puzzles me about that,’ said Rocco, echoing his comment to Massin. ‘Why were official documents being transferred in a car?’
Saint-Cloud scowled before replying. ‘A grave mistake, in my opinion. I have already raised it with my superiors. It was felt the car would go untouched because the president was known to be at his country retreat and not on the move. Clearly, however, the people mounting the attack didn’t share that knowledge. There is, on the other hand,’ he continued, seemingly choosing his words with care, ‘an element, shall we say, who believe that drawing out attackers might show the direction any future effort will be coming from; that such an assault would reveal their hand.’
‘An element?’
‘Internal Security.’
Jesus. Rocco was amazed. ‘An ordinary government car? No armour-proofing and just two outriders?’
‘Correct.’ The colonel had his eyes half shut, effectively screening his thoughts.
‘But that was putting the driver and passenger in harm’s way.’
‘We have no basis for assuming that.’ Saint-Cloud’s answer was non-committal, but as good as a yes in Rocco’s mind. He wondered at the kind of people employed in the upper echelons of authority, the kind of men who decided these things.
‘Who the hell thought of that bright idea?’ The words were out before he could stop them. A planned ruse to draw out an attacker was one thing, usually involving backup forces and a calculated degree of safety for those being used as bait – in this case the car and occupants. But an ad hoc affair like this one, if true, was madness.
Saint-Cloud shrugged, the universal sloughing of responsibility for actions sane men did not wish to contemplate. ‘Undoubtedly it was a committee decision,’ he suggested dryly. ‘It usually is.’
‘So what do you want me to do?’ Rocco sought to bring the discussion back on track. ‘I have no information on these groups. I hope you do?’
‘Of course. I will make available to you any names we have in this area. It will be a start point. At this stage we merely need to check their movements without alerting them to that fact.’
A lot of footwork, in other words, Rocco thought. He’d need some help if there were many names, preferably someone unknown who could go unnoticed in the area. ‘Can I use any resources?’
‘You have someone in mind – someone outside this force?’ Saint-Cloud was ahead of him.
‘I do. But he might not agree.’ Caspar, he thought … if he wasn’t too far gone. A former undercover cop who had operated too close to the shadows for too long, Marc Casparon had been placed on permanent sick leave, deemed no longer effective. Rocco had used him since, but it had been a close-run thing and he’d nearly come to grief. He’d check with Michel Santer first. If anyone knew Caspar’s present state, his former boss in Clichy would.
‘If you can trust this person without revealing too much, go ahead.’ Saint-Cloud paused, eyes on Rocco’s face. ‘There is one other thing.’
‘Yes?’
‘You have been assigned to work with me, which has been cleared by the Interior Ministry. As such, bearing in mind the, ah … delicacy of the situation, you are not to discuss these matters with anyone else in this station.’
‘You mean apart from Commissaire Massin?’
A slow shake of the head. ‘I mean anyone.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘So. You lost the car and the truck. You smashed up a bar. Then you got tossed out of the country. All within forty-eight hours. Nice going, George.’ The words dripped into the room with a total lack of emotion, and George Tasker felt the skin go cold across his shoulders. The ‘nice going’ was not a term of praise. Not around this man. ‘Nice’ wasn’t good enough; ‘nice’ was for jobs half done and therefore unsatisfactory. Especially when delivered in this half-dead tone of voice.
As soon as he and the other men had got back to London, Tasker had been summoned to this upstairs room at the rear of a club called The Old Bourbon, in Stepney, and told to let the others go until they were needed. One of several properties spread across the city, it was more an occasional meeting point than a regular office, and owned – on paper, at least – by a friend of the man sitting in front of him. For that reason alone, Tasker was beginning to wonder if there wasn’t a more sinister reason for him being called here.
When displeased with anyone, it was common practice to make their final meeting at a location