Triple (1991)

by Ken Follett

  Chapter Eleven

  In the bar at Heathrow Airport David Rostov ordered another round of drinks and decided to take a gamble on Yasif Hassan. Ile problem, still, was how to stop Hassan telling all he knew to an Israeli double agent in Cairo. Rostov and Hassan were both going back for interim debriefing so a decision had to be made now. Rostov was going to let Hassan know everything, then appeal to his professionalism---such as it was. Tbe alternative was to provoke him, and just now he needed him as an ally, not a suspicious antagonist. "Look at this," Rostov said, and he showed Hassan a decoded message.

  To: Colonel David Rostov via London Residency FRom: Moscow Center DATE: 3 September 1968 Comrade Colonel: We refer to your signal g/35-21a, requesting further information concerning each offour ships named in our signal r/35-21. The motor vessel Stromberg, 2500 tons, Dutch ownership and registration, has recently changed hands. She was purchased for DM 1,500,000 by one Andre Papagopolous, a ship broker, on behalf of the Savile Shipping Corporation of Liberia. Savile Shipping was incorporated on 6 August this year at the New York office of Liberian Corporation Services, Inc., with a share capital of five hundred dollars. The shareholders are Mr. Lee Chung, a New York lawyer, and a Mr. Robert Roberts, whose address is care of Mr. Chung's office. The three directors were provided in the usual way by Liberian Corporation Services, and they resigned the day after the company was set up, again in the usual way. The aforementioned Papagopolous took over as president and chief executive. Savile Shipping has also bought,the motor vessel Gil Hamffton, 1500 tons, for ze 80,000. Our people in New York have interviewed Chung. He says that "Mr. Roberte' came into his office from the street, gave no address'and paid his fee in cash. He appeared to be an Englishman. The detailed description is on file here, but it is not very helpful. Papagopolous is known to us. He is a wealthy international businessman of indeterminate nationality. Shipbroking is his principal activity. He is believed to operate close to the fringes of the law. We have no address for him. There is considerable material in his Ille, but much of it is speculative. He is believed to have done business with Israeli Intelligence in 1948. Nevertheless, he has no known political affiliation. We continue to gather information on all the ships in the list. -Moscow Center.

  H4ssan. gave the sheet of pape~ back to Rostov. "How do they get hold of all this stuff?" Rostov began tearing the signal into shreds. "It's all on file somewhere or other. The sale of the Stromherg would have been notified to Lloyd's of London. Someone from our consulate in Liberia would have gotten the details on Savile Shipping from public records in Monrovia. Our New York people got Chung's address out of the phone book, and Papagopolous was on file in Moscow. None of it is secret, except the Papagopolous file. The trick is knowing where to go to ask the questions. The squirrels specialize in that trick. Ifs all they do!' Rostov put the shreds of paper into a large glass ashtray and set fire to them. "Your people should have squirrels," he added. "I expect we're working on it." "Suggest it yourself. It won't do you any harm. You might even get the job of setting it up. That could help your career." Hassan nodded. "Perhaps I will." Fresh drinks arrived: vodka for Rostov, gin for Hassan.

  Rostov was pleased that Hassan was responding well to his friendly overtures. He examined the cinders in the ashtray to make sure. the signal had burned completely. Hassan said, "You're assuming Dickstein is behind the SavHe Shipping Corporation." "Yes." "So what will we do about the &romberg?" "Well . . ." Rostov emptied his glass and set it on the table. "My guess is he wants the Stromberg so he can get an exact layout of the sister ship CopareUl." "It will be an expensive blueprint" "He can sell the ship again. However, he may also use the Stromberg in the hijack of the Coparellt-l doift quite see how, just yet. "Will you put a man aboard the Stromberg, like Tyria on the Coparelft?" "No point Dickstein is sure to get rid of the old crew and fill the ship with Israeli saflom FU have to think of something else." "Do we know where the Stromberg is now?" "I've asked the squirrels. They'll have an answer by the time I get to MOSCOW." I Hassan's ffight was called. He stood up. "We meet in Luxembourgr' "I'm not sure. Ill let you know. Listen, theres, something I've got to say. Sit down again." Hassan sat down. "When we started to work together on Dickstein I was very hostile to you. I regret that now, I'm apologizing; but I must tell you there was a reason for it You see, Cairo isn't secure. lirs certain there are double agents in the Egyptian Intelligence apparatus. What I was concerned about-and still am-is that everything you report to your superiors will get back, via a double agent, to Tel Aviv; and then Dickstein will know how close we are and will take evasive action." "I appreciate your frankness.I Appreciate, Rostov thought: He loves it "However, you are now completely in the picture, and what we must discuss is haw to prevent the information you have in your possession getting back to Tel Aviv." Hassan nodded. "What do you suggest?" "Well. Youll have to tell what weve found out, of course, but I want you to be as vague as possible about the details. Don't give names, times, places. When you!re pushed, complain about me, say Ive refused to let you share all the information. Doift talk to anyone except the people you're obliged to report to. In particular, tell nobody about Savile Shipping, the Stromberg, or the Copareft As for Pyotr Tyrin being aboard the Copareffl-try to forget it." Hassan looked worried. -Whaes left to tell?" "Plenty. Dickstein, Euratom, uranium, the meeting with Pierre Borg ... youll be a hero in Cairo if you tell half the litory. Hassan was not convinced. "Ill be as frank as you. If I do this your way, my report will not be as impressive as yours." Rostov gave a wry smile. "Is that unfair?" "No," Hassan conceded, "you deserve most of the credit." "Besides, nobody but the two of us will know how different the reports are. And you!re going to get all the credit you need in the end." "All right," Hassan said. "I'll be vague." "Good." Rostov waved his hand for a waiter. "You've got a little time, have a quick one before you go." He settled back in his chair and crossed his legs. He was satisfied: Hassan would do as he had been told. "Im looking forward to getting home." "Any plans?" "IT try to take a few days on the coast with Mariya and the boys. Weve a dacha in the Riga Bay." "Sounds nice.' "It's pleasant ~here--but not as warm as where you're going, of course. Where will you head for-Alexandria?" The last call for Hassan!s flight came over the public address system, and the Arab stood up. "No such luck," he said. "I expect to spend the whole time stuck in filthy Cairo." And Rostov had the peculiar feeling that Yasif Hassan was lying.

  Franz Albrecht Pedler's life was ruined when Germany lost the war. At the age of fifty, a career officer in the Wehrmacht, he was suddenly homeless, penniless and unemployed. And, like millions of other Germans, he started again. He became a salesman for a French dye manufacturer: small commission, no salary., In 1946 there were few customers, but by 1951 German Industry was rebuilding and when at last things began to look up Pedler was in a good position to take advantage of the new opportunities. He opened an office in Wiesbaden, a rail Junction on the right bank of the Rhine that promised to develop into an Industrial center. Ms product list grew, and so did his tally of customers: soon he was selling soaps as well as dyes, and he gained entry to the U.S. bases, which at the time administered that part of occupied Germany. He had learned, during the hard years, to be an oppontunist: if a U.S. Army procurement officer wanted disinfectant in pint bottles, - Peddler would buy disinfectant in ten-gallon drums, pour the stuff from the drums into secondhand bottles in a rented barn, put on a label saying "R A. Pedler's Special Disinfectant" and resell at a fat proft From buying in bulk and repackaging it was not a very big step to buying ingredients and manufacturing. The first barrel of F. A. Pedler's Special Industrial Cleanser-never called simply "soapt-was mixed in the same rented barn and sold to the U.S. Air Force for use by aircraft maintenance engineers. The company never looked back. In the late Fiffies Pedler read a book about chemical warfare and went on to win a big defense contract to supply a range of solutions designed to neutralize various kinds of chemical weapons. F. A. Pedler had become a military supplier, small but secure and profitable. The rented bar
n had grown into a small complex of single-story buildings. Franz married again-his first wife had been killed in the 1944 bombing-and fathered a child But he was still an opportunist at heart, and when he heard ;i;;;t a small mountain of urannun ore going cheap, he smelled a profit. The uranium belonged to a Belgian company called Socidt6 G&drale de la Chimie. Chimie was one of the corporations which ran Belgium!s African colony, the Belgian Congo, a country rich in minerals. After the 1960 pullout Chimie stayed on; but, knowing that those who did not walk out would eventually be thrown out, the company expended all its efforts to ship home as much raw material as it could before the gates slammed shut. Between 1960 and 1965 it accumulated a large stockpile of yelloweake at its refinery near the Dutch border. Sadly for Chimie, a nuclear test ban treaty was ratified in the meantime, and when Chimie was finally thrown out of the Congo there were few buyers for uranium. The yellowcake sat in a silo, tying up scarce capital. F. A. Pedler did not actually use very much uranium in the manufacture of their dyes. However, Franz loved a gamble of this sort: the price was low, he could make, a little money by having the stuff refined, and ff the uranium market improved-as it was likely to sooner or later-he would make a big capital profit. So he bought some. Nat Dickstein liked Pedler right away. The German was a sprightly seventy-three-year-old who still had all his hair and the twinkle in his eye.. They met on a Saturday. Pedler wore a loud sports jacket and fawn trousers, spoke good English with an American accent and gave Dickstein a glass of Sekt, the local champagne. They were wary of each other at first. After all, they had fought on opposite sides in a war which had been cruel to them both. But Dickstein had always believed that the enemy was not Germany but Fascism, and he was nervous only that Pedler might be uneasy. It seemed the same was true of Pedler. Dickstein had called from his hotel in Wiesbaden to make an appointment. His call had been awaited eagerly. The local Israeli consul had alerted Pedler that Mr. Dickstein, a senior' army procurement officer with a large shopping list, was on his way. Pedler had suggested a short tour of the factory on Saturday morning, when it would be empty, followed by lunch at his home. if Dickstein had been genuine he would have been put off by the tour: the factory was no gleaming model of German efficiency, but a straggling collection of old huts and cluttered yards with a pervasive bad smell. After sitting up half the night with a textbook on chemical engineering Dickstein was ready with a handful of intelligent questions about agitators and baffies, materials-handling and quality-control and packaging. He relied upon the language problem to camouflage any errors. It seemed to be working. The situation was peculiar. Dickstein had to Play the role of a buyer and be dubious and noncommittal while the seller wooed him, whereas in reality he was hoping to seduce Pedler into a relationship the German would be unable or unwilling to sever. It was Pedlees uranium he wanted, but he was not going to ask for it, now or ever. Instead he would try to maneuver Pedler into a position where he was dependent upon Dickstein for his livelihood. After the factory tour Pedler drove him in a new Mercedes from the works to a wide chalet-style house on a hillside. They sat in front of a big window and sipped their Sekt while Frau Pedler--a pretty, cheerful woman in her forties-busied herself in the kitchen. Bringing a potential customer home to lunch on the weekend was a somewhat Jewish way of doing business, Dickstein mused, and he wondered if Pedler had thought of that Ilia window overlooked the valley Down below the river was wide and slow, with a narrow road running alongside it Small gray houses with white shutters clustered in small groups along the banks, and the vineyards sloped upward to the Pedlers! house and beyond it to the treeline. If I were going to live in a cold country, Dickstein thought~ this would do nicely. "Well, what do you think?" said Pedler. "About the view, or the factory?" Pedler smiled and shrugged. "Both." 'The view is magnificent. The factory is smaller than I expected. Pedler lit a cigarette. He was a heavy smoker-he was lucky to have lived so long. "Small?" Perhaps I should explain what rin looking for.- "Please." Dickstein launched into his story. "Right now the Army buys cleaning materials from a variety of suppliers: detergents from one, ordinary soap from another, solvents for machinery from someone else and so on. Were tying to cut costs, and perhaps we can do this by taking our entire business in this area to one manufacturer." Pedlees eyes widened. "That, is . He fumbled for a phrase '~ . . a tall order." "I'm afraid it may be too tall for you," Dickstein said, thinking: Don't say yesl "Not nece&urily. Ile only reason we haven!t got that kind of bulk manufacturing capacity is simply that we've never had this scale of business. We certainly have the managerial and technical know-how, and with a large firm order we could get finance to expand it all depends on the figures, really.- Dickstem pkJwd up his briefcase from beside his chair and opened it "Here are the specifications for,the,products," he said, handing Pedler a list. "Plus the quantities required and the time scAle, You'll want time to consult with your directon and do your sums---~' "rm the boss," Pedler said with a smile. "I don't have to consult anybody. Give me tomorrow to work on the figures, and Monday to we the bank. On Tuesday 1% call and give you prices." "I was told you were a good man to work with," Dickstein said. "There are some advantages to being a small company." Frau Pedler came in from the kitchen and said, "Lunch is ready.

  My darling Sum I have never written a love letter before. I don't think I ever called anyone darling until now. I must tell you, it feels very good. I am alone in a strange town on a cold Sunday afternoon. The town is quite pretty, with lots of parks, in. fact I'm sitting in one of them now, writing to you with a leaky ballpoint pen and some vile green stationery, the only kind I could got My bench is beneath a curious kind of pagoda with a circular dome and Greek columns all around in a circle-like a folly, or the kind of summer house you might find In an English country, garden designed by'a Victorian eccentric. In front of,me is a fiat lawn dotted with poplar trees, and in the distance I can hear a brass band playing something by Edward Elgar. The park is fall of people with children and footballs and dogs. I dotft know why I'm telling you all this. What I really want to say is I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I knew that a couple of days after we met I hesitated to tell you, not because I wasn!t sure, but Well, if you want to know the truth, I thought it might ware you off. I know you love me, but I also know that you are twenty-five, that loves comes easily to you (I'm the opposite way), and that love which comes easily may go easily. So I thought: Softly, Softly, give her a chance to get to like you before you ask her to say "Forever." Now that weve been apart for so many weeks I'm no longer capable of such deviousness. I just have to tell you how it is with me. Forever is what I want, and you might as well know it now. I'm a changed man. I know that sounds trite, but when it happens to you it isn't trite at all, it's just the opposite. Life looks different to me now, in several ways-some of which you know about, others IT tell you one day. Even this is different, this being alone In a strange place with nothing to do until Monday. Not that I mind it, particularly. But before, I wouldn't even have thought of it as something I might like or dislike. Before, there was nothing I'd prefer to do. Now there is always something Id rather do, and you're the person I'd rather do it to. I mean with, not to. Well, either, or both. I'm going to have to get off that subject, it's making me fidget. I'll be gone from here in a couple of days, don't know where I'm going next, don't know-and this is the worst part-don't even know when I'll see You again. But when I do, believe me, Im not going to let you out of my sight for ten or fifteen years. None of this sounds how it's supposed to sound. I want to tell you how I feel, and I can't put it into words. I want you to know what ies like for me to picture your face many times every day, to see a slender girl with black hair and hope, against all reason, that somehow she might be you, to imagine all the time what You n-dght say about a view, a newspaper article, a small man with a large dog, a pretty dress; I want you to know how, when I get into bed alone, I just ache with the need to touch you. I love you so much. N.

  Franz Pedler's secretary phoned Nat Dickstein at his ho
tel on Tuesday morning and made a date for lunch. They went to a modest restaurant in the Wilhelmstrasse and ordered beer instead of wine: this was to be a working session. Dickstein controlled his impat ience-Pedler, not he, was supposed to do the wooing. Pedler said, "Well, I Chink we can accommodate you." Dickstein wanted to shout "Hoorayl" but he kept his face impassive. Pedier continued: "The, prices, which IM give you in a moment are conditional. We need a five-year contz-act. We will guarantee prices for the first twelve months; after that they may be varied in accordance with an index of world Prim of certain mw matenals. And there!s a cancellaton Penalty amounting to ten percent of the value of one Yeaes Supply." Dickstein wanted to say, "Donel" and shake hands on the deal, but he reminded himself to continue to play his part. $wren per-cent is stiff.99 "It's not,excessive," Pedler argued. "It certainly would not recompense us for our losses if you did cancel. But it must be large enough to deter you fmm canceling except under very compelling circumstances." "I see that. But we may suggest a smaller percentage." Pedler shrugged. "Everything is negotiable. Here are the prices." Dickstein studied the list then said, 'This is close to what we're looking for." "Does that mean we have a deal?" Dickstein thought: Yes, yes! But. he said, "No, it means that I think we can do business." Pedler beamed. "In that case," he said, "let's have a real drink. Waiterl" When the drinks came Pedler raised his glass in a toast. "'To many years of business together." "1711 drink to that," Dickstein said. As he raised his glass he was thinking: How about that-I did it againI