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corridor, some of the inmates called out greetings; a few unleashed curses. There were three more sets of doors and two corridors before she arrived in the long hall where prisoners usually waited for the visitation room. There were tables and one could sit with visitors under the watchful eyes of the guards. But this time there were no lines, no other prisoners. Her cousin Colette worked for important people and could arrange special visits.
     
    Colette was the chief of staff for Charles Montpellier, a well-known member of France's Senate, le Senat. Although Colette did not approve of Benoit's chosen course in life, she nevertheless acknowledged that Benoit had a heart that seemed to draw those who loved life and some of its excesses. Benoit was the rascal that people liked despite themselves. That would include a fair portion of the French legislature, where she was well known to several members.
     
    When she entered the visitation room, Colette managed a slight smile. Benoit knew her cousin hated it here. All the tables were bare metal, likewise the chairs and the walls equally stark and heartlessly mechanical.
     
    Benoit sat down across the table from her cousin and, for a moment, they just stared as if looking across a gulf. And indeed they were. Two different worlds would collide and then, after a few short minutes, separate.
     
    "I have a plan to change my life," Benoit began.
     
    "Too bad the men who put you here aren't around to help."
     
    "Well, they aren't and they wouldn't. I've got to do this myself."
     
    "Does it involve committing more crimes?"
     
    "I am in a bottomless pit. To get out I must climb over certain people."
     
    "Speak plainly."
     
    "I will use the greed and the lust in others to further my own advancement, but I myself shall not be taken with greed or take any ill-gotten gain. When I reach my goal, I will have love and a law-abiding life."
     
    "What about before you reach this goal?"
     
    "I cannot promise perfection in a world of flaws. I need your help, Colette. I will not endanger you. I will ask you to do things that will enable me to catch demons, but I will catch no angels because I have no angel bait."
     
    "You speak in metaphors. I think Americans would say bullshit. But so far you have never dragged me into your problems. You have destroyed only yourself."
     
    "You know that the French government, now that they have taken over Grace Technologies, must be desperate to understand the genetic research that I helped administer before they put me in here."
     
    "I know very little about it really, but what if that is true?"
     
    "If I helped them get it—if I did a great service for the government, could I get a pardon? This technology is very valuable. There are the parts Gaudet has. I can get those. There are the parts even Gaudet doesn't have, the part called Chaperone. I can get that as well."
     
    "We have gone over this. I think there is no way for you to get a pardon."
     
    "I hear the SDECE is paying me a visit."
     
    "That is not about a pardon. It is because they desperately want your help. It is the beginning. Maybe years from now if things go well with them, you could get something. House arrest they call it, or something like that. Don't think about a pardon, you will only be disappointed. Many French shareholders lost a fortune when Grace Technologies went under and they are angry. And I am telling you, do not try to fool the government."
     
    "I will tell the SDECE the truth. From you I want to know Admiral Francois Larive's prospects for political advancement. I want to know where his strengths lie, what position he might next hold, and who would be responsible for getting him there. I want to know the same for an agent, Jean-Baptiste Sourriaux. In the not-too-far distant future I may want you to send certain e-mails to America."
     
    A guard came in.
     
    "Time to go back."
     
    She would wait for the Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre Espionnage,