The Tristan Betrayal.

by Robert Ludlum.

Moscow, August 1991The sleek black limousine, with its polycarbonate-laminate bullet-resistant windows and its run-flat tires, its high-tech ceramic armor and dual-hardness carbon-steel armor plate, was jarringly out of place as it pulled into the Bittsevsky forest in the southwest area of the city. This was ancient terrain, forest primeval, densely overgrown with birch and aspen groves interspersed with pine trees, elms, and maples; it spoke of nomadic Stone Age tribes that roamed the glacier-scarred terrain, hunting mammoths with hand-carved javelins, amid nature red in tooth and claw. Whereas the armored Lincoln Continental spoke of another kind of civilization entirely with another sort of violence, an era of snipers and terrorists wielding submachine guns and fragmentation grenades.Moscow was a city under siege. It was the capital of a superpower on the brink of collapse. A cabal of Communist hard-liners was preparing to take back Russia from the forces of reform. Tens of thousands of troops filled the city, ready to fire at its citizens. Columns of tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled down Kutuzovsky Prospekt and the Minskoye Chausse. Tanks surrounded Moscow City Hall, TV broadcasting facilities, newspaper offices, the parliament building. The radio was broadcasting nothing but the decrees of the cabal, which called itself the State Committee for the State of Emergency. After years of progress toward democracy, the Soviet Union was on the verge of being returned to the dark forces of totalitarianism.Inside the limousine sat an elderly man, silver-haired, with handsome, aristocratic features. He was Amba.s.sador Stephen Metcalfe, an icon of the American Establishment, an adviser to five Presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt, an extremely wealthy man who had devoted his life to serving his government. Amba.s.sador Metcalfe, though now retired, the t.i.tle purely honorific, had been urgently summoned to Moscow by an old friend who was highly placed in the inner circles of Soviet power. He and his old friend had not met face-to-face for decades: their relationship was a deeply buried secret, known to no one in Moscow or Washington. That his Russian friend-code-named "Kurwenal"-insisted on a rendezvous in this deserted location was worrying, but these were worrying times.Lost in thought, visibly nervous, the old man got out of his limousine only once he glimpsed the figure of his friend, the three-star general, limping heavily on a prosthetic leg. The American's seasoned eyes scanned the forest as he began to walk, and then his blood ran cold.He detected a watcher in the trees. A second, a third! Surveillance. He and the Russian code-named Kurwenal had just been spotted!This would be a disaster for them both!Metcalfe wanted to call out to his old friend, to warn him, but then he noticed the glint of a scoped rifle in the late-afternoon sun. It was an ambus.h.!.terrified, the elderly amba.s.sador spun around and loped as quickly as his arthritic limbs would take him back toward his armored limousine. He had no bodyguard; he never traveled with one. He had only his driver, an unarmed American marine supplied by the emba.s.sy.Suddenly men were running toward him from all around. Black-uniformed men in black paramilitary berets, bearing machine guns. They surrounded him and he began to struggle, but he was no longer a young man, as he had to keep reminding himself. Was this a kidnapping? Was he being taken hostage? He shouted hoa.r.s.ely to his driver.The black-clad men escorted Metcalfe to another armored limousine, a Russian ZIL. Frightened, he climbed into the pa.s.senger compartment. There, already seated, was the three-star general."What the h.e.l.l is this?" Metcalfe croaked, his panic subsiding."My deepest apologies," replied the Russian. "These are hazardous, unstable times, and I could not take the chance of anything happening to you, even here in the woods. These are my men, under my command, and they're trained in counterterrorist measures. You are far too important an individual to expose to any dangers."Metcalfe shook the Russian's hand. The general was eighty years old, his hair white, though his profile remained hawklike. He nodded at the driver, and the car began to move."I thank you for coming to Moscow-I realize my urgent summons must have struck you as cryptic.""I knew it had to be about the coup," Metcalfe said."Matters are developing more rapidly than antic.i.p.ated," the Russian said in a low voice. "They have secured the blessing of the man known as the Dirizhor-the Conductor. It may already be too late to stop the seizure of power.""My friends in the White House are watching with great concern. But they feel paralyzed-the consensus in the National Security Council seems to be that to intervene might be to risk nuclear war.""An apt fear. These men are desperate to overthrow the Gorbachev regime. They will resort to anything. You've seen the tanks on the streets of Moscow-now all that remains is for the conspirators to order their forces to strike. To attack civilians. It will be a blood bath. Thousands will be killed! But the orders to strike will not be issued unless the Oirizhor gives his approval. Everything hangs on him-he is the linchpin.""But he's not one of the plotters?""No. As you know, he's the ultimate insider, a man who controls the levers of power in absolute secrecy. He will never appear at a news conference; he acts in stealth. But he is in sympathy with the coup plotters. Without his support, the coup must fail. With his support, the coup will surely succeed. And Russia will once again become a Stalinist dictatorship-and the world will be at the brink of nuclear war.""Why did you call me here?" asked Metcalfe. "Why me?"The general turned to face Metcalfe, and in his eyes Metcalfe could see fear. "Because you're the only one I trust. And you're the only one who has a chance of reaching him. The Dirizhor.""And why will the Oirizhor listen to me?""I think you know," said the Russian quietly. "You can change history, my friend. After all, we both know you did it before."

PART ONE.

CHAPTER ONE.

Paris, November 1940The City of Light had gone dark.Ever since the n.a.z.is had invaded, then seized control of France six months earlier, the world's greatest city had become forlorn and desolate. The qua is along the Seine were deserted. The Arc de Triomphe, the place de l'Etoile those magnificent gleaming landmarks that once lit up the night sky were now gloomy, abandoned. Above the Eiffel Tower, where once the French tricolor rippled, a n.a.z.i swastika flag waved.Paris was quiet. There were hardly any cars on the street anymore, or taxis. Most of the grand hotels had been taken over by the n.a.z.is. Gone was the revelry, the laughter of evening strollers, carousers. Gone, too, were the birds, victims of the smoke from the burning gasoline during the first days of the German incursion.Most people stayed in at night, intimidated by their occupiers, the curfews, the new laws that had been imposed on them, the green-uniformed Wehrmacht soldiers who patrolled the streets with their swinging bayonets, their revolvers. A once-proud city had sunk into despair, famine, fear.Even the aristocratic avenue Foch, the widest, grandest thoroughfare in Paris, lined with handsome white stone facades, seemed windswept and bleak.With a single exception.One hotel particulier, a private mansion, glittered with light. Faint music could be heard from within: a swing orchestra. The tinkle of china and crystal, excited voices, carefree laughter. This was an island of glittering privilege, all the more radiant for its gloomy background.The Hotel de Chatelet was the magnificent residence of the Comte Maurice Leon Philippe du Chatelet and his wife, the legendary and gracious hostess Marie-Helene. The Comte du Chatelet was an industrialist of enormous wealth as well as a minister in the collaborationist Vichy government. Most of all, though, he was known for his parties, which helped sustain tout Paris through the dark days of the occupation.An invitation to a party at the Hotel de Chatelet was an object of social envy sought after, antic.i.p.ated for weeks. Especially these days, with all the rationing and food shortages, when it was just about impossible to get real coffee or b.u.t.ter or cheese, when only the very well connected could get meat or fresh vegetables. An invitation to c.o.c.ktails at the du Chatelets' meant an opportunity to eat one's fill. Here, inside this gracious home, there was not a hint that one lived in a city of brutal deprivation.The party was already in full swing by the time one of the guests, a very late arrival, was admitted by a manservant.The guest was a remarkably handsome young man, in his late twenties, with a full head of black hair, large brown eyes that seemed to twinkle with mischief, an aquiline nose. He was tall and broad, with a trim athletic build. As he handed his topcoat to the maitre d'hotel, the butler, he nodded, smiled, and said, "Bonsoir, merci beaucoup."He was called Daniel Eigen. He had been living in Paris off and on for the last year or so, and he was a regular on the party circuit, where everyone knew him as a wealthy Argentine and an extremely eligible bachelor."Ah, Daniel, my love," crooned Marie-Helene du Chatelet, the hostess, as Eigen entered the crowded ballroom. The orchestra was playing a new song, which he recognized as "How High the Moon." Madame du Chatelet had spotted him from halfway across the room and had made her way over to him with the sort of exuberance she normally reserved for the very rich or the very powerful the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Windsor, say, or the German Military Governor of Paris. The hostess, a handsome woman in her early fifties, wearing a black Balenciaga gown that revealed the cleft of her ample bosom, was clearly besotted with her young guest.Daniel Eigen kissed both her cheeks, and she drew him near for a moment, speaking in French in a low, confiding voice. "I'm so glad you could make it, my dear. I was afraid you might not show up.""And miss a party at Hotel de Chatelet?" Eigen said. "Do you think I've taken leave of my senses?" From behind his back he produced a small box, wrapped in gilt paper. "For you, Madame. The last ounce in all of France."The hostess beamed as she took the box, greedily tore off the paper, and pulled out the square crystal flask of Guerlain perfume. She gasped. "But... but Vol de Nuit can't be bought anywhere!""You're quite right," Eigen said with a smile. "It can't be bought.""Daniel! You're too sweet, too thoughtful. How did you know it's my favorite?"He shrugged modestly. "I have my own intelligence network."Madame du Chatelet frowned, wagged a reproving finger. "And after all you did to procure the Dom Perignon for us. Really, you're too generous. Anyway, I'm delighted you're here handsome young men like you are as rare as hens' teeth these days, my love. You'll have to pardon some of my female guests if they swoon. Those you haven't already conquered, that is." She lowered her voice again. "Yvonne Printemps is here with Pierre Fresnay, but she seems to be on the prowl again, so watch out." She was referring to the famous musical-comedy star. "And Coco Chanel is with her new lover, that German fellow she lives with at the Ritz. She's on a tirade against the Jews again really, it's getting tedious."Eigen accepted a flute of champagne from the silver tray borne by a servant. He glanced around the immense ballroom, with its floor of ancient parquet from a grand chateau, the walls of white and-gold paneling covered at regular intervals with Gobelin tapestries, the dramatic ceiling that had been painted by the same artist who later undertook the ceilings at Versailles.But it was not the decor he was interested in so much as the guests. As he scanned the crowd he recognized quite a few people. There were the usual celebrities: the singer Edith Piaf, who made twenty thousand francs for each evening's performance; Maurice Chevalier; and all sorts of famous cinema stars who were now working for the German-owned film company Continental, run by Goebbels, making movies the n.a.z.is approved of. The usual a.s.sortment of writers, painters, and musicians, who never missed one of these rare opportunities to eat and drink their fill. And the usual French and German bankers, and industrialists who did business with the n.a.z.is and their puppet Vichy regime.Finally, there were the n.a.z.i officers, so prominent on the social circuit these days. All were in their dress uniforms; many affected monocles and had little mustaches like the Fuhrer himself. The German Military Governor, General Otto von Stiilpnagel. The German amba.s.sador to France, Otto Abetz, and the young Frenchwoman he'd married. The Kommandant von Gross-Paris, the elderly General Ernst von Schaumburg, who, with his close-cropped hair and Prussian manner, was known as the Bronze Rock.Eigen knew them all. He saw them regularly, at salons such as this, but more to the point, he'd done favors for most of them. The n.a.z.i masters of France didn't just tolerate the so-called black market; they needed it like everyone else. How else could they get cold cream or face powder for their wives or lovers? Where else could they find a decent bottle of Armagnac? Even the new German rulers of France suffered from the wartime privations.So a black-market dealer like Daniel Eigen was always in demand.He felt a hand on his sleeve. Right away he recognized the diamond-encrusted fingers of a former lover, Agnes Vieillard. Al though he felt a spasm of dread, he turned around, his face lit up in a smile. He had not seen the woman in months.Agnes was a pet.i.te, attractive woman with blazing red hair whose husband, Didier, was a major businessman, a munitions dealer and racehorse owner. Daniel had met the lovely, if overs.e.xed, Agnes at the races, at Longchamp, where she had a private box. Her husband was in Vichy at the time, advising the puppet government. She'd introduced herself to the handsome, wealthy Argentine as a "war widow." Their affair, pa.s.sionate if brief, lasted until her husband returned to Paris."Agnes, ma cherie! Where have you been?""Where have I been? I haven't seen you since that evening at Maxim's." She swayed, ever so slightly, in time to the orchestra's jazzy rendition of "Imagination.""Ah, I remember it well," said Daniel, who barely remembered. "I've been terribly busy my apologies.""Busy? You don't have a job, Daniel," she scolded."Well, my father always said I should find a useful occupation. Now that the whole of France is occupied, I say that gets me off the hook."She shook her head, scowled in an attempt to conceal her involuntary smile. She leaned close. "Didier's in Vichy again. And this party is altogether too full of Boches. Why don't we escape, head over to the Jockey Club? Maxim's is too full of Fritzes these days." She whispered: according to posters on the Metro, anyone who called the Germans "Boches" would be shot. The Germans were hypersensitive to French ridicule."Oh, I don't mind the Germans," Daniel said in an attempt to change the subject. "They're excellent customers.""The soldiers what do you call them, the haricots verts? They're such brutes! So ill-mannered. They're always coming up to women on the street and just grabbing them.""You have to pity them a bit," said Eigen. "The poor German soldier feels he's conquered the world, but he can't catch the eye of a French girl. It's so unfair.""But how to get rid of them ?""Just tell them you're Jewish, mon chou. That'll send them away. Or stare at their big feet that always embarra.s.ses them."Now she couldn't help smiling. "But the way they goose-step down the Champs-Elysees!""You think goose-stepping is easy?" said Daniel. "Try it yourself someday you'll end up on your derriere." He glanced around the room furtively, looking for an escape."Why, just the other day I saw Goring getting out of his car on the rue de la Paix. Carrying that silly field marshal's baton I swear, he must sleep with it! He went into Cartier's, and the manager told me later he bought an eight-million-franc necklace for his wife." She poked Daniel's starched white shirt with her index finger. "Notice he buys French fashion for his wife, not German. The Bodies are always railing against our decadence, but they adore it here.""Well, nothing but the best for Herr Meier.""Herr Meier. What do you mean? Goring's not a Jew.""You know what he said: "If ever a bomb falls on Berlin, my name won't be Hermann Goring; you can call me Meier." "Agnes laughed. "Keep your voice down, Daniel," she stage-whispered.Eigen touched her waist. "There's a gentleman here I have to see, doucette, so if you'll excuse me...""You mean there's another lady who's caught your eye," Agnes said reprovingly, smiling in an exaggerated moue."No, no," chuckled Eigen. "I'm afraid it really is business.""Well, Daniel, my love, the least you can do is get me some real coffee. I can't stand all that ersatz stuff chicory, roasted acorns! Would you, sweetheart?""Of course," he said. "As soon as I possibly can. I'm expecting a shipment in a couple of days."But as soon as he turned away from Agnes, he was accosted by a stern male voice. "Herr Eigen!"Right behind him stood a small cl.u.s.ter of German officers, at the center of which was a tall, regal-looking SS Standartenfuhrer, a colonel, his hair brushed back in a pompadour, wearing tortoisesh.e.l.l gla.s.ses and a small mustache in slavish imitation of his Fuhrer. Standartenfuhrer Jiirgen Wegman had been most useful in getting Eigen a service public license, allowing him to operate one of the very few private vehicles allowed on the streets of Paris. Transportation was a huge problem these days. Since only doctors, firemen, and for some reason leading actors and actresses were allowed to drive their own cars, the Metro was ridiculously overcrowded, and half the stations were closed anyway. There was no petrol to be had, and no taxicabs."Herr Eigen, those Upmanns they were stale.""I'm sorry to hear that, Herr Standartenfuhrer Wegman. Have you been keeping them in a humidor, as I told you?""I have no humidor ""Then I'll have to get you one," Eigen said.One of his colleagues, a portly, round-faced SS Gruppenfuhrer, a brigadier general named Johannes Koller, sn.i.g.g.e.red softly. He had been showing his comrades an a.s.sortment of sepia-toned French postcards. He quickly put them away in the breast pocket of his tunic, but not before Eigen saw them: they were old-fashioned lewd photographs of a statuesque woman wearing only stockings and garter belt and striking a variety of lascivious poses."Please. They were stale when you gave them to me. I don't think they were even from Cuba.""They were from Cuba, Herr Kommandant. Rolled on the thigh of a young Cuban virgin. Here, have one of these, with my compliments." The young man reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a velvet pouch containing several cellophane-wrapped cigars. "Romeo y Julietas. I hear they're Churchill's favorites." He handed one to the German with a wink.A waiter approached with a silver tray of canapes. "Pate de foie gras, gentlemen?"Koller s.n.a.t.c.hed two in one swift movement. Daniel took one."Not for me," Wegman announced sanctimoniously to the waiter and the men around him. "I no longer eat meat.""Not easy to come by these days, eh?" said Eigen."That's not it at all," said Wegman. "As a man ages, he must become a gra.s.s-eating creature, you know.""Yes, your Fuhrer is a vegetarian, isn't he?" Eigen said."Quite right," Wegman said proudly."Though sometimes he swallows up. whole countries," Eigen added in a level tone.The SS man glowered. "You seem to be able to turn up everything and anything, Herr Eigen. Perhaps you can do something about the paper shortage here in Paris.""Yes, it must drive you bureaucrats mad. What is there to push anymore?""Everything is of inferior quality these days," said Gruppen-fuhrer Koller. "This afternoon, I had to go through an entire sheet of postage stamps before I found one that would stick to the envelope.""Are you fellows still using the stamp with Hitler's head on it?""Yes, of course," Koller said impatiently."Perhaps you're licking the wrong side, nein?" Eigen said with a wink.The SS Gruppenfuhrer flushed with embarra.s.sment and cleared his throat awkwardly, but before he could think of a reply, Eigen went on: "You're entirely right, of course. The French simply aren't up to the standards of German production.""Spoken as a true German," said Wegman approvingly. "Even if your mother was Spanish.""Daniel," came a contralto voice. He turned, relieved at the chance to break free from the n.a.z.i officers.It was a large woman in her fifties wearing a gaudy, flouncy floral dress that made her look a little like a dancing circus elephant. Madame Fontenoy wore her unnaturally black hair, run through with a white skunk stripe, up in a bouffant. She had enormous gold earrings that Daniel recognized as louis d'or, the antique gold coin, twenty-two karats each. They pulled at her earlobes. She was the wife of a Vichy diplomat, herself a prominent hostess. "Pardon me," she said to the Germans. "I must steal young Daniel away."Madame Fontenoy's arm was around a slender young girl of around twenty in an off-the-shoulder black evening gown, a raven-haired beauty with luminous gray-green eyes."Daniel," said Madame Fontenoy, "I want you to meet Genevieve du Chatelet, our hostess's lovely daughter. I was astonished to hear she hadn't met you she must be the only single woman in Paris you don't know. Genevieve, this is Daniel Eigen."The girl extended her delicate long-fingered hand, a brief warning look flashing in her eyes. It was a look meant only for Daniel.Daniel took her hand. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said with a bow of his head. As he clasped the young beauty's hand, his forefinger gently scratched her palm, tacitly acknowledging her signal."Mr. Eigen is from Buenos Aires," the dowager explained to the young woman, "but he has a flat on the Left Bank.""Oh, have you been in Paris long?" asked Genevieve du Chatelet without interest, her gaze steady."Long enough," said Eigen."Long enough to know his way around," said Madame Fontenoy, her eyebrows arched."I see," Genevieve du Chatelet said dubiously. Suddenly her eyes seemed to spy someone across the room. "Ah, there's ma grande-tante, Benoite. If you'll excuse me, Madame Fontenoy."As the girl took her leave, her eyes alighted on his, then swept meaningfully in the direction of an adjacent room. He nodded, almost imperceptibly, understanding the semaph.o.r.e at once.After an interminable two minutes of empty chat with the dowager Fontenoy, Daniel excused himself as well. Two minutes:enough time had gone by. He elbowed his way through the thick crowd, smiling and nodding at those who called his name, wordlessly indicating that he couldn't stop because of pressing personal business.A short distance down the grand hallway was the equally grand library. Its walls and inset bookcases were lacquered Chinese red; the rows of volumes leather-bound, ancient, never read. The room was empty, the cacophony from the ballroom a dull, distant murmur. At the far end, sitting on a divan among Aubusson cushions, was Genevieve, ravishing in her black dress, the skin of her naked shoulders pale and magnificent."Oh, thank G.o.d," she whispered urgently. She got to her feet, rushed to Daniel, threw her arms around him. He kissed her long and pa.s.sionately. After a minute she pulled back. "I was so relieved you came tonight. I was dreadfully afraid you'd have other plans.""How can you say that?" Daniel protested. "Why would I pa.s.s up a chance to see you? You're speaking nonsense.""It's just that you're so ... so discreet, so careful not to let my parents know about us. Anyway, you're here. Thank G.o.d. These people are so boring, I thought I'd die. All they talk about is food, food, food."Eigen was stroking his lover's creamy shoulders, running his fingertips down to the swell of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He could smell the aroma of Shalimar, a gift from him. "G.o.d, I've missed you so much," he murmured."It's been almost a week," said Genevieve. "Have you been a bad little boy? No, wait don't answer that. I know your ways, Daniel Eigen.""You can always see through me," Eigen said softly."I don't know about that," Genevieve said archly, her lips pursed. "You're a man of many layers, I think.""Perhaps you could peel a few of them off of me," Daniel said.Genevieve looked shocked, but it was pure affectation, both of them knew. "Not here, where anyone could walk in on us.""No, you're right. Let's go somewhere where we won't be interrupted.""Yes. The second-floor drawing room. No one ever goes in there.""Except your mother," Daniel Eigen said, shaking his head. An idea had just occurred to him. "Your father's study. We can lock the door.""But Father will kill us if he sees us there!"Daniel nodded sadly. "Ah, ma cherie, you're right. We really should rejoin the others, I think."Genevieve looked stricken. "No, no, no!" she said. "I I know where he keeps the key. Come, let's hurry!"He followed her out of the library, through the doorway that gave onto a narrow servants' stairway to the second floor, then a long way down a dark hall, until she stopped at a small alcove, at a white marble bust of Marshal Petain. Daniel's heart was thudding. He was about to attempt something dangerous, and danger always excited him. He liked living on the edge.Genevieve reached behind the statue and nimbly retrieved a skeleton key, then unlocked the double doors of her father's study.The lovely young Genevieve had no idea, of course, that Daniel had been in her father's study before. Several times, in fact, during their secret rendezvous here at the Hotel de Chatelet, in the middle of the night when she was asleep, her parents were traveling, the servants excused for the day.The Comte Maurice Leon Philippe du Chatelet's private study was a very masculine chamber that smelled of pipe tobacco and leather. There was a collection of old walking sticks, an array of Louis XV armchairs upholstered in dark brown leather, a ma.s.sive, ornately carved desk covered with neat piles of doc.u.ments. On the fireplace mantel was a bronze bust of a family member.While Genevieve locked the double doors, Daniel circled the desk, quickly scanning the piles of papers, picking out from among the personal and financial correspondence the most interesting ones. At a glance he could see the dispatches from Vichy concerned top-secret military matters.But before he could do any more than identify the piles of interest, Genevieve had finished locking the doors from the inside and rushed up to him."Over there," she said. "The leather divan."Eigen, however, did not want to move from the desk. He gently pressed her up against the edge of her father's desk as he ran his hands down her body, along her tiny waist, and around to her small, tight b.u.t.tocks, where they paused, gently kneading her flesh. Meanwhile he was kissing her throat, her neck, the tops of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s."Oh, my G.o.d," she moaned. "Daniel." Her eyes were closed.Then Eigen ran his fingertips along the silk-covered cleft of her b.u.t.tocks, softly teasing the private regions, which so distracted her she didn't notice that his right hand had left her posterior and was reaching behind, to one particular stack of doc.u.ments, nimbly lifting the top layer of papers.He hadn't expected this opportunity. He'd have to improvise.Noiselessly he slipped the papers into the vent at the side of his dinner jacket. As the doc.u.ments disappeared into the silk lining of his tuxedo, he slid his left hand up to the zipper at the back of her neck and tugged at it, pulling the fabric down, freeing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, exposing the brown disks of her nipples to the b.u.t.terfly-like tremor of his tongue.The papers, stiff inside the lining of his dinner jacket, made a slight crinkling sound as he moved.Suddenly he froze, c.o.c.ked his head."What?" whispered Genevieve, her eyes wide."Did you hear that?""What?""Footsteps. Near." Daniel's ears were unusually sharp, but he was particularly on the alert now that he was in a compromising situation in more ways than one."No!" She pulled away, fumbling with her dress, pulling it up to cover her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Zip me up, Daniel, please! We have to get out of here! If anyone finds out we're in here !""Shh," he said. Two sets of footsteps, he realized, not just one. From the sound of the shoes on the marble-tiled floor of the hallway just outside, he knew it was two males. The sound echoed, growing louder, coming closer.As Genevieve crept across the room to the locked door, he could make out their voices now. Two men speaking in French, but one had a German accent. One voice, that of the native French speaker, was low and rumbling; he identified it as belonging to the Comte, Genevieve's father. The other was it General von Stiilpnagel, the German Military Governor? He wasn't sure.Genevieve stupidly reached for the key to do what, to unlock the doors, just as her father and his German colleague arrived? Daniel touched her hand, stopped her before she turned the key. Instead, he pulled it from the lock."That way," he whispered. He pointed toward the door at the far end of the study. The last time he'd entered the room it had been through that door. Perhaps Genevieve would think he'd just noticed it, though in her panic she probably wouldn't be thinking clearly at all.She nodded, ran toward the other door. When she'd reached it, he switched off the lights in the room, plunging them into darkness. But Daniel moved easily in darkness, and he had a mental picture of the layout of the room, the obstacles in his way.She gasped when she got to the door, realizing as she turned the k.n.o.b that it was locked. But Daniel produced the key. Had he not done so, the wasted few seconds would have meant they'd be caught. Swiftly he unlocked the door. It stuck a bit as it came open; the door was seldom used. Shoving her into the narrow, dark corridor, he closed the door behind them, deciding not to lock it. The cylinder was somewhat rusty and noisy, and the sound would be heard by the two men.He could hear the main door to the study open, the men enter, conversing with each other.Genevieve clutched at Daniel's arm, her fingernails sharp, claw-like against the silk of his sleeve. If she heard the rustle of the stiff papers inside the lining of his jacket, she seemed not to notice it. "What now?" she whispered."You take the stairs down to the kitchen and return to the party.""But the servants ""They won't know where you came from or why, and in any case, they'll be discreet.""But if you follow, even a few minutes later !""I can't, of course. They'd figure it out, and then you'd be done for.""But where will you go?" She was whispering, but a bit too loudly."Don't worry about me," he said. "I'll catch up with you soon. If your mother asks where I disappeared to, you have no idea, of course." Daniel felt it necessary to spell this out for Genevieve, who wasn't the brightest woman he'd ever met."But where ?" she began.He put his finger to her lips. "Go, ma cherie."She turned to leave, but he touched her shoulder. She turned back, and he gave her a quick kiss on the lips. Then he straightened the neckline of her dress and rapidly made his way up the servants' stairs. The soles of his shoes were rubber, which was even harder to get these days than leather, and almost noiseless.His mind raced, going over what had just happened and where he'd go now. He had known he'd see Genevieve tonight, but he hadn't planned on the opportunity to enter her father's study an opportunity he surely couldn't have pa.s.sed up. But now, with a thick sheaf of doc.u.ments stuffed into his dinner jacket, it wasn't a good idea to return to the crowded party, where anyone might b.u.mp into him, hear them rattle, detect what he was hiding.Still, there were ways around that. He could look for the cloakroom, for his topcoat, pretending if anyone happened to ask that he was searching for his cigarette lighter. There he could transfer the papers to his coat. But there was a risk that he might be seen doing so; the cloakroom was probably not unattended.And that risk was as nothing compared to the far more serious possibility that by returning to the party it would become known that he had been with Genevieve in her father's study. The service stairs led directly into the kitchen, where the servants would see him enter, a few minutes after Genevieve had pa.s.sed through. They would put two and two together. The servants weren't discreet at all, despite what he'd a.s.sured Genevieve, and surely she knew the truth as well: they lived for gossip of this kind.Eigen didn't care a bit about whispers and gossip and rumors. Who cared if Marie-Helene du Chatelet learned that he'd been furtively ca noodling with her daughter? No, it was the chain of revelations that concerned him, for he could see all the way down the chain. The time would come when the Comte realized that certain papers vital to national security had gone missing from his study, and he would immediately ask his wife, his servants. Accusations would fly. One of the cooks, perhaps, in order to defend the household staff, was likely to reveal that she'd seen, the young man coming down the stairs directly from the study.And then, even if the master of the house couldn't be sure that Daniel had stolen the papers, Eigen would be the most likely culprit. And his cover his greatest a.s.set of all would be blown. That he most certainly could not jeopardize.True, there were other ways out of the house. He could take the service stairs to the third floor or the fourth, and he could cross one of the no-doubt dark upper floors to another of the stairways. There he could climb down to the back courtyard, now a garden but once used to park carriages. The courtyard was walled in by a high wooden fence, which was locked. He could vault the fence, but he was certain to be seen doing so from the windows of the ballroom, several of which gave onto the courtyard. A man in a tuxedo running through the back courtyard and jumping the fence no, he'd be spotted at once.There was only one safe way out of the Hotel de Chatelet.In a minute he had reached the top floor, which was the servants' quarters. The ceiling was low and sharply pitched, and the floor here wasn't marble or stone but creaky old pine. There was no one up here: all the servants were downstairs at the party. The young man had done his advance reconnaissance not that he expected trouble, far from it, but because he considered it crucial always to have an emergency exit. That was his modus operandi, and it had saved his life more than once.He knew that there was a way to get out through the roof and that since this mansion was built right up against the neighboring town houses in a block-long row there should be any number of possible escape routes.The Hotel de Chatelet had a mansard roof, into which were set mullioned windows in arched dormers. He saw at a glance that all the windows that led to the roof were located in the front of the building, in the servants' rooms. It was unlikely that any of the servants would lock their rooms; still, he was relieved when he tried the first one he came to and the door came right open.The room was tiny, with little furniture in it besides a single bed and a dresser. It was illuminated by the pale moonlight that filtered in through the dusty window. He ran to the window, ducking his head as he squeezed through the narrow dormer, and grabbed the lever handle. These windows obviously weren't opened often, if at all. With great force, though, he was able to yank one side of the window open, then the other.As the frigid night air flooded in, he looked out and confirmed what he'd noticed when he'd studied the building a few days earlier. The window opened directly onto a steeply sloping tar-covered roof, which dropped precipitously down ten feet or so to a parapet. The parapet, a tall ornamented stone railing, would conceal his movements from pa.s.sersby on the street below. At least, as long as he was maneuvering along the roof of this building. The neighboring buildings, built in other variants of the Second Empire style, didn't have parapets. Well, he'd take whatever cover he could get.The tar on the roof had rippled and bubbled from years, decades, of summer heat. Now it was dusted with snow, slick with ice. It would be treacherous.He'd have to climb out feet first, which wouldn't be easy, since his evening attire constricted his movements. Also, his rubber-soled shoes, though excellent for moving furtively through a house, weren't meant for climbing. This was not going to be easy.Grabbing the top of the window frame, he swung his legs up, then straight out the window. As soon as his shoes. .h.i.t the tar roof, they slid on the ice. Instead of releasing his grip on the inside of the window, he hung there, his body half-outside, dangling. Meanwhile he sc.r.a.ped the soles of his shoes back and forth on the tar until he'd abraded away enough of the ice so that the surface was rough enough to allow him some traction.But he couldn't trust the surface of the roof, not enough to let go of the window. To the left of the window, a few feet away, was a tall brick chimney. He released his right hand, then swung his body around, using his left foot as a pivot point so that he was able to grab hold of the chimney while still holding on to the window sash.The brick was cold and rough in his hand. The roughness was good, though. The mortar between the bricks was old and crumbling, enough for him to sink his fingertips into the cracks and grab on tightly. His body went rigid, his weight balanced, his grip on the chimney bricks secure enough to allow him to release his left hand from the window, fling it around, and grab the chimney, now with both hands.Carefully shuffling his feet along the icy roof, one at a time, he sc.r.a.ped with his shoes until he had another reliable spot to stand on. Now he was close enough to the chimney that he was able to hug it, in an approximation of a rock climber's grip. Daniel's upper-body strength was considerable, and he needed all of it to pull himself up the chimney, scrambling his feet against the tar until he found another foothold.He knew that in the last century thieves often traveled this way from town house to town house. He'd done it a few times himself and knew it was much harder than it looked. But he doubted any thief was insane, or suicidal, enough to clamber around this way in the ice and snow of a Paris winter.Daniel scaled the chimney a few feet until he reached a low brick wall that separated this roof from the adjoining one. The next roof, he was relieved to see, was not tar but terra-cotta barrel tiles. They might be slick with ice, but their undulating surface would provide some traction. He found he was able to lumber up the tiles fairly easily. The ridge of this roof was not pointed, he saw, but flat, a curb about two feet wide. As he climbed up onto the curb, he tested his footing and found it secure. Now he was able to make his way across the roof, carefully balancing his weight, swaying slightly as if walking on a tightrope.Far down below was the avenue Foch, dark and deserted, its streetlights extinguished in this time of electrical shortages. He knew that if he could see the street, anyone on the street could see him, since there was no parapet to obstruct the view.And there were other ways he could be spotted. Anyone looking out the window of a flat on one of the higher floors of a nearby building would see him. People were abnormally vigilant these days, with talk of saboteurs and spies. n.o.body who saw a man climbing across the roof of a building would hesitate to call La Maison, the Prefecture de Police. It was a time of the anonymous letter of denunciation, when the great threat bandied about by Frenchmen was to tell the Kommandantur. The risks of Daniel's being spotted were real.He moved more quickly, as fast as he dared, until he reached the low brick wall that separated this building from the next. The roof on the next was a mansard, like that of the Hotel de Chatelet, but it was tiled in slate. It also had a flat curb at the ridge-line, though this one was narrower than the last, no more than a foot or so.He advanced across it carefully, sliding one foot after another. He looked down at the avenue, and for an instant he was overcome with fear, but he focused his mind on the importance of his mission, and in a moment the scare pa.s.sed.In thirty seconds or so he'd reached the next dividing wall. This was a thick stone wall into which was set a row of clay vent pipes and chimney pots. Smoke plumed from a few of the vents, indicating that the occupants of the house below were among the privileged few in Paris who had coal to burn for heat. He reached up to grab a vent, which was cold to the touch, then the one next to it, and as he hoisted himself up, he noticed something interesting.The stone wall projected a good ways out from the roof into the backyard of the town house. About ten feet from the roof eaves a line of iron rungs were set into the wall, going all the way from the top of the wall down to the dark courtyard below. The rungs were used as ladders by chimney sweeps to gain access to the flues.For a moment, Daniel was stumped. The rungs were too far off. He couldn't stand on the stone wall and try to maneuver among the vents: the wall wasn't quite wide enough at the top. He had no choice but to reach back up to the clay pipes, grab hold of one and then the next and the next, his legs swinging, advancing laterally, bit by bit, across the face of the wall like an ape. The vent pipes were cylindrical and of a narrow enough diameter that he was able to hold on to each one securely.He sidled this way for a few minutes until he reached the column of iron rungs. He grabbed the top one at the same time as he swung his feet over to a lower rung. Now he was able to climb down the rungs, slowly at first and then more quickly, until he'd descended to the ground.For a moment he stood there in the deserted courtyard. The windows of the town house that overlooked the yard were dark. Judging from the smoke rising from the vent pipes, the house was occupied, though its inhabitants were probably asleep. He walked slowly, quietly, across the cobblestones. Set into the tall wooden fence was a gate, which was locked. Compared to what he'd just been through, "this was barely a challenge. He climbed up the fence, vaulted over it, and entered an alley behind the avenue Foch.Daniel knew this part of the city well. He sauntered down the alley, resisting the impulse to run, until he reached the narrow side street. He patted his jacket, felt the papers still in place.This street was dark, eerily deserted.He pa.s.sed the darkened windows of a bookshop that had once been owned by a Jew and had been taken over by the Germans. A large white billboard covered its sign, the word frontbuch-hand lung in black Gothic lettering nestled among swastikas. Once it had been an elegant foreign bookstore; now it was foreign in another way: it sold nothing but German books.Traces of the Germans were all over the place, but strangely, they hadn't demolished any of the famous landmarks, any of the beloved buildings. The n.a.z.is hadn't tried to eliminate Paris as it had always been known. Instead, they wanted simply to annex it to make Europe's crown jewel theirs. But there was something peculiarly slapdash and temporary about the way the n.a.z.is had put down their imprint. Like the white frontbuchhand-lung poster that had been hastily pasted over the bookstore's engraved sign. All that big white cloth could be removed in an instant. It was as if they didn't want to scratch their new jewel. When they'd first tried to put up the swastika flag over the Eiffel Tower, it had ripped in the wind and they'd had to put up another. Even Hitler had visited for only a few hours, like an abashed sightseer. He hadn't even spent the night. Paris didn't want them, and they knew it.So they put up their posters all over the place. He saw them on the walls of the buildings he pa.s.sed, pasted up so high they could barely be seen, but there was a reason for that: when the Germans put them at eye level, their stupid placards were inevitably torn down or defaced. Some angry Parisian would scribble on them: "Death to the Boche!" or "G.o.d bless England!"He glimpsed a poster of a portly Winston Churchill smoking a cigar and grinning, while next to him stood a woman with a scrawny, screaming baby in her arms. "See what the blockade is doing to your children?" the slogan said. They meant the British blockade, but everyone knew that was nonsense. Even on this one, posted up so high, someone had scrawled: "How about our potatoes?" Everyone was angry: all the potatoes grown by French farmers were sent to Germany; that was the truth.Another poster, this one just words: Etes-vous en regie? Are your papers in order? Or, Are you in order? You always had to have your papers with you, your carte d'ident.i.te, in case you were stopped by a French gendarme or some fonctionnaire they were worse than the German soldiers.The young man always had his papers with him. Several sets, in fact. In different names, different nationalities. They enabled him to make the quick changes he so often was forced to do.Finally he arrived at his destination: an ancient, crumbling brick building in an anonymous block. A decrepit wooden sign hung from a forged iron bracket: le caveau. The cellar. It was a bar, located below street level, down a small flight of decaying brick steps. Blackout shades had been drawn in its single, small window, but light peeked out on either side.He glanced at his watch. It was after midnight, just past the curfew that Ces Messieurs the n.a.z.is had imposed on Paris.This bar, however, hadn't closed. The gendarmes and the n.a.z.is looked the other way, allowed it to operate late into the night. Bribes had been paid, the right palms greased, free drinks dispensed.He climbed down the steps and pulled at the old-fashioned crank doorbell, three times. Inside he could hear the buzzer sound, over the cacophony of voices and jazz music.In a few seconds, a dot of light appeared in the peephole in the center of the ma.s.sive black-paned wooden door. The light flickered, as someone checked him out, and then the door swung open to admit him.The place was truly a caveau uneven, cracked stone floor, sticky with spilled drink; buckled brick walls; a low ceiling. The place was thick with smoke, and it stank of sweat, stale tobacco cheap tobacco, at that bad wine. Tinny music played from a radio. Along the scarred wooden bar sat six or seven rough-looking workingmen and one woman, who looked like a prost.i.tute. They looked up at him, vaguely curious and at the same time hostile.The bartender, who had let him in, greeted him. "Long time, Daniel," said Pasquale, a scrawny old man as weathered as his bar. "But I'm always happy to see you." He smiled, exposing an uneven row of brown tobacco-stained teeth and two gold ones. He leaned his leathery face close. "Still can't get Gitanes?""I think I've got a shipment coming in tomorrow, the day after.""Excellent. They're not still a hundred francs, are they?""More." He lowered his voice. "For others. For you, the special bartender's discount."His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "How much?" Free.Pasquale laughed heartily, a rattling, smoker's laugh. Eigen couldn't imagine what kind of merde the bartender normally smoked. "Your terms are reasonable," he said, returning to his place behind the bar. "Can I get you a c.o.c.ktail?"Eigen shook his head."Le scotch whisky? Cognac? You need to use the phone?" He gestured to the phone booth at the far end of the bar, whose gla.s.s had been broken by Pasquale, as a warning to his patrons to guard their tongues. Even here, where strangers weren't admitted, you couldn't be sure who was listening."No, thanks. Just the we."Pasquale's eyebrows shot up for a second; then he nodded, understanding. He was a coa.r.s.e, cantankerous fellow, but he was the soul of discretion. He knew who really paid his rent, and he hated the Germans as much as anyone else. Two of his beloved nephews had died in the battle of the Ardennes. But he never, ever talked politics. He did his job, served his drinks, and that was that.As Eigen walked the length of the bar, he heard someone snarl, "Espece de sans-carte!" Cardless person the standard imprecation uttered against black marketers. Obviously he'd overheard what Eigen and Pasquale had been discussing. Well, that couldn't be helped.At the end of the long, narrow room, where it was so dim Eigen could hardly see a thing, was a doorway that opened onto a set of wooden stairs in poor repair. They groaned and squeaked as he made his way down. The odor of urine and feces was strong, even though the door to the doubtless even more foul-smelling we had been left closed by a thoughtful patron.Instead of entering the toilet, however, Eigen opened the door to a broom closet. He entered, stepping over and through buckets, mops, and jugs of cleaning solution. A short-handled broom was mounted on the rear wall. He grabbed the handle it was actually mounted quite firmly on the wall and pulled it down, counterclockwise. As he did so, he pushed, and the wall, which was in fact a door, swung open.Now he stepped into another dark area, maybe six feet square, mildew-smelling and dusty. The foot traffic from the bar above was audible. Directly in front of him was a steel door that had recently been painted black.There was a doorbell here, far more contemporary than the one outside the bar. He pressed it twice, then once more.A gruff voice came from within. "Oui?""It's Marcel," the man known as Eigen said.In French, the voice continued: "What do you want?""I have some goods that might interest you.""Like what?""I can get you some b.u.t.ter.""From where?""A shed near the Porte des Lilas.""How much?""Fifty-two francs a kilo.""That's twenty more than the official rate.""Yes, but the difference is, I can actually get it for you." I see.A pause, and then the door opened with a mechanical click, then a pneumatic sigh.A small, neat young man with ruddy cheeks, black hair worn in high bangs a la Julius Caesar, and round black gla.s.ses gave a crooked smile."Well, well, well. Stephen Metcalfe, in the flesh," the man said in a Yorkshire accent. "Done up like a dog's dinner. What've you got for us, mate?"

CHAPTER TWO.

Stephen Metcalfe aka Daniel Eigen, aka Nicolas Mendoza, aka Eduardo Moretti, aka Robert Whelan pulled the door closed behind him, making sure it sealed. The steel door was set into a rubber gasket, a soundproofing measure.The entire room he was entering was, of course, soundproofed, using the most advanced technology available. It was actually a room-within-a-room, double-walled, resting on and surrounded by steel plates, six-inch rubber walls; even the air ducts were insulated with rubber and fibergla.s.s. It was low-ceilinged, the inner walls constructed of new cinder block painted U.S. Army gray.Not much of the shiny new gray paint was visible, though, for the entire perimeter of the room was lined with complicated-looking consoles. Even Metcalfe, who came by at least weekly, didn't know what half of it was. Some of the equipment he recognized Mark XV and Paraset shortwave radio transceivers, teletypewriters, scrambler telephones, an M-209 cipher machine, wire recorders.The consoles were manned by two young fellows wearing headphones and taking notes on pads, their faces bathed in the eerie green glow emanating from the round cathode-tube screens. They were wearing gloves, carefully turning k.n.o.bs, calibrating frequencies. The stat icky Morse signals they monitored were bolstered by aerial cables that ran throughout the building which was owned by a sympathetic Frenchman to the roof.Every time Metcalfe paid a visit to the Cave, as this clandestine outstation was called no one remembered whether the nickname came from the bar upstairs, Le Caveau, or from the fact that the base resembled an electronic cave he was impressed with the array of equipment. All of it had been smuggled into France in parts via ship or parachuted in, and all of it was strictly outlawed, of course, by the n.a.z.i occupiers. Simple possession of a shortwave radio transmitter could send you to the firing squad.Stephen Metcalfe was one of a handful of agents who operated out of Paris for an Allied network of spies whose existence was unknown but to a handful of powerful men in Washington and London. Metcalfe had met few of the other agents. That was the way the network operated. Each part of the network was kept separate from the others; everything was compartmented. One node never knew what the other node was up to. Security dictated the procedures.Here in the Cave, three young radiotelegraph operators and cipher clerks monitored and initiated covert radio links with London, with Washington, and with a far-reaching web of deep-cover agents in the field, in Paris, in the other cities of the occupied zone of France, and across Europe. The men two Brits and one American were the very best, trained by the Royal Corps of Signals at Thame Park near Oxford and then at Special Training School 52. Qualified radiotelegraph operators were rare these days, and the British were far ahead of the Americans in training personnel.A radio, tuned to the BBC, was playing low: the wireless was closely monitored for encoded signals delivered in the form of curious "personal messages" before the evening news broadcast. At a small folding table in the center of the room, a chess game had been abandoned. Evening was the busiest time, when the radio frequencies were least crowded and they could transmit and receive most easily.The walls were lined with maps of Europe, of the borders and coastlines of France, of each arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Paris. There were navigation charts, topographical maps, charts of ship and cargo movements in Ma.r.s.eille, detailed maps of naval bases. Yet the room was not entirely devoid of human touches: amid the maps and charts was a Life magazine cover photo of Rita Hayworth, and another magazine clipping, of Betty Grable sunbathing.Derek Compton-Jones, the ruddy-cheeked man who'd opened the door for him, clasped Metcalfe's hand, shook it hard. "Glad you're back safe and sound, mate," he said solemnly."You say that every time," Metcalfe teased. "Like you're disappointed.""b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l!" Compton-Jones spluttered. He looked at once embarra.s.sed and indignant. "Anyone tell you we're in the middle of a war?""That right?" Metcalfe replied. "Come to think of it, there did seem to be an awful lot of military uniforms out there."One of the men wearing headphones and sitting at a console across the room turned to look at Compton-Jones and remarked wearily, "Maybe if he kept his w.i.l.l.y in his trousers, he might notice what's happening outside of the bedrooms he spends so much time in." The adenoidal voice and upper-cla.s.s British accent belonged to Cyril Langhorne, an ace cryptographer and cipher clerk.The other one, Johnny Betts, from Pittsburgh, a topflight radiotelegraph operator, turned and said, "Roger that.""Ha," said Langhorne. "Stephen here would roger anything in a skirt."Compton-Jones laughed, blushing. Metcalfe joined the laughter good-naturedly, then said, "I think maybe you boffins need to get out a little more. I ought to take you all over to One Two Two." They all knew he was talking about the famous bordello at 122 rue de Provence."I'm all set there," boasted Compton-Jones. "I've got a regular girl now." He winked at the others and added, "I'll be seeing her later on after I pick up the latest shipment of spare parts.""That your idea of a deep penetration of France?" asked Langhorne.Compton-Jones's face turned an even deeper crimson, while Metcalfe roared with laughter. He liked the men who worked here, particularly Compton-Jones. He often referred to Langhorne and Betts as the Bobbsey Twins, though they looked nothing alike. Their Morse and cipher work was the crux of the operation. It was grueling and tense, and Metcalfe knew that their j.a.pery was one of the few ways they had of relieving the grinding tension. They also considered Metcalfe their own personal Errol Flynn and regarded him with a combination of jealousy and awe.He c.o.c.ked his head, listening to the music playing low from the radio. " "In the Mood," " he said. "Good old American music that's Glenn Miller, broadcasting from the Cafe Rouge in New York City.""No, sorry," corrected Compton-Jones, "I'm afraid that's the Joe Loss Orchestra, mate. From London. That's their signature tune.""Well, I'm glad you guys have all that leisure time to listen to the radio," Metcalfe said. "Because somebody's got to do some work."He reached inside his dinner jacket and pulled out from its lining the wad of papers, somewhat the worse for wear. He held them aloft, smiling proudly. "Complete plans of the German sub base at Saint-Nazaire, including details on the U-boat pens, even the water-locks system.""Good show!" marveled Compton-Jones.Langhorne looked impressed despite himself. "Get that from your little Gestapo crumpet?""No, actually, from the private study of the Comte Maurice Leon Philippe du Chatelet.""The Vichy a.r.s.e hole Langhorne said."The very one.""You're cod ding me! How'd you get into his private study?"Metcalfe inclined his head. "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell, Cyril," he mock-scolded."His wife! Good Lord, Stephen, have you no pride? The madames an old mare!""And the mademoiselles quite a little filly. Now we've got to smuggle this out to a courier as soon as possible and fly it over to Corky in New York. I also need you to key in a digest of this and put it over the airwaves for further a.n.a.lysis."He meant, of course, Alfred "Corky" Corcoran. His boss. The brilliant spymaster who ran the private network of agents that included Metcalfe.Private network: they answered only to Corcoran, not to some government agency, not to a committee. But there was nothing illegal about this, nothing extra governmental For it was the inspiration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself.It was a strange time in America. Europe was at war, but America was not. America watched, waited. The voices of isolationism were loud and strong. As were the voices that argued pa.s.sionately that the United States must get involved, must attack Hitler and defend her European friends or all of Europe would be under the sway of n.a.z.i Germany and it would be too late. Then Hitler would be an overwhelming foe.Yet there was no centralized intelligence agency. Roosevelt desperately needed reliable, unbiased information on what the n.a.z.is were really up to, on how strong the resistance to Hitler was. Would Britain survive the war? Roosevelt didn't trust Military Intelligence, which was amateurish at best, and he despised the State Department, which was both isolationist and p.r.o.ne to leak to every newspaper around.So, late in 1939, Franklin Roosevelt called in an old friend and fellow Harvard man. Alfred Corcoran had served in G-2 Military Intelligence during the First World War, then attained great prominence within the top-secret world of MI-8 known as the "Black Chamber," the New York-based code-breaking unit that cracked j.a.pan's diplomatic ciphers in the 1920s. After the Black Chamber was shut down, in 1929, Corcoran played a major behind-the-scenes role in resolving a series of diplomatic crises throughout the 1930s, from Manchuria to Munich.FDR knew that Corky was the best and most important, FDR knew he could trust him.With funding buried in the White House budget, and the full backing of the President, Corky set up his shop, deliberately outside of the gossipy corridors of Washington. His top-secret private intelligence ring, which reported directly to the White House, was headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York, disguised as an international trading firm.Corcoran had a free hand to hire the best and the brightest, and he drew heavily from the young graduates of the Ivy League colleges, well-bred young men who would be comfortable in the rarefied social circles of Europe. So many of his recruits came from the Social Register, in fact, that wags began to call Corco-ran's network the Register, and the nickname stuck. One of his earliest hires was a young Yale graduate named Stephen Metcalfe.The son of a millionaire industrialist and his Russian wife Stephen's mother had come from a n.o.ble family that had left the country before the Revolution Stephen had traveled widely with his family and had been schooled in Switzerland. He spoke German, Russian, French, and Spanish fluently, virtually without accent: the Metcalfes had extensive holdings in Argentina and spent part of winter there for years. Too, the Metcalfes did a steady trade with the Russian government.Stephen's brother, Howard the reliable one now ran the family's business empire, since the death of their father four years ago. Stephen would occasionally join Howard, travel with him, a.s.sist in whatever ways he could, but he refused to be tied down by the responsibility of running a major business.He was also fearless, rebellious, and fun-loving to excess qualities that Corcoran insisted would be useful in his new cover, as an Argentine playboy in Paris.Derek Compton-Jones cleared his throat nervously. "No need to dispatch a courier, actually," he said.Langhorne looked up, then quickly looked back at his console."Oh really? You have a faster way to get it to Manhattan?" said Metcalfe.Just then the door at the far end of the room opened.It was a face he did not expect to see: the grave, drawn face of Alfred Corcoran.

CHAPTER THREE.

The old man was dressed fastidiously, as always. His tie was tied in an elegant four-in-hand. His charcoal-gray suit emphasized his rail-thin frame. He smelled of peppermint, as he usually did he was addicted to Pep-O-Mint Life Savers and he was smoking a cigarette. He gave a hacking cough.Compton-Jones immediately returned to his station, and the room fell silent. The high spirits had evaporated at once."Christ on a raft, these d.a.m.ned French smokes are G.o.dawful! I ran out of Chesterfields on the airboat over here, somewhere over Newfoundland. Stephen, why don't you ingratiate yourself with your boss and get me some American tobacco? Aren't you supposed to be a d.a.m.ned black marketeer?"Metcalfe stammered a bit as he came forward and shook Corky's hand. In his left hand he clutched the stolen doc.u.ments. "Of course ... Corky... what are you doing ?" Corcoran was far from a desk jockey: he made frequent trips into the field. But travel into occupied Paris was difficult, complicated, and decidedly risky. He didn't often come to Paris. There must be a good reason why he was here."What am I doing here?" replied Corcoran. "The real question is, what are you doing here?" He turned, headed back toward the room he'd just come from, and gestured for Metcalfe to follow.Metcalfe closed the door behind him. Obviously the old man wanted to speak in private. There was an urgency about Corky that Metcalfe hadn't seen before.The adjacent room stored an array of equipment including a German-letter typewriter for issuing pa.s.ses and ID cards. There was also a small printing press, used in simple doc.u.mentary forgery most of the serious work was done in New York or London for creating French travel and work permits. One table held an a.s.sortment of rubber stamps, including a good copy of a German censor stamp. In one corner of the room, near a rack of uniforms, was an oak desk piled with papers. A green-shaded library lamp cast a circle of light.Corcoran sat down at the desk chair and motioned for Metcalfe to sit. The only other place was an army cot against the wall. Metcalfe sat, anxious. He placed the bundle of stolen papers on the cot beside him.For a long while Corcoran regarded him in silence. His eyes were a pale, watery gray behind his flesh-colored horn-rimmed gla.s.ses."I'm sorely disappointed in you, Stephen," Corcoran said softly. "I established you here at the enormous expense of scarce resources, and what do you have to show for it?""Sir," Metcalfe began.But Corcoran was not to be deterred. "Civilization as we know it is being engulfed by Hitler's devouring maw. The n.a.z.is have conquered Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and now France. They forced the British to turn tail at Dunkirk. They're bombing London to pieces. The man has the whole sandbox to himself. Good G.o.d, young man, this may be the end of the free world. And you you're unlacing bus tiers for G.o.d's sake!" He pulled out a roll of Pep-O-Mint Life Savers and popped one in his mouth.Metcalfe, meanwhile, s.n.a.t.c.hed the papers from the cot, brandished them at his boss and mentor. "Sir, I've just laid my hands on the top-secret plans for the German strategic naval base on the Atlantic coast, at Saint-Nazaire ""Yes, yes," Corcoran interrupted impatiently, crunching on a Life Saver. "The German improvements to the wa