The rain had started again, it was a different city when it rained. They walked to the Metro. That day, Gestapo troops had begun to burn the synagogues of Paris; brown smoke drifted across the gray afternoon, sometimes visible above the rooftops. [41]

"Society must have laws," his lawyer friend Arnaud used to say, "and society must have convenient means to evade them." [46]

"I've read it can be sixty below zero in December."
"And colder. The Wehrmacht will have to heat their machine-guns barrels over a fire before they can use them." Kovar smiled. "Only the Russians could get themselves into a position, in 1941, where sabers and horses really matter."
"How do you know all this?" Casson asked.
"Oh, it's talk," Kovar said. "But it's good talk." [81]

The inspector returned to his desk, took the piece of paper from Casson, leaned forward, and said, "Some personal advice. You should keep in mind that these people in Vichy have to walk a certain line. What they are doing with you is all well and good, I don't know that it matters, but it might. However, the rest of the time, they are part of the government. Which means doing what Petain and Laval and their friends think they ought to be doing -- working against the enemies of France. That's a big category, a lot fits in it. If the war ended tomorrow, and Britain won, they'd say, 'Look what we did, we were on the right side.' On the other hand, if the war ends tomorrow and Germany wins, God forbid, they could say the same thing."
"All right," Casson said after a moment. "I understand."
"I hope you do. Maybe you don't like it, but that's the way life is. Not that we're any better. When the Germans took over, the prefecture went back to work, just like it always had. The files were all in place, and if a call came and somebody said, 'Send over Pierre's dossier' in a German accent, there went Pierre. Comprends?"
"Yes."
Still a patriot?"
"Trying," Casson said.
The inspector smiled. [108]

"We have a lot to offer, Casson. Help with field operations, intelligence -- but they have to ask. From the first contact we felt that no matter how hard we've fought against each other in the past, we now have a common enemy, so it's time for us to be allies."
"War changes everything."
Weiss smiled. "It should, logically it should. But the world doesn't run on logic, it runs on the seven deadly sins and the weather. Even so, we have to try to do what we can." [195]