She remained composed, mainly gazing at the photograph on his wall and a map of Europe studded with pins. Then, still with her smile: "Well, if you really know all about it, captain, then you know that I actually have no relationship with the man."

"No? I was under the impression—a twenty-thousand-franc impression—that there was a definitely a relationship."

"Well, as a matter of fact, that money was accepted in payment for valuables confiscated at the German border. I have no idea what your agents may or may not have discovered, but that money was simply in payment for my furs."

"But not necessarily intended by Cramer to be payment for your furs, correct?"

"What Cramer intended is irrelevant. I am not a German spy."

"No, madame, I believe you're not. However, the Germans don't know that." He paused to light a cigarette, leaving another pungent stench in the air. "This is my offer, madame. Return to Amsterdam. Develop a relationship with Karl Cramer. Find out one or two small things for me, and I will pay you fifty thousand francs. Now, what do you say to that?"

"I say that having taken Cramer's money and given him nothing in return, he would hardly trust—"

"Ah, but I can make him trust you. I can make him believe that his twenty thousand francs was the best investment he has made all year. And once you have gained his trust, we can work wonders together."

She picked up a fountain pen from the desk, that same pen Ladoux had toyed with the day before. "I'm not at all certain that I'm ready to go back to Amsterdam, captain. I'm just beginning to enjoy Paris."

"There may not be a Paris much longer, madame, unless lovely and talented young women like yourself help us defeat the Karl Cramers of this world. In any case I don't imagine it will take more than a month or two . . . surely you can give a month or so of your time to the survival of France, especially the Paris you so favor."

"I'll have to think about it."

"Of course."

Her tragedy, Gray would tell us, was that she still believed all men took her seriously. At her word. By the time she returned to her suite at the Grand Hotel (one more room she couldn't afford) Ladoux had already sent a cable to Dunbar informing him that the German agent Mata Hari would soon be in his control. And by the time she had returned to his office on the boulevard Saint-Germain, several agents had been told to prepare for her arrival.