As a journalist, I often must rely on intuition.  I sensed a connexion between the unknown scheme of Wolverine and Peregrine and what I had I learnt about the Russians chez Melania.  Then there was a novel taste of Peregrine powering my intuitions.  He had evolved an intense curiosity about the armed forces of all countries that he nourished by reading Janes Journals.  Peregrine devoured new issues of “Janes Defence Weekly” and “Janes Intelligence Report.”

Once he revved up my curiosity when he chuckled that you can’t make a decent bomb unless you know what you want to blow up with it.  He added that you also need to know, as NGA does, where the stuff you plan to blow up is.   By Contrast, Wolverine had a keen curiosity about anything that promised a fat profit, not just arms.  When Skyping with Wolverine, I also noticed that more than once I had caught him reading Army Field Manuals on CBRNE, Intelligence, Combat Engineering, and driving military vehicles, a far cry from his Etonian taste for Catullus, Suetonius, or Petronius.   Wolverine never tired of reading about the scandals of the classical world, but there are pitifully few scandals in an Army Field Manual.  Peregrine, I heard, littered his office with military manuals and doctrine.

I suppose the world should be glad Peregrine had military interests; otherwise, he would have spent a career filling his office with naked secretaries and boys.  If not for a career at Munitions Galore, I’m certain he would have devoted his life to making and marketing porn.  Perhaps bombs and missiles were his sublimation.  Evidence?  Peregrine never missed a chance to sell his bombs and missiles by having leering half-naked women straddling them.  Given the sales, the adverts worked.

Anyway, my reporter’s intuition told me something was up. And how did I get the idea of a visit to Melania?  Had Wolverine hypnotized me?  I could think of no other plausible explanation.  With his smooth, bedroom voice and piercing eyes, Wolverine was a mesmerist supreme. 

Also, could it be a mere coincidence that was after the first visit to Melania, I heard mention of Operation Gobble.  I then had no idea of how Operation Gobble pulled seemingly unconnected threads together.