The OAS plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle turns on a failed conspiracy becoming more dangerous once it is exposed. The OAS hires The Jackal, a foreign professional assassin, after earlier attempts against de Gaulle have failed; when the capture and death of Viktor Kowalski reveal the plot’s existence, the French authorities must protect the President without publicly admitting the threat. The Jackal, meanwhile, learns that the operation is compromised but chooses to continue. The contest becomes one of inference and adaptation: police try to identify a concealed man and anticipate his timing, while the assassin relies on identities and preparations they do not yet know.

The Contract and Its Risks

The OAS leaders present the assassination as a political necessity. They believe de Gaulle’s rule has disgraced France and that his death is required to restore the country to French control. Their supporters have already made six attempts: three were exposed during planning, one was betrayed the day before it could be carried out, and two reached execution but missed. The organization is considering a professional because its own efforts have failed to kill the President.

The Englishman advising the OAS explains why this commission is unusually difficult. De Gaulle is already forewarned of the general intention to kill him, even if he does not know the specific plan. Earlier attempts have ensured that his security will not lapse into routine; guards are likely to remain alert, and an attack would bring not merely panic but an immediate effort to seize the assassin. The adviser argues that a professional is necessary, but also stresses that the OAS’s previous failures have made the task harder for any successor. The arrangement therefore begins with a contradiction: the client wants a successful operation, yet its history of failed attempts has strengthened the target’s protection.

Exposure and the Police Response

The plot’s secrecy breaks when Kowalski is captured and, before dying, gives information under pressure. A message from Valmy to Poitiers reports that The Jackal is exposed and that Kowalski has talked. The message reaches the OAS leadership and is also intercepted by French security officials, who have been monitoring calls to the Rome hotel where the three OAS chiefs are staying. Its wording confirms both the capture and the danger that the assassin’s identity or purpose may be reconstructed.

Rodin recognizes how the authorities could have learned The Jackal’s codename. At their parting, he had addressed the Englishman as Mr Jackal within Kowalski’s hearing. The authorities may not know the killer’s real name, but they can connect the meeting in Vienna, its hotel, the description of a tall blond foreigner, and the codename. Rodin concludes that the operation is blown and that de Gaulle’s security will tighten; he resolves to warn The Jackal to stop, believing success has become impossible.

The French investigation is constrained by uncertainty and secrecy. Claude Lebel cannot yet present the matter as a fully established official inquiry between police forces: the authorities have a tip, a poor description, and no name. He nevertheless arranges private, person-to-person calls through Interpol with homicide chiefs in seven countries—the United States, Britain, Belgium, Holland, Italy, West Germany, and South Africa. The calls are scheduled at twenty-minute intervals between seven and ten in the morning, with a list due by six. Lebel asks whether their files identify a political contract assassin with several successful killings, emphasizing that the suspected figure is not merely a gangland gunman.

The French government faces a parallel problem. It has not yet verified the report and refuses a public search or any outward sign that the President is hiding from a foreign assassin. De Gaulle’s formal instructions prohibit publicity and a nationwide hunt, partly because revealing the threat would invite press attention and foreign ridicule. The government must therefore prepare for danger while concealing the reason for its precautions—a policy that limits open action even as the investigation expands behind closed doors.

The Jackal Chooses to Continue

Valmy’s warning reaches The Jackal, but it does not give him direct authority from Rodin to cancel the job. The assassin assesses what has changed: the police know of the plot, but he believes they do not know his current identity or location. He is travelling on a legitimate passport under an assumed name and carries three additional sets of false papers, including two foreign passports, with matching disguises. He also understands that the police are searching for a man using the passport of Charles Calthrop, whereas he can identify himself as Alexander Duggan.

The exposure nonetheless changes the operation’s terms. The Jackal recognizes that he will be attacking a guarded target whose security has been alerted; success now requires his plan to defeat a prepared screen. He weighs returning against continuing. Returning could bring a dispute with Rodin over the quarter-million dollars in a Swiss account: if he refused to return most of it, Rodin’s men might track him, torture him for the document needed to release the funds, and kill him. Going on would consume his money and bring increasing danger as the chosen day approached. He decides that the plan remains viable and proceeds independently, even though Rodin believes it must be called off.

Inference, Timing, and Security

Lebel’s difficulty is that the assassin controls the timetable. The French have investigated for seventy-two hours but cannot know how far along The Jackal’s preparations have advanced. Lebel reasons that the killer knows the plot has been discovered but cannot know how much the police have learned. That uncertainty gives the authorities a chance to catch him unaware once they identify his new name and locate him, but it also means they cannot assume he has withdrawn.

A later clue sharpens the question of whether The Jackal has been tipped off again. Lebel reasons that if the assassin bought paint in Gap to transform his car, and had already altered it before driving overnight toward Ussel, he may have learned that the Duggan identity had been discovered. Someone may have contacted him in France or London. Lebel cannot prove an internal leak, but suspects the contact called Valmy, whose message to Rome showed access to the conspiracy’s information. The chain of deductions remains provisional: paint, travel, and a changed vehicle suggest warning, but do not identify who delivered it.

Lebel eventually interprets The Jackal’s week of delay after leaving Gap as evidence that the assassin has chosen a particular day, rather than simply trying to escape the country. He asks whether de Gaulle has engagements outside the palace over the next several days. The preparations for the Liberation Day ceremonies then reveal the scale of the defensive response: crowds will be held behind steel barriers; the enclosed areas, including sewers, will be searched; nearby houses and flats will be checked; and armed observers will watch rooftops and windows. Police will infiltrate even the roof and spires of Notre-Dame, while clergy, choirboys, police, and CRS officers will be checked or specially identified to thwart disguises. Bulletproof windows are secretly fitted to the President’s Citroën, and its driver is instructed to move faster than usual.

Yet the precautions cannot tell Lebel how The Jackal will get close. The detective believes the assassin is still in France, armed and perhaps using another face and identity card, despite being tracked by two leading police forces. At the barriers, a guard reports allowing through an apparently ill, elderly cripple who had an identity card and a war-invalid card and gave an address on Rue de Rennes. That exception shows how a legitimate credential and the appearance of helplessness might pass through a system designed to exclude strangers. The plot’s central danger persists to the last: extraordinary security narrows the assassin’s options, but the authorities still have to recognize him when he emerges.