“You’d have to do it straight, to make it work. You’d have to ask him to come to the U.S. for an interview. He’s scared of you; he has to be. You’d play on that. Tell him that if he doesn’t come, you’ll print a story he won’t like.”

“But what could I possibly have that would be so threatening to Bézy that he’d come to America to talk me out of printing it?”

“Ah!” Rubino smiled. “That’s where we come in.” He was so pleased with himself, having led me along his carefully prepared trail to the precise spot where he wanted me to end up. “We can provide you with information.”

He removed another envelope from his briefcase and handed it to me. Inside was a plain piece of paper with the name “ALF Orient, S.A.” and an address in Luxembourg. Below that were the words “PanAsia Credit P-20-52-D.”

“Sorry, Tom, but I don’t have a clue what this means.”

“This is Bézy’s greatest secret. It’s the name of the shell company he uses, and the number of its offshore bank account. In a few weeks, assuming the French win the China contract, more than one hundred million dollars will flow into this account. If you are in possession of this information, you will have a great deal of power over Mr. Bézy.”

“Wonderful! Then he’ll have to kill me, the way he killed Arthur.”

“He may want to—frankly, Eric, that’s part of the lure—but he won’t be able to. He’ll be playing on our field. We’ll have him in our sights the moment his plane lands.”

“God damn you.” I loved his proposal and I hated it; it was what I wanted and what I feared. “Suppose it works out just the way you say. He comes to the United States, and you arrest him. What happens then? Do I have to testify in court?”

“If you want to testify, you can. It would be a very complicated story to tell, and parts of it would have to be handled in camera, out of hearing of the public. It might cause some problems for your newspaper, too. But if you want to tell the story, we’re willing. A safer course would be to prosecute him on other crimes. We wouldn’t be charging him directly for the murder of Arthur Bowman, but it would be payback, just the same.”