"Undoubtedly," said McCaskey. "A man like Dominique could be using hundreds if not thousands of banks to finance groups like that the world over."

"Okay, but why?" Rodgers asked. "He's created a front that's worldwide and there has to be a weak spot. Is he power hungry? Doesn't sound like it. He's a French patriot. So why would he care what happens in England or South Africa or anywhere else? Why would he spread himself out like that?"

"Because he's also an international businessman," McCaskey said. "One of the first things lost in terrorist confrontations is confidence in the system. If it's an airplane hijacking, we lose faith in airport security. Air travel drops for a while. If it's a tunnel bombing, people take bridges or stay at home."

"But the infrastructure recovers."

"That's been true so far," McCaskey pointed out. "But what if several systems were to be weakened at once? Or the same system is hit repeatedly? Look at Italy. The Red Brigade kidnapped Prime Minister Aldo Moro and shook them up for months in 1978. Cut to 1991, when Albanian refugees began flooding Italy because of political turmoil at home. Terrorists hit Italy again. Thirteen years had passed, almost to the week, yet the international business community started having flashbacks. To them, Italy was out of control again. There was no confidence in the government. Foreign investments began to drop almost at once. What would have happened if the terrorism had kept up or spread? The financial damage would have been immeasurable. Look at Hollywood."

"What about it?"

McCaskey said, "You think the studios began opening soundstages in Florida because it was sunnier there, or real estate was cheaper? No. They were afraid that earthquakes and racial unrest could destroy the film industry."

Rodgers was trying to digest everything McCaskey had thrown at him. From McCaskey's own expression, so, obviously, was he.

"Darrell," Rodgers said thoughtfully, "how many white supremacist groups would you estimate there are in the United States?"

"I don't have to estimate," he said. He flipped through several pages in the second file in his lap, the file marked Hate Groups. "According to the FBI's latest white paper, there are seventy-seven different white supremacist-neo-Nazi-skinhead groups, with a total membership of some thirty-seven thousand people. Of those, nearly six thousand people belong to armed militias."

"What's the disbursement?"

"Nationally?" McCaskey asked. "Basically, they're in every state of the union and in every major city of each state, including Hawaii. Some target blacks, some Asians, some Jews, some Mexicans, some all of the above. But they're everywhere."