In 1954, deep in Israel’s Negev Desert, Palestinian fedayeen massacred the occupants of a bus trundling through the hills between Eilat and Beersheba. The sole survivor, eight-year-old Saul, suddenly orphaned, was placed with a German kibbutz in Galilee, growing up in a rich cultural envelope. As he matured and rationalised the moment his parents were killed, the contempt for terrorists he developed accompanied him into adulthood. The military call up pivoted him from farming to fighting and a lifelong confrontation with terrorism began. As an Israeli special forces soldier, he killed terrorists covertly; as an operative with Mossad, he eliminated still more. As Saul transitioned from Mossad hitman to spy master, Germany’s ambassador in Tel Aviv took notice of his skills and arranged recruitment into Germany’s Intelligence Service. A decade later, 9/11 brought Saul Burg a further assignment — a post in Berlin to advance Germany’s contribution to the global war on terror. Sixty years after the bus massacre, hardened by a lifetime spent battling terrorism’s darkness, yet pursuing enlightened thinking, and sometimes falling under the influence of strong women, Saul relocates from Berlin to Geneva to oversee UN humanitarian work. Working with him in Geneva is Blake Caldwell, a tech-savvy young assistant. Blake builds databases to track the global humanitarian effort; his search tools uncover names . . . This gripping novel with two interwoven time lines explores Saul’s enduring fight against terrorism and Blake’s quest to unravel his identity.