The Paris Vendetta

by Steve Berry

  She’d been the one who’d discovered the connection between Gustave’s and the Corsican’s books and the Roman numerals. She’d also discovered, from some research conducted in Barcelona a few weeks ago, the Moor’s Knot. He was glad to have her on his side, and knew what was now expected of him.

  “I’ll have a few bars set aside for you.”

  She nodded her appreciation. “And I’ll see to it that you have a lovely evening tonight.”

  “I could use some relaxation.”

  The charmeuse in her gown shimmered as she edged closer to the table. “That solves your money problems.”

  “For the foreseeable future. I estimated as much as a hundred million euros in gold.”

  “And my few bars?”

  “A million. Maybe more, depending on how lovely my evening is tonight.”

  She laughed. “How about dress-up? The schoolgirl sent to the headmaster’s office? That’s always fun.”

  He was feeling good. After a disastrous couple of years, things were finally starting to go right. The bad times had begun when Amando Cabral had grown careless in Mexico and nearly brought them both down. Thankfully, Cabral solved that problem. Then a combination of poor investments, failing markets, and inattention cost him millions. With near-perfect timing, Eliza Larocque had appeared at his estate and offered salvation. It had taken all he could do to amass the twenty million euros needed to buy his admittance, but he’d managed.

  Now he’d finally generated room to breathe.

  He finished his entrée.

  “I have a surprise for you,” Caroline said.

  This woman was a rare combination. Part tramp, part academician, and quite good at both.

  “I’m waiting,” he said.

  “I think I may have discovered a new link.”

  He caught her amused expression and asked, “Think?”

  “Actually, I know I have.”

  TWENTY-THREE

  PARIS

  SAM FOLLOWED MALONE AS THEY FLED THE BOOKSTORE INTO the brisk afternoon. Foddrell had turned away from the Seine and plunged deeper into the Latin Quarter’s chaotic streets, each one crowded with excited holiday revelers.

  “There’s no way to know if anyone’s on your tail in this crowd,” Malone said. “But he knows our faces, so let’s stay back.”

  “He doesn’t seem to care if anyone’s following. He hasn’t looked back once.”

  “He thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.”

  “He’s going to the Café d’Argent?”

  “Where else?”

  They kept a normal pace, submerged within the sweeping tide of commerce. Cheese, vegetables, fruit, chocolate, and other delicacies, displayed in wooden bins, spilled into the street. Sam noticed fish lying on gleaming beds of ice, and meat, boned and rolled, chilling in refrigerated cases. Farther on, an ice-cream shop offered Italian gelato in a variety of tempting flavors.

  Foddrell stayed a hundred feet ahead.

  “What do you really know about this guy?” Malone asked.

  “Not a whole lot. He latched on to me maybe a year ago.”

  “Which, by the way, is another reason the Secret Service doesn’t want you doing what you’re doing. Too many crazies, too many risks.”

  “Then why are we here?” he asked.

  “Henrik wanted us to make contact. You tell me, why is that?”

  “Are you always so suspicious?”

  “It’s a healthy affliction. One that’ll prolong your life.”

  They passed more cafés, art galleries, boutiques, and souvenir shops. Sam was pumped. Finally, he was in the field, doing what agents did.

  “Let’s split up,” Malone said. “Less chance of him recognizing us. That is if he bothers to look back.”

  Sam drifted to one side of the street. He’d been an accounting major at college and almost a CPA. But a government recruiter, who’d visited the campus during his senior year, steered him toward the Secret Service. After graduation, he’d applied and passed the Treasury test, a polygraph exam, complete physical, eye test, and drug screen.

  But he was rejected.

  Five years later he made it the second time around, after working as an accountant at several national firms, one of which became heavily implicated in a corporate reporting scandal. At the Secret Service’s training center he’d been schooled in firearms, use of force, emergency medical techniques, evidence protection, crime detection, even open-water survival. Then he’d been assigned to the Philadelphia field office, working credit card abuse, counterfeiting, identity theft, and bank fraud.

  He knew the score.

  Special agents spent their first six to eight years in a field office. After that, depending on performance, they were transferred to a protective detail, where they stayed for another three to five years. Following that, most returned to the field, or transferred to headquarters, or a training office, or some other DC-based assignment. He could have possibly worked overseas in one of the international offices, since he was reasonably fluent in French and Spanish.

  Boredom was the reason he’d turned to the Internet. His website had allowed him to explore avenues that he wanted to work as an agent. Investigating electronic fraud had little to do with safeguarding the world’s financial systems. His website provided a forum in which he could express himself. But his extracurricular activities had generated the one thing an agent could never afford. Attention to himself. Twice he was reprimanded. Twice he ignored his superiors. The third time he’d been officially questioned, just two weeks ago, which caused him to flee, flying to Copenhagen and Thorvaldsen. Now here he was, in the liveliest, most picturesque section of Paris, on a cold December day, following a suspect.

  Ahead, Foddrell approached one of the quarter’s countless bistros, the quaint sign out front announcing Café d’Argent. Sam slowed and searched the crowd for Malone, finding him fifty feet away. Foddrell disappeared through the front door, then reappeared at an inside table that abutted a plate-glass window

  Malone walked over. “All that paranoia and he ends up framed out for the world to see.”

  Sam still wore the coat, gloves, and scarf Jesper had provided last night. He could also still see the two corpses. Jesper had cast them away with no ceremony, as if killing was routine. And maybe it was for Henrik Thorvaldsen. He actually knew little about the Dane, other than that he seemed interested in what Sam thought.

  Which is a lot more than he could say for anyone else.

  “Come on,” Malone said.

  They entered the bistro’s brightly lit interior, decorated in a 1950s motif using chrome, vinyl, and neon. The climate was noisy and smoky. Sam caught Foddrell staring at them, clearly recognizing their faces, reveling in his anonymity.

  Malone walked straight to where Foddrell sat and slid out one of the vinyl chairs. “You had enough fun?”

  “How do you know who I am?” Foddrell asked.

  Malone pointed at the book in Foddrell’s lap. “You really should have covered that up. Can we dispense with the drama and get on with this?”

  THORVALDSEN LISTENED AS THE MANTELPIECE CLOCK STRUCK half past three, the hour confirmed by more clocks chiming throughout the château. He was making progress, maneuvering Eliza Larocque into a corner where she’d have no choice but to cooperate with him.

  “Lord Ashby is broke,” he made clear.

  “You have facts to back this up?”

  “I never speak without them.”

  “Tell me about my security leak.”

  “How do you think I learned what I know?”

  She threw him a keen, dissecting glance. “Ashby?”

  He shook his head. “Not directly. He and I have never met nor spoken. But there are others he’s spoken to, people he approached for financial assistance. They wanted assurances that their loans would be repaid, so he gave them a unique guarantee, one that involved explaining what he was part of. He was quite vocal about the profits to be made.”

  “And you do
n’t plan to tell me any names?”

  He assumed a rigid pose. “Why would I do such a thing? What value would I be then?” He knew she had no choice but to accept his offerings.

  “You’re quite a problem, Herre Thorvaldsen.”

  He chuckled. “That I am.”

  “But I’m beginning to like you.”

  “I was hoping we might find common ground.” He pointed at her. “As I mentioned earlier, I’ve studied you in detail. Especially your ancestor, Pozzo di Borgo. I found it fascinating how both the British and the Russians made use of his vendetta with Napoleon. I love what he said in 1811, on learning of the birth of the emperor’s heir. Napoleon is a giant who bends down the mighty oaks of the primeval forest. But some day the woodland spirits will break from their disgraceful bondage, then the oaks will suddenly rebound and dash the giant to the earth. Quite prophetic, as that’s precisely what happened.”

  He knew this woman sought strength from her heritage. She spoke of it often, and with pride. In that respect they were similar.

  “Unlike Napoleon,” she said, “di Borgo remained a true Corsican patriot. He loved his homeland and always placed its interests first. When Napoleon finally occupied Corsica for France, di Borgo’s name was specifically excluded from the list of those granted political amnesty. So he fled. Napoleon hunted him all over Europe. Di Borgo, though, managed to elude capture.”

  “And, at the same time, maneuvered the emperor’s downfall. Quite a feat.”

  Thorvaldsen had been schooled on how Pozzo di Borgo exerted pressure on the French court and cabinet, inflaming the jealousies of Napoleon’s many brothers and sisters, eventually becoming a conduit for any and all French opposition. He served with the British at their embassy in Vienna, becoming persona grata in Austrian political circles. Then his real opportunity came when he entered the Russian diplomatic service, as commissioner to the Prussian army. Eventually, he became the tsar’s right hand in all affairs connected with France and convinced Alexander not to make peace with Napoleon. For twelve years he skillfully kept France embroiled in controversy, knowing Napoleon could fight, and win, on only so many fronts. In the end his efforts worked, but his life was one of unrecognized success. History hardly mentioned him. He died in 1842, mentally deranged but incredibly wealthy. His assets were bequeathed to nephews, one of whom was Eliza Larocque’s ancestor, whose descendants multiplied that wealth a hundred times over, establishing one of the great European fortunes.

  “Di Borgo carried the vendetta to its end,” he said, “but I wonder, madame, did your Corsican ancestor, in his hatred of Napoleon, have an ulterior purpose?”

  Her cold eyes communicated a look of begrudging respect. “Why don’t you tell me what you already know.”

  “You’re looking for Napoleon’s lost cache. That’s why Lord Ashby is part of your group. He is—shall we politely say—a collector.”

  She smiled at the word. “I see I made a serious error not approaching you long ago.”

  Thorvaldsen shrugged. “Thankfully, I do not hold a grudge.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  PARIS

  MALONE’S PATIENCE WITH JIMMY FODDRELL WAS WEARING thin. “All this cloak-and-dagger crap isn’t necessary. Who the hell’s after you?”

  “You have no idea how many people I’ve riled up.”

  Malone waved off the younger man’s fear. “News flash. Nobody gives a damn. I’ve read your site. It’s a bunch of garbage. And by the way, there’s medication you can take that’ll ease your paranoia.”

  Foddrell faced Sam. “You said you had someone who wanted to learn. Who had an open mind. It’s not this guy, is it?”

  “Teach me,” Malone said.

  Foddrell’s thin lips parted to show the top of a gold tooth. “Right now, I’m hungry.”

  Foddrell motioned for a waiter. Malone listened as the younger man ordered pan-fried veal kidneys in a mustard sauce. Just the thought of that turned his stomach. Hopefully, they’d be done talking before the food arrived. He declined ordering anything for himself.

  “I’ll take the côte de boeuf,” Sam said.

  “For what?” Malone asked.

  “I’m hungry, too.”

  He shook his head.

  The waiter left and he again asked Foddrell, “Why are you so afraid?”

  “There are some powerful people in this town who know all about me.”

  Malone told himself to let the fool talk. Somewhere, somehow, they might stumble onto a nugget or two.

  “They make us follow them,” Foddrell said. “Even though we don’t know it. They create policy, and we don’t know it. They create our needs and possess the means to satisfy them, and we don’t know it. We work for them, and, we don’t know it. We buy their products, and—”

  “Who is they?” he asked.

  “People like the U.S. Federal Reserve. One of the most powerful groups in the world.”

  He knew he shouldn’t ask, but, “Why do you say that?”

  “I thought you said this guy was cool,” Foddrell said to Sam. “He doesn’t know spit.”

  “Look,” Malone answered, “I’ve been into the whole alien autopsy, Area 51 thing, for the past few years. This monetary stuff is new to me.”

  Foddrell pointed a nervous finger. “Okay, you’re a funny man. You think this is all a big joke.”

  “Why don’t you just explain yourself?”

  “The Federal Reserve makes money from thin air. Then it loans it back to America and gets repaid by the taxpayers with interest. America owes the Federal Reserve trillions upon trillions. Just the annual interest on that debt, which by the way is mostly controlled by private investors, is approximately eight times bigger than the wealth of the richest man on the planet. It’ll never be paid off. A lot of people are getting filthy rich off that debt. And it’s all a cheat. If you or I printed money, then loaned it out, we’d go to jail.”

  Malone recalled something he’d read earlier on Foddrell’s website. Supposedly, John Kennedy had wanted to end the Federal Reserve and signed Executive Order 11110, which instructed the U.S. government to retake control of the nation’s money supply from the Reserve. Three weeks later, Kennedy was dead. When Lyndon Johnson took office, he immediately rescinded that order. Malone had never heard such an accusation before, so he’d checked further and read Executive Order 11110, an innocuous directive whose effect, had it been carried through, would have actually strengthened, rather than weakened, the Federal Reserve system. Any relation to the signing of that order and Kennedy’s assassination was purely coincidental. And Johnson never rescinded the order. Instead, it was purged decades later along with a host of other outdated regulations.

  More conspiratorial bullshit.

  He decided to get to the point. “What do you know about the Paris Club?”

  “Enough to know that we need to be afraid.”

  ELIZA STARED AT THORVALDSEN AND SAID, “HAVE YOU EVER wondered what money can really do?”

  Her guest shrugged. “My family has amassed so much, over such a long time, I never think about it. But it certainly can provide power, influence, and a comfortable life.”

  She assumed a calm air. “It can also do much more. Yugoslavia is an excellent example.”

  She saw he was curious.

  “Supposedly, in the 1980s, the Yugoslavs were an imperial, fascist regime that committed crimes against humanity. After free elections in 1990, the people of Serbia chose the socialist party, while the people from other Yugoslav republics chose to implement more pro-Western governments. Eventually, the U.S. started a war with Serbia. Prior to that, though, I watched as world policy gradually weakened Yugoslavia, which, at that time, had one of the best economies in Eastern Europe. The U.S.–Serbian war, and subsequent dismantling of Yugoslavia, destroyed any idea that a socialist economy might be a good thing.”

  “Serbia was clearly oppressive and dangerous,” Thorvaldsen said.

  “Who says? The media? Were they any more oppressive tha
n say, North Korea, China, Iran? Yet no one advocates war with them. Take a match and make a forest fire. That’s what one diplomat told me at the time. The aggressions on Serbia were heavily supported by the mainstream media, along with influential leaders all over the world. That aggression lasted for more than ten years. All of which, by the way, made it quite easy, and far less expensive, to buy the entire former Yugoslav economy.”

  “Is that what happened?”

  “I know of many investors who took full advantage of that catastrophe.”

  “You’re saying all that happened in Serbia was contrived?”

  “In a manner of speaking. Not actively, but certainly tacitly. That situation proved that it’s entirely feasible to take advantage of destructive situations. There is profit in political and national discord. Provided, of course, that the discord ends at some point. It’s only then that a return can be made on any investment.”

  She was enjoying discussing theory. Rarely was she afforded an opportunity. She wasn’t saying anything incriminating, only repeating observations that many economists and historians had long noted.

  “The Rothschilds in the 18th and 19th centuries,” she said, “were masters of this technique. They managed to play all sides, generating enormous profit at a time when Europeans fought among themselves like children on a playground. The Rothschilds were wealthy, international, and independent. Three dangerous qualities. Royal governments could not control them. Popular movements hated them, because they were not answerable to the people. Constitutionalists resented them because they worked in secret.”

  “As you are attempting to do?”

  “Secrecy is essential for the success of any cabal. I’m sure, Herre Thorvaldsen, you understand how events can be quietly shaped by the simple granting or withholding of funds, or affecting the selection of key personnel, or just maintaining a daily intercourse with decision makers. Being behind the scenes avoids the brunt of public anger, which is directed, as it should be, to open political figures.”

  “Who are largely controlled.”