“Ici Chacal” · “Ici Valmy”

“Ici Chacal” / “Ici Valmy” is a paired verbal passphrase that gives The Jackal instructions for reaching a clandestine contact. The message supplies a telephone number, tells him what to say when introducing himself, and specifies the answer he should expect. The exchange is brief, but it makes access depend on reciprocal recognition rather than on a disclosed name or an openly described purpose.

The message and its instructions

An envelope postmarked in Rome carries the instruction: “Your friend can be contacted at MOLITOR 5901. Introduce yourself with the words "Ici Chacal". Reply will be "Ici Valmy". Good luck.” The two phrases work together: “Ici Chacal” is the caller’s prescribed opening, while “Ici Valmy” is the contact’s anticipated response. The message does not explain who Valmy is or what the call will arrange; the passphrase itself is the limited information that allows the two parties to recognize the intended exchange.

The contact note arrives within a larger sequence of preparations. A separate letter from Zurich confirms that, if The Jackal remains alive, he will be wealthy, with an even greater reward if the operation succeeds. He books air passages and fixes his departure for the following morning, August 12. In that sequence, the telephone number and verbal formula are one practical component of an operation being prepared alongside its financial arrangements and travel.

How the paired phrase works

The exchange is designed as a verbal check: the caller offers “Ici Chacal,” and the reply “Ici Valmy” is specified in advance. This gives each side a compact signal without the message naming the intermediary or setting out the business to be discussed. Its function is therefore narrower than a full explanation or identification. The wording establishes what to say and what response to listen for; the evidence does not show the call taking place, so the phrases remain instructions rather than a confirmed conversation.

The formula’s economy also suits the secrecy of the contact. The note gives a precise number, MOLITOR 5901, but leaves the person behind it unnamed. The Jackal is not asked to explain himself in detail: the prescribed words are meant to make the connection recognizable while keeping the arrangement’s substance unstated in the message.

Contrast with the manhunt

The paired phrase belongs to the clandestine communications surrounding The Jackal’s operation, while the police response develops through a very different exchange of information. Claude Lebel receives an extensive directive and the resources to pursue the case, then makes discreet approaches to foreign police colleagues. He stresses that the request is not yet an official enquiry and that the authorities have neither a name nor a reliable description; what he can disclose is the possibility that the unknown man is a professional political assassin. The contrast is not between two equivalent codes, but between a compact recognition formula for a private contact and an investigation that must cautiously distribute incomplete information across institutions.

As an expression, “Ici Chacal” / “Ici Valmy” condenses a relationship into two turns of speech: an approach and its expected confirmation. Its importance lies in that practical design and in the secrecy it preserves. The message prepares a channel; it does not, on the evidence given, reveal the contact’s identity or confirm that the channel is used.