Prince Albert and I enjoyed dry martinis and joked about Jean-Paul PROUST's plan to hijack intelligence.

Then I proposed my vision: To engage the intelligence services of micro-Europe—Monaco, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, and Malta—into an intelligence club, an association of services that would share information on bad guys and create a cooperative, a combined shield.

The Prince already held a soft spot in his heart for micro-European countries, evidenced by the high regard and courtesy he extended them during his investiture and imminent enthronement. They were treated with the same dignity as large, powerful countries.

The Prince gave this idea his full backing.

I brought the Prince up to date on other targets and operations, and Albert read an intelligence assessment of Islamic fundamentalist activity in and around Monaco.

Six days later, on November 8th, I presented himself at the offices of Lagardere Media in Paris for an eight-thirty breakfast meeting with Jean-Luc ALLAVENA (JLA).

As I stood at the open windows of JLA’s expansive office and admired a view of golden sunlight upon the Arc de Triomphe, I wondered if this poor fellow knew what the heck he was getting into, moving from a high-powered corporate job in one of the world’s most beautiful capitals to a cutthroat royal court inside a gossipy, malicious hurricane of exploiters, working for a man who cared more about his next date than affairs of state.

JLA’s last day in this office would be the following week.

A secretary brought breakfast: coffee, orange juice, croissants, brioche, butter and jam.

I provided JLA with dossiers on individuals and entities on his radar screen, including a comprehensive list of Monegasque Freemasons.

JLA requested a finished report on Franck BIANCHERI by December 8th.

With regard to Philippe NARMINO: He had allegedly blackened the name of the current Chief of Judicial Services and jostled him out of position to make room for himself, expecting his own appointment to that top job any day.

With reference to SIGER: Its officers operated in fear of retribution for investigating corrupt government officials. They needed protection, insulation, and autonomy to investigate without fear of losing their jobs or being transferred to traffic control. They needed greater powers to inspect records and question suspects and witnesses. JLA concurred.

I briefed JLA on liaison partnerships/informal relationships with the CIA, SIS, and DST, and my mandate from the Prince to cultivate relationships with other intelligence services, with a special focus on micro-Europe.

I also warned JLA about Thierry LACOSTE’s conflicted interests in Monaco.

JLA assured me that while LACOSTE had been the Prince’s lawyer and confidante in the past, he would now return purely to his role as lawyer.

I had my doubts.

From JLA’s offices, I walked to DST headquarters across the River Seine and was welcomed onto the locked thirteenth floor for substantive discussion on a number of issues.

When I arrived in Monaco on November 12th, Jean-Paul CARTERON was in the midst of his annual Monaco World Summit, whose participants included an intelligence chief from a Balkan country.

I left the chief a note stating he wished to see him on behalf of the Prince.

Less than ten minutes later the intelligence chief phoned, eager to meet. We did so, that evening, in the lobby of the Port Palace Hotel, and a new liaison partnership was born.

Not only did the Prince appear for martinis at M-Base on Sunday evening as scheduled, he was twenty minutes early.

“This is a first,” said I. “Must be the allure of the martini.” (Indeed, Albert drank two.)

I told the Prince about the new liaison partnership with a Balkan country “That’s the upside of CARTERON,” I explained. “He brings them to our neighborhood, saves me travel expense.”

The Prince read a batch of intelligence on various targets.

They also re-visited the subject of expanding SIGER. Albert requested a written report on how to do it.

The Prince mentioned that, years earlier, whomever was serving as interior minister had removed the Palace as a recipient of police intelligence. From that point onward (until Eringer’s arrival), the Sovereign Prince knew only what the government chose for him to know.