The Geneva Option (29 page)

Hussein inclined his head graciously. “Of course.”

“Jasna?”

“Her contract at the UN has been extended another five years and now covers the whole east wing of the Palais. She has just taken on twenty more employees, including several Congolese refugees who, together with their families, have just received their Swiss residency papers. Whatever you decide, you may consider that as my gift to you.”

The SG turned to leave and Yael held up her hand. “Wait, please. There's something I want to ask you. If you want me to come back, I need to know.”

Hussein nodded. “Ask.”

“It was you, wasn't it?”

Hussein looked puzzled but willing to be helpful. “My dear Yael, what was me? I am not sure what you mean.”

“The sound file I received. You were there, at the meeting with Rembaugh and the others. I heard your voice. You knew what was planned in Goma. You sent me the sound file. And then you warned Ambassador Munyakarana that something terrible was planned.”

She watched him carefully and saw something flicker in his eye for an instant. Something almost like relief, she sensed. And then it was gone. Hussein smiled warmly, shaking his head as though dealing with a much-loved, very bright, but impetuous younger relative.

He took her hand in his again. “Let me know your decision. Take as long as you like,” he said as he left the room, closing the door gently behind him.

Yael sat down at the desk and stayed there for a long time, staring at the picture of her brother. She wiped her eyes, walked over to the shelf, put on her peacekeeper's beret, and stood by the window for a while, watching the river traffic. A passenger ferry glided out of the East 34th Street terminal, chugging slowly toward Queens, honking cheerfully. A garbage scow moved upriver, and the seagulls swirled and dived. Everything looked exactly the same as the day she left.

Yael reached inside her wallet and took out a worn photograph, covered in plastic and singed in one corner. She pinned it in the center of the corkboard and touched it with her index finger before sitting back down at her desk.

For the first time that day she smiled. She picked up the telephone and asked the building switchboard for the
New York Times
bureau.

It rang and rang and she was about to hang up when someone answered.

“
New York Times
,” said Sami.

She swiveled around and leaned back with her feet on the desk. “Hello. It's me.”

“Hello you,” he said coolly, trying to cover his surprise.

“Long time, no speak,” said Yael.

“Just following instructions.”

She tried not to laugh. “And the ones you got from [email protected]”

“Oh. Was that e-mail from you?”

“Let's just say I know what it contained. That was a great article today. Well done. Anyway, I have a question for you. Two, actually.”

“I'm listening,” Sami replied, and now she could sense him smiling.

“Are you free tonight?” she asked, spinning the blue beret on her finger.

“Yeees,” he said warily. “Why?”

“Good. Where are you are taking me for dinner?”

Credits

Cover design by Jarrod Taylor

Cover photographs Â© Cultura Creative / Alamy (silhouette); Â© BL Images Ltd / Alamy (UN building);
Â© Corbis Flirt / Alamy (background sky)

About the Author

ADAM L
E
BOR lives in Budapest and writes for
the
Economist
,
New York Times
,
Times
(London),
Monocle
, and numerous other
publications. He is the author of a number of nonfiction books, including the
groundbreaking investigative work
Hitler's Secret Bankers
(short-listed for the
Orwell Prize), which revealed the extent of Swiss complicity with the Third
Reich;
City of Oranges
(short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly Prize); and
Complicity with Evil.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
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Excerpt from âA Little Tooth' from
New & Selected Poems,
1975â1995 by Thomas Lux.
Copyright Â© 1997 by Thomas Lux. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

THE GENEVA
OPTION.
Copyright Â© 2013 by Adam LeBor. All rights reserved under
International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required
fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access
and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be
reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored
in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form
or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter
invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-06-220855-2 (pbk.)

Epub Edition JUNE 2013 ISBN: 9780062208569

13 14 15 16 17
OV/RRD
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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