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149 PURPLE JUSTICE scenario did lead somewhere—to perfectly tangible organizations and to beings of flesh and blood within the French military and technologi- cal establishment. One of the investigators in the case even obtained an appointment with a certain Mr. D, on the staff of STET (Service Technique des Engines Tactiques) at the French Ministry of Defense. A short, balding man with no sense of humor, Mr. D had an office at French Air Force headquarters. His full name is known to me. The meeting took place on November 14, 1980, at a nondescript apartment near the Goutte d'Or in Paris, a typical safe house: a couple of clean, sterile rooms painted off-white with the barest furniture; a desk and two chairs, a table with a smoky glass top. My friend had brought his complete file on the affair, because the meeting had been initiated as a discrete opportunity for both sides to compare notes. But Mr. D quickly brushed it aside. "I can guess what's in your folder. You don't need to go over it with me." "Then will you tell me what the disappearance of Franck Fontaine was all about?" "We refer to the Cergy operation as an Exercise of General Synthe- sis," Mr. D said calmly, as if he spoke of the latest engine test for a new kind of rocket. "A highly-placed personality has done detailed planning for it." He mentioned the name of a cabinet member with vast connec- tions in the world of high technology. "How many people were in the know?" "No more than ten to fifteen, all at a high enough level to establish what sort of manipulation was justified under the state secrets rule." "What were your objectives?" asked my informant, who was amazed at the turn the conversation had taken. . "The operation was structured around military, scientific, and politi- cal goals. It was purely national and had no impact beyond our borders." "What happened to Fontaine?" "We put him to sleep and he was kept under an altered state of high suggestibility." "Were the police and the gendarmerie aware that the operation was a hoax conducted by a higher-level agency?"