Free The Last Match by David Dodge Page B

dollars so badly. If the marquis had the brains to point out that it had been Bernard’s suggestion that he do business with Franco in the first place, we would both assure him that the existence of the super-bomb had changed things drastically. Europe could now be successfully defended against Communism on both sides of the Pyrenees—if enough money could be raised to arm both sides of the Pyrenees with the new super-weapon.
    The gaff went in there; slick, smooth and easy. M. le Marquis didn’t have to have the brains to figure that if he could command a guarantee of fifty percent profit on the money he had already sunk in his patriotic ventures why couldn’t he get the same fifty percent on a further, larger amount? I would plant the idea in his bird brain by suggesting that, in view of his faithful, unremitting and lonely defense of Europe against the Menace while the AEC was tardily getting around to fusion-fission (or was it fission-fusion? He wouldn’t remember either), the U.S. Treasury might, just possibly might, permit him to make additional investments in dollar credits which he could also sell to his beloved patrie at a profit. No doubt M. l’Inspecteur would also personally guarantee the same return on those?
    M. l’Inspecteur would indeed, unhesitatingly and unequivocally. He would further personally guarantee, on his parole d’honneur, that M. le Marquis would receive not only a fifty percent return on his money but the Legion d’Honneur; not the mere ribbon of a lousy Chevalier, either, but the m é daille of a full Officier. Perhaps, even—although this, regrettably, M. 1’Inspecteur could not personally guarantee—perhaps even the baton of a Maréchal! With a public kiss of gratitude from M. le President de la République! Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité and cost-plus patriotism, with the elegant chords of La Marseillaise thundering in the background.
    “The boob will be wetting his pants with eagerness before we finish,” Bernard said. “You hold back a little at the end to keep him hanging on the hook. While I’m throwing in the iron-clad guarantees you keep saying that you can’t promise anything absolutely definite, you can speak for the AEC but you don’t have authority to speak for the Treasury. You think they’ll play along, you’re pretty sure they can be persuaded, but you’ll have to send off a couple of cables to make absolutely certain. You don’t want to raise M. le Marquis’ hopes too high prematurely, see? But you’re pretty sure it will work out as you’ve said it might work out, and you’ll let him know in three or four days.”
    “It might be a good idea for me to suggest that I’m confident enough about it to ask you to start making preparations to take his collection of playthings down to Marseille, where they can be loaded aboard an American ship. We’ll need a heavy guard, complete secrecy, not a word to anybody about anything—”
    “Right. Right. You’re thinking like a pro already. We’ll make him swear to keep his lip buttoned, even to his wife. And not a word from either of us to suggest that it might be a good idea for him to start liquidating his other investments so as to have the braise ready to turn over to you when you come back with the glad news from Washington. He’ll think of that himself. His mind works that way. He’ll want to start drawing that fifty percent just as fast as he can.”
    I said, “You really think he’s dumb enough to believe he can take francs out of a bank, buy dollars with them, sell the dollars back for francs again and make fifty percent on the deal?”
    He laughed.
    “Mon gars,” he said. “The pigeon is greedy. And the greedier you get, the dumber it makes you.”
    He spoke a profound truth. He just failed to realize how profound it was.
    Finding the right kind of American clothes for an AEC man presented a small problem that held us up for a couple of days. Plenty of American men’s clothes were wandering