briefly covering her clenched hands with his free left one.
"I'll tell you what I can without specific names, which may come later .. . depending on the circumstances."
"I accept that. It's part of the drill, isn't it? Beware the chemicals."
"Yes." Drew's eyes wandered rapidly, widely, toward the entrance and the surrounding tables, his right hand out of sight.
"The key is Villier's father, his natural father-"
"Villier the actor? The newspaper stories .. . the old man who killed himself in the theater?"
"I'll fill you in later, but for now assume the worst. The old man was Villier's father, a Resistance fighter found out by the Germans and driven insane in the camps years ago."
"There was a notice in the early afternoon papers!" said De Vries, unclenching her hAnds and grabbing his left.
"He's closing the play, the revival of Coriolanus."
"That's stupid!" spat out Latham.
"Did they say why?"
"Something about that old man and how disturbed Villier was-"
"More than stupid," broke in Latham.
"It's goddamned grotesque! He's as big a target as I am now!"
"I don't understand."
"There's no way you could, and in a crazy way it's all tied in with my brother."
"With Harry?"
"Intelligence files about Jodelle-that's Villier's father -were removed from the Agency's archives-"
"As in the AA-Zero computers?" asked Karin, interrupting.
"Every bit as secure, believe me. In those files was the name of a French general who wasn't simply turned by the
Nazis, he became one of them, a fanatically devoted convert consumed by the cause of the master race."
"What can he matter now? A general so many years ago-he's undoubtedly dead."
"He may be, or he may not be, it's irrelevant. It's what he set in motion, what's going on now. An organization here in France that's brokering millions from all over the world into the ncos in Germany.
The same thing that brought you to Paris, Karin."
De Vries again leaned back in the booth, removing her hand from his, her eyes wide, staring at him in bewilderment.
"What has any of this to do with Harry?" she asked.
"My brother brought out a list of names, how many I don't know, of neo sympathizers here in France, the U.K." and in my own country. I gather it's explosive, men and women of influence, even political power, that no one would ever suspect of such leanings."
"How did Harry get these names?"
"I haven't a clue, that's why I've got to see him, talk to him!"
"Why? You sound so disturbed."
"Because one of those names is a man I'm working with, a man in whose hands I'd put my life without thinking twice. How do you like them apples?"
"Disregarding the grammar, I don't understand you."
"It's idiosyncratic, Madame Linguist. I'm told it stems from an old trick apple growers used, placing their best specimens on top of a barrel they were selling, while underneath there were rotten ones."
"It still eludes me."
"Why not? It's probably apocryphal."
"You sound like your brother, without his clarity."
"Clarity is what I need from him now."
"Regarding this man you're working with, of course."
"Yes. I can't believe it, but if Harry's right and I meet with him later this afternoon, which I'm to do, could be the dumbest decision I could make. Fatally dumb.
"Put him off. Tell him something important has come up."
"He'll ask what it is, and at the moment he has every right to know. Among other not-so-incidentals, an alert employee of his saved my life barely a half hour ago on the Gabriel."
"Perhaps it was meant to appear that way."
"Yes, that's another possible equation. I can see you've been around, lady."
"I've been around," conceded Karin de Vries.
"It's Moreau, Claude Moreau of the [email protected] Bureau, isn't it?"
"Why do you suggest that?"
"D and R gets the logs of entry and departure for every twenty four hours. Moreau's name was listed twice, the night before last, when the first attack was made on you, and then the next morning, when the German ambassador arrived. The pattern was obvious.
Several colleagues remarked that they could not remember when any member, much less the head, of the Deuxieme had ever come to the embassy."
"I won't confirm your suggestion, naturally."
"You don't have to, and I agree with you completely. To associate Moreau in any way with the ncos strikes me as ludicrous."
"The exact word I heard from Washington less than ten minutes ago. Still, Harry brought it out. You know my brother. Could he have been fooled?"
"The word ludicrous again comes to mind."
"Turned?"
"Never!"
"So, as my extremely experienced boss, who worked with Moreau in the bad days, and who also agrees with us, said, "Where