Covert One 3 - The Paris Option (3 page)

he grumbled suspiciously. “Nothing is for free.”

The stranger nodded agreeably. “True. Still, how would you and your family enjoy a holiday?”

"Ehs-mah-lee.

A holiday?“ Farouk asked bitterly. ”You suggest the impossible."

The man spoke a higher-class Arabic than Farouk did, if with some odd accent, perhaps Iraqi or Saudi. But he was not Iraqi, Saudi, or Algerian. He was a white European, older than Farouk, wiry and darkly tanned. As the stranger waved for the waiter to bring more coffee, Farouk al Hamid noted that he was well dressed, too, but again from no particular nation he could identify, and he could identify most. It was a game he played to keep his mind from his weary muscles, the long hours of mindless labor, the impossibility of rising in this new world.

“For you, yes,” the old stranger agreed. “For me, no. I am a man who can make the impossible possible.”

"La.

No, I will not kill."

“I haven't asked you to. Nor will you be asked to steal or sabotage.”

Farouk paused, his interest growing. “Then how will I pay for this grand holiday?”

“Merely by writing a note to the hospital in your own hand. A note in French saying you're ill and you've sent your cousin Mansour to take your place for a few days. In exchange, I'll give you cash.”

“I do not have a cousin.”

“All Algerians have cousins. Haven't you heard?”

“That is true. But I have none in Paris.”

The stranger smiled knowingly. “He has only now arrived from Algiers.”

Farouk felt a leap inside him. A holiday for his wife, for the children. For him. The man was right, no one in Paris would know or care who came into work at the mammoth Pompidou Hospital, only that the work was done and for small money. But what this fellow, or someone else, wanted would not be good. Stealing drugs, perhaps. On the other hand, they were all heathens anyway, and it was none of his affair. Instead, he concentrated on the joy of going home to his family to tell them they would be holidayinghellip;where?

“I would like to see the Mediterranean again,” Farouk said tentatively, watching the man closely for a sign that he was asking too much. “Capri, perhaps. I have heard Capri's beaches are covered by silver sand. It will be very expensive.”

“Then Capri it is. Or Porto-Vecchio. Or, for that matter, Cannes or Monaco.”

As the place names rolled off the stranger's tongue, magical, full of promises, Farouk al Hamid smiled deep into his tired, hungry soul and said, “Tell me what you wish me to write.”

Bordeaux, France

A few hours later, the telephone rang in a shabby rooming house tucked among the wine warehouses on the banks of the Garonne River outside the southern city of Bordeaux. The only occupant of the room was a small, pasty-faced man in his mid-twenties who sat on the edge of his cot, staring at the ringing phone. His eyes were wide with fear, his body trembling. From the river, shouts and the deep braying of barge horns penetrated the dismal room, and the youth, whose name was Jean-Luc Massenet, jerked like a plastic puppet on a string as each loud noise sounded. He did not pick up the telephone.

When the ringing finally stopped, he took a notepad from the briefcase at his feet and began to write shakily, his speed accelerating as he rushed to record what he remembered. But after a few minutes, he thought better of it. He swore to himself, tore off the sheet of paper, crumpled it into a wad, and hurled it into the wastebasket. Disgusted and afraid, he slapped the notepad down onto the little table and decided there was no other solution than to leave, to run away again.

Sweating, he grabbed the briefcase and hurried toward the door.

But before he could touch the knob, a knock sounded. He froze. He watched the door handle turn slowly right and left, the way a mouse watches the swaying head of a cobra.

“Is that you in there, Jean-Luc?” The voice was low, the French a native's. Surely whoever spoke was no more than an inch from the door. “Captain Bonnard here. Why don't you answer your phone? Let me in.”

Jean-Luc shuddered with relief. He tried to swallow, but his throat was as dry as a desert. Fingers fumbling, he unlocked the door and flung it open onto the dreary hallway.

"Bonjour, mon Capitaine.

How did you?" Jean-Luc began.

But with a gesture from the brisk, compact officer who strode into the room, he fell silent, respectful of the power of the man who wore the uniform of an elite French paratroop regiment. Captain Bonnard's troubled gaze took in every detail of the cheap room before he turned to Jean-Luc, who was still standing motionless in the open doorway.

“You appear frightened, Jean-Luc. If you think you're in such great danger,” he said dryly, “I suggest you close the door.” The captain had a square face, reassuring in its strong, clear gaze. His blond hair was clipped short around his ears in the military way, and he exuded a confidence to which Jean-Luc gratefully clung.

Jean-Luc's ashen face flushed a hot pink. “Ihellip;I'm sorry, Captain.” He shut the door.

“You should be. Now, what's this all about? You say you're on vacation. In Arcachon, right? So why are you here now?”

“H-hiding, sir. Some men came looking for me there at my hotel. Not just any men. They knew my name, where I lived in Paris, everything.” He paused, swallowed hard. “One of them pulled out a gun and threatened the front desk manhellip;.I overheard it all! How did they know I was there? What did they want? They looked as if they'd come to kill me, and I didn't even know why. So I sneaked out and got to my car and drove away. I was sitting in a hidden cove I'd found, just listening to the radio and trying to decide whether I could go back to get the rest of my luggage, when I heard the news about the horrible tragedy at the Pasteur. Thathellip;that Dr. Chambord's presumed dead. Do you have any news? Is he okay?”

Captain Bonnard shook his head sorrowfully. “They know he was working late that night in his lab, and no one's seen him since. It's pretty clear to the investigators that it's going to take at least another week to search through the rubble. They found two more bodies this afternoon.”

“It's too terrible. Poor Dr. Chambord! He was so good to me. Always saying I was working too hard. I hadn't had a vacation, and he's the one who insisted I go.”

The captain sighed and nodded. “But go on with your story. Tell me why you think the men wanted you.”

The research assistant wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Of course, once I knew about the Pasteur and Dr. Chambordhellip;it all made sense, why they were after me. So I ran away again, and I didn't stop running until I found this boardinghouse. No one knows me here, and it's not on the usual routes.”

"Je comprends.

And that's when you called me?"

"Oui.

I didn't know what else to do."

But now the captain seemed confused. “They came after you because Emile Chambord was caught in the explosion? Why? That makes no sense, unless you're saying the bombing was no simple matter.”

Jean-Luc nodded emphatically. “There's nothing important about me except that I'mI wasthe laboratory assistant to the great Emile Chambord. I think the bomb was intended to murder him.”

“But why, for God's sake? Who would want to kill him?”

“I don't know who, Captain, but I think it was because of his molecular computer. When I left, he was ninety-nine percent certain he'd made an operational one. But you know how he could be, such a perfectionist. He didn't want word to get out, not even a hint, until he was one hundred percent sure it worked. You understand how significant a machine like that would be? A lot of people would kill him, me, and anyone else to get their hands on a real DNA computer.”

Captain Bonnard scowled. “We found no evidence of such a success. But then, there's a mountain of debris as high as the Alps. Are you sure of what you say?”

He nodded. “Bien sr. I was with him every step of the way. I mean, I didn't understand a lot of what he did, but . . .” He hesitated as a new fear made him rigid. “His computer was destroyed? You didn't find his notes? The proof?”

“The lab is rubble, and there was nothing on the Pasteur's mainframe.”

“There wouldn't be. He was worried it could be accessed too easily, perhaps even hacked into by spies. So he kept his data in a notebook, locked into his lab safe. The whole project was in the notes in his safe!”

Bonnard groaned. “That means we can never reproduce his work.”

Jean-Luc said cautiously, “Maybe we can.”

“What?” The captain frowned. “What are you telling me, Jean-Luc?”

“That perhaps we can reproduce his work. We can build a DNA computer without him.” Jean-Luc hesitated as he fought back a shudder of fear. “I think that's why those armed men came to Arcachon, looking for me.”

Bonnard stared. “You have a copy of his notes?”

“No, I have my own notes. They're not as full as his, I admit. I didn't understand everything he did, and he'd forbidden either me or the strange American helping him to make notes. But I secretly copied down nearly everything from memory up to the end of last week. That's when I left for vacation. I'm sure my record isn't as complete or as detailed as his, but I think it'd be enough for another expert in the field to follow and maybe even improve on.”

“Your notes?” Bonnard appeared excited. “You took them with you on vacation? You have them now?”

“Yessir.” Jean-Luc patted the briefcase at his feet. “I never let them out of my sight.”

“Then we'd better move, and fast. They could be tracking you from the village and be only minutes away.” He strode to the window and looked down on the nighttime street. “Come here, Jean-Luc. Does anyone look like them? Anyone suspicious? We need to be certain, so we'll know whether to use the inn's front or back door.”

Jean-Luc approached Captain Bonnard at the open window. He studied the activity below, illuminated in the glow of street lamps. Three men were entering a waterfront bar, and two were leaving. A half dozen others rolled barrels from a warehouse, one barrel after another in a parade, and hoisted them into the open bed of a truck. A homeless man sat with his feet in the street, his head nodding forward as if he were dozing off.

Jean-Luc scrutinized each person. “No, sir, I don't see them.”

Captain Bonnard made a sound of satisfaction in his throat. “Bon. We must move swiftly, before the thugs can find you. Grab your briefcase. My Jeep is around the corner. Let's go.”

“Merci!”

Jean-Luc hurried back to his briefcase, grabbed it, and rushed onward to the door.

But as soon as the young man had faced away, Bonnard grabbed a thick pillow from the cot with one hand while, with the other, he reached for the holster at the small of his back and slid out a 7.65mm Le Franccedil;aise Militaire pistol with a specially crafted silencer. It was an old weapon, the manufacture of the line ending in the late 1950s. The serial number, which had been stamped into the right rear chamber area of the barrel, was now filed off. There was no safety device, so anyone who carried the Militaire had to be very careful. Bonnard liked the feeling of that small danger, and so for him, such a gun was merely a challenge.

As he followed Massenet, he called out softly, “Jean-Luc!”

His youthful face full of eagerness and relief, Jean-Luc turned. Instantly he saw the weapon and the pillow. Surprised, still not quite understanding, he reached out a protesting hand. “Captain?”

“Sorry, son. But I need those notes.” Before the research assistant could speak again, could even move, Captain Darius Bonnard clamped the pillow around the back of his head, pushed the silenced muzzle against his temple, and pulled the trigger. There was a popping sound. Blood, tissue, and pieces of skull exploded into the pillow. The bullet burned itself through and lodged in the plaster wall.

Still using the pillow to protect the room from blood, Captain Bonnard supported the corpse to the bed. He laid the body out, the pillow beneath the head, and removed the silencer from the gun. He dropped the silencer into his pocket and pressed the gun into Jean-Luc's left hand. As soon as he arranged the pillow just so, he put his hand over Jean-Luc's and squeezed the trigger once more. The noise was thunderous, shocking in the tiny room, even to Captain Bonnard, who was expecting it.

This was a rough waterfront area, but still the sound of a gunshot would attract attention. He had little time. First he checked the pillow. The second shot had been perfect, going through so closely to the first hole that it looked like one large perforation. And now there would be powder burns on Jean-Luc's hand to satisfy the medical examiner that he, distraught over the loss of his beloved Dr. Chambord, had committed suicide.

Moving quickly, the captain found a notepad with indentations that indicated writing on the previous sheet. From the wastebasket he seized the single crumpled paper and pushed it and the notepad into his uniform pocket without taking the time to decipher either. He checked under the bed and under every other piece of old furniture. There was no closet. He dug the first bullet out of the wall and moved a battered bureau six inches to the left to hide the hole.

As he snatched up Jean-Luc's briefcase, the rise-and-fall scream of a police siren began in the distance. His heart palpitating with the rush of adrenaline, he analyzed the sound. Oui, it was heading here. With his usual control, he forced his careful gaze to survey the room once more. At last, satisfied that he had missed nothing, he opened the door. As Captain Bonnard vanished into the gloom of the upstairs hall, the police car screeched to a stop in front of the rooming house.

Paris, France Tuesday, May 6

The C-17 cargo jet that had left Buckley Air Force Base near Denver on Monday for a previously scheduled pole route to Munich carried a single passenger whose name appeared nowhere on its personnel roster or manifest. The big jet made an unscheduled stop in Paris in the dark at 0600 hours Tuesday, ostensibly to pick up a package that was needed in Munich. A U.S. Air Force staff car met the cargo jet, and a man in the uniform of a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel carried a sealed metal box, which was empty, onboard. He stayed there. But when the aircraft flew off some fifteen minutes later, the nonexistent passenger was no longer aboard.