Steve Berry: The Paris Vendetta

Which surprised her.

This would be either their last conversation-or the first of many more.

“Go ahead, Eliza. I’m listening. Of course, there’s nothing else I can do but listen to you. Which, I suspect, was your plan.”

“If you felt that way, then why fly home with me?”

“If I’d refused, you would have simply found me again. This way we can resolve our business, one way or the other, and I receive a comfortable flight home as the price for my time. So please, go ahead. Make your speech.”

She quelled her anger and declared, “There’s a truism born of history. ‘If a government can’t face the challenge of war, it ends.’ The sanctity of law, citizen prosperity, solvency-all those principles are readily sacrificed by any state when its survival is challenged.”

Her listener sipped from a champagne flute.

“Here’s another reality,” she said. “Wars have always been financed by debt. The greater the threat, the greater the debt.”

He waved her off. “And I know the next part, Eliza. For any nation to involve itself in war, it must have a credible enemy.”

“Of course. And if they already exist, magnifico.”

He smiled at her use of his native tongue, the first break in his granite demeanor.

“If enemies exist,” she said, “but lack military might, money can be provided to build that might. If they don’t exist-” She grinned. “-they can always be created.”

Mastroianni laughed. “You have such a diabolical way.”

“And you don’t?”

He glared at her. “No, Eliza. I don’t.”

He was maybe five years older, equally as rich, and though aggravating, could be quite charming. They’d just dined on succulent beef tenderloin, Yukon Gold potatoes, and crisp green beans. She’d learned he was a simple eater. No spices, garlic, or hot pepper. A unique palate for an Italian, yet a lot about this billionaire was unique. But who was she to judge? She harbored a number of her own idiosyncracies.

“There is another Paris Club,” she said. “One much older. Dating to the time of Napoleon.”

“You’ve never mentioned this fact before.”

“You never showed any interest, until now.”

“May I be frank?”

“By all means.”

“I don’t like you. Or more accurately, I don’t like your business concerns or your associates. They are ruthless in their dealings, and their word means nothing. Some of your investment policies are questionable at best, criminal at worst. You’ve pursued me for nearly a year with tales of untold profits, offering little information to support your claims. Perhaps it’s your Corsican half, and you simply can’t control it.”

Her mother had been Corsican, her father a Frenchman. They’d married young and stayed together for more than fifty years. Both were now dead, she their only heir. Prejudice regarding her ancestry was nothing new-she’d encountered it many times-but that didn’t mean she accepted it gladly.

She stood from her seat and removed their dinner plates.

Mastroianni grabbed her arm. “You don’t need to serve me.”

She resented both his tone and grasp, but did not resist. Instead she smiled, switched to Italian, and said, “You’re my guest. It’s the proper thing.”

He released his grip.

She’d staffed the jet only with two pilots, both forward behind a closed cockpit door, which was why she’d attended to the meal. In the galley, she stored the dirty plates and found their dessert in a small refrigerator. Two luscious chocolate tarts. Mastroianni’s favorite, she’d been told, bought from the Manhattan restaurant they’d visited last evening.

His countenance changed when she laid the treat before him.

She sat across from him.

“Whether you like me or my companies, Robert, is irrelevant to our discussion. This is a business proposition. One that I thought you would be interested in entertaining. I have taken great care in making my selections. Five people have already been chosen. I’m the sixth. You would be the seventh.”

He pointed to the tart. “I wondered what you and the garçon were discussing before we left last night.”

He was ignoring her, playing a game of his own.

“I saw how much you enjoyed the dessert.”

He grabbed a sterling-silver fork. Apparently his personal dislike of her did not extend to her food, or her jet, or the possibility of the money to be made.

“Might I tell you a story?” she asked. “About Egypt. When then-Général Napoleon Bonaparte invaded in 1798.”

He nodded as he savored the rich chocolate. “I doubt you would accept a no. So, by all means.”

Napoleon personally led the column of French soldiers on the second day of their march south. They were near El Beydah, only a few hours away from the next village. The day was hot and sunny, just like all of the others before it. Yesterday Arabs had viciously attacked his advance guard. Général Desaix had nearly been captured, but a captain was killed and another adjutant général taken prisoner. A ransom was demanded, but the Arabs disputed the booty and eventually shot the captive in the head. Egypt was proving a treacherous land-easy to conquer, difficult to hold-and resistance seemed to be growing .

Ahead, on the side of the dusty road, he spotted a woman with a bloody face. In one arm she cradled a baby, but her other arm was extended, as if in self defense, testing the air before her. What was she doing here, in the scorching desert?

He approached and, through an interpreter, learned that her husband had pierced both her eyes. He was mortified. Why? She dared not complain and simply pleaded for someone to care for her child, who seemed near death. Napoleon ordered that both her and the baby be given water and bread .

That done, a man suddenly appeared from beyond a nearby dune, enraged and full of hate .

Soldiers came alert .

The man ran forward and snatched the bread and water from the woman .

“Forbear,” he screamed. “She has forfeited her honor and tarnished mine. That infant is my disgrace. It is an offspring of her guilt.”

Napoleon dismounted and said, “You are mad, monsieur. Insane.”

“I am her husband and have the right to do as I please.”

Before Napoleon could respond, a dagger appeared from beneath the man’s cloak and he inflicted a mortal wound to his wife .

Confusion ensued as the man seized the baby, held it in the air, then dashed it to the ground .

A shot cracked and the man’s chest exploded, his body thudding to the dry earth. Captain Le Mireur, riding behind Napoleon, had ended the spectacle .

Every soldier seemed shocked by what they’d seen .

Napoleon himself was having trouble concealing his dismay. After a few tense moments he ordered the column ahead but before remounting his horse, he noticed that something had fallen from beneath the dead man’s cloak .

A roll of papyri held tight by a string .

He retrieved it from the sand .

Napoleon commandeered quarters for the night in the pleasure house of one of his most resolute opponents, an Egyptian who’d fled into the desert with his Mameluke army months ago, leaving all of his possessions to be enjoyed by the French. Stretched out on downy carpets strewn with velvet cushions, the général was still troubled by the appalling show of inhumanity he’d witnessed earlier on the desert road .

He’d been told later that the man had done wrong stabbing his wife, but if God had wanted her vouchsafed for infidelity, she should have already been received into someone’s house and kept on charity. Since that had not occurred, Arab law would not have punished the husband for his two murders .