Gold Page 19

  ‘You know what sort of a man Collington is,’ said Metzinger. ‘He’s brilliant. He’s innovative and resourceful and it’s because of his drive that SAGOMI occupies the place it does today in world business.’

  Knoetze was sitting with his head to one side, intent upon the praise.

  ‘But it isn’t easy,’ continued Metzinger. ‘He’s an entrepreneur, a loner. And he always has been. That’s how he came up with the information from Israel, making the gold shipment so understandable.’

  ‘Why are you telling me this?’ frowned Knoetze.

  ‘Because I want you to appreciate fully what I’m going to say. I am going to tell you this morning exactly what Collington has told me. But I want you and anyone else to remember at all times that this is all I am doing, repeating what I have been told. I have no way whatsoever of being able to guarantee the accuracy of the information.’

  ‘You doubt it?’ demanded the security chief.

  ‘No!’ insisted Metzinger, immediately. ‘Just making my position clear.’

  ‘I understand,’ assured Knoetze. ‘And I will make sure that others do, too.’

  Metzinger smiled appreciatively. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  ‘So what does Collington say?’

  Still Metzinger did not answer directly; he’d rehearsed a sequence so that it would appear convincing.

  ‘There is a similarity between us and the man whom Collington contacted in Israel. With intelligence links,’ he said.

  ‘The Israeli information came from the Mossad?’

  Metzinger nodded. ‘That’s what I understand. As Collington understands what he’s now been told. About the Sasol bombings.’

  It had exactly the effect that Metzinger had expected. Knoetze started forward, until their knees were almost touching. ‘Everything!’ said Knoetze. ‘I want to know everything!’

  ‘I gather the Israelis have penetrated the Palestinian Liberation Organisation,’ said Metzinger.

  ‘They’d be fools not to have done,’ said Knoetze.

  ‘And it’s been said publicly that the African National Congress guerrillas are being trained by them.’

  Knoetze sat nodding and Metzinger could see the growing belief registering on the man’s face.

  ‘Certainly Russia is short of gold,’ said Metzinger. ‘But not as short as we first thought. It’s not all being committed to grain purchase from America. According to what Collington has told me, some is being used to fund the attacks against us here, in South Africa. The Sasol bombing was directly financed by gold which went from this country to the Soviet Union. From Moscow, it went straight to Mozambique.’

  Knoetze found it impossible to remain seated any longer. He stood up and began striding back and forth in front of the window. ‘The cynical bastards,’ he said.

  ‘There’s something else,’ said Metzinger, stopping the man. Knoetze was in front of him, staring down.

  ‘Collington says they’ve been promised more,’ declared Metzinger. ‘Presumably from this month’s gold release. That’s why I thought it urgent for us to meet.’

  Knoetze sat down again. ‘I’ll repeat what I said before,’ he said. ‘I’m indebted to you. Deeply indebted.’

  ‘And I’ll repeat what I said. I’m merely a conduit in this.’

  ‘It has a logic about it,’ said Knoetze. ‘A simple, damnable logic.’

  ‘Will you recommend a postponement of the gold release?’ said Metzinger. He had hesitated to suggest it openly, not wanting to go too far, but he decided that Knoetze was completely convinced and that there would be no risk.

  ‘Of course,’ said Knoetze. ‘There will be outside protests, I suppose. But that’s not important.’

  ‘The Cabinet may not agree,’ said Metzinger.

  ‘They’ll agree, if they think it will prevent something like the Sasol bombing,’ said Knoetze. He reached across to put his hand on the other man’s arm. ‘You’ll let me know if you hear anything more.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘And thank Collington for me.’

  ‘I will.’

  Knoetze smiled suddenly, as the idea came to him. ‘Perhaps I should meet him myself,’ he said. ‘To thank him personally.’

  Metzinger shook his head. ‘We came together as Broeders,’ he reminded, ‘I don’t think it would be right to involve the company any more directly than it already is.’

  Knoetze nodded in agreement. ‘You’re probably right,’ he said.

  Metzinger stretched out in the back of the car taking him the short distance from Skinner Street to the SAGOMI offices, the satisfaction warming through him. It was working out more successfully than he’d imagined possible, when the idea of removing Collington from the board had first come to him. Even the timing was perfect: the annual meeting of the shareholders in three months was exactly right for what he intended.

  Back in his suite, Metzinger gave instructions that he was not to be disturbed and then locked his office door to avoid any interruption he hadn’t anticipated. He obtained an outside line and made his own connection to London, frowning when he was told that Ann Talbot was on a leave of absence. Unwilling to disclose himself by speaking directly to Richard Jenkins, Metzinger disconnected and booked the second call through to her apartment, tapping his finger impatiently at the unanswered ring. Finally he slammed the telephone down angrily. He’d make her suffer if this were some ridiculous way to avoid doing what he’d told her.

  Moreton cast aside the report, dissatisfied with it. ‘This doesn’t tell me anything more than I already knew, apart from the fact that he’s got some difficult relationship with his wife,’ he said.

  ‘There’s nothing else to say,’ said Englehart. ‘Since he got back to South Africa he’s done nothing but behave like a normal businessman.’

  ‘What about Hassan?’

  ‘Flew back to Jeddah, the day after their meeting at the embassy.’

  ‘How are we placed in Saudi Arabia?’

  ‘Good,’ said Englehart. ‘Got a deputy manager in the oil ministry directly on the payroll. He’s already been contacted.’

  ‘Something’s going to break,’ predicted Moreton. ‘I’m sure of it.’

  Two days later, South Africa announced the postponement of the gold release.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  There were local variables, making a difference of one or two points, but on the metal markets throughout the world gold was averaged at $640 an ounze on the day South Africa made the announcement. The Pretoria government attempted to dampen speculation, insisting with supportive figures that there were no production difficulties, but the threat of scarcity bred the inevitable nervousness and the price jump was merely delayed, not prevented.

  London exacerbated the problem. The market had anticipated the sale and was short on contracts. To cover itself, the metal was pegged there at $644, which was too high by at least two dollars. In Frankfurt and Zurich it was decided that London possessed information they did not. They settled at $648. The trend became infectious. Worried that its favourite investment was at risk, Paris valued it at $650 at the opening, was surprised by the scramble to buy and re-assessed at $655 two hours later.

  After two days, Australia decided to take advantage of the situation and offered a ton of gold for sale, which the market hadn’t expected. It was as though paraffin had been thrown on to an open fire.

  In Washington, Henry Moreton received a telephone call from the President, congratulating him for his financial anticipation on stockpiling and confirming that with the addition of the Russian supplies to those which they already held, their gold holdings had in a week increased in value by two billion dollars. Moreton’s campaign had been extremely effective. The American reserves were acknowledged in the financial centres of every capital throughout the world and the dollar rose, with its now accepted backing. Moreton recognised the effect and its cause the moment it happened. At $850 an ounze, he decided he could boost a market trend without the slightest risk.
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  He issued a statement, later praised for its authority by the Wall Street Journal, criticising the nervousness of investors and asserting that the United States government had no intention of adding to the spiral, nor benefiting from it. So they were suspending their advertised gold sales.

  That first day, Frankfurt and Zurich had reacted in the belief of secret information. The American decision, which came within two weeks of the news from Pretoria, removed any doubts: the governments in Bonn, Paris and London separately instructed their ambassadors to make official enquiries in Washington and the State Department’s assurance that they were not working in concert with South Africa was received with scepticism by all three. The price reached $900, as Moreton had expected it to, and in newspapers there were pictures of people queueing outside the offices of metal merchants, wanting to sell jewellery and plate for melting down.

  In Moscow, Igor Struve was dismissed. When the degree and the effect of the old man’s obstructiveness was realised, the commodities operation was removed entirely from either Finance or Foreign Ministry interference. Leonov was placed nominally under Krotkov’s control, but it was made clear that they were expected to work together more as equals. To reinforce that, Leonov was allowed access at all times to the Politburo secretariat and was allocated offices within the Kremlin complex. It was there that they met on the day their joint control became effective.

  ‘What’s your estimate of timing?’ demanded Krotkov.

  ‘Insufficient,’ said Leonov at once. ‘I’ve officially requested more grain to make up for the Ukraine loss. But it will be three weeks at the earliest, before the first ships arrive.’

  ‘Food riots have started,’ said Krotkov. ‘There have been two in Kiev, and another in Odessa, which is worrying. It’s a port used by foreign ships, the sort of place from which the news could leak out.’

  ‘We’re five tonnes short on the disposable gold available, to meet the contract with America,’ disclosed Leonov. ‘Through Amsterdam we’re approaching bullion brokers direct, but even that won’t be enough, unless South Africa makes a release.’

  ‘Any indications that they might?’

  Leonov shook his head. ‘Nothing,’ he said.

  ‘Could we delay settlement?’

  ‘Maybe for a month,’ said Leonov. ‘There would be suspicion if we tried to stretch it any further.’

  ‘What ideas do you have?’

  Leonov shrugged. ‘None,’ he conceded.

  For several moments both men were silent. Then Krotkov said, ‘I think we should do something in South Africa.’

  ‘We’re already doing everything we can.’

  ‘There’s little that Brigitte re Jong can do in Holland any more,’ said Krotkov. ‘She’s a bone fide broker who would have a reason for going to South Africa. All we want is an indication of whether or not there’ll be a release.’

  Leonov stood up, walking aimlessly around the room as he considered the idea. ‘If we did get the hint of a sale, it would enable us to establish firm order positions in advance of anyone else,’ he said.

  ‘And it would be something practical,’ said Krotkov.

  Leonov nodded. ‘There’s been too little of that, for too long,’ he said.

  Metzinger had been uncertain of Wassenaar’s reaction, wondering if the man would consider he had gone too far. But Wassenaar had actually reached out to shake his hand in a gesture Metzinger found vaguely embarrassing and said, with soft-voiced sincerity, ‘Masterly. Absolutely masterly.’

  ‘There can be no criticism against me,’ stressed Metzinger. ‘I made it clear to Knoetze that I was relaying information and that I couldn’t guarantee its veracity.’

  ‘The mining division shares have gone up five Rand during the speculation,’ said Wassenaar. ‘It’s spectacular.’

  ‘It will appear to be an entire market manipulation for company profit by Collington.’

  The remark appeared to register. ‘When we mount the coup against Collington, there’s going to be a loss of public confidence,’ Wassenaar said. ‘The shares will fall quite heavily.’

  Metzinger smiled. ‘I’ve anticipated that, too,’ he said. It was an exaggeration, because the idea had only occurred to him fleetingly and he hadn’t properly thought it through, but Wassenaar’s enthusiasm encouraged him.

  ‘What?’ said the other man.

  ‘We can time the announcement and therefore anticipate the drop, right?’ he said.

  ‘Right.’

  ‘So there would be no risk in our going bearish, would there?’ said Metzinger. ‘If we placed automatic sell orders at, say, four points below market valuation and then reversed, with purchase orders at a low often, then we’d pick up ten points a share when the board was re-assembled and the value re-established at the former level. And it will rise: our holdings are too strong to suffer for any length of time. The fluctuation would be over in a matter of days. A couple of weeks, at the outside.’

  Wassenaar was smiling, his head bent forward in concentration. ‘If I sold at four and picked up at ten, I’d show a profit of almost a million and a half Rand.’

  ‘And I would make over two million,’ said Metzinger. ‘Which I think is fitting reward for all the effort involved.’

  ‘Do you know what I think is a pity, Marius?’

  ‘What?’ said Metzinger.

  ‘That no one is ever going to know how clever you’ve been.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Brigitte re Jong had determined to break the inviolable instructions and make contact with Moscow through the Dutch embassy on the Friday. And then, on Thursday, came the summons to Paris.

  She guessed it would be with Nikolai Leonov, because it was he who had originally briefed her, all those months before. Then she had found him a strange contrast even to the limited number of men with whom she had allowed herself any relationship. He had been stiff and uncomfortable, appearing unaware of how to behave, and she had wondered at the time if all Soviet men were so awkward.

  Brigitte went to Paris by an indirect route, checking automatically for any surveillance, and booked into the hotel which had been designated in her contact message, near the Opéra.

  Leonov arrived the day after her and as soon as she admitted him to her room, she saw the change in his appearance. He was still fastidiously neat, as he had been at their first encounter, but his face was sagged and pouched with fatigue and he had a tendency to blink too often and too rapidly.

  She sat on the bed, allowing him the only chair in the room.

  ‘I’m sorry I had to bring you here,’ he said. ‘I came out through Czechoslovakia into Vienna. And then up by train. Paris seemed a good central spot.’

  ‘It was no inconvenience,’ she said. Even with his awkwardness, there had been a forcefulness last time. Now that seemed to have disappeared.

  ‘I’m sorry, too, about the restriction of funds,’ he said.

  ‘Have there been difficulties?’ she anticipated.

  ‘Incredible difficulties,’ he said. Slowly, anxious for her to know everything, he told her of the opposition he had been experiencing immediately before the Ilyushin crash and how it had intensified afterwards.

  ‘Were they mad!’ she exclaimed, when he finished.

  ‘Jealous men guarding empires,’ judged Leonov, all anger at what had happened gone now. ‘Everything has been centralised to myself and Krotkov.’

  ‘When it’s too late,’ she said.

  ‘How much of the five tonnes can we get direct from bullion dealers?’ demanded Leonov. ‘There are no financial restrictions now.’

  Brigitte frowned at the note of desperate hope in the man’s voice. ‘Some,’ she said. ‘It would be at a massive premium: probably more than $1,000 an ounze. We definitely couldn’t get it all. That’s an enormous amount in the present circumstances. I don’t honestly think that much is available on the open market. Gold is worth more in a vault at the moment.’

  ‘We need an indication of whether
the South Africans are going to maintain the suspension,’ insisted Leonov.

  ‘Yes,’ she agreed.

  ‘That’s why I want you to go to Pretoria.’

  ‘Me!’

  ‘You’re a broker: that’s perfect cover.’

  ‘It’s the government who decide the sales,’ she reminded. ‘The producers might not know.’

  ‘It’s worth a try,’ he said. ‘Anything is worth a try.’

  She frowned again. ‘There are a lot of producers to cover. And it won’t be easy, getting to the level of people who might know. There’s Anglo-American, Consolidated Gold Fields, SAGOMI, Rio-Tinto Zinc, Union Corporation, Charter Consolidated …’ She tailed off. ‘And they’re only the major ones,’ she added.

  ‘How soon could you leave Amsterdam?’ he said.

  ‘Monday.’

  ‘Try for the first plane.’

  Englehart had left instructions in the cipher room in case a message arrived and he knew from the look on his wife’s face, as he stood with the telephone in his hand, that she suspected him of arranging it purposely.

  ‘I’ve got to go out,’ he said.

  ‘Mother’s coming, for pot roast,’ Ruth said evenly.

  ‘I’m sorry. It’s important.’

  ‘You weren’t here last time.’

  ‘It was important then.’

  ‘What shall I tell her?’

  ‘That I’ll try to get back.’

  ‘You promised that last time.’

  ‘This time I really will,’ he said, shrugging into his jacket as he left the house. Even before he got out of Georgetown, the telephone in the car purred with the location of Henry Moreton and Englehart nodded, deciding he might be able to keep his promise to Ruth after all. He used the Agency insignia and identification to bluster his way past the parking restrictions outside the Kennedy Center, striding impatiently up and down in the vestibule while an attendant went into the auditorium to find the Treasury Secretary.

  Moreton hurried out, programme still in his hand. He was wearing a dinner jacket and black tie and Englehart guessed it was some official party.