"Don't lecture me about selflessness. He's a general. I fight in the trenches. But," Ballon added quickly, "this is pointless. I need you, you want him, so that is that. I'll make a few calls and I will meet you at the Aerodrome de Lasbordes at eight o'clock."

"Hold on," Hood said. "You've asked your questions now I want to ask mine."

"Go ahead."

"We think Dominique's preparing to launch an online campaign designed to spread hate, inspire riots, and destabilize governments."

"Your associate General Rodgers told me all about this chaos project."

"Good," said Hood. "Did he also tell you we want him stopped, not threatened."

"Not in so many words," Ballon said. "But I believe that Dominique is a terrorist. If you can help me prove that, I will go into his factory and stop him."

"I'm told he's avoided arrest in the past."

"He has," Ballon said. "But I intend to do more than arrest him. Let me give you an overview which I hope will answer all of your questions. We French are very solidly behind our entrepreneurs. They've prospered in the winter of our economy. They've thrived despite government manacles. And I admit, with some shame, that a great many Frenchmen approve of the work of the New Jacobins. No one likes immigrants here, and the New Jacobins attack them like pack dogs. If people knew that Dominique was behind those attacks, he would be an even greater hero."

Ballon's eyes burned through the image on the TV. He saw, in his mind, Dominique sitting smug and comfortable in his office.

"But while we French are an emotional people, most of us also believe in concord. In healing wounds. In harmony. You Americans see that as waving a white flag, but I see it as civilized. Dominique is not civilized. He violates the laws of France and God. Like his father, he has a conscience made of diamond. Nothing scratches it. It is my intention to make him answer for his crimes."

Hood said, "I believe in moral crusades and I'll back yours with the full resources of my organization. But you still haven't told me where this crusade is headed."

Ballon replied, "To Paris."

"I'm listening," said Hood.

"I intend to arrest Dominique, confiscate his papers and software, and then resign from the Gendarmarie. Dominique's attorneys will see to it that he never goes to trial. But while that process is under way, I'll go to the press with a catalogue of his crimes. Murders and rapes he has committed or ordered, taxes he hasn't paid, businesses and properties he misappropriated, and more that I couldn't reveal as a government employee."

"A dramatic gesture," Hood said. "But if French law is anything like American law, you'll be sued, drawn, and quartered."

"That is correct," replied Ballon. "But my trial will be Dominique's trial. And when it's over he'll be disgraced. Finished."

"So will you."

"Only this career," Ballon said. "I'll find other honorable work."