Gerard, meanwhile, appeared to resent everything about his father. Pčre Dupre had sold information to the Germans to survive the War. So Gerard surrounded himself with young German students who needed his money to get by. Pčre Dupre had stolen money from the Americans after the War. So Gerard designed software to appeal to Americans, to have them give him their money. Pčre Dupre hated the Communists. Which is why, as a student, Gerard was drawn to them. Everything he did was an act of defiance against his father.

But then something happened to the younger Dupre. After leaving the Sorbonne, he began collecting historical documents. Ballon had talked to some of the autograph dealers from whom Dupre had made purchases. It seemed to amaze Dupre that he could own important letters written by the great figures of the past.

One dealer had told the Gendarmerie officer, "Gerard seemed to feel as if he were looking over the shoulders of great men. Watching history unfold brought fire to his eyes. " Dupre bought documents from the French Revolution, as well as actual costumes and weapons and memorabilia. He purchased religious letters that were even older. He even bought guillotines.

A psychiatrist who worked for the Gendarmerie said, "It is not uncommon for people disappointed with the real world to cocoon themselves, to create a safe reality with letters or mementos."

"And might he then wish to expand that?" Ballon had asked.

"Very possibly, " he'd been told. "Enlarge the haven, as it were."

When Dupre changed his name to Dominique, there was no longer any question in Ballon's mind that he had begun to see himself as a modern-day saint. The patron saint of France. Or else he had gone mad, or perhaps both. And when the New Jacobins began terrorizing foreigners at the same time, Ballon had little doubt that they were the soldiers guarding Dominique's spiritual fortress-- a France that was pure, as chaste as the original Jacobins had envisioned.

The Gendarmerie had refused to launch an official investigation into Dominique. It wasn't just because he was a powerful man. As Ballon quickly discovered, the Gendarmerie was only slightly less xenophobic than Dominique. The only reason he didn't resign was so that he could keep the idea alive that the law was supposed to serve the public-- all of it. Regardless of national origin or religion. The son of a Belgian Jewish mother who had been disinherited when she married his poor, French Catholic father, Ballon understood what hate could do. If he quit the force, the bigots would win.

However, as Ballon watched the video of the factory, he wasn't certain that they hadn't already won.