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THE ILLUMINI CONSPIRACY

the unknown hackers, and offered to meet. He was, he said, coming to SECURICOM with another Chaos member and could visit the company beforehand. Philips agreed and asked Steffen to confirm the names so security passes could be arranged.

Steffen arrived at Paris's Orly Airport on 14 March 1988. He approached immigration control and handed his German passport to one of the officers on duty, a woman. She looked at the photo and his name and hesitated.

'There has been a problem' she said. 'Please wait a moment.'

She reappeared a few minutes later with three men in civilian clothing who said that they were from the Brigade Financiére, France's revenue service. Steffen now suspects they were from French Intelligence. Koch, had he been there, would have known them as the Illuminati.

'Where is your friend?' they wanted to know. His friend, the colleague from Chaos, was coming in later by train. Steffen was immediately concerned: how did they know about his friend? And why should he tell them where he was? Steffen was arrested and taken to the police cells.⁸

Under French law an investigating judge can order the detention of a suspect for twenty-four hours, and then for a further twenty-four hours if necessary. During that period the suspect is not allowed to make contact with anyone at all, not even a lawyer.

The police began interrogating Steffen. They asked him about Chaos, about the VAXbusters, about the two sites in France. They also went through his belongings and papers, looking at names and addresses. In his diary they found the Paris contact address for Hans Gliss.

Gliss had checked in to the Pullman St Jacques Hotel, having driven up from his house in the Dordogne. When he arrived at the hotel he found three members of the 'Brigade Financiére' waiting for him. Fortunately for Gliss he was with his wife, Ursula, who, seeing her husband arrested and escorted away, started telephoning for help.

Gliss was taken to the police station and his passport impounded. The police began asking him about the Chaos Computer Club. Gliss, whose French is poor, demanded an interpreter. The police also told

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