“A common tactic among prospectors,” Donner answered. “By withholding the exact location of a promising find, the discoverer can negotiate a higher percentage of the profits against the day the mine becomes operational.”

“Makes sense,” the President murmured. “But what cited the French to secrecy back in 1910? What could they possibly have seen in byzanium that no one else saw for the next seventy years?”

“Its similarity to radium, for one thing,” Seagram said. The Societe des Mines passed Brewster’s samples on to the Radium Institute in Paris, where their scientists found that certain properties of byzanium and radium were identical.”

“And since it cost fifty thousand dollars to process one gram of radium,” Donner added, “the French government suddenly saw a chance to corner the world’s only known supply of a fantastically expensive element. Given enough time, they could have realized hundreds of millions of dollars on a few pounds of byzanium.”

The President shook his head in disbelief. “My God, if I remember my weights and measures correctly, there are about twenty-eight grams to the ounce.”

“That’s right, sir. One ounce of byzanium was worth one million four hundred thousand dollars. And that’s at 1910 prices.”

The President slowly stood up and gazed out the window. “What was Brewster’s next move?”

“He turned over his information to the War Department.” Seagram pulled out the folder on the funds for Secret Army Plan 371-990-R85 and opened it. “If they knew the full story, the boys over at CIA would be proud of their ancestor organization. Once the generals of the old Army Intelligence Bureau saw what Brewster was onto, they dreamed up the grandest double-cross of the century. Brewster was ordered to inform the Societe des Mines that he had identified the ore samples and bluff them into thinking he was going to form a mining syndicate and go after the byzanium on his own. He had the Frenchies by the balls, and they knew it. By this time, they’d figured that his directions to the outcropping were off the mark. No Brewster, no byzanium. It was that simple. They had no choice but to sign him on as chief engineer for a piece of the profits.”

“Why couldn’t our own government have backed a mining operation?” the President asked. “Why let the French into the picture?”

“Two reasons,” Seagram replied. “First, since the byzanium was on foreign soil, the mine would have to be operated in secret. If the miners were caught by the Russians, the French government would get the blame, not the Americans. Second, the Congress in those days penny pinched the Army to death. There were simply not enough funds to include a mining venture in the Arctic, regardless of the potential profit.”

“It would seem the French were playing against a stacked deck.”