Leon Uris (27 page)

“Where was that?”

“When I was interned in Spain. As a matter of fact, I met Nicole then,” he said with a catch, for he realized he was heading toward her. “It’s a long, long story, Marsh.”

They were pensive for a time, neither of them broaching the gnawing thoughts, the implications of the trickery unearthed by Kuznetov’s story.

“I’ve never carried on my work in vengeance,” André said at last, “but for this, someone is going to pay. I’ll find him and expose him if it’s my last act on this earth.”

“Watch out for yourself,” McKittrick answered and went across the aisle to his own seat. He opened his attaché case, sealed the letter to Pierre La Croix, and placed it among his papers.

André warmed himself on cognac and became caught up watching the jet plunge into night. It was that time of transformation in an airplane when the liquor and the altitude and the sense of detachment have dulled and mellowed one enough to plunge him into a sense of timelessness.

Since learning of the Topaz conspiracy, André Devereaux’s nights had been spent in restless fits of semisleep and angry pacing, in torment over the treachery of his countrymen. His own years of devotion and pain, born of love for France, had been vomited upon by men who would destroy her out of ignorance or sinister choice.

What nest of serpents would he have to do battle with now in Paris? Soon the trap would close on Henri Jarré, but there was another, above him ... Columbine. Come heaven or hell, he was determined to flush out the supreme traitor.

The name of one man turned over and over in his mind, that of Colonel Gabriel Brune, a Vice Administrator of SDECE. With the revelation of Disinformation and how it had been used at Suez, the behavior of Colonel Brune had to make him the leading suspect.

André glanced over to Marsh McKittrick, who was dozing. How strange, he thought. It was seven years ago, almost to the day, that he and McKittrick had played out an almost identical drama during the Suez crisis.

The Israelis had poured into the Sinai Peninsula toward the Canal. André was in Paris at the time on other affairs. Because of his intimate relations with the Americans he was brought into the picture. After his briefing, they sought his counsel. André knew that Marshall McKittrick was in Rome on Presidential business and asked him to come to Paris.

October, 1956

André Devereaux and United States Ambassador Rawlins met Marshall McKittrick at Orly Field. The matter was so urgent that the two Americans were briefed in the limousine en route to Paris.

“In four hours,” André said, “we are issuing a joint ultimatum with the British for Egypt and Israel to cease fire and recognize a demarcation line ten kilometers from the Canal.”

“A unilateral action?”

“Yes.”

“Are you in league with the Israelis?”

“I don’t know,” André answered. “I am advising you that if the cease-fire is not accepted, a joint French-British Expeditionary Force, now gathering in Cyprus, will move in and seize the Canal.”

The reaction of the Americans was to accept the news with studied calm and to digest it in terms of their own situation. France and Britain could well be dragging America into a war without consultation.

“You people might have given us a day’s notice,” McKittrick said at last.

“I would suspect we didn’t want to be talked out of the action,” André answered.

“Well, we’ve got a busy afternoon,” the Ambassador said.

“What is expected of the United States?” McKittrick asked.

“As an ally, to recognize our position and understand that we do this in the international interest.”

As Ambassador Rawlins and Marshall McKittrick plunged into the business of advising Washington and awaiting instructions, André reported to a Vice Administrator of SDECE, Colonel Gabriel Brune, that the United States had been informed of the pending action.

As one of the last shows of naked, old-fashioned imperialism shaped up, the information reached the President of the United States, who hastily summoned his advisers.

The position seemed clear. France and Britain were traditional allies, who needed international controls returned to the Suez Canal or continue to be at the mercy of the Egyptian dictator, Gamal Abdel Nasser. France had further brief to overthrow Nasser for his overt sympathy and help to the Algerian rebels.

The West, in general, was deeply concerned over Nasser’s flirtation with the Soviet Union, the massive importation of Soviet arms to Egypt, and the frightening specter that the Soviet Union would break through to the Mediterranean.

As for Israel, the invasion of Sinai became a necessity for national survival, to stop the harassments from Egypt and to check the buildup of Soviet-supplied weapons. And finally, Israel needed to break open the blockade of the Red Sea for use as a sea lane to Asia.

The entire operation smelled of collusion between French-British interests and Israel. But this, obviously, was to remain a secret and a mystery for another decade.

Three and a half hours after his arrival in Paris and a half-hour before the cease-fire ultimatum, André Devereaux entered the Ambassador’s office in the American Embassy.

“The position of the United States,” the Ambassador said, “is to act as though we have not been informed of your intention to seize the Canal. After the cease-fire ultimatum and your invasion we will officially pronounce surprise and indignation. In any event, we must not appear partners to this venture. This will allow us the freedom to stand off the Soviet Union as fellow neutrals.”

“Now for Christ’s sake,” McKittrick added, “take that god-damned Canal in the next seventy-two hours. It must be an accomplished fact, because after that we’ll have to back any United Nations aggression charges against you. Get that Canal first and then we can talk it to death.”

The American position was reported to Colonel Brune at almost the same moment the cease-fire ultimatum was being delivered to Nasser and Ben-Gurion.

Nasser rejected the ultimatum, and a war fever swept London and Paris as British and French planes bombed the Egyptian airfields in prelude to invasion while their joint expeditionary force set sail from Cyprus.

André’s personal knowledge of these events ended with his delivery of the message from the Americans.

These were the days before La Croix’s formal ascent to power. Although the official heart of the executive lay in the Premier’s office, La Croix maneuvered behind the throne. In his nondescript post he was surrounded by a personal army of military leaders and Secret Service and ambitious flunkies who read the future and jumped aboard the bandwagon in preparation for a La Croix takeover.

His advisers were faithful to him ahead of the government, and as often as not La Croix was consulted even before the Premier.

As the Anglo-Franco forces neared the Canal, Colonel Brune asked for an urgent appointment with La Croix. Brune, a member of the General’s clique, was La Croix’s main source of power and information within the SDECE.

Jacques Granville, Pierre La Croix’s personal aide, ushered Brune into the General’s office at the moment of invasion.

“We have been following a desperate situation for several hours,” Brune said. “I’ve been waiting for confirmations. We have them. Messages started coming into SDECE from our military and naval Intelligence shortly after midnight to the effect that American warships of the Seventh Fleet picked up our expeditionary force. Throughout the night destroyers followed us and their airplanes put us under surveillance. This morning as we entered Egyptian territorial waters warning shots were fired by the Americans over the bow of our troopships.”

Without visible reaction Pierre La Croix took the dispatches, all stamped with the authenticity of the SDECE, and thumbed through them.

“Has the Premier been advised?” he asked.

“No,” Brune replied.

La Croix nodded. “The Premier is so pro-Israeli we will have to act on this information without his knowledge.”

“Yes, sir. But I can’t believe it. The Americans gave their word.”

“It’s obviously a double cross,” Colonel Brune said.

“I just can’t believe it,” Granville repeated.

Ambassador Rawlins was summoned to the Prime Minister’s after he was finally informed. The messages of American treachery were shoved unceremoniously into the Ambassador’s face, followed by an undiplomatic Gallic outburst by the Prime Minister.

Rawlins was thoroughly confused. With normal communications on Suez deliberately cut off, Marshall McKittrick was dispatched to Washington for clarification. It took several days to ascertain that there had been no American action against the expeditionary force and that the reports received by French SDECE had been false.

It had been the work of the Topaz ring, and the information General Pierre La Croix had been fed and in turn had fed to the Premier and Cabinet was Soviet Disinformation.

Moscow capitalized quickly on a hysterical situation by a saber-rattling threat to turn loose its missiles on Paris unless the French quit.

The seizure of the Suez Canal never came to pass, with only the Israelis achieving their objectives.

Following up the Disinformation coup, the Soviets convinced Nasser that the United States was really behind the plot to grab the Canal. And a final propaganda barrage put the blame on the Americans, in the minds of Frenchmen, forever.

It grew dark. Marshall McKittrick had fallen asleep.

But there was no sleep for André. Who had carried the Soviet Disinformation to La Croix and the French Premier during Suez?

The false dispatches had come from the SDECE. Who in SDECE was in constant communication with La Croix and Matignon? Who was doing the briefing on behalf of the Secret Service?

Who but Colonel Gabriel Brune?

The chiefs of SDECE were generally political appointees. Many were pro-American. They were largely functionaries totally dependent on their staffs. The real seat of power was with the Vice Administrators, the career professionals—as Colonel Gabriel Brune.

It was all in tune with a known Communist tactic of sneaking the actual power into the hands of a deputy working under a harmless figurehead.

And what of Brune’s nature and his past? He had kept himself nondescript and out of the limelight. He had held a key post with the NATO intelligence network, ININ, and he was a friend of Henri Jarré. A further look showed him to be a hostile anti-American who deliberately slanted reports and opinions against them.

When the Americans balked strongly at sharing intelligence with the French because of leaks inside NATO, Colonel Brune was quietly moved from ININ to the French government as Vice Administrator of SDECE, where he cloaked himself in anonymity.

With access to top secrets and in a position to advise members of the government, Brune could cause unbelievable damage if he was indeed a Soviet agent.

When Pierre La Croix ascended to power, Colonel Brune’s role and power increased. He was constantly at La Croix’s side and had his ear.

The plane arched down toward Paris. André knew that if he made this fight, the chances were it would cost him his life. His foes were vicious and resourceful, and the head of his government was an obsessed, arrogant, aging dictator.

But he knew he would make that fight, regardless.

As land came into view below, André felt a moment of fright. Was this all too late and too useless?

G
ORIN FOUND A PARKING
space for his Peugeot in the Place d’Armes facing the Versailles Palace and set out on foot to the broad avenues of gardens and fountains and forests toward the grand canal in this unsurpassed monument to extravagance. As Soviet Resident and head of Russian intelligence in France he was the prime mover of Topaz. His true position was veiled under the cover of the title of Assistant Cultural Attaché.

At the base of the mile-long, man-made, cross-shaped waterway he stopped and looked about to assure himself he was merely another inconspicuous stroller. Satisfied, he headed to the rendezvous.

Behind the Petit Trianon were clipped hedges and English-style gardens, then a maze of wooded paths that insured privacy. Gorin’s pudgy fingers slipped back his shirt cuff. Five minutes to go. The air was chilly, the trees nearly bare. A stiff breeze blew a swirl of leaves around his feet. In the distance he could hear a sound of children running and screaming in their play. Gorin had a massive face and twinkling eyes. He was a gregarious fellow, outgoing. Rather an oddity among his somber colleagues. He slapped his cold hands together, then shoved them in his pockets and looked up the path.

A shadowy figure emerged moving toward him down the tree-lined walkway. It was the familiar figure of Columbine. He was taller than most Frenchmen, the collar of his overcoat turned up and buttoned around his throat to keep out the autumn nip. A dark hat was worn low on his forehead and his gloved hand held an ever-present cigarette. Columbine stopped before Gorin and nodded. The two men continued along the path side by side speaking in practiced softness.

“Something was wrong with the last four NATO documents,” the Russian said. “They’ve caused a great deal of confusion in Moscow.”

“What was the matter with them?”

“KGB thinks they may be fakes. NATO intelligence may be on to Jarré. If so, his usefulness to us could be coming to an end.”

“Jarré is a despicable bastard,” Columbine said. “I’ve never cared for him.”

Gorin took the first of two envelopes from his pocket and gave it to Columbine. “This lists three documents in the NATO fifteen hundred series. Contact Jarré and instruct him to get copies. KGB has seen authentic copies which have come through other sources. If Jarré passes us anything different, we’ll have to do something about him.”

They stopped at a fork in the path and remained silent as an old couple hobbled by, then continued their walk in another direction.

“American U-2 flights over Cuba have been concentrating on the areas where our missile bases are being established,” Gorin said, “they may know.”

“What do you expect them to do?”

“Probably nothing.” Gorin handed Columbine the second envelope. “In the unlikely event the Americans make trouble and stir a crisis, your instructions are in this envelope. Certain disinformation must be fed to La Croix to confuse the issues and create mistrust of American motives. The result is to be to neutralize France. France must not side with the Americans.”