Ransom

Alice’s disappearance becomes a media sensation after a podcaster breaks the story. A leak from New Scotland Yard confirms that she was abducted and that her husband paid a ransom without involving the police. As days pass with no word, the public and authorities begin to fear she has been murdered. Knight makes a haggard appearance before the press, pleading for his wife’s return, but Gabriel manages to keep his name out of all the coverage.

In Cornwall, Gabriel tells Chiara that Knight made a critical error by paying the ransom without proof of life. Knight visits Gabriel and explains that the kidnappers threatened to kill Gabriel if the money wasn’t sent, forcing his hand. Knight also reveals he was compelled to give Gabriel’s name to DCI Douglas Chapel of the Metropolitan Police. Gabriel is summoned for questioning at New Scotland Yard.

Gabriel meets with DCI Douglas Chapel at New Scotland Yard. After Gabriel insists the recording device be turned off, he recounts his involvement in the failed negotiation, confirming that Edward Knight authorized the ransom payment against his advice. Chapel reveals his primary theory: Knight orchestrated his wife’s disappearance and presumed murder. The motive, Chapel suggests, was to end a failing marriage while simultaneously using the ransom payment to launder half a billion dollars offshore.

Chapel also mentions that Alice’s friend, Phoebe Chadwick, is a person of interest in the kidnapping due to a large, anonymous donation made to her relief organization—a donation Chapel suspects was either an attempt to get into Phoebe’s good graces or to silence her. Chapel asks for Gabriel’s help to prove the theory. Gabriel agrees on the condition that he works with Detective Inspector Timothy Peel of the Devon and Cornwall Police, an officer he trusts. Peel is promptly reassigned from a local murder case and sent to London to assist Gabriel.

Gabriel meets Peel outside New Scotland Yard and explains DCI Chapel’s theory: Knight staged his wife’s kidnapping to get rid of her and simultaneously solve a tax problem. They discuss how Knight’s presence at his fundraiser provides a seemingly perfect alibi for the time of Alice’s disappearance. Gabriel reveals that he has already scheduled a meeting with Alice’s friend Phoebe for that evening.

Gabriel and Peel meet Phoebe at a pub. She confirms that her friendship with Alice had become strained since Alice’s car accident, and their final argument in Ibiza was the breaking point. She also reveals that Alice’s marriage was troubled. When questioned about the recent anonymous donation, Phoebe confirms her organization received £1 million through The Hague’s platform, the “Secret Sharer,” but insists she does not know the donor’s identity. After she leaves, Gabriel tells Peel their next step is to investigate the Secret Sharer in The Hague.

In The Hague, Gabriel and Peel investigate the Secret Sharer. Posing as a Met detective, Peel questions the director, Dr. Rutger Timmerman, who refuses to reveal the donor’s identity, citing Dutch privacy laws. Timmerman confirms that the organization’s records are stored digitally. Realizing legal channels are a dead end, Gabriel decides they need a “workaround” and tells Peel they must go to Mykonos, but their travel is delayed when a mysterious drone swarm, which Gabriel suspects is Russian, shuts down Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

Gabriel and Peel arrive in Mykonos and meet with Ingrid at her villa. Gabriel explains that DCI Chapel suspects her of stealing the ransom money. Ingrid counters that she was unable to intercept the funds on their way to the kidnappers, as they were quickly laundered through a complex web of international accounts. Gabriel asks her to hack the Secret Sharer to identify the source of the charitable donations. Ingrid agrees to help.

After several days of work, Ingrid reveals her findings. The donations came from Regency Holdings, a shell company that recently received a $475 million infusion—an amount close to the ransom. A portion of this money was transferred to a Belize-based company, RPH Investments. Ingrid deduces that “RPH” stands for Reinhardt Peter Hoffmann, Hoffman’s full name. They form two theories: Either Knight conspired with Hoffmann to murder Alice and launder the ransom, or Hoffmann acted alone to kidnap and kill Alice for the money. However, neither theory adequately explains the charitable donations.

The team travels to Zurich to surveil Hoffmann. Gabriel hacks his main phone and finds nothing incriminating, but they soon discover he uses a second, untraceable burner phone for illicit dealings. They decide they must physically steal the device; Ingrid, a skilled pickpocket, executes the theft, but she accidentally steals his primary phone. After Hoffmann buys a replacement, Gabriel immediately hacks it. The next morning, the team follows Hoffmann as he drives out of Zurich with climbing gear in his car.

Gabriel, Ingrid, and Peel follow Hoffmann to a large, secluded chalet in Lauterbrunnen. He enters the chalet, leaving his newly hacked phone in the car and cutting off their surveillance. The team watches from the village, noting that lights are on and a figure appears on the veranda, suggesting he is not alone. Later, Hoffmann leaves, lying to his wife on the phone that his climb went well. Convinced Hoffmann is holding a hostage in the chalet, Gabriel approaches the house and rings the doorbell. Alice Winter, alive and well, opens the door.

Alice calmly invites Gabriel inside the chalet. She reveals that her kidnapping was entirely staged with the help of Hoffmann and a Swiss security firm, Sentry Global. She admits to paying Hoffmann and the security firm from the ransom money and keeping the rest. She also confesses to making the anonymous charitable donations, which inadvertently led Gabriel to her. She says that her friends Sophie Maxwell and Ella Burns acted as accomplices.

Alice explains her motive, which dates back to the 2009 financial crisis. Knight saved his failing real estate empire by accepting a massive investment from Dmitri Savin, a sanctioned Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin. Years later, Alice learned that Savin had a controlling interest in the Knight Group through Sophie, a lawyer who worked on Savin’s divorce case. Ella confirmed that Knight had dubious financial connections; she works for HBSC, which cut ties with Knight in 2009. Alice reveals she has a hard drive containing documents that prove that her husband’s business is laundering money for Russia.

Alice recounts the night of her car crash, explaining that she had just overheard a furious phone call between Edward and Dmitri Savin. Edward had tried to end their business relationship, but Savin responded with death threats against both him and Alice. After the call, she confronted Edward, and the ensuing argument led to her driving away drunk. 

Realizing she could no longer stay with a man tied to the Russian regime, she conspired with Hoffmann to stage her own kidnapping and embezzle half a billion dollars. She admits to deliberately alienating Phoebe in Ibiza to drive her away, fearing that Phoebe’s honesty would make her a liability. Convinced by her story, Gabriel decides to help Alice and secretly exfiltrate her back to Britain.

The narrative shifts to London, where Sarah, a former CIA officer, receives a call from Gabriel in Switzerland. He asks for the help of her husband, Christopher Keller, an officer in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Sarah relays the message, and Christopher flies to Bern. Gabriel meets him and explains that he has found a “dead” British source who needs to be secretly brought back to the UK.

Gabriel takes Christopher to the chalet in Lauterbrunnen, where Alice, Peel, and Ingrid are waiting. Ingrid is busy downloading the entire Knight Group database using a password Alice provided. Christopher arranges a covert flight, and the group—Gabriel, Christopher, Alice, Ingrid, and Peel—travels from Bern to a private airfield in Luton. From there, a helicopter transports Gabriel, Christopher, Alice, and Ingrid to Wormwood Cottage, a secure SIS safe house on Dartmoor, while Peel is driven home. The caretaker, Parish, an old intelligence hand, immediately recognizes Alice as the famous missing woman.

Graham Seymour, the director-general of SIS, cancels his appointments and travels to Wormwood Cottage. He briefs Prime Minister Jonathan Lancaster, revealing that Alice Winter has been found and her disappearance is connected to her husband’s dealings with Dmitri Savin, who is known to finance Russia’s GRU intelligence agency. At the safe house, Graham interrogates Alice and becomes convinced that her husband is laundering money for a GRU sabotage network operating in Europe. He asks Gabriel and Christopher to help him turn Edward Knight into an SIS asset to dismantle the network.

Over the next few days, Gabriel, Christopher, Alice, and Ingrid analyze data at Wormwood Cottage. By listening in, Parish and Miss Coventry (the cook and another former spy) learn that Edward Knight is laundering money for Dmitri Savin through a shell company called Landmark Ventures, believed to be a GRU front. Ingrid hacks into Landmark’s bank and confirms their suspicions. With proof in hand, Gabriel and Christopher fly to London.

Gabriel and Christopher meet with Prime Minister Jonathan Lancaster and Graham Seymour at 10 Downing Street. They present evidence that Knight’s company has been a financial conduit for the GRU since 2016, funneling money into a shell corporation that funds Russian sabotage operations in Europe. They decide they must confront Knight and offer him a deal: cooperate with SIS to dismantle the GRU network in exchange for leniency. They also agree that Alice will be given a new identity and that the half a billion dollars she embezzled will be seized by the government.

Knight is at his London mansion when an SIS officer named Nigel Whitcombe arrives, claiming Gabriel Allon has news. Whitcombe drives Knight to meet Gabriel, Graham Seymour, and Christopher Keller, who have incriminating documents proving his company is controlled by Savin. Knight denies everything and attempts to call his lawyer, only to discover his phone is missing.

Knight’s defenses crumble when Gabriel presents an affidavit from Alice, detailing the death threats she overheard from Dmitri Savin. Faced with accusations of obstructing a police investigation and tax evasion, Knight confesses. He explains how Savin saved his company in 2009 and later coerced him into laundering money for a GRU front company, Landmark Ventures. Graham offers him a deal to help SIS take down Savin’s network. Knight agrees, saying all he wants is his wife back. Gabriel informs him that Alice is “gone for good” (266). Upstairs, Alice and Ingrid have listened through the floorboards to the entire confession.