Games of State - Tom Clancy [139]
"Les passeports, " M. Marais said to Ballon.
"He wants to see your passports," Ballon said. "Then, hopefully, we can be on our way."
Stoll said to Ballon, "If I forgot mine, does that mean I get to go home?"
Ballon regarded him. "Are you the man with the machine?"
Stoll nodded.
"Then no. If I have to shoot Marais, you're coming with us."
Stoll reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew his passport. The others produced theirs as well.
Marais looked at each in turn, checking the faces against the photographs. Then he handed them back to Ballon, who passed them to Hood.
"Continuez," Marais said impatiently.
Ballon said, "I'm also supposed to tell you that, officially, you have not entered France. And that you will be expected to leave within twenty-four hours." '
"We don't exist but we do," Stoll said. "Aristotle would have loved that."
Nancy was standing behind him. "Why Aristotle?" she asked.
"He believed in abiogenesis, the idea that living creatures can arise from nonliving matter. Francesco Redi disproved it in the seventeenth century. And now we've disproved Redi."
Hood had returned the passports and stood watching Marais. He could tell from the man's face that all was not well. After a moment, Marais took Ballon aside. They spoke quietly for a moment. Then Ballon walked over. His face was even unhappier than before.
"What is it?" Hood asked.
"He's concerned," Ballon said. He looked at Hausen. "He doesn't want this very irregular situation to receive any publicity."
Hausen said coolly, "I don't blame him. Who would want to advertise that they are the home of Dominique?"
"No one," Ballon replied, "except, perhaps, the nation which gave us Hitler."
Hood's instinct in any confrontation of this type was to mediate. But he decided to stay out of the way of this one. Both men had been out of line, and he felt he could only make enemies by interfering.
Nancy said, "I came here to help stop the next Hitler, not make cracks about the last one. Anybody care to help?"
Shouldering past Ballon, Marais, and the other members of the Gendarmerie, Nancy headed for the terminal.
Hausen looked at Hood and then at Ballon. "She's right," he said. "My apologies to you both."
Ballon's mouth scrunched as if he weren't quite ready to let the matter go. Then it relaxed. He turned to Marais, who appeared deeply confused.
"Ŕ demain, " he said sternly, then signaled his men to go on. Hood, Stoll, and Hausen followed.
As they walked briskly through the terminal, Hood wondered if it had been coincidental. that Ballon had selected the salutation "See you tomorrow," which in French also reflected where they were going.
Ballon led the group to a pair of waiting vans. Without undo fuss, he made certain that Stoll was comfortable between Nancy and Hood. Ballon got in front, beside the driver. There were three other men in the rearmost seat. None carried arms. Those were in the second van, along with Hausen.
"I feel like the botanist on HMS Bounty," Stoll remarked to Hood when they were under way. "He had to transplant the breadfruit they were after and Captain Bligh really looked out for him."
"Where does that leave the rest of us?" Nancy said with a scowl.
"Bound for Tahiti," Hood said.
Nancy didn't smile. She didn't even look at him. Hood had the impression of being on the Ship of Fools, not the Bounty, Without the romanticism of memory to obscure it, he remembered now, vividly, how Nancy would regularly get into moods. She'd go from sad to depressed to angry, as if she were sliding down a muddy slope. The moods wouldn't last long, but when they came over her things could get nasty. He didn't know what scared him more: the fact that he'd forgotten them or the fact that she was in one now.
Ballon turned around. "I spent what was left of favors owed to me getting you into France. I had already used up most of them obtaining the search warrant to enter Demain. It expires tonight at midnight but I don't want to waste it. We've been watching the plant for days by remote video camera, hoping to see