Games of State - Tom Clancy [101]
Rodgers said, "Nauru's in the Pacific, isn't it?"
McCaskey read from the file. "It's north of the Solomon Islands, about eight square miles big. It's got a president, no taxes, the highest per capita income in the world, and one business. Phosphate mining. Used for fertilizer."
That was where he'd heard of it, Rodgers thought. He'd slumped down while thinking about Herbert, but was now sitting tall. "Yes, Nauru," Rodgers said. "The Japanese occupied it during World War II and enslaved the natives. And the Germans had it for sometime before that."
"I'll have to take your word for it," McCaskey said.
"What about Dominique's name?" Rodgers asked. "He changed it from Dupre. Was he ashamed of his family?"
"Liz was working with me and wondered the same thing as the data came through," McCaskey said. "But there's no evidence of that. He was raised a strict Roman Catholic, and what Liz thinks is that he may have taken the name from St. Dominic. The FBI's file says that he gives a lot of money to Dominican charities and to a school named after the most famous Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas. Liz thinks that being one of the so-called Domini canes, the dogs of the Lord, would have appealed to Dupre's sense of orthodoxy and empire-building."
"As I recall," Rodgers said, "Dominic also had a reputation as being something of an inquisitor. Some historians regard him as the brains behind the bloody massacre of the Albigenses of Languedoc."
"Again, I'm out of my element," McCaskey said. "But now that you mention it, there is an interesting possible connection here," he said. He looked in the second dossier, which was marked Hate Groups. "Have you ever heard of the Jacobins?"
Rodgers nodded. "They were thirteenth-century French Dominican friars. Because they set up headquarters in the Rue St. Jacques, they were called Jacobins. During the French Revolution, anti monarchists who met in a former Jacobin convent were called Jacobins. They were a violent, very radical factor in the Revolution. Robespierre, Danton, and Marat were all Jacobins."
McCaskey frowned. "I don't know why I bother to try and tell you anything related to history. Okay. Now have you heard of the New Jacobins?"
"Ironically, I have," Rodgers said. "Just today, in fact. Alberto said something that a Colonel in the Gendarmarie Nationale was going after them."
"That would be Colonel Ballon," McCaskey said. "He's an odd duck, but they're his pet cause. For seventeen years, the New Jacobins have targeted foreigners in France, mostly Algerian and Moroccan immigrants. They're the exact opposite of the glory hounds who call and claim credit for every kidnapping and hijacking. They strike hard and fast and then vanish."
"Seventeen years," Rodgers said, thoughtfully. "When did Dominique change his name?"
McCaskey smiled. "Bingo."
Rodgers stared ahead as he followed the thread. "So Gerard Dominique may be involved with, possibly even head a group of French terrorists. Then if we know that, so must the French."
"We'll have to wait and see what Ballon says," McCaskey said. "I'm told he's on a stakeout now and is in no mood to take calls."
"It's going that well?"
"Apparently," said McCaskey. "Dominique is as reclusive as billionaires come."
Rodgers said, "But being reclusive doesn't make him untouchable. If you can't take him by a frontal assault, there's always a flanking maneuver. What about the money Dominique sent through Nauru? We might be able to get to him through that. It could be just one branch of a big damn tree."
"Undoubtedly," said McCaskey. "A man like Dominique could be using hundreds if not thousands of banks to finance groups like that the world over."
"Okay, but why?" Rodgers asked. "He's created a front that's worldwide and there has to be a weak spot. Is he power hungry? Doesn't sound like it. He's a French patriot. So why would he care what happens in England or South Africa or anywhere else? Why would he spread himself out like that?"
"Because he's also an international businessman," McCaskey