33 - Stirling Range, Western Autralia early 1960's
then Cannes, France October 1982

ASSASSIN BORN, ASSASSIN BECAME

Charles Kloch was crazy, always had been. His parents had emigrated to Australia from Czechoslavkia when he was a boy. The steamer left from Patras in Greece and had passed through the Suez Canal and then somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean the little Kloch had jumped overboard. The boat turned around in a wide circle in the slight hope they might find the boy before the sharks had got to him or he had simply drowned. No-one knew if he could swim or not and it was by miracle that they fished him out of the sea alive, almost one hour after he had disappeared over the side.

The family ended up near Albany in the Southern part of Western Australia. In the wild outback of Stirling Range, Kloch learnt how to shoot, his father had been a passionate hunter back in Czechoslavakia and he had managed to emigrate with his proud collection of rifles. Little "Chuck" became an expert with the telescopic sight, sometimes shooting kangeroos and other game from 1000 metres away or more. This was a talent that would never leave him.

Over the years Kloch developed his contacts the the former Warsaw Pact countries, first through his family in Prague (he could still remember enough Czech to get by n the language) and then among the political class in Moscow. By the beginning of the 1980's Kloch was playing an important role for the Russians close to Iouri Andropov. Seeing the developments in Poland with Solidarność and the opening up of China under the rule of Deng Xiaoping, the Russian rulers could sense the oncoming of Glasnost and they needed someone like Kloch to transform their roubles into hard dollars which could be deposited in the West. Kloch was indeed in the "paper business", he set up a complex system of false import and export documents and offshore bank accounts which enabled his Russian paymasters and oligarchs transform their roubles and launder the money.

The meeting set up in Cannes in October 1982 had been no accident. Russians had historically been connected with the South of France and the Russian community of Nice, founded by White Russians fleeing the 1917 Revolution, was thriving. The area would later become a haven for the Russian Mafia.

But there was a hitch: the CIA had got to Kloch's Russian contact before he had arrived and Kloch had received very clear instructions through the Russian Embassy in Prague to sabotage the American initiative before the Russian envoy started mentioning names and exposing the laundry business to all and sundry.

Kloch had tracked down the Russian to the Penthouse appartment of the Grande Hotel and so he rented a small appartment on the top floor of the same block, across the park from where he could get a clear view of the Grande Hotel.

His first attempt at disrupting the meeting was temporarily successful. He hired a couple of prostitutes to "look after" the Russian and they were still present when the Americans turned up at the Penthouse for their first encounter. With the help of some caviar and a lot of vodka, the meeting inevitable turned into an orgy and another meeting was scheduled for the following day, this time with the promise that the girls would no longer be there.

Kloch had gained a little time but obviously more radical measures were needed. He drove his hire car across the border to St Remo in Italy where he easily purchased a long distance rifle and silencer from a local Mafia boss he had met a few years before in Las Vegas. Smuggling it back through the French border was easy through the little border post in Menton.

Depositing the gun at his appartment, Kloch went down to the Blue Bar to have a drink. He always found that having a couple of brandies (well armagnac actually) before a shoot would settle the nerves. He went to the toilet before leaving the bar where he encounterd Jean-Marc, "interesting guy" he thought, "I can maybe use him somehow one day".

Back at the appartment Kloch set up the rifle so he could get a clear shot to the penthouse terrace. And luck was on his side. Looking down onto the roof of the Old Palais, he saw the guy from the Blue Bar having sex with a beautiful curly haired girl. The CIA lookout on the Grande Hotel penthouse terrace had seen them as well and all the Americans were gawping at the scene from the balcony. The Russian joined them and gave Kloch an easy shot, the silencer on the rifle muffled the noise and the Americans had no idea where the bullet had come from. The Russian's head was splattered all over the balcony.

Pandemonium broke out and Kloch wasted no time in making his getaway.