Moscow Blue. Philip Kurland
silence stretched uncomfortably as he sat back in his chair, trying to look relaxed and composed.
‘Well, well, well,’ Gerry began, ‘I’m not sure this is something that I’d like to get involved in personally, Lee, especially the second part which does sound like you know very little about. And I wouldn’t like to offer advice, but I must admit, it does sound interesting. Come to think of it, Paul did phone me about a month ago asking for a price on osmium 187. Didn’t tell me anything else; just wanted a reliable price, which, by the way, I couldn’t find anywhere. Good thinking, you inviting Mark to come along. I guess it’s much more in his line than mine, especially this business with the osmium. Me? I reckon I’m getting too old and too damn lazy or cautious for this kind of deal. But I agree it would be a major coup if you could pull it off. We could do with something like this to go right just to cheer us all up.’ He turned to his brother. ‘How d’you feel about it, Mark?’
Crocker’s eyes were locked on Mark, anxious. He could not remember feeling so tense. While he stared, he removed his glasses, wiping the lenses repeatedly.
Suddenly Mark cleared his throat and spoke, obviously choosing his words carefully.
‘Regarding the Egyptian bonds or whatever they are, sounds to me like we’re talking national debt here, and there are well-established channels through which international banks and governments deal with this situation. But then you know all this already, of course.’
Crocker nodded slowly, still waiting for anything that could be regarded as negative comment.
Mark continued, ‘The method you need is the “Switch”, and for various reasons, is common practice among some less reputable shipping lines. Many Third World countries carry on their soft currency transactions in “clearing” dollars, then try to buy back their own outstanding debts at a discount through lots of devious, complicated means. This is because they know that plenty of bankers holding nothing but paper for these “clearing dollars” would rather get paid something now in cleared dollars and write off the rest, instead of waiting and running the risk of losing the lot. I’ve always found that most bankers get very nervous holding pieces of paper for large amounts, especially from Eastern-bloc countries. But, I should add, a lot depends on how the paperwork has been set up, who set it up, and what kind of negotiable documents they are. But I’ll tell you more later. There are a few bankers who know the market well, and make a tidy profit arranging complex deals, making everyone happy. I take it you’ve not seen any documents yet?’
Crocker shook his head.
Mark paused to sip his coffee.
‘All things considered,’ he concluded, ‘yessir, this could fly, if the situation is as you’ve described it.’
His wide-set brown eyes looked straight at Crocker, who instantly felt his jaw muscles relax.
‘Where did you get to know of “Switches” and “clearing dollars”?’ asked Gerry, suddenly looking interested.
‘My work used to cover the central European zone,’ started Mark. ‘One of my jobs was to help settle national debts between Eastern-bloc countries. Sometimes, we had to involve up to five different countries, some not communist, with A selling to B in one commodity, then B to C in another and so on until E could pay off its debt to A. It was quite stressful, but great fun at the same time.’
Mark, a Viet vet and ex-military intelligence, was older than Gerry, and was now an influential adviser and member of an all-important Senate Defence Committee, and never known to have been given to hasty or rash decisions. He was slim and fit at fifty-two, in contrast to his desk-bound, overweight brother, who looked older than his forty-nine years. The brothers had always been close, but their respective lines of work had never crossed until now. Accompanying one another on a business matter was a first. It had taken some persuasion on Gerry’s part to convince Mark that Crocker’s brief message would be worth his while responding to, and the brothers had spent a good deal of time on the seven-hour flight, speculating on what lay behind Crocker’s cryptic summons.
‘And the reason it could fly,’ Mark continued, ‘is not because of the Egyptian deal, whatever that might be, but because the Pentagon would do anything to stop those North Koreans getting hold of this amount of osmium 187. We wouldn’t know what they might do with it.’
‘You’ve obviously come across osmium before,’ said Crocker.
‘Certainly have,’ replied Mark, stretching his tall frame, hands clasped behind his neck, ‘but only casually. But twenty kilos! I just wonder whether it’s ever been offered for sale in such quantity before. It’s a strategic commodity. The brass would be very interested to know more about this load.’
Crocker could see Mark knew what he was about. He was only now beginning to appreciate the importance of what Slava had said about the North Korean involvement in the equation. He opened his eyes wide.
‘That’s great, Mark. Really great,’ he said, leaning forward. ‘And how do you suggest we take things from here?’ He replaced his glasses.
There was another brief pause before Mark said, ‘Let’s just think about that for a minute or so, Lee.’ Lifting his cup from his knee, he slowly topped it up from the coffee pot.
Gerry said nothing, just sat listening and smiling at Crocker, his jacket straining at its buttons. Mark stared vaguely past Crocker’s head while he cogitated. Gerry had told Lee many months ago that Mark’s military discipline meant his approach to any problem was unemotional, cold and direct. These were exactly the qualities Crocker had wanted, and when Mark finally spoke, his conclusions were clear and precise.
‘We must have a meet with these Russian generals before we take any proposals to a Senate Committee, Lee. We must get a handle on the real situation, and not discover further down the line that we have problems disrupting our calculations or our game plan because of any errors or misunderstandings in this Slava’s reading of what’s going down. That’s a common problem when dealing with over-excited Russian middlemen; at least, so I’ve found in the past. I had to try and settle an oil contract a few years back and our contact man was nothing but trouble. I take it this Slava’s English was good?’
Crocker nodded. ‘Excellent.’
‘You arrange it, then, Lee, and let us know. Then we can take it from there.’
‘I’ll get on to it straight away,’ affirmed Crocker, cutting short the pleasantries as the meeting broke up, promising to call later to arrange a rendezvous for dinner.
‘You say that Paul wanted a price on osmium, Gerry?’ asked Crocker, standing.
‘Yeah, about a month ago. Didn’t get any further. I couldn’t get anything that sounded reliable. Have you any more news about him?’
‘Don’t want to spoil your trip,’ said Crocker, brushing down his jacket, ‘but apparently he wasn’t drowned like we thought; he was garrotted.’
‘Jesus,’ was all Gerry could say, while Mark was lost for words.
Crocker couldn’t wait to get back to his office and phone Moscow. All the way back he willed the taxi to go faster. He felt things were starting to move now, and in the right direction.
He had forgotten all about Paul and Kolyunov.
Back at his desk he dialled a number.
‘And Lina, make sure you get Oleg to confirm that he’s told Slava, and tell him this is very, very urgent. He’ll understand.’
Crocker’s hand on the receiver was hot and damp. He hadn’t been as thrilled since coming downstairs at his parents’ house on a Christmas morning.
Listening to Lina repeat his instructions over the phone, he could see her Russian make-up and her eyes smiling back at him. Just the thought of her was enough to make him happier, and this surprised him. Right now his emotions were readily confused.
‘Yes, Mr Lee. I’ll do all that immediately.’
‘Thanks.’