02.4 Rubicon

Comtesse Claudine Cartier opened the door to Suite 464 which was left unlocked. She rolled in a white suitcase and a couple of coats in garment bags in her hand.

“Bonjour!” She wore a red dress and a headpiece, in a white pair of shoes. And not a sign of a bruise on her face.

“Bonjour!” Jasinski paused at the door, “What is all this about?”

“My bag,” she said pulling the suitcase, “I’m switching here for a few days, you know. I have to disappear from this guy.”

“Who is this person?” he asked.

“He’s a fucking rich Arab,” she crossed him to the bedroom floor.

That was not how he planned to play this game. He was lagging a step behind. They would record everything and show to his wife – blackmail. This woman was playing the game one step ahead all the time.

“Comtesse! But this isn’t appropriate,” he could not think of how to explain, “We are supposed to go out! People will know!”

“You can call me Claudine.”

“Alright, Claudine, but I can’t…”

She reappeared with a glass of water, “Nobody knows what goes on in the Diplomat Floor.” She opened her hand with a pill in her palm – sildenafil.

“Huh!” Jasinski began to laugh, “I won’t be needing that.”

“It’d do good for you. I insist.”

He laughed and could not control himself, “To be very honest with you, Claudine, I already have taken one.”

“You did already!” she began to laugh, “Middle Eastern!” They roared in laughter, “I bet you did! Oh Gentleman!” Jasinski laughed like he never did before.

“They bugged your room.”

“Who did?” she asked.

“The Manager,” [CHUCKLES] “he sits in the directorio watching you on TV.”

“Mendez?”

“Yes, Mendez,” [SNIGGERS] “he can see the entire suite on his monitor.”

“Really!”

“Didn’t you notice the telly behind you in the directorio? I saw the Arab harassing you. He forgot to switch it off…” [SNICKERING]

“You saw that?” she quizzed removing the headpiece. She wore two tiny earpieces.

“Yes,” [SNORTING] “You were spatting in his face…” [MORE SNORTS]

“I was?”

“Yes…yes…plentiful, like this,” he even demonstrated and BURST IN LAUGHTER…

They were exposed to a very high level of nitrous oxide (N₂O), laughing gas, pumped into the suite room through secretly installed weep holes and controlled on a relief system by operatives inside suites 463 and 465.

Meanwhile, some armed guards rolled the shutters to The Blue Hall – blue and gold carpeted floor – and removed signboards that indicated corridor accesses to room numbers. When shutters close, it absorbed into the walls and a section of the floor cut out from access or existence. The gold Rococo pattern on the blue carpet was so laid to leave a border along the wall. It could be noticed when the shutters recede; this pattern discontinues under the panels and continues in rectangular patches in regular intervals down the hallways. Someone looking for these hidden corridors won’t find them easily. Window panels on Suite 464 were fixed and could not open – bulletproof. There were no guests in any of the suites inside the ‘U-section’ on the Diplomat Floor. No way any noise could breach out of the hall.

Two armed guards in white outfits and gas masks stood by the door outside the suite.

Claudine had drawn into the effect too, “I can’t help laughing…”

A female voice streamed into her ears, “Talk Falklands!” This operator located on the floor had to direct the course to help Claudine bring up the subject; two in bed would talk, laugh and tell.

“Falklands!” cried Claudine Cartier and opened the case she brought. It displayed two sets of cipher machines. “Do you know these?”

“No, but I…” [PUFFING]

“Come on! You operate these things!”

“Yes, but I…” he was nervous, “This is a CAG HC-500. And this red one is a DC-505 Datotek with a handset.”

“Can you listen to them?”

“Listen! You mean like Mendez, yes…” [CHUCKLES] “It is a secret…”

“Alright, tell me the secret.”

“It uses a delay…”

“A delay like sildenafil…”

“Yes, yes, almost like it. You make me laugh so much…” [PANTING]

“Explain!” flowed the voice.

“Show me!” Claudine repeated.

Still laughing, he grabbed his suitcase and produced a small electronic component. “This has a repeating cycle. A little slow. They don’t know and I don’t know…” [EXHALING] “I only replace them.”

“You only replace them?”

“Yes, I only replace them and upgrade the machines, that is my job. Only three of us know the secret. And seven can replace them. I am Number Seven in the Rubicon…”

“Double-O-Seven!” Claudine laughed.

“Yes, yes…”

[LAUGHING HEAVILY]

“What is Rubicon?” asked the voice.

“Did I mention Rubicon?” [LAUGHING]

“You did. What is it?” she asked.

“Top secret! A very secret operation…” [CATCHING BREATH] “You play the game one step ahead and if you lose, winner takes it all,” [GASPING] “Dubbed Rubicon after Thesaurus, and Hagelin dies. Top secret, very secret…”

“Very secret…”

[LAUGHING]

“Yes, I am spilling secret. I do not know why! It is very funny! It comes loose from the belly…” [EXHAUSTING]

“It’s funny business to expose secrets.”

“Yes, and it’s funnier still because it is more clandestine to expose a secret than keeping it with you.”

“You are right,” she said, “that makes a lot of sense.”

“That makes me laugh…”

“Who supplies them?”

“Who supp…” he dropped on his knees choking, “I must not say it…I must not say CIA supplies them from Motorola…” [ROLLED ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING] “I must not say…”

“It is very funny…”

“It tickles inside when I tell a secret…”

“But why?”

“CIA can rig into their bureaus…”

[LAUGHING]

“Cheating!”

“Yes…” [CHORTLING] “I can tell you a joke about these machines in your bag.”

“Do tell me, I like jokes,” said Claudine Cartier.

“The Argentineans were fooled in the war,” he continued laughing, “They suspected this CAG of leaking war secrets,” [LAUGHING] “They called Kell and he could not explain, he did not know how to make them believe. Then before he could say a word, they brought this red machine,” [LAUGHING ALOUD] “DC-505 Datotek…” [LAUGHING] “Then Kell said, ‘AAH! I FOUND THE CULPRIT! THIS ONE IS OLD! AN ANALOGUE VOICE SCRAMBLER! THIS CAN BE BROKEN IN…BUT NOT THIS!’ and saved his neck…”

“But not this!”

“This but not this…” [LAUGHING] “But this and this; both are insecure and both can be broken in…” [LAUGHING HEAVILY] “They believed him…” [MORE LAUGHTER] “And the Argentineans continued using this,” [ROLLED ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING] “CIA knows all of their secrets…”

[LAUGHING OUT LOUD]