Robert Eringer arrived in Monaco on February 2nd to pack up M-Base and secure MIS files for safekeeping.

Prince Albert had not returned Eringer's calls to meet, so on February 23rd the spymaster slept late, strolled through Monte Carlo, caught a movie (Bobby), drank a glass of Margaux at Monte Carlo Wine Bar and dined solo at Quai des Artistes--his most relaxing day in Monaco in years.

Eringer scribbled in his journal: We are going out with a whisper instead of a bang.

It was in such limbo Eringer hosted the association of intelligence services from small countries, on this occasion called the Club of Monaco.

Welcoming guests from Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Malta, Eringer wrote:

Dear Friends,

With great pleasure, our micro-service welcomes you to our microstate. Our objective is to eat well, drink fine, talk business to our mutual advantage and, most important, to laugh as much as we can.

It was Sidney Reilly who coined the phrase "Trust no one" (and eventually got himself killed by trusting someone running something called-of all things-The Trust). But trust us at least to show you a good time, even if, in the great tradition of Sir Francis Walsingham, we bankrupt ourselves in the process.

It is truly spectacular to have you here. We're already moving mountains-and just cranking up.

Robert Eringer, Director, MIS.

On February 5th, the Club of Monaco convened in Hotel Columbus, where the participants lodged. Eringer requested everyone remove the batteries from their cell phones. "I think I've made the French nervous," he explained.

(If indeed the French were nervous, it was for one or two reasons, maybe both: 1) The French had dirt on corrupt Monegasques, and they may have liked it that way for their own leverage, as needed. 2) Eringer knew about Russian President Vladimir Putin's network of energy trading and distribution companies--and money laundering--along the Cote d'Azur, which the French could leverage to their advantage in negotiations to gain a long-term energy deal with Gazprom. They were perhaps nervous that Eringer might disrupt or compromise one or both, by design or accident.)

First order of business: to give the association a permanent name. Eringer proposed the Club of Luxembourg, after the largest of the microstates and also where they had first formally convened. One participant suggested "something generic," another suggested Columbus Group, as they were meeting inside Hotel Columbus.

Eringer liked the poetry of this since it was in Columbus that the Prince and he created what would become Monaco's intelligence service. It had been their center of gravity before M-Base and now again post-M-Base.

Following a substantial meeting and lunch in a private dining room, Jean-Leonard de Massy took participants on a tour of the principality, including a private visit to the wine cellar at Hotel de Paris, reputed to be the finest in Europe.


At 7:30, de Massy arrived with the Columbus fraternity at Monte Carlo Wine Bar, where Piers and Eringer waited, having rented out the upper floor for a tasting of superb wines.

The chief of Luxembourg's intelligence service appeared at M-Base at 8:50 a.m. on February 7th, to meet Prince Albert, who arrived twenty minutes later.

Eringer showed the Prince a Club of Monaco program, which he read, and Eringer briefed him on the Columbus Group's plan for the future, which he approved.

Eringer then turned the meeting over to the Lux chief, who provided a succinct and inspirational soliloquy on the usefulness--from his perspective-of Monaco's intelligence service.

The Prince was unusually attentive--very focused, and riveted by the Lux chief's words. Afterwards he asked thoughtful questions:

Was the Luxembourg service in contact with Monaco before the existence of the Monaco Intelligence Service and Eringer's initiative?

Someone, either Jean-Paul Proust or Thierry Lacoste, had seemingly told the Prince that the international network created by Eringer was superfluous because Monaco already had such relations in place.

The Lux director answered: No such contact existed before Eringer's initiative. Furthermore, before Eringer's initiative Luxembourg also lacked any meaningful contact with Liechtenstein.

The Lux director stressed the importance and significance of this micro-Europe association.

It was an excellent session, and the Prince departed buoyant about his intelligence service, and about the Columbus Group.


Coming Next: Prevarication Prevails: A Mulish Chief of Police

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