"They won't. They fear nothing more than scandal, and they're too far in with me already. They'll hunker down and say nothing. Mark my words. I know our brethren."
"They are your brethren. I was nationalized by birth, not genetics. What is your plan?" Gaudet asked.
"When you are ready, I will give you Chaperone and you pay Georges Raval two million dollars. Bowden another two million."
"I can see Bowden. Without him nobody makes more Chaperone. For that, he's cheap. But Raval doesn't own anything. Why two for him?"
"They've met, Bowden and Raval, so now they are more or less together. Each wants what the other gets. It's human nature. And remember: Bowden doesn't own the Chaperone molecule itself. He knows the source, which is critical, but Chaperone has to be synthesized and you have to know how to use it-the process. That's Raval's piece. No one else un derstands it, even the French. They own the process but don't know how it works. You see?"
"Somehow it seems a little too simple, but I'm listening. What does Bowden guarantee? What does Raval guarantee?"
"That's a snag. Bowden guarantees nothing, because he says he doesn't know for sure which material the molecule came from. I can get his 1998 journal, Devan."
"Does he guarantee the journal?"
"No. Georges says the molecule came from a salamander. I will obtain the salamander journal page. You and I will guarantee the journal."
"The French will accept this?"
"Probably. Raval guarantees that the official Chaperone documents from Grace Technologies files will be delivered to escrow. Part of the deal with the French is for Raval-they get both unquestionable legal title and the secret to Chaperone technology; he goes to work in their laboratories at agreed terms. Part of those terms is the two million, which you are to pay to him. But it is peanuts compared to the two hundred million and the way that will be multiplied in the markets with Cordyceps. Now I still have to work out the other terms of the employment contract for Raval. I plan to finish it quickly, in the next couple of days."
"I will say this, Benoit, you seem to have all the angles figured for everybody."
She could see that he was getting restless. Something was bothering him. A lesson from Catholic school came to her: what fellowship has the darkness with the light?
"You don't want to go with me," he said. "Do you?" "Of course I do. But I have work to do. I can't go off to the country in the middle of a job that will determine my whole life-my freedom. I have many things to work out." "So you say. Your period never stopped us before." She said nothing for a moment, working on the tears she'd need for the next step in her explanation. "I did not want to tell you this, but… I was raped by a guard in jail. Thank God I'm not pregnant. My period proves that. But it's been awful. I am afraid I may have caught something. If I did, then my blood could infect you. It's a dangerous time, my period. I would not hide that from you."
Gaudet's eyes widened. His fastidious nature seemed to appreciate the threat. "What did the guard have?" "Hepatitis for certain. Hopefully, not AIDS." "I can't believe a guard raped Benoit Moreau." "Actually, it was two guards. They handcuffed me to a bed, feet and hands."
Gaudet studied her. He reached into the pocket of his slacks. It was the right pocket where he kept the knife. When he displayed the pearl-handled instrument, it did not surprise her. With a flick of his wrist he snapped it open. He walked forward and held it under her chin, the way he used to do in sex play. But his eyes were hard and unwavering. She felt weakness in her knees, remembering the stories she had heard of the disemboweled enemies of Gaudet. Most re cently it had been one of Sam's men. More than one woman had been cut in the face.
As if daring her to do something, he began to cut the buttons down the front of her dress. Quickly she reached under her dress, pulled aside the crotch of her panties, and with drew her bloody tampon. She held it in front of his face and stood very still, not wanting to trigger him into a blood letting.
A smile broke across his lips. "I was sure you were lying about your period. When will it end?"
"Four, five days."
"One can be vaccinated against hepatitis. I myself have received the vaccine because of my travels. But AIDS…"
"I know. I'm scared, Devan. And I'm sorry."
"You make it difficult. I want to see you in five days."
"Good. Me too. By which time the deal will be done. All except for Cordyceps."
"I will wait five days from the sale of Chaperone to implement Cordyceps and no more. When is the soonest you can deliver Chaperone?"
"Tomorrow, if I go back immediately. I need to be with Raval when you deliver the money."
"Why should I trust you?"
"Because I have never failed you. And because I am too smart to cross you. Raval will deposit into escrow, as will you, and as will the French. Nobody has to trust anybody."
"We all have to trust the escrow holder."
"Come, come. The Swiss are impeccable. Everything closes at once-you, Bowden, Raval, the French government. Everyone is paid directly out of escrow pursuant to identical countersigned instructions."
He watched her for maybe two minutes, saying nothing. She did not like her dress open where he had cut the buttons, but she knew better than to pull it closed until he was through with his ritual.
"Everything is too smooth."
"I have thought about it for months. That is why. I have waited to work with you. I have plotted and schemed."
"There is no one so blind as a man who wants to believe a woman, unless it is a woman who wants to believe a man. But you never had that problem because you never had a weakness for any man. Not like I have a weakness for you. You're lucky I don't pull your entrails out on the floor and watch you die. I hate that you weaken me!"
Benoit didn't move a millimeter. She knew that it would take almost nothing to drive the man to murder. He stepped close and touched the tip of his knife just beneath her sternum. She knew it was the place that he made the incision when he wanted to unravel the intestines.
"Tell me everything you and this Baptiste get out of this."
"I get to be with you. I get a pardon from the French gov ernment. And if Cordyceps goes off as planned, I get to be rich. I still have funds from Grace that are hidden and I will invest heavily on the short side just before Cordyceps. Baptiste and the admiral will get five million each in exchange for my pardon, Baptiste splits with others. The admiral says he won't take the five million for a long time, if ever. Maybe, he says, he will turn it over to the French government. You and I know that if he would consider it, he will take it."
"Admiral Larive will be involved with this?"
"He will not say that he will do it, of course. I told him the money would go into a Swiss bank in the name of a Swiss trust. We would invest. He never has to claim the money. He said nothing at all. A man like that cannot agree-it just has to be done."
"So he agrees by his silence. You amuse me."
"That is how it has to be. When he gets up in the morn ing, he tells himself he will not take the money, that it is blood money. It is how he respects himself even a little bit. And who knows, maybe he will never take any."
"Bullshit. He will take it. Maybe when he is old. How does the French government explain this to the Americans?"
"They notify the Americans on the day of Cordyceps, but, of course, they will say that they thought it wasn't to happen for weeks."
"It could affect our execution of Cordyceps if the Americans have advance warning."
"They won't." She gave the knife a deliberate glance. "I am betting my life on it."
"They cannot tell the Americans more than a few hours in advance."
"I understand. But we will have to know the date for a few days in advance in order to make our investments."