`It's impossible,' was Brunner's immediate reaction. 'Not enough time for planning…'
`Difficult, yes, but not impossible,' Vanek commented as he took the list of names and addresses over to the wall map. `Strasbourg, Colmar and Freiburg are in roughly the same area-on opposite banks of the Rhine. We already have our different sets of French papers, we all speak French… In the background Borisov was watching closely, sure now that he had chosen the right man to lead the Commando: Vanek was adaptable in an emergency. 'I think as we're going into France,' Vanek went on, 'each of us should carry a Surete Nationale card-they have some in Kiev and if they get the lead out of their boots they should be able to fly them here by tomorrow night. And a set of French skeleton keys. Then we could leave on Thursday morning…'
Brunner exploded.
`That gives no time for planning,' he repeated, 'and only seven days to do the whole job…
`Which means we shall have to move fast and not hang about and that's no bad thing,' Vanek replied quietly. 'It gives us the whole of tomorrow to plan schedules and routes-which I will help you with… .' The Czech's normal arrogance and cockiness had disappeared as he continued speaking persuasively, building up an atmosphere of confidence, making the other two men see that it really was possible. Borisov, who had not detected this side of Vanek's character before, congratulated himself again on his choice. Vanek, clearly, was going to rise very high in state security when he added a few more years to his experience.
`And French ski equipment would be useful,' Vanek added.
`With the snow in the Bavarian and Austrian alps we can travel as tourists just returning from a brief holiday…
`I'll phone Kiev,' Borisov promised. 'There is one more thing When you are in the west you have to phone a certain number in Paris I have been given in case of further developments…
`We have enough on our plate already,' Brunner grumbled as he reached for a western railway timetable off the shelf.
`You make one phone call each day,' Borisov continued, `using the name Salicetti.'
Lansky, who had got down from his bunk, looked at the names and addresses on the list.
Leon Jouvel. Robert Philip. Dieter Wohl.
CHAPTER SEVEN
`This corrupt American Republic where the Dollar is God, where police forces supplement their pensions with bribes, where its leading city, New York, is at the mercy of a dozen different racial gangs.. . where terrorism flourishes like the plague…'
`What does Europe want with a continent like this? Or should we seal ourselves off from this corrupt and corrupting State with a moral and physical quarantine? Goodbye, America, and may you never return to infest our shores…
Guy Florian made the new speech at Lille, only eight days after his vicious outburst against the Americans at Dijon, and it seemed to his audience that he was stepping up the tempo, `muck-spreading with a bulldozer', as Main Blanc expressed it to Marc Grelle in Paris later that evening.
The police prefect arrived at his office early in the morning of that day, Wednesday, 15 December, and again called his deputy and told him to lock the door. Two closed suitcases lay on his desk. `Boisseau, it's possible this Leopard business could be very serious, something which might well endanger both our careers if we carry on with it. You should now consider your position very carefully-and remember, you have a family…
`What are your orders?' Boisseau asked simply.
`First, to put two top cabinet ministers under close and highly secret surveillance-Roger Danchin and Alain Blanc. Do you still wish to be involved?'
Boisseau took out his pipe and clenched it between his teeth without lighting it. 'I'll have to form a special team,' he said, `and I'll spin them a story so they won't get nervous. Is there anything else? Incidentally, this surveillance, I presume, is to see whether either man-Danchin or Blanc-is having contact with a Soviet link?'
`Exactly. And yes, there is something else, something rather punishing.' Grelle pointed to the two suitcases. 'Late last night I collected a whole bunch of wartime files from Surete records. You take one case, I'll take the other. Somewhere in those files I think we will find out where both Danchin and Blanc were during the war-because the solution to this Leopard affair lies a long time ago in the past. If either of these men can be positively located during 1944 in an area far from the Lozere-where the Leopard was operating-then we can eliminate him…'
Taking a suitcase back to his own office, Boisseau then set up a secret conference. Certain reliable detectives of the Police Judiciaire were detailed to work in relays, to follow Roger Danchin and Alain Blanc whenever they left their ministries. Boisseau himself briefed the chosen men. 'You work in absolute secrecy, reporting back to me alone. We have reason to believe there may be a plot to kill one of these two ministers. It could be connected with a recent event,' he confided mysteriously.
'We may have to prevent another assassination attempt?' one of the detectives inquired.
`It goes deeper than that,' Boisseau explained. 'The plot may involve someone close to January or August…' From now on, he had stressed, real names must never be used, so code- names were invented: January for Danchin and August for Blanc. 'So,' Boisseau continued, 'we need a record of everyone these two men meet outside their places of work. One of their so-called friends may be the man-or woman-we are after.. By raid-afternoon the surveillance operation was under way.
Grelle himself later approved the measures Boisseau had taken.
`We are,' he remarked wryly, 'in danger of becoming conspirators ourselves, but there is no other way.'
`Could you not confidentially inform the president of what we are doing-and why?' Boisseau suggested.
`And risk going the way of Lasalle? Surely you have not forgotten that the colonel was dismissed for exceeding his powers? The trouble is, Florian has so much confidence in his own judgement that he will never believe someone close to him could be a traitor…
Shortly after he made this remark, what later became known in Paris circles as `L'Affaire Lasalle' exploded. Grelle's first warning that a potential disaster was imminent was when Roger Danchin summoned him to a secret meeting at the Ministry of the Interior.
It was late in the morning of 15 December-the day after Danchin had asked Grelle whether he believed Col Lasalle was in touch with the Americans-when the prefect was called urgently to the Place Beauvau. Grelle was the last to arrive. On either side of a long table sat all the key security officials including, the prefect noted as he entered the room, Commissioner Suchet of counter-intelligence, a man whose methods and personality he intensely disliked. Large and gross, with a plump face where the eyes almost vanished under pouches of fat, Daniel Suchet was a bon vivant who made no bones about it. 'I eat well, drink well and seduce well,' he once confided to Grelle.
Presiding at the head of the table, Danchin waved the new arrival to a vacant chair. 'Everything said at this meeting is absolutely confidential,' he instructed in his best ministerial manner. 'Not to be discussed with personal assistants unless necessary in the execution of the operation…
`What operation?' Grelle asked.
'You are not involved,' Danchin informed him. `Suchet will be in charge. But we need you to give us information about Col Lasalle's daily habits and routines-since you have the link with Hugon.'
`Minister, why do you need this information?' Grelle inquired.
`Just give us the information, please, Mr Prefect…' It was Suchet who intervened, clasping his plump hands on the table and leaning forward aggressively. 'I do not wish to be discourteous, but there is a question of security. The fewer people who are involved-you know what I mean…'
`I have no idea what you mean. Unless I know what you are up to I cannot possibly help-I shall probably leave out a vital piece of information…'
`I'll be the judge of that,' Suchet rapped back.
`Please, gentlemen,' Danchin interjected. 'We are all here to help one another…
`Thai let him tell me what he is up to,' Grelle repeated. `We have decided to arrest Col Lasalle.'
There was a silence and, knowing his reputation, every head round the table turned to stare at the prefect. Grelle requested permission to smoke and Danchin, who was already smoking, nodded impatiently. The prefect took
