my wife's favorites."
"It should be banned from television," said the actor succinctly.
"The kiss was from a vacuous actress who was more concerned with her camera angles than with her lines, which she rarely got right."
"That's why she was perfect," rejoined his wife.
"Her insecurity was so apparent, it made your obsession terribly believable-the bewildered male driven mad because he couldn't penetrate the mystery of the woman he thought he loved. You were really very good, my darling."
"If I was even tolerable, it was because I was trying to get the bitch to act."
"I don't think Monsieur Moreau is here to listen to an actor's complaints, dear."
"I'm not complaining, merely telling the truth."
"Nor in an actor's ego-"
"Oh, but I'm fascinated, madame. My wife will hang on every word!"
"Aren't police interrogations confidential beyond official circles?"
asked Giselle.
"Naturally-of course, I mis spoke
"Go ahead and speak, Moreau," said Jean-Pierre, grinning, "at least to your wife. You see, my wife is a retired attorney, if you haven't already guessed, and the actress in question has long since left the profession, having married an oil baron in the American state of Texas or Oklahoma, I forget which."
"May we return to the issue at hand, if you please?"
"Of course, madame."
"If Drew Latham escaped being killed, do you have any information on the failed assassin?"
"Indeed we do. He's dead, shot by Monsieur Latham."
"Identification?"
"None. Except three very small tattoo marks above his right breast. Lightning bolts, the symbol of the Nazi blitzkrieg. Latham rightly assumed the origins, but he does not know what they stand for. We do.. .. Those marks are very selectively issued, and only to a highly trained elite group within the neo-Nazis' larger organization. They number, by our estimate, no more than two hundred here in Europe, South America, and the United States.
They're called the Blitzkrieger-they're assassins, trained killers skilled in multiple means of death, chosen for their dedication, their physical prowess, and, above all, their willingness-even their need-to kill."
"Psychopaths," said the former woman attorney.
"Psychopaths recruited by psychopaths."
"Precisely."
"Who could well have been recruited by any number of fanatical organizations, or cults, because such groups would permit them to exercise their natural tendencies for violence."
"I'd have to agree with you, madame."
"And you haven't told the Americans or the British or God knows who else about this-how would you call it? this battalion of killers?"
"The highest officials have been informed, of course. None below those levels."
"Why not? Why not a Drew Latham?"
"We have our reasons. There are leaks in the lower ranks."
"Then why tell us?"
"You are French and you are famous. Celebrity is vulnerable; if word leaked out, well, we'd know-"
"And?"
"We appeal to your patriotism."
"That's famous, unless it's an avenue to destroy my husband!"
"Now, just a minute, Giselle-"
"Be quiet, Jean-Pierre, this man from the Deuxieme is here for another reason."
"What?"
"You must have been an extraordinary attorney, Madame Villier."
"Your line of direct inquiry, mixed with obfuscated indirect, is also extraordinarily obvious, monsieur. You demand that my husband be prohibited from doing one thing--even by my lights and knowing his talents, not actually life-threatening-yet in the next breath you reveal highly secret-extraordinarily secret-information which if he revealed it might cost him his career and his life.
"As I said," said Moreau, "a brilliant attorney."
"I don't understand a goddamned word either of you are saying!"
cried the actor.
"You're not supposed to, darling, leave it to me." Giselle.glared at Moreau.
"Youtook us from one step down to another, didn't you?"
"I cannot deny it."
"And now that he's vulnerable, knowing what he knows, what do you want us to do? Isn't that the basic question?"
"I imagine it is."
"Then what is it?"
"Close the play, close Coriolanus, stating a part of the truth.
Your husband has learned so much about this Jodelle that he can't go on, he's filled with remorse, and especially with loathing toward the people who did this to the old man. You'll be protected around the clock."
"What about my mother and father?" shouted Villier.
"How could I do this to them?"
"I spoke with both of them an hour ago, Monsieur Villier. I told them as much as I could, including the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany. They said it would have to be your decision, but they also hoped that you would honor your natural mother and father.
What more can I say?"
"So I close the show, and by what I have not said in public, I am the man in their gun sights, my dear wife as well. Is that what you're asking?"
"To repeat, you'll never, ever, be out of our protection. Streets, rooftops, armored limousines,