the hell are we?"
"There has to be an explanation."
"That's why I have to talk to Harry.. .. Whoa, hold it. You're pretty opinionated about Moreau. Do you know him?"
"I know that East German intelligence was frightened to death of him, as subsequently were the ncos, for he recognized the links between the Stasi and the Nazis before anyone else, except possibly your brother. Freddie met him once, a debriefing in Munich, and came back exuberant, claiming Moreau was a genius."
"So to recap, where are we really?"
"You have an expression in the United States that's uniquely American," said Karin. "
"Between a rock and a hard place." I think it fits, at least until you can talk to Harry, which, for your own safety, you cannot do from either the Meurice or the embassy."
"They're the only numbers he has," protested Drew.
"I should like to ask for your trust once more. I have friends here in Paris from the old days in Amsterdam, friends you can trust.
If you wish, I'll go further and give their names to the colonel."
"What for? Why?"
"They can hide you, yet you can still operate here in Paris;
they're less than forty-five minutes from the city. And I myself can reach Moreau with the most plausible explanation there is-the truth, Drew."
"Then you do know Moreau."
"Not personally, no, but two Deuxieme staff interviewed me before I came to the embassy. The name De Vries will accord me the courtesy of speaking to him personally, believe that."
"I do. But what's the truth, that he himself is under suspicion?"
"Another truth. Three attempts have been made on your life, and your natural concern aside-"
"Call it by its rightful name," Latham broke in.
"The word is fear.
I was almost killed each time and my nerves are a lot frayed-like in afraid."
"Very well, that's honest; he'll accept it.. .. Your fear for your own life aside, you must meet with your brother who's flying over from London-day and time unknown -and you can't risk his life, either, by being in the open. You're going under for a few days and will contact him when you come out. Naturally, I have no idea where you are."
"There's a large gap. Namely, why are you my conduit?"
"Yet another truth that overrides the lie and will be substantiated by Colonel Witkowski, an intelligence rock whom everyone respects. He'll confirm that my husband worked with your brother. Moreau assumes you knew that, and therefore easily understands why you came to me to act as your intermediary."
"Two more gaps," Drew pressed quietly, once again nervously glancing around the now-crowded brasserie.
"One, I didn't knowWitkowski had to tell me; and two, why didn't I use him?"
"Old-timers like Stanley Witkowski, smart, even brilliant veterans of the 'bad days," as you called them, know the pecking order better than any of us. To get things done, really accomplished, he has to operate from his niche. He's in a position now to confirm things, not to initiate them. Can you understand that?"
"It's one of the things I've always objected to, but, yes, I can.
We put some of our best minds into a pasture-hold mode because either their retirements are coming up or they never quite made enough of a name for themselves to go for the next level of retirement. It's so goddamned dumb, especially in our business, because the quiet ones invariably make it possible for the 'names' to succeed. How many deep-cover legends became legends because they were guided by the quiet ones.. .. Sorry, again I'm rambling; it takes my mind off the possibility that someone in this very Parisian brasserie may get up and take a shot at me."
"It's quite unlikely," said De Vries.
"We're close to the embassy' and you've no idea how sensitive the French are to their lack of control over terrorism."
"So are the British, but people get killed outside of Harrods."
"Not often, and the English have isolated their primary enemy, the IRA." may they rot in hell. The French are targets for so many others. Whole arrondissements are populated with warring factions from abroad. In the Scandinavian countries, too, the protests grow more violent, say nothing of the Netherlands-the most peaceful of people, where the Right and the Left clash incessantly."
"Add Italy, the Mafia corruption of Rome tearing people apart, men fighting in Parliament, bombs going off. And take Spain, where the Catalonians and the Basques bear more than arms, they bear generations of resentment. And there's the Middle East, where Palestinians kill Jews and Jews kill Palestinians, each blaming the