“Doubtful. Even with what you showed me it’s just not enough to bring out the

cavalry yet. There are lots of issues to consider, not the least of which is the

French are pretty strong allies of ours.” “But it’s probably not the French

government behind this, Bobby.

 

It’s the corporate side. And just because Charpentier is French doesn’t mean

he’s not selling this stuff to the Russians or the Chinese. Like you said, it’s

a national security problem. And he’s mixed up with people who are not allies of

ours.” “Doesn’t matter. We still have to tread very carefully.” “I don’t see

why,” said Puller. “Because we don’t know how far this goes. Or how high the

corruption is. These things don’t tend to exist in a vacuum. There was a

corruption case involving a Malaysian businessman and the Seventh Fleet. I think

all told about two dozen officers, including ten or so admirals, were

implicated. People had suspected before, but with so much firepower behind the

corruption all attempts at intervention got whacked until it got so bad that the

water boiled over and that brought everybody down. We might have a similar

situation here. And if so, we can’t run around screaming about it or everyone

will cover their tracks.” “But what about Shepard and us nearly getting blown

away? That doesn’t make the water boil?” “Proof of a connection, John. Do you

have it?” Puller let out an exasperated sigh. “So what now?” “Any lead on this

Paul guy?” “No. But he wants Jericho badly. So maybe we reverse engineer it. We

look for her and he might turn up.” “She spends time at the Ballard estate in

North Carolina, that I know. They’re still apparently very close.” Knox said, “I

can track down property that Quentin might own.” “And do the same with Helen

Myers,” said Puller. “She’s up to her neck in this too. And let’s see if we can