Part 21 (1/2)

”This had better be important,” Philliston complained. He shot a nervous glance at Remo and Chiun. ”The lad is worked up about something on the telly,” he explained. He scanned the front of the set. ”How does one activate this box thingie?” he asked his underling.

The young a.s.sistant turned the TV on. The audio came on before the picture. The stentorian voice of a Thames television announcer blared across the room.

”...the scene in Paris this afternoon is a page torn from the history books. A doc.u.ment of surrender that has been authentically veri?ed as being signed by the president of France himself was released to the world press not half an hour ago. In it control of Paris is ceded to the invasion force you see behind me now....”

The picture slowly congealed into recognizable shapes.

Remo blinked in disbelief as the camera image settled on a column of marching soldiers led by a single man on horseback.

He had seen the footage before. But always in the grainy black-and-white of decades-old newsreels. This was in full, glorious color and surround sound.

The Arc de Triomphe stood in the background, surmounting the hill of Chaillot in Paris. Before it, the soldiers marched proudly through the street, black boots kicking high in the familiar n.a.z.i goose step. Red-and-black armbands were the single spots of brightness on their drab uniforms.

It was an image of historical deja vu.

”Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?” Remo asked angrily.

”I'm sure I don't know,” Philliston said nervously. He quickly turned to his underling. ”Is this some sort of Gallic prank?” he demanded.

The young man shook his head. ”No, Sir Guy. It's everywhere on the radio and telly. The World Service, ITN, BBC television, Thames. It became of?cial at noon today. The French have surrendered Paris completely.”

The column of men-Remo could see there were only about two hundred of them in all-turned in a wide arc as they pa.s.sed by the camera. The long white tail of the lone horse in the lead waved merrily in the late-summer air.

”Thought they would have learned their lesson last time out,” Sir Guy Philliston commented.

The television report next cut to a scene of raucous cheering near the Brandenburg Gate in Germany. The joy and optimism that had been displayed by the German people at the fall of communism on this very site was replaced by a dance of sheer blood l.u.s.t by a huge crowd of skinheads.

The television announcer droned on. ”This was the scene in Germany just minutes after the announcement of French surrender came. Obviously word of the impending bloodless coup had been deliberately leaked to fascist groups throughout the republic of Germany. Men who had until yesterday planned to join forces with the attack on London, have since switched their allegiance to the group that now controls Paris. The new regime has welcomed them with open arms. However, it remains to be seen whether they will encounter resistance upon reaching the French border.”

Remo hopped down from the desk.

”I think we can guarantee them that,” he said somberly.

Chiun had alighted to the ?oor also in a ?utter of silk. Together they headed for the door.

”The two of you are going in alone?” Philliston's youthful aide asked, surprised. He turned to his commander. ”Might that not be just a touch dangerous, sir?”

Remo and Chiun were just sliding out into the hallway. They vanished down the staircase.

As they were leaving, Sir Guy had taken a longstemmed meerschaum pipe from his pocket. It was carved in the shape of Anne Boleyn's head. Tiny ?ssures indicated where the pipe had once been cracked and glued back together. Guy stuck the pipe between his lips and lit the already stuffed bowl with a single wooden match. He blew a thoughtful puff of smoke at the ceiling as he shook the ?ame off the match with a gentle back-and-forth movement.

”Yes,” Sir Guy said ?nally, nodding. ”For the n.a.z.is.”

THE IMAGE of the marching neo-n.a.z.i forces was beamed via satellite to a small television set in a neat little of?ce in the ancient stone fortress that perched on a small South American mountain peak separate from the rest of the IV village.

The bright blue eyes of Adolf Kluge turned a ?inty gray as the line of goose-stepping soldiers marched beyond the camera's range.

Hands clenched in bloodless white knuckles, Kluge rose slowly from behind his large desk. Wordlessly he stepped from the of?ce into the huge stone corridor.

He did not turn the television off.

Chapter 24

Harold Smith pushed aside the heavy drapes in his hotel room, revealing an inch-wide strip of dirty gla.s.s.

His vantage point afforded him a fairly un.o.bstructed view of the street three stories below. Occasionally a rental truck whose sides had been repainted red and emblazoned with an enormous black swastika would drive slowly down the road, turning off on a distant side street.

They were making their presence known. A lazy victory lap for the mighty conquerors.

At the moment two sets of armed guards had converged before the hotel. They stood on the quaint cobbled road, chatting and laughing. Three of them smoked cigarettes, casually ?icking ash, like students sitting in some fas.h.i.+onable French sidewalk cafe.

Their n.a.z.i uniforms propelled Smith backward in time. Unlike yesterday, he didn't feel an overwhelming compulsion to race out and ?ght the men. In fact, he admitted now that he had taken leave of his good senses in the London Underground the day before.

No, what Smith was feeling now was the old sense of cold moral outrage he had experienced in his youth as a member of the OSS.

He hadn't realized that time had dulled his ability to be viscerally offended. He supposed his duties as CURE director were to blame. After seeing so much of the vile underbelly of American society, it was dif?cult to work up a stomachful of bile over anything. It had taken neo-n.a.z.i storm troopers on the streets of Paris to rekindle the ?ames of revulsion that had burned away in youth.

”Is it safe, Harold?” his wife's timid voice asked from behind him. She sat in a chair next to the bed. Her face was ?lled with confusion and tension.

”No,” Smith said simply.

The neo-n.a.z.is on the street laughed once loudly and then parted company. A group of four walked down the street; the other three headed into the hotel. Smith watched them disappear beneath the windowsill.

He couldn't allow his emotions to dictate his next few steps. If they were to get out of this alive, he had to approach the situation rationally.

”Maude, please go in the bathroom,” he instructed.

She didn't object. She didn't question why. Maude Smith merely stood dutifully and walked into the small room to one side of the bed. The door shut a moment later.

Smith looked at the night table. The cheap phone sat on the varnished wood surface. It was useless.

The invaders had disrupted Paris phone service during the night. He wouldn't be able to contact Remo. Smith crouched down beside the bed. His legs and back ached as he reached beneath the dangling edge of the dust ruf?e. He slid his briefcase out onto the worn rug.

Standing, Smith placed the briefcase on the neatly made bed. This accomplished, he sat down in the overstuffed easy chair his wife had vacated moments before.

Smith patiently stared at the cracked painted surface of the old wooden door.

Alone in the room, he waited.

PIERRE LEPOTAGE'S grandfather had bought the small hotel for a modest sum in the early part of the twentieth century. Since that time it had been a tradition for all members of Pierre's family to work there.

Young Pierre had gotten his start in the kitchen during World War II. Back then, the LePotage family had been forced to make the best of a bad situation.

During the Occupation; his grandfather had retired to doing light duty around the hotel. Pierre's father had taken charge behind the desk. And in the kitchen young Pierre had the awesome duty of personally spitting in every meal prepared for the occupying German force. By the end of a busy day, his mouth would be as dry as the North African desert.