Robert Eringer, the Prince's spymaster, awakened early on the morning of December 12th (2006).
Jean-Leonard de Massy arrived at M-Base before police chief Andre Mulhberger, who was followed several minutes later by the officers from SIGER.
The police chief seemed stunned by Claude Palmero's termination news. He drew a deep breath, sighed, and sat back in his chair. "They do not want serious investigation," he finally said.
Everyone agreed one point: Eringer had not heard from the Prince; it was not over until Albert said it was over.
At ten minutes past eight, Eringer sent the Prince this text message: I have heard from Palmero. I should hear from you directly and talk this through.
Eringer saw Mulhberger to the elevator. "This story is not over," said the police chief.
When Eringer rejoined the others, an officer from SIGER said, "Palmero is a rat. You must fight."
But the joy of this job had long since vanished for Eringer, most of it with the departure of Jean-Luc Allavena (JLA). In the weeks since, the service had become more consumed with its own survival than its mission-like any other bureaucracy.
Eringer had a long-standing lunch scheduled that day with the chief of a Balkan intelligence service. It may no longer have mattered, but that afternoon Eringer created a new liaison partnership.
Eringer's mentor, the former spymaster, phoned that afternoon.
"Everything is going according to plan," said Eringer. "Unfortunately, it's not my plan."
The two men laughed.
Eringer phoned JLA to tell him the news. Said JLA, "We were led down a false road."
That evening, Eringer strolled through Christmas Village along the port, his stomach knotted. It was cold and, despite the festive occasion, he sensed danger lurking. Back in M-Base, Eringer switched off the lights, lit all the candles and listened to Songs From a Secret Garden.
Then dinner in a portside restaurant with de Massy, and Eringer's deputy, Piers, just arrived from London.
Next morning, Eringer met HUNT for cappuccino at Crock In on Rue Princesse Caroline. HUNT was disgusted, if not surprised, by Eringer's news.
Later, another old friend of the Prince put it this way: "I've been making excuses for Albert my whole life."
De Massy received a gnarly message on his cell phone from Thierry Lacoste, delivered at two in the morning, denouncing de Massy as a "two-faced bastard" for working with Eringer.
Kindergarten.
The Prince had not called, despite Eringer having left half-a-dozen messages on his two mobile phones and with Madame Viale at the Palace.
So Eringer sent this fax:
13 December 2006
Dear Prince Albert,
As you may know, Claude Palmero notified me on 11 December that you have instructed him to terminate my service to you.
If this is true, I am saddened and surprised that you have chosen not to deliver this news personally. I have worked very hard on your behalf during the last five years, and I feel that I have contributed much with little personal gain to myself. This was based on the predication that you desired to be informed by me on matters pertaining to criminal activities within the principality, and that you intended to do something about those involved with criminal activity.
Furthermore, it is a great shame to close down an entity that has given you access to fifteen intelligence services in countries of strategic importance to Monaco. Its value is much, much higher than the funding I have received to put all the right pieces into place. I did this for you because I believed in the new ethic you wished to install in your country.
I have discovered from sources that influential people around you may have poisoned your trust in me. I always told you that the measure of my effectiveness to you could likely be based upon how vehemently others might try to discredit me. I suspect this is what has occured, because your indifference is otherwise unexplainable. You always said that if I would fall victim to a disinformation campaign, I would have the opportunity to know what has been said and dispute any false allegations. If this is the case, or even if you have chosen to terminate this relationship because of its cost, I hope you will meet with me, if only for a few minutes, so I can fully understand what you feel has gone wrong.
As you may remember, I had two meetings scheduled for you tomorrow at M-Base. At the risk of embarrassing you and/or our visitors should you not appear, I have cancelled both visits.
Again, I hope you will grant me the courtesy of meeting this afternoon or this evening.
As I discussed with Claude, the dismantling of the infrastructure-M-Base, local and international relationships, etc-is going to take some time and expense, but if this is your desire, I shall, with great disappointment, begin the process. However, before I commence the steps necessary to do so I must hear from you that this is what you truly want, and whether you wish that I transfer these relationships or conclude them.
Respectfully yours, (Signed.)
Luxembourg's foreign intelligence chief phoned at quarter-past-two from Nice Airport, just arriving for a previously scheduled meeting. Eringer requested he proceed directly to M-Base. The Luxembourg chief possessed a creative mind; Eringer wanted him to absorb the unwelcome news in advance of the dinner they had planned.
Forty-five minutes later, Eringer briefed him. He was shocked.
In the midst of this, the Paris station chief of another foreign intelligence service arrived in Monaco for a pre-arranged meeting. As if in an old spy movie, Eringer met him near a carousel in the Christmas Village. They walked to Fusion for cocktails. Eringer told him their meeting could be superfluous as the service was struggling for survival.
At 7:30, Eringer and Piers met the Lux chief in the bar at Hotel Columbus. The latter had phoned his director in the interim and now relayed that his boss was "pissed off" by the news. It was, he said, an embarrassment for him to have opened doors for the Prince to other intelligence services only to have them closed, so soon and with such abruptness.
"You can't close it down," the Lux chief told Eringer and Piers. "All countries have problems with corruption, but they find a balance." He continued to talk about the international ramifications of closing down the Monaco Intelligence Service, and the harsh reaction that should be expected from the intelligence services of other countries.
"What would such an action say about Monaco, about the Prince?" said the Lux chief. "It would say he was not serious, was disingenuous, does not wish to fight corruption, but is happy for Monaco to exist as a criminal state. These doors have been opened," he added. "You cannot just close them. The French, too, would be embarrassed, having signed off with us to meet you, establish contact. To now close those doors would make France very uncomfortable. Phone the Prince," he urged. "Point out the reality and tell him to grow up, get a grip."
The Lux chief told Eringer that his director was willing to do this himself, to meet the Prince to point out a) the importance of MIS and its relations with other services and b) how ridiculous and dangerous it would be to terminate these relationships. "Once you're lucky enough to be invited into this club, you don't suddenly leave," said the Lux chief. "You will be considered a pariah from then on."
Next morning at 9:30 a.m., while Eringer awaited an EasyJet flight to London in the Priority Lounge at Nice Airport, his cell phone jingled.
It was Prince Albert. "Aren't we supposed to be meeting today?" he asked.
Eringer could scarcely believe his ears. "Albert, I've been told by Palmero we're out of business, that we must shut down."
"Oh, no-he wasn't supposed to tell you that," said the Prince. "I needed to talk to you." About money, he added, and also a complaint from the police chief that Eringer was working his turf.
"I'm sorry," said Eringer, "but I had to cancel both meetings today because after hearing Palmero's news I could not be certain you would appear and I could not risk embarrassing you and inconveniencing our visitors. Didn't you get my messages?"
The Prince told Eringer he had not heard any of his phone messages.
"What about my fax?"
He had not seen that either.
(Intercepted? And if so, by whom?)
This was, apparently, the first the Prince knew of any possible problem.
"So Palmero acted without your authority?" asked Eringer.
"Palmero doesn't know how complicated this is," said the Prince. "I'm going to bawl him out. Are you just arriving?"
"No, I'm leaving-it's been a rather dramatic week."
"When can we meet?" he asked.
There was no point, they agreed, in Eringer retrieving checked baggage and returning to Monaco (the last place he wanted to be). Instead, they decided to meet after the holidays, in early January.
Eringer found Piers at the other end of the lounge. "You're not going to believe this#"
And so: In conspiracy with Thierry Lacoste, Claude Palmero had acted without authority from the Prince.
Later, Eringer learned that at the end of November, just before the Prince's ten-day state trip through Asia, Albert had two meetings with Lacoste and Palmero to finalize a severance arrangement with JLA. Near the end of those meetings, the lawyer and accountant attempted a "manipulation" of the Prince's disposition toward Eringer's service.
After the Prince's departure, Lacoste told Palmero he possessed the authority to execute a termination, and Palmero executed it-the nearest thing to coup d'etat.
Both men should have been fired immediately for acting in the Prince's name without his authority.
Eringer arrived in London bullish and buoyant, if emotionally drained.
The upside of a crisis: you identify your true friends.
That evening Eringer met a fellow intelligence chief in the Cigar Bar at the old Churchill Hotel on Portman Square and, in a cathartic exercise, recounted the events of the past four days.
"Luxembourg was quite right," he said quietly when Eringer finished. "You cannot raise the flag, say you want to crack down on organized crime, then lower it. It sends all the wrong messages and isolates Monaco much worse than before. But they won't go away," he added. "They'll come back harder next time."
Eringer phoned his mentor, the former spymaster. "It's not over till the fat lady sings," said Eringer. "And the fat lady refused to sing."
"They don't understand the complexity," said the former spymaster. "I'm proud of you. You've lasted fifteen rounds and you're back for more. Enjoy this. It won't last forever."
Eringer could not find the Prince to wish him a Merry Christmas, so he found a friend of his at a party and the phone was passed to Albert. "Merry Christmas," said Eringer. "Will you be in Monaco?"
The Prince replied, "Not if I can help it."
As had been the case every year since 1992, Eringer received a Christmas card from the Prince with a printed signature.
Far more meaningful to him this Christmas, 2006, was a handwritten card received from JLA: Dear Robert, It has been great to work with you and I am very proud of all our accomplishments!
De Massy spoke briefly with the Prince at their family's traditional Christmas Eve party. "Robert's mission is not finished," the Prince told him. "Palmero was not supposed to terminate. They misunderstood me." As for a turf complaint from Mulhberger, the Prince added, "People are getting jealous [of your service]."
Ten days later, de Massy ran into Lacoste at Stephane Valeri's wedding in Monaco. Echoing a line he'd fed Eringer three months earlier, Lacoste told de Massy he hated Monaco and the people in it and couldn't wait to get back to Paris. He grumbled that Eringer had been investigating him, referring to him as "an American who probably works for the Americans."
De Massy told Lacoste: "If Eringer wanted to investigate you, you'd never even know about it."
Taking Operation Hound Dog into account, this was actually true.
Eringer now realized that as long he continued to serve the Prince he would ride a rollercoaster, the service's new status quo. He relished the opportunity to go at this with the Prince face-to-face.
But to himself, Eringer questioned whether he should continue to serve a Prince who no longer cared about the intelligence provided him-assuming he ever had.
Coming Next: The Mule Kicks
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