled discreetly by an obscure lawyer in Hamburg. He settled into the cottage a fortnight later as if he were conducting a raid on a distant enemy outpost. Those who met him during his first forays into the village were struck by his notable lack of candor. He seemed to have no name—at least not one he was willing to share—and no country of origin that any of them could place. Duncan Reynolds, thirty years retired from the railroad and regarded as the worldliest of Gunwalloe’s residents, described him as “a cipher of a man” while other reviews ranged from “standoffish” to “unbearably rude.” Even so, all agreed that, for better or worse, the little west Cornish village of Gunwalloe had become a far more interesting place.
With time, they were able to establish that his name was Giovanni Rossi and that, like his beautiful wife, he was of Italian descent. Which made it all the more curious when they began to notice government-issue cars filled with government-issue men prowling the streets of the village late at night. And then there were the two blokes who sometimes fished the cove. Opinion was universal that they were the worst fishermen anyone had ever seen. In fact, most assumed they were not fishermen at all. Naturally, as is wont to happen in a small village like Gunwalloe, there began an intense debate about the true identity of the newcomer and the nature of his work—a debate that was finally resolved by Portrait of a Young Woman, oil on canvas, 104 by 86 centimeters, by Rembrandt van Rijn.
