On December 8th (2006), Robert Eringer, the Prince's spymaster, flew into a Nice covered in thick cloud and pouring rain-summoned to an uncertain fate. He grabbed a taxi and rolled toward Monaco in darkness and gloom, reflecting his mood, jotting into his leather journal: Monaco was A2's to lose. He's doing his best to lose it, badly misled by cronies whose hearts are filled with jealousy and avarice.

The electricity was out when Eringer arrived at M-Base. It turned out to be a fuse-box problem, as if someone had been inside and switched off the mains.

MIS had learned from a liaison partner that the "offshore" financial centers of Europe-particularly Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Monaco-had been chatted about as potential targets by terrorist cells; it was felt that Monaco's port was vulnerable to terrorist attack.

So Jean-Leonard de Massy had been busy, at Eringer's direction, collating a number of SIGER reports (over a ten-year period) on Islamic fundamentalists living and working in and around Monaco, into one cohesive document, which he had bound for circulation among the executive committee circle of interior minister Paul Masseron, police chief Andre Mulhberger and the Prince. It reflected Eringer's concern that the fundamentalists, mostly Moroccan and Algerian, had, for whatever reason, concentrated themselves in jobs around Monaco's main port, Hercules.

Over wild boar in Sans Souci on Boulevard des Moulins, Eringer and de Massy devised a plan for dealing with Claude Palmero's summons three days hence. Eringer still had not heard from the Prince, and he was discomfited by the notion of walking so visibly into a Palace meeting without Albert's knowledge.

No one at the Palace except the Prince knew of de Massy's involvement in Monaco's intelligence service. They decided at dinner to play that card.

December 9th was police chief Andre Mulhberger's birthday. When he arrived in M-Base at 11 a.m. on December 9th, de Massy and Eringer gifted him with a bottle of Dom Perignon. They went out on the balcony--ten floors up--to take the air, the view.

"Don't lean on the guard rail," Eringer cautioned. "We never know if someone's been here in our absence to loosen the screws."

Eringer informed Mulhberger that he would now relinquish corruption investigations to him and focus exclusively on intelligence matters.

The Prince had still not taken action against Philippe Narmino, ever raising the threshold for more evidence. Eringer offered to help Mulhberger with this investigation, which he would now lead. And Eringer provided Mulhberger with a copy of de Massy's report, Islamic Identities & Their Activities Surrounding the Principality of Monaco.

Monday morning, December 11th.

Eringer's first visitor, at 8 a.m., was the interior minister.

Jean-Paul Proust: Masseron told Eringer that Proust had tried to insert two French intelligence officers-one from DST, the other from DGSE-into SIGER, but he, Masseron, had prevented this. Alain Malric, he added, was teed off because Eringer prevented him from creating an intelligence service; he was said to be trying "desperately" to dig dirt on Eringer.

Olga Kim and her ex-husband Mikhail Nekrich: Expelled from the principality three weeks earlier and, along with daddy Oleg, declared persona non grata.

After Masseron departed, de Massy and Eringer swung their Palmero plan into action: At precisely 9:15, de Massy telephoned Palmero's office and left a message with his secretary that Palmero should phone de Massy urgently, that it dealt with his ten o'clock appointment with Eringer.

De Massy's cell phone jingled three minutes later. De Massy explained he was calling on Eringer's behalf to say the spymaster had not received the Prince's authorization to attend a meeting with him at the Palace and that Eringer could not expose himself like this without permission from the Prince. If Palmero still wanted to meet, he was told, it would have to be at M-Base, where Eringer met people in a secure environment. De Massy offered a car and driver to collect and return him.

Palmero huffed and puffed. Nobody, he told de Massy, treated a summons to the Palace this way. De Massy apologized, but firmly re-stated that a meeting could take place only under these conditions.

Palmero arrived at M-Base, feathers ruffled. Eringer introduced de Massy as "working closely with me."

Palmero, clearly, was shaken by this revelation.

De Massy departed and Palmero sat stiffly on the edge of the M-Base sofa. "I have been instructed by the Prince, before he left on his trip, to terminate your contract," he said, adding that this was due to "reorganization." He followed this by offering to pay Eringer one quarter of 2007 "and maybe a month or two beyond if you have not found something else [to do]."

In other words, please leave quietly.

Eringer gestured with his arms at the furnishings around them. "What am I supposed to do about this place? It's not my home. I work here. The Prince recently authorized me to extend the lease for six months, and we did."

This took Palmero by surprise. "Okay," he said, "so we pay until the Grand Prix [in May]."

"I spoke to the Prince ten days ago and he gave me no indication of this," said Eringer.

Again, Palmero expressed surprise.

"We have two important meetings scheduled this Thursday for visitors coming to Monaco from other countries," said Eringer. "They expect to meet with the Prince. Am I to understand that the Prince will not attend, based on this termination?"

More surprise from Palmero about such loose ends. He said it would be an embarrassment for the Prince if he did not appear.

Eringer agreed. "So what should I do based on what you're telling me?" he asked.

Palmero told Eringer he would meet with the Prince on Wednesday and remind him of his commitments.

Eringer thanked Palmero for coming to M-Base.

"No, don't thank me," he said, more discomfited than ever. He tried to rise from the deep sofa, but fell back with full force, and this rattled him further. He steadied himself and rose to his feet.

Eringer walked Palmero to the elevator, shook his hand, looked him in the eye, and thanked him again before the doors closed.

De Massy reappeared.

"Termination," said Eringer.

De Massy was both stunned and disgusted by this news. By now, he fully understood the scope, commitment and progress of the service and its intrinsic value to the Prince as a source of independent, unfiltered intelligence. So he was floored that the Prince would kiss it goodbye, with such flippancy, while away from Monaco.

"We do this like JLA," said Eringer. "With dignity, heads held high. You okay with that?"

"I survived buggering-minded monks when I was eight years-old," replied de Massy. "I think I can handle this."

Eringer realized he had to cancel Thursday's meetings with CIA and SIS. There was too much doubt about whether or not the Prince would appear; he did not trust Palmero to remind him. Eringer could not have visitors treated this way. First he phoned LIPS of CIA.

"Shall we re-schedule?" LIPS asked, not getting it.

"We're in clean-up and close-down mode," said Eringer. "This is cancellation, not postponement."

Next, Eringer phoned his SIS contact in London to say their scheduled meeting had been disrupted. "Come down if you want," he said, "but I cannot guarantee my boss will appear." They canceled.

Eringer kept his lunch date with a Monaco banker who vaguely knew of his work for the Prince. The banker told Eringer that clients would depart en masse if they ever believed Monaco was unstable and in the hands of corrupt persons.

At 3:30, LIDDY appeared at M-Base, a meeting scheduled one week earlier. Eringer did not have an agenda; his mind raced with the ramifications of termination. So he just let LIDDY talk.

First, French intelligence had an interest in the Reuben brothers and could not understand why Simon Reuben had been allowed back in Monaco-and with privileged status?

Neither could Eringer. Next?

Second: "The Paris Clique don't usually get along with the Narmino faction," said LIDDY. "But on one issue they are united: to destroy our intelligence service. It is a war," he added.

Neither de Massy nor Eringer had uttered one word to LIDDY about what had transpired that morning with Palmero. They remained close-lipped as LIDDY continued.

"Three weeks ago, it was decided to discredit you," LIDDY looked straight at Eringer, "on the basis that you were using secret information for private purposes and gain. There will be an attack within the next ten days."

"An attack?"

"It should have happened, or is happening," said LIDDY. "Beginning of next week for sure." LIDDY paused. "At first they didn't take you seriously, but when they saw how serious you are, they decided they had to end it. When you're too effective, it will become dangerous." LIDDY added that the local DST had been studying the situation closely and were "worried and pissed off because good work is going to waste."

LIDDY was not surprised when Eringer told him he had to discontinue his retainer of him. He expected it. Eringer gave LIDDY the medal he deserved, an American silver dollar. It was all he could muster.

Two officers from SIGER were next to appear at M-Base, at five o'clock that afternoon. They had more news on the missing Red Cross painting by Miro. The misappropriated donation had been acquired, they said, through Charles Debbasch, a convicted arms dealer (weapons traffic between Togo and the Ivory Coast) and ex-partner of Jean-Paul Carteron in the Crans Montana Forum.

From Eringer's demeanor the officers from SIGER sensed something was wrong. The spymaster laid it out. They were stunned. One of them immediately said he would retire; the other suggested Eringer take the service underground and continue without authorization.

This was not an option for Eringer. The Monaco Intelligence Service was a secret, unofficial structure that reported directly to the Prince. It could not, in his mind, become an underground movement that operated without the Prince's authorization.

They agreed that police chief Mulhberger should know what had taken place. Eringer phoned him and, without saying what it was about, requested Mulhberger visit M-Base for an urgent meeting at 7:30 next morning.

Eringer was still shell-shocked, his mind consumed with the deconstruction of an intelligence service.

On one hand, it made no sense; on the other, it made all the sense in the world. They had too visibly threatened the bad guys-and the bad guys wanted them gone.

The Prince was either too weak to stand up to them or too blind to notice-probably both, on top of which, he would, as always, take the path of least resistance.

De Massy put it another way: "My cousin doesn't understand it. Watching him with the Romanians, I knew he was thinking, what the f--- am I doing here."

Another possibility: The bad guys had serious leverage over the Prince. Some were certainly aware that he had allegedly fathered a third illegitimate child, through a Norwegian woman. Some were privy to the Prince's sex-capades, including deviant sexual behavior too distasteful to divulge.

Eringer's concern was how to break news of the termination to the other intelligence services. They would see it for what it was: the Prince is not a serious leader; he is not serious about cleaning up his principality, his speech about introducing a new ethic, a crock.

Eringer scribbled this notation in his journal: Everything I did was in service to the Prince, carefully avoiding any conflict of interest. I regret nothing. I acted professionally at all times. I did an excellent job, respected by the intelligence services with which I'd created and maintained effective liaison relationships. We were too damned honest and efficient for our own good.

That evening, by himself, Eringer returned to Hotel Columbus for a dry martini at the same booth where, fifty-four months earlier, he had been retained by the Prince to be his spymaster.

Then he walked to Le Beefbar for Argentine entrecote and a bottle of fine Margaux.


Coming Next: A Difficult Day in... Kindergarten

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