Chapter 22: Season 7 - Who Do You Think I Am?

“Come in, Rafael. Good to see you; you too, of course, Maurice.”

I wondered who the person, who sounded and looked like General Beauregard, could be as the general never called me by my given name or had been even remotely friendly to me. But, strange as it seemed, it was General Beauregard welcoming me and the Chevalier at the Quai d’Orsay. “Sit you down, my good fellow.” The general continued in an unaccustomed affable manner, waving me into a comfortable leather chair in front of his desk and leaving the Chevalier to sit on a straight backed, un-upholstered, chair.

The general pushed a coloured A4 size photograph across the desk to me. “Say hello to your doppelganger, “ he said.

I glanced at the photo; a young man with blond hair, blue eyes, and a sallow complexion stared out at me. “He looks nothing like me. His hair and eye colouring is different and...”

“Hair and eye colouring can be altered, but the shape of one’s ears cannot. Look at his ears and then at yours. You could be twins.” I refrained from asking the general how he expected me to examine my ears, other than through a mirror of course, but allowed him to continue. “Your hair will be coloured to match his and you will wear contact lenses of the correct shade. Your dress code will need to change up several levels but the department will pay for the Yves Saint Laurent suit you will need to impersonate him, plus a Rolex watch and other expensive accessories.”

I had a TAG Heuer watch and two hand-made, bespoke, suits in my luggage but if the general wanted to waste government money on me who was I to object?

“Who is this person?” The Chevalier interrupted, “and why does Rafael have to impersonate him?”

“His name is Simon Matissagonay and...”

“Is he any relation to Arnaud Matissagonay?” the Chevalier asked.

“His son, and the reason Rafael is to impersonate him is because Rafael is the same height, build, and age of Matissagonay and has the same shaped ears and the same shaped head. Believe me, Maurice, we had the computer look at over five thousand photos of males of a similar look and build to Simon Matissagonay, and Rafael scored the highest number of matching measurements.”

“And why does Rafael have to impersonate this person?”

“Madame Dubonnet will fill you in on those details. Suffice it to say Rafael has three weeks to learn all he needs to know about Simon Matissagonay so that he can pass muster as him at a card game that is to be played in exactly twenty two days’ time, and before you ask, Madame Dubonnet will also give you full details about that game. We have a scam set up that will cause two criminal gangs, or rather two criminal organisations, to go head to head and allow us to pick up what remains after they have kicked huge lumps out of each other.” He looked at his watch and stood up. “I have a meeting to attend,” he said, and walked towards the door. “Madame Dubonnet will provide you with all the relevant facts, and a dossier on Simon Matissagonay that Rafael will have to know by heart.” He paused in the doorway. “Oh, and Rafael will have to acquire a Toulouse accent. That shouldn’t be too difficult for him since he speaks almost like a Toulousain already.”

That was the most unkindest thing General Beauregard had ever said to me. I do not speak anything like a Toulousain. My mother would never allow me in the house if I did.

For all of General Beauregard’s huffing and puffing it was Vivienne, Madame Dubonnet, who actually ran the unit, and it was she who explained to me and the Chevalier why I had to impersonate Simon Matissagonay at a card game.

A more convoluted plot would be hard to imagine: judge for yourselves.

Arnaud Matissagonay, the father of Simon, is a senior member of a crime syndicate known as The Ivans, a loose association of criminal gangs that operate across north and west Europe, including the UK. They import narcotics and sex slaves from Central and South America; most of the drugs come through French Guiana, an overseas department of France whose citizens are free to enter France as if they lived in Metropolitan France. The Ivans export young females and males as sex slaves to the Middle and Far East. They run the sex industry in countries that prohibit brothels, and the gambling industry in countries that prohibit casinos and off course betting. They traffic people from North Africa via Spain into France, across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and Greece, and across La Manche to the UK. They use many of the illegal immigrants they have trafficked in their brothels, drug factories, and the many other illegal businesses they own. The workers have to pay for their passage from the meagre wages allotted them and are in reality slaves for life, generally short lived.

The scope of the criminality of the many and disparate gangs under the banner of the Ivans is impressive. Allied to the drug trade and people trafficking is thieving and robbery, extortion, money laundering, and political influencing, all of which are extremely lucrative. Many politicians at local, national, and even international level are in the pay or under the threat of the Ivans, as are many bank managers, allowing their ill-gotten gains to be converted to clean money.

The name of the Syndicate – The Ivans – came about because of the many Russian and East European who were/are used as muscle and enforcers. Of course within the ranks of the various gangs are nationals of every country that the syndicate operates in.

Arnaud Matissagonay is a ‘problem solver’ whose main task in the Syndicate is to keep the peace between the many gangs affiliated to the Ivans. Turf wars are avoided or terminated by his ‘peace-making’. Joint operations between two or more gangs, usually involving weapons and or explosives, are co-ordinated by him. Should his peace-making fail he has the authority to remove the person or persons he believes is causing the problem. This usually means the rest of the gang of the hapless objector are also taken out. Arnaud Matissagonay is regarded with the same fear and dread as was Tomás de Torquemada, and a visit by him to a contumacious gang leader is something to be avoided at all costs, especially by contumacious gang leaders who soon become deceased contumacious gang leaders.

While the Ivans are kings of all they survey in the north and west of Europe they do not have the same freedom of movement and criminality in southern and eastern Europe. This area is under the thrall of a similar crime syndicate, albeit a smaller association, of gangs known as Bulbul, and on the fault line between the areas of operations of the Ivans and Bulbul sudden flare ups cause both syndicates a loss of personnel, but more concerning, a loss of profits. There are also a number of disputed territories where gangs of both syndicates operate, and that is the biggest threat to the stability and earning potential of each syndicate.

Arnaud Matissagonay had put forward a proposition, a business plan in effect, that the two syndicates agree on geographical areas where each syndicate has sole rights. He has proposed other forward thinking measures; a mediation panel to adjudicate on boundary infringements, and cooperation between the syndicates in foiling security and police authorities in their attempts to derail the syndicates’ illegitimate business deals. Matissagonay believes such a meeting of minds will lead to peaceful coexistence and a more profitable future for both syndicates. As can be imagined when rumours of Matissagonay’s proposed plan began to circulate it caused consternation among the security and police services of Europe.

Bulbul carry out the same type of illegal businesses as do the Ivans. They import their narcotics from Afghanistan and The Far East and also traffic people from those two areas as well as throughout the Middle East. Like the Ivans they use trafficked people as slaves in their many illegal industries. However, Bulbul has an added extra -- terrorism. They are not jihadists per se, although many of the North Africans in Bulbul attached gangs have served in ISIS, but are willing to plant bombs, and drive trucks to mow down civilians, for a price. If Ivan and Bulbul cooperate rather than contend and conflict then life for the police and security services, and the populations, of Europe will become much more dangerous.

However, something happened two weeks ago that could cause any proposed plan of cooperation between the two syndicates come to naught. A gang from Marseilles, a Bulbul fief, stole 10,000,000 Euros from the company that print bank notes in Chamalières, near Clemont Ferrand. The area is nominally in the Ivans’ bailiwick but it is disputed territory, as is much of southern France. Unfortunately for the four man gang, after hijacking the truck carrying the bank notes and disposing of the crew they ran into a RAID unit (Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion), an elite unit of the Gendarmerie, who had been deployed on suspicion that a truck bomb was on the way to the centre of Clemont Ferrand. The hijacked truck, with 10,000,000 Euros and four gang members aboard, crashed through a vehicle check point set up by the local police. The RAID unit, thinking this was the truck bomber, opened fire with silenced automatic weapons. They put so much lead into the four gangsters in the truck it took six men to carry each stretchered body.

On discovering a stack of Euros rather than tonnes of explosives the RAID unit knew they were in trouble. ‘Using undue force to stop a robbery’. The French Left’s news outlets would think it was Comrades’ Christmas Day. Fortunately, there was a member of the recently formed Intelligence group, of which Intel Assessment Unit 3 is a part, attached to the RAID unit. He contacted his HQ and a blanket of official silence was thrown over the incident. Nothing was announced about either the theft of the money or the deaths of the four criminals. The hi-jacked, and now colandered, vehicle was taken to the nearest scrap yard to be subsequently transmuted into the cheapest brand of razor blades. The RAID unit was stood down and told to keep their mouths shut, else they would be facing manslaughter charges.