"Fascinated," Castillo said, smiling and playing along.
"There was once a monastery where it now stands," Delchamps said. "Louis XVI and his girlfriend-'Let them eat cake' Marie Antoinette-were staying there just before they were taken over to the Place de la Concorde and had their heads removed in the name of liberty."
"You don't say?"
"It's absolutely true."
"Thank you for sharing that with me."
"My pleasure, sir," Delchamps said. "But let me continue since you seem to find this of interest."
"Please do," Castillo said.
The conversation was momentarily interrupted by the sight of an incredibly beautiful, long-legged blonde coming out of the Hotel Ritz. She was surrounded by four muscular men who might as well have had SECURITY stamped on their large foreheads. She got into the rear seat of a Maybach, in the process revealing a good deal of thigh. One of the gorillas with her got in the front seat of the car, another trotted quickly to a Mercedes in front of it, and the other two trotted to an identical Mercedes behind it. The convoy rolled majestically away toward the rue de Rivoli.
"I regret being unable to identify that young woman for you, Mr. Gossinger, as I can see you are really interested," Delchamps said after they had passed the entrance to the Ritz. "But I'm sure she's someone famous."
"Either that or a high-class hooker," Castillo said.
"The two possibilities are not mutually exclusive," Delchamps said.
Castillo chuckled.
"But I was telling you about the Continental, wasn't I?" Delchamps asked and then went on without waiting for a reply. "And it was in the Continental-I seem to remember in 1880, but don't hold me to that-that what many regard as the advertising coup of all time took place."
"I've always been interested in advertising," Castillo said. "Tell me about that."
"Tourism was just beginning to blossom and become big business," Delchamps said. "The British, the Italians, the Germans, and of course the French were in hot competition for the Yankee tourist dollar. There was hardly a building on Manhattan Island without a billboard urging the Yankees to come to England, Italy, Germany, or France. There were so many of them that not one of them really caught people's attention. And the advertising was really expensive, which really bothered the French.
"The matter was given a great deal of thought, and, in studying the problem the French realized that the ideal advertisement would be something that incorporated novelty. Edison had just given us the lightbulb, you will recall, so the new advertisement had to include one of those. Yankees, the French knew, also liked amply bosomed females, so the advertisement would have to have one of those, too. How about an amply breasted woman holding an electric light over her head?"
Castillo laughed aloud.
"You sonofabitch, you had me going. The Statue of Liberty."
Delchamps smiled and nodded.
"And if we give it to the Yankees, the clever Frogs realized, call it a 'gift of friendship' or something, not only will the Yankees never take it down but-desperate as they are to have people like them-they'll put it someplace where it can't be missed. And if we give it to them, they'll pay to maintain it. If we play our cards right, we can probably even get them to pay for part-maybe most-of it."
"God, isn't history fascinating?" Castillo said.
"That meeting took place right in your hotel," Delchamps said. "And here we are on rue Danou, site of the legendary Harry's New York Bar. Would you be interested to learn that Ernest Hemingway used to hang around in Harry's?"
"Absolutely," Castillo said as Delchamps held open the door to the bar for him.
"Paris was known in those days as the intellectual center of the world. The truth is that before we sent Pershing over here to save their ass, they had emptied the French treasury and wiped out a generation of their male population in a standoff with the Krauts…"
He paused to direct Castillo, pointing to the stairway to the basement. When he had followed Castillo down the narrow, winding stairway and they had taken stools at the bar, he picked up where he had left off.
"And, presuming you had the Yankee dollar, it was one of the cheapest places to live. Not to mention that since most of the young Frogs had been killed in the trenches, there was no shortage of places for you to hide your salami."
The bartender appeared.
"They have other stuff, but they make a really good hamburger," Delchamps said.
"Sounds fine," Castillo said.
Delchamps ordered-in fluent Parisian French, Castillo noted-the hamburgers, medium rare, and two bottles of Dortmunder Union beer.
"Do you find it interesting, Herr Gossinger, that your tail is resting where very possibly Hemingway's tail once rested?"
"Yes, I find that interesting," Castillo said.
"And would you be interested in hearing the true story of Hemingway's war service as an officer?"
"I would be interested."
"He drove an ambulance in the Italian Army Medical Corps," Delchamps said. "Normally, as you know, Herr Oberst, ambulance drivers are privates. Oh, every once in a while there's a PFC, and maybe even a corporal after long and faithful service, but usually a private."
"I suppose that's true," Castillo said.
"Hemingway was a lieutenant," Delchamps said. "The Italian government decided it wouldn't be good if all the starry-eyed American boys who rushed to do their part in the war to end all wars wrote home to Mama about how privates driving ambulances in the Italian Army were treated and fed, so they made them all second lieutenants."
"Really?"
"True story. You found it interesting, I hope?"
"Absolutely! But you know what I would really find interesting to know?"
"And what is that?"
"Please tell me if you deliver these fascinating, interesting lectures on little-known facts of history to everyone who comes to Paris or if you have some interesting-possibly nefarious-purpose in relating them to me."
"In your case, Herr Oberst Gossinger, I was ordered to do so," Delchamps said as he took a sheet of paper from his pocket.
That's the second time he called me "Herr Oberst." I wonder what's that all about?
"This came in at six this morning, Colonel," Delchamps said, handing the paper to Castillo, "making it necessary for me to get out of bed at that obscene hour and go to the fucking embassy to get it. I was, as you can imagine, more than a little pissed, for several reasons."
Castillo unfolded the sheet of paper and read it.
TOP SECRET
DELIVER IMMEDIATELY TO EDGAR J. DELCHAMPS ONLY AND REPORT TIME OF DELIVERY OR REASONS FOR FAILURE TO DO SO
COLONEL C. G. CASTILLO, USA, IS PRESENTLY EN ROUTE PARIS ON A MISSION FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WHICH HE MAY AT HIS SOLE DISCRETION ELECT TO CLARIFY FOR YOU. COLONEL CASTILLO WILL BE FURNISHED WHATEVER ASSISTANCE AND INTELLIGENCE HE REQUESTS, TO INCLUDE, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ACCESS TO AGENCY-OWNED AVIATION ASSETS. FURTHER, IT IS DIRECTED THAT YOU FURNISH HIM WITH ANY INTELLIGENCE NOT SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED BUT IN WHICH YOU FEEL HE MAY BE INTERESTED.
"When Montvale called the last time you came here, he told me you were a major, Ace," Delchamps said, accusingly.
"I'm a lieutenant colonel as of yesterday," Castillo said.