What were you thinking?” Sarah yelled at the top of her lungs, while the car turned toward Bloomsbury Street at top speed.
“I was trying to save us,” Rafael answered, not looking at her.
“To save us?”
“Stop asking questions. They’re following us and it’s not going to be easy to shake them.”
They turned right on New Oxford Street. Rafael grimaced as pain blazed through his shoulder. At the Tottenham Court Road intersection, the light turned red and he stopped the Jaguar.
“Let’s trade places,” Rafael asked.
“What?
“You drive. I’m not in any shape for it.”
Sarah proceeded on Oxford Street, London ’s main business thorough-fare. She leaned over to the glove compartment and took out the list, which she threw in Rafael’s lap.
“There you have it. I’d left it here and forgotten it when we got out of the car.”
“Your forgetting it saved us this time.”
They drove on in silence for several minutes.
“I don’t know where I’m going,” Sarah said finally.
“It doesn’t matter, keep going. It’s all right if you go by the same place several times.”
“Were you really planning on shooting? If things had gone badly, would you have been able to kill me?”
“Yes,” Rafael answered without hesitation. “And I would’ve killed myself next. Believe me, it would have been a favor for you if things had turned out badly. It’s better to be dead than in their hands. Not having the list with you, whether you forgot it or not, was the best thing that could have happened. It was wonderful.”
“So if we find ourselves in the same situation again, but with no cards to play, you wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger, first on me and then on yourself?”
“Exactly,” Rafael affirmed, without showing the slightest emotion.
“Did my father give you that order?”
Rafael looked at the girl, who looked back at him, both of them for a moment taking their eyes off the street traffic.
“No. But I’m sure that, given the situation, he’d approve.”
“Of course.” Sarah looked ahead again. “Of course, Jack.” She pronounced the name with deliberate emphasis, as if it were the key to all the lies, doubts, and frustrations torturing her. “Is your real name Rafael?”
“Who knows?”
“Jack?”
“No.”
“So?”
“It’s better for you not to know. Look, Rafael is the name of your savior, who hasn’t turned out bad, so far. A few ups and downs, of course, but also with a certain success. Jack is the alias of John Payne, member of the P2, who was unmasked as a double agent. So, technically because of that, John Payne is dead.”
“And Geoffrey Barnes-who is he?”
“A director of the CIA. Immoral and corrupt. I did some operations under his orders, and I assure you, if he left his office to come looking for us in person, it’s because we’re giving him a devil of a time.”
“Fine. Jack Payne or Archangel Rafael, I have to ask again, what is your real name?”
Rafael laughed for the first time since they’d met.
“Nice try.”
“You can’t lose by trying.” Sarah took her eyes off the road for a few seconds. “Rafael Jack Payne, what do we do now?”
He looked at her closely before answering.
“Now? We’re going to disappear.”