Sublime

It was always the first question a handler asked an asset, the practical realities of spying so much more mundane than the movie version. Assets didn’t usually get caught by grand, heroic gestures. It was the small things that undid them: unexplained absences from work, erratic behaviour at home, seemingly pointless travel or diversions.

largely on circumstantial evidence, motive might be a persuasive consideration—for either guilt or innocence.

‘Check the statute book, Professor. The Coroners and Justice Act 2009.’ ‘Refresh my memory.’ ‘Clearly prohibits any monetary gain by the description of a crime. Little thing called an “exploitative proceeds order”. Mainly ex-cons looking to cash in. But it comes in handy for us spooks now and then.’

The Abwehr intelligence service employed two kinds of cipher. German secret agents in the field were given simple systems you could work out with pencil and paper (sometimes called manual or hand ciphers) to scramble the messages they sent by wireless to their controllers. These were the twigs and branches of secret communications. The ‘ham radio’

Ben-Gurion had forbidden the employment of any former members of the right-wing underground in government departments, and many of them were jobless, frustrated, and hungry for action. The Shin Bet believed that some of them were dangerous and were liable to start underground movements against the regime. Harel aimed to kill two birds: to set up