actor, will be next, then all traces to the Loire Valley will be dust, as it is with the Hausruck."
Harry Latham and Karin de Vries held each other as close brothers and sisters do after having been parted for a very long time. Their chatter, at first, was garbled, each excitedly telling the other how marvelous it was to be together again. Karin then clutched his arm, steering them both toward the diplomatic lounge, where Harry was processed rapidly, then out to the restricted parking area thick with uniformed guards, a number holding the leashes of various dogs trained to ferret out such items as narcotics and explosive devices.
The car was a nondescript black Renault, indistinguishable from several thousand others on the streets of Paris. De Vries climbed behind the wheel while Harry got into the passenger seat.
"We don't rate a driver?" asked Latham.
"Let's say we're not permitted, to have one," replied Karin.
"Your brother is under the protection of the Antinayous, remember them?"
"Most emphatically-from the other night to be precise; they were waiting for me. I pretended not to understand a word my contact said in the truck because it would have involved an explanation that could lead to Freddie, and by extension, you."
"You needn't have feared. I've been working with them since my last year in The Hague."
"It's so good to see you," said Harry, his voice filled with emotion, "to hear you."
"I feel the same way, old friend. Since I learned the Briiderschaft knew about you, I've been so terribly worried-"
"They knew about me?" Latham interrupted sharply, his eyes wide, bulging in astonishment.
"You're not serious!"
"Nobody's told you?"
"How could they? It's not true."
"It is, Harry. I explained to Drew how I found out."
"You?"
"I assumed your brother had passed on the information."
"Christ, I can't think!" Latham brought both his hands to his temples, pressing harshly, his eyes tightly closed, the crow's-feet emphasized.
"What is it, Harry?"
"I don't know, there's a dreadful pain-"
"You've been through so much, so long. We'll get you to a doctor. "
"No. I'm Alexander Lassiter-I was Alexander Lassiter, that's all I was to them."
"I'm afraid not, my-dear." Karin glanced at her old friend, suddenly alarmed. There was a dark red circle on his left temple;
it seemed to throb.
"I brought your favorite brandy so we could celebrate, Harry. It's in the glove compartment. Open it and have some. It'll calm you down."
"They couldn't have known," choked Latham, with trembling fingers opening the glove compartment and pulling out the pint of brandy.
"You don't know what you're saying."
"Perhaps I was wrong," said De Vries, now frightened.
"Have a drink and relax.
"We're meeting Drew at an old country inn on the outskirts of Villejuif. The Antinayous wouldn't permit us to meet at the safe house. Calm down, Harry."
"Yes, yes, I will, because, my dear-my dearest Karinyou are wrong. My brother will tell you, Gerhardt Kroeger wi "II tell you, I'm Alex Lassiter, I was Alex Lassiter!"
"Gerhardt Kroeger?" asked a bewildered De Vries.
"Who's Gerhardt Kroeger?"
"A goddamned Nazi .. . also a superb doctor."
"In fifteen or twenty minutes we'll be at the inn where your brother is waiting for us.. .. Let's talk about the old days in Amsterdam, my old friend. Do you remember the night Freddie came home half soused and insisted on playing your American game of Monopoly?"
"Good God, yes. He threw out a handful of diamonds and said we should use them instead of the paper money."
"And the time you and I drank wine and listened to Mozart until it was almost dawn."
"Do I?" cried Latham, swallowing brandy and laughing, his eyes, however, not bright with laughter, but dark, glaring.
"Freddie came out of your bedroom and made it plain that he preferred Elvis Presley. We threw pillows at him."
"And that morning in the cafe on the Herengracht when you and I told Freddie he could not jump into the canal to make a point about pollution?"
"He was going to do it, my dear-my dearest Karin. I swear he was."
The harmless badinage covered the remaining minutes until De Vries turned into the graveled parking area of the rundown country inn, country but barely out of the city, flanked by overgrown fields, isolated, and not really inviting. The meeting between the brothers was as warm, although warmer on the younger's part, as the welcoming embrace between Harry and Karin. The difference was in the older brother; there was surface ebullience, but a chill underneath. It was unexpected, not natural.
"Hey, big bro, how did you do it?" exclaimed Drew as the three of them