Lauren wasn’t satisfied with the answer even though she knew it to be true. “Again, what is France’s interest?”
Bruneseau suddenly looked at her with renewed interest, as if she’d just passed some unwritten test. He inclined his head in admiration. “Very good, Captain. I think our friend Mercer here would have left it at that, but you want more. Why is that?”
“Because France has never shown any interest in Central America, nor have you ever seemed particularly alarmed at China’s recent geopolitical growth. And finally because few French ships transit the canal and very little of your GDP depends on raw materials that pass through here. Your geography insulates you from what happens in Panama.”
“Meanwhile,” Bruneseau cut in, “America accounts for sixty to eighty percent of all goods that move through the canal and yet you dismantled your presence here. Actually you abandoned it, leaving behind about three billion dollars in assets, including a rather sophisticated antenna array and listening station atop Ancon Hill.”
Understanding dawned on her. “Ariane.”
Rene toasted her with his beer. “Since I didn’t say it first, I suppose it’s all right if I said yes.” He glanced at Mercer. “Do you understand what we are talking about?”
The Frenchman wanted to treat Mercer like a fool, revenge perhaps for the sucker punch. Mercer wasn’t going to play his game. “Because the European Space Agency launches their Ariane rockets from Kourou, Guyana, in South America, you see a Chinese listening post in Panama as a potential threat.”
“Wouldn’t you? Not all of what Ariane does is civilian and a great deal can be learned of our capabilities with a tracking station that can intercept our rocket’s radio instructions.”
“So France is finally willing to stand on the wall to guard against China’s growing influence.” An angry flush had risen on Lauren’s face. “About damned time some of our allies saw what was happening.”
Bruneseau let the insult pass, watching Mercer’s reaction.
Mercer had yet to respond to this explanation because it seemed off somehow. Until he and Lauren could speak alone, he let it pass. “How does all this involve me?”
“To answer that I need to explain a few things. In the years since your country turned over the canal, Panama has been bought up bit by bit. It started small, a few businesses, a couple of deals, but the pace has accelerated. The principle telecommunications company recently sold a forty percent stake to a Chinese firm. Only Chinese companies are given mineral exploration rights. An American railroad corporation was forced out of their ownership of the trans-isthmus line by Hatcherly Consolidated, who are also about to complete an oil pipeline that runs from coast to coast. Hatcherly has even muscled a quasi-legitimate Hong Kong firm for control of one-third of the Balboa container port.”
“Quasi-legitimate?”
“The company’s called Hutchinson Wampoa. There are unsubstantiated rumors that they are controlled by the government in Beijing. Who knows? However, there are no such rumors about Hatcherly. Their ties to COSTIND, and thus China’s military, are well documented. Another fact not in dispute is when mainland companies invest in a country, those nations soon switch their diplomatic recognition away from Taiwan in favor of the communists.”
“You see that happening here?” Mercer asked.
“Never would have happened under former president Ochoa. He was a rabid anti-communist. No one is sure about Quintero because no one knows who really engineered his suspicious election. We can’t ignore that the promise of free markets hasn’t reached the poorest and most disenfranchised and that Marxism is on the rise in Latin America all over again because of this. Perhaps Quintero may yet lean that way.”
“So you’ve established that China is showing a lot of interest in Panama and that the United States has done very little about it. That still doesn’t explain why you involved me.”
“Because for months I never knew who was pulling the strings here. Up until Hutchinson Wampoa was forced to give up part of their harbor, I thought they were behind the systematic expansion. Afterward I realized it was Hatcherly. Liu Yousheng is China’s point man.”
“So you concentrated your investigation on him?”
“Precisely. By the time I knew it was Liu, he’d already made overtures to buy the journals from the family who owned them, just weeks before the auction. We had to scramble, which was why the operation in Paris got away from us. We had to get Hatcherly to show themselves in such a way to start an aboveboard criminal investigation, trapping Liu’s agents in France as a way of exposing him in Panama.”
“Using me as bait.”
“Monsieur Derosier said you could look after yourself. Also we had agents at the gallery and at the Crillon Hotel where he said you normally stay. When you told Derosier that you had different lodging, the best I could do was follow you.”
“When the punk tried to steal the journal you knew it was Liu’s men making their move.”
“Correct. I also didn’t think you’d catch him so I shot him.” That answered one of the many questions that had dogged Mercer since that night. But still dozens more swirled in his head. Bruneseau continued, “Before we could secure the area, you’d ducked into the catacombs trailed by the Chinese assassins. I wasn’t aware that you’d survived the sewers until your name was flagged at Charles de Gaulle airport when you left France. I assume the gunmen are ... ?”
“Down the drain.” Mercer’s deadpan joke was lost on the spy. “How did you know those men came from Liu and Hatcherly?”
“Because we’d followed them from Panama. Liu’s interest in old journals and diaries was something we couldn’t explain. It was an anomaly in his actions that we felt was somehow important. Honestly it was just a guess since all other attempts to infiltrate his empire have been disasters.”
“Are the journals important?” Lauren asked.
Bruneseau gave a Gallic shrug. “We don’t know why he wanted them or what he’s done with the ones he bought. Like I said, his organization has proved to be impenetrable.”
“Not exactly,” Mercer said, rubbing in the fact that he and Lauren had gotten in.
The Frenchman’s voice darkened. “We managed to get two men into the terminal two weeks ago. One’s corpse was fished out of Lake Gatun by a sightseeing boat and we think the other had already washed into the Pacific. We’ve kept their facility under observation, which was why we were there tonight to rescue you. I still don’t know how you managed to get in.”
“Locked ourselves in a container at the rail yard in Cristobal and had an inside man let us out when the train reached the port.”
“Clever,” Rene replied after a moment’s consideration. “And what did you learn?”
“Not so fast,” Mercer said. “You still have a lot to answer for. You explained how you used me in Paris, but not why. Why me and not one of your own people?”
“We didn’t have time to establish a legitimate cover, and in discussions with Derosier he mentioned that you would be there to buy the Lepinay journal for a friend already in Panama, a Mr. Gary Barber.”
“Who you know is dead?”
“Yes, we understand you discovered his body and helped organize his funeral.”
That statement told Mercer that Bruneseau didn’t have all the answers he thought he did. He hadn’t been at the funeral, but the agent would have thought so if his dinner conversation with Maria Barber had been overheard. Which the spy had already admitted had happened. He realized that the French had certain pieces of the puzzle and he and Lauren had others. He had to decide if he wanted to share, and to do that he had to slough off his feelings over how he’d been treated. Mercer wanted nothing more than to tell the spy to screw himself and walk out the door, but his heart told him that getting to the bottom of Gary’s death was more important than his anger.