He was aware that most crime in any society is either carried out against, or witnessed by, the little people: the shopkeeper, the sales assistant, the postman, or the bank clerk. These people he could make talk to him, and he knew it.

Claude Lebel was, as he knew, a good cop. He had always been a good cop, slow, precise, methodical, painstaking. Just occasionally he had shown the flash of inspiration that is needed to turn a good cop into a remarkable detective. But he had never lost sight of the fact that in police work ninety-nine percent of the effort is routine,

Half a million dollars is the price. Considering you expect to get France itself, you value your country very cheap.”

Like all men created by systems and procedures, he did not like the unpredictable and therefore the uncontrollable.

“A professional does not act out of fervour and is therefore more calm and less likely to make elementary errors. Not being idealistic, he is not likely to have second thoughts at the last minute about who else might get hurt in the explosion, or whatever method, and being a professional he has calculated the risks to the last contingency. So his

Like most fanatics, Rodin could blind himself to facts with sheer belief.

Experienced in psychological warfare, he understood that the fight against Gaullist France had to be conducted on all levels, by terror, diplomacy, and public relations.

Colonel Antoine Argoud. A product of one of France’s top universities, the Ecole Polytechnique, Argoud had a good brain and dynamic energy.

Service Five has a one-word title—Action. This office was the core of the anti-OAS war.