Gold Page 22

  And that was why Englehart was worried. Moreton had short-circuited the system. And if the shit hit the fan Englehart knew he wouldn’t just be sprayed: he’d be the fall guy trying to scrub it off the walls with a toothbrush.

  The sort of operation upon which Moreton was insisting should have been planned over two months, not weeks. They were fully briefed on the guerrilla organisations, certainly; they had even infiltrated sufficiently to be able to influence the attacks, if the situation arose, as it had now. But that still wasn’t enough. A successful sabotage wasn’t achieved by planting a stick of dynamite or a wad of plastic in a guy’s hand, pointing out the target and catching the early plane home. You had to be sure it was the hand of the right guy – not some loud-mouth high on threats from the safety of his home territory, but weak on follow-through when he was given the chance to prove his macho. You had to plan separate back-up strikes, in case the first one came unglued. You had to carry out independent reconnaissance, keeping your groups and your attacks separate, so that if one were intercepted, the capture of those that followed wasn’t automatic. Most of all you had to have protection, to insulate yourself by a chain-link of groups and cells from the men who did the job, so that the finger pointed a different way if it went wrong. And having set everything up and guaranteed it was perfect, you had to do it all over again, just to make one hundred and one per cent sure.

  Moreton’s superman routine meant that Englehart had been unable to do almost any of that. He took extra operatives with him to Pretoria and withdrew some of the men who were already there watching Collington, because they knew what the industrialist was doing and there wasn’t much point in continuing such close surveillance. He drafted black CIA operatives into Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to make links with the African National Congress and SWAPO guerrillas, and he also brought blacks to South Africa to liaise between the guerrillas across the borders and those who had, over the years, established themselves in the mines. Then he waited until they were activated.

  Considering the limited time available, the mobilisation was comparatively trouble-free, the only real difficulties being the communications between himself in Pretoria and his people in the countries to the north, and the uncertainty that came from not being able to test the people who were going to carry out the sabotage.

  The ease with which they established themselves did little to reassure him. Because there was a deeper concern, greater than the uncertainty created by Moreton’s ridiculous insistence upon speed. The extent of the sabotage being demanded by the Treasury Secretary meant that people would die. And that alarmed Englehart, more than anything else. Because never before, in anything he had initiated or participated in, had Englehart been responsible for taking a human life. And he didn’t want to start here, on some half-assed idea.

  The chance of reducing the casualties occurred to him two days after he arrived in Pretoria and was attempting to brief himself, as fully as possible in the time available, about gold mining. He learned that some of the workings in Witwatersrand were as deep as 3500 metres, and that the rock temperature, at that depth, could be as high as 54 degrees centigrade, so that to make it humanly bearable there had to be extensive refrigeration.

  It was standard procedure for the covert section head to be fully informed of the technical and scientific developments made at Langley and on the fourth day of the operation there arrived at Johannesburg airport from Washington a container supposed, according to the manifest, to contain light engineering equipment. Englehart retrieved it without difficulty and by that evening the contents were being distributed throughout the guerrilla groups. It was basically dynamite, but within the tube that housed it there was also a detonator. It was operated electrically by a minute battery containing just sufficient energy to explode it. The contact wires were held one millimetre apart by gelatine wax. The bomb went off when the wax melted and the wires touched.

  The OPEC conference in Vienna was scheduled to last three days and Moreton’s meeting with Prince Hassan was arranged for the day after it ended. Knowing how important it was to the Treasury Secretary that the sabotage coincided with his encounter with Hassan, Englehart timed his emplacements from the opening of the oil producers’ gathering. By the time of the final communiqué, when oil was pegged at the price that had held for the previous three months but was threatening to rise at their next meeting, Englehart reckoned that throughout the five SAGOMI mines in the Witwatersrand he had twenty bombs planted. They had issued sixty, but Englehart was a realist and calculated that two-thirds would have been thrown away or hidden long before their carriers reached the minehead, either through last minute fear of detection or because they had agreed to be saboteurs only as long as it took them to be handed the bribery money.

  Englehart telephoned Moreton before he left Paris for the meeting with the Saudi prince, frowning at the artificiality of the enthusiasm which Moreton managed to project.

  ‘Everything OK?’ demanded Moreton.

  ‘As good as it will ever be.’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ demanded Moreton, detecting the reserve in the CIA man’s voice.

  ‘It’s been too rushed. Panicked almost.’

  ‘I asked for a demonstration,’ said Moreton. ‘Not a replay of Hiroshima.’

  ‘There’ve been too many corners cut,’ insisted Englehart. ‘I don’t like cutting corners.’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with that, once in a while,’ said Moreton glibly.

  ‘The last time I tried it, I got a ticket for traffic violation,’ said Englehart.

  Uninvited, Wassenaar helped himself to more brandy for the third time and Metzinger frowned across at his friend, concerned at his obvious nervousness.

  ‘I didn’t expect we would have to wait this long,’ said the corporation lawyer. ‘I thought it would be over, short and sharp, just like that.’ He brought the heel of his right hand into the palm of his left, in a chopping motion.

  ‘It’s taking longer than I expected,’ admitted Metzinger. ‘We’ll just have to be patient. The length of time doesn’t alter anything.’

  ‘The shares have been exposed for a long time,’ protested Wassenaar. ‘Maybe too long.’

  ‘We’ve taken a position and we’ll have to stand with it,’ said Metzinger. ‘It would be ridiculous to change course now. As soon as Collington gets something in writing from the Arab, we can leak the disclosure and the rest is inevitable.’

  ‘It’s got to happen soon,’ insisted Wassenaar. ‘If there isn’t anything within the next week or two, then I’m going to cancel my sell orders. You can go on with the risk if you want to, but I’m getting out.’

  ‘It could cost you a lot of money,’ said Metzinger.

  ‘It would be worth it, for peace of mind,’ said Wassenaar.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The oil-producing countries which form OPEC had taken their predictable positions at the Vienna meeting, the extremists led by Nigeria and Libya insisting upon higher barrel prices and the moderates, fronted by Prince Hassan, arguing that any increase would be self defeating, heightening in the West the inflation which devalued the money they were paid for their oil in the first place. Hassan won, the victory only slightly marred by the face-saving compromise in the communiqué stating that charges were likely to rise after their next gathering. The debate and its outcome were closely monitored by the IMF meeting in Paris, and Henry Moreton left the conference for Austria with the unofficial authority to thank the Saudi prince for what he had done.

  As he had been among fellow Muslims, Hassan had worn robes, and he maintained the dress for his appointment with the American Treasury Secretary. Initially it was a formal grouping, Hassan sitting with his deputy and the director of their oil development corporation and Moreton accompanied by the American ambassador to Austria and the US trade attaché. The speeches were as governed as the arrangement. Moreton expressed the gratitude of the Western nations for Hassan’s control, to which the Arab sat noddi
ng in ready acceptance. Then Hassan delivered the stereotyped speech about the need for the oil-consuming nations to control inflation, the need for which Moreton readily acknowledged. There was red tea and assurances of continued friendship.

  The private unrecorded meeting was planned for the afternoon and both men relaxed visibly as their officials and secretaries withdrew, leaving them alone.

  ‘I appreciated your earlier remarks,’ said Hassan.

  ‘They were sincerely meant,’ said Moreton.

  ‘But I cannot guarantee the control forever. It might even be impossible at the next conference, in three months’ time. Our revenues are being constantly eroded,’ Hassan replied.

  Moreton controlled any expression of satisfaction at the direction the conversation was taking. ‘That surely isn’t the case in recent months,’ he said gently. ‘The dollar has hardened constantly.’

  ‘Only in recent months,’ qualified Hassan. ‘Before that time the pricing of oil in United States currency was detrimental to every OPEC producer. And could be again, if its value were to drop.’

  ‘I come to you as a friend and give an assurance as a friend,’ said Moreton. ‘There is no likelihood of that happening, according to every estimate and expectation we have. There will probably be fluctuations, but not through more than one or two points. At the Treasury we have created a base of solid stability.’

  ‘Upon gold,’ said Hassan abruptly.

  Moreton was momentarily silenced by the directness. Was Hassan just showing off his fiscal awareness or trying to make some other point? Fiscal awareness, decided Moreton; he supposed the Arab’s mind would be preoccupied with gold, after Collington’s approach.

  ‘There was a surprising miscalculation of our reserve,’ said Moreton, advancing the official explanation.

  ‘Many countries must envy such a mistake. And your good fortune,’ said Hassan.

  Moreton decided it was going to be easier for him to make the point than he had expected. ‘It is one from which we expect to continue to benefit,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Hassan, taking the bait.

  ‘It is not unknown to you that our State Department is staffed by political analysts whose function it is constantly to forecast ahead, so that my country may attempt to anticipate events and reduce the possibility of being affected by any sudden change.’

  Hassan’s forehead creased slightly at Moreton’s pedantic, almost patronising delivery.

  ‘There are only two sources of gold. South Africa. And the Soviet Union. Certainly Australia is a producer, but not on a level sufficient to meet world demand if any difficulty arose with the other two suppliers.’

  ‘Do your analysts predict difficulties?’ demanded Hassan.

  Moreton shrugged, a man speaking generalities rather than specifics. He was sure that the deal with Russia put him in strong control of the situation. ‘The Soviet Union will always remain an uncertainty,’ he said. ‘But statistics show that during the last year, far less was offered on the open market than at any other time.’

  ‘Which is why, surely, the world looks to South Africa for a guarantee of its supply?’

  ‘But what does it see, when it looks?’ said Moreton. ‘South Africa is a country surrounded by hostile neighbours, ostracised by many countries and riven by internal dissent because of its policies.’

  ‘I am aware of the international situation,’ said Hassan, discomforted by Moreton’s tendency to lecture. ‘And it is by no means a new situation.’

  ‘Not new,’ accepted Moreton. ‘But worsening dramatically.’

  ‘Are you predicting a serious interruption of South African gold production?’

  Moreton avoided the question. ‘South Africa is more advanced than any other country in the world in the process of extracting oil from coal,’ he said. ‘Their Sasol plants are accorded the highest security classification because they are so vital to the economy of the country.’

  ‘Yet despite that protection, they were successfully attacked by terrorists,’ said Hassan, anticipating the point.

  ‘There has long been a belief in South Africa that no cohesive opposition could ever be mounted against apartheid because of the tribalism of the people, splitting them into too many rival, squabbling groups. But the opinion in my country is that such a belief is no longer valid. We think the African nationalist parties are becoming better organised and that South Africa’s difficulties are going to become more severe.’

  Hassan stretched back in his seat. ‘We seem to have digressed into quite a detailed discussion about the political future of South Africa,’ he said.

  ‘Because it is relevant to what we were discussing earlier,’ insisted Moreton. ‘I talked about it being a situation from which the United States will automatically benefit. We have a gold reserve. And are known to have it. The dollar went up through eight points when South Africa suspended its gold sales. Were there to be a serious cutback, I would expect it to treble that jump. And not drop appreciably, either.’

  ‘Are you expecting a cutback?’ pressed Hassan.

  Moreton made a helpless, open-handed gesture. ‘I’m talking in the most general terms,’ he insisted. ‘But I think it could be the logical, sensible conclusion to be drawn from what is happening in South Africa at the moment ….’ He paused, as if a thought had just occurred to him. ‘And our logical benefit from the dollar strength would be that of the oil producers too, wouldn’t it? United States currency would remain the best pricing and payment, for your crude.’

  ‘Is this an informal discussion?’ said Hassan, determined to clarify the terms in which they were speaking.

  ‘Absolutely,’ assured Moreton. ‘A conversation between friends, on subjects that might be of mutual interest.’

  ‘I appreciate the trouble to which you have gone, travelling from Paris to make it possible,’ said Hassan.

  ‘The journey from Paris was to express gratitude, from myself and others,’ said Moreton. It had been a convenient development, providing an understandable reason for the meeting.

  ‘It is good to know that there is such friendship between our two countries,’ said Hassan.

  ‘It’s our hope that it will continue for a long time.’

  The principle of refrigeration is to compress Freon gas until it liquefies and then direct that liquid through an evaporator. The act of evaporation creates the coldness, reducing the liquid to gas again, to be recycled through the system. For the compression to work, the circuit has to remain sealed.

  Observing another law of covert operations, Englehart segregated those who planted the explosives from those whom he intended to activate them.

  Calculating the time difference between Austria and South Africa, Englehart realised he would have to act during the evening shifts at all the mines. In some he was better placed than others. In Witwatersrand One he had seven clandestine members of the African National Congress and in Witwatersrand Five there was a fanatical group of six. In both Witwatersrand Two and Four he was sure of four guerrillas, but in mine Three there was only one man.

  Their instructions were identical and simple. Four hours after the commencement of the shift, they had to puncture in as many places and at as many levels as possible the refrigeration lines, taking care that they holed the return section, carrying the gas that had to escape, and not the supply line, where the gas would have converted to liquid. The back-up, emergency installations had to be attacked in the same way, making it impossible for the managers to control the temperature for at least an hour.

  Witwatersrand Three was the first to go and ironically, with only one man to activate the explosives, the effect was the most dramatic. The man succeeded in damaging the first and secondary systems on the second level, where the earlier saboteurs had managed to secrete three sticks of explosive. The temperature began to rise after fifteen minutes and before the hour was up the night manager realised there was a crisis and sounded the evacuation order. As a precaution he took all the
workers from the third, lower level which was fortunate, because when the bombs went off they shattered a reinforced section of number two shaft where the SAGOMI geologists had earlier predicted a river course. The entire second level and part of the third were flooded and but for the manager’s caution, the death toll would unquestionably have been high. As it was, not one man died. As soon as the flood alarm sounded, the upper section was cleared and the pumps activated automatically.

  Predictably, the refrigeration was damaged most badly at Witwatersrand One. It malfunctioned on all three levels and once again, as Englehart had calculated, the mines were cleared of workers in advance of the explosions.

  Witwatersrand Five suffered from the fanaticism of the group there. They concentrated too long upon the first system and when they moved on to the emergency back-up in three places they holed the liquid rather than the gas supply. Damage on the second and third levels was minimal, but on the top section the roof was brought down over a distance of fifty yards.

  Overall, the most extensive damage was at Witwatersrand Two. There was dynamite at all levels and the refrigeration was destroyed throughout the mine. There were roof-falls and wall cave-in on levels two and three and on the upper section the sticks had been wedged beneath the cart lines, so that the whole supply equipment was wrecked.

  Witwatersrand Four was damaged least of all. The guerrillas there were only able to affect the refrigeration on the lower level. And there was only one stick of explosive. It ripped up a section of tracking and caused a minor roof-fall, but the most serious damage was to the cooling equipment itself.

  The explosions, which began in mine Three, progressed like a linked firecracker through the SAGOMI mines, all happening within the space of an hour. An incredible statistic, from which only Englehart was to derive any satisfaction, was that because of the way he chose to make the detonations, a total workforce of over 5500 men was cleared from the mines before the explosions, and in the final count only two men died and eighteen were injured.