Honour Among Thieves (38 page)

‘You’re
talking in riddles. If you’ve got something to tell me, tell me.’

‘Earlier
today, Ambassador Al Obaydi paid a visit to Stockholm, according to the stamp
on his passport, but he returned to Paris the same evening. Not my idea of a
holiday.’

‘Stockholm
... Stockholm ... Stockholm...’ repeated the voice on the other end of the
line, as if trying to register its significance. A pause, and then, ‘The safe.
Of course. He must have gone on to Kalmar to check on Sayedi’s safe. What has
he found out that he thought worth hiding from me, and does Baghdad know what
he’s V

up
tor ‘I have no idea, Excellency,’ said the Administrator. ‘But I do know he’s
flying back to Baghdad tomorrow.’

‘But
if he’s on holiday, why would he return to Baghdad so quickly?’

‘Perhaps
being the Head of Interest Section in Paris is not reward enough for him,
Excellency. Could he have his eyes on some greater prize?’

There
was a long pause before the voice in Geneva said, ‘You did well, Abdul. You
were right to wake me. I shall have to phone Kalmar first thing in the morning.
First thing,’ he repeated.

‘You
did promise, Excellency, should I once again manage to bring to your
attention.. .’

Tony
Cavalli waited until Martin had poured them both a drink.

‘Arrested
in a bar-room brawl,’ said his father after he had listened to his son’s
report.

‘Yes,’
said Cavalli, placing a file on the table by his side, ‘and what’s more, he was
sentenced to thirty days.’

‘Thirty
days?’ said his father in disbelief. The old man paused before he added, ‘What
instructions have you given Laura?’

‘I’ve
put her on hold until July 15th, when Dollar Bill will be released,’ Tony
replied.

‘So
where have they locked him up this time? The county jail?’

‘No.
According to the records at the district court in Fairmont, they’ve thrown him
back into the state pen.’

‘For
being involved in a bar-room brawl,’ said the older man. ‘It doesn’t make
sense.’ He stared up at the Declaration of Independence on the wall behind his
desk and didn’t speak again for some moments.

‘Who
have we got on the inside?’

Cavalli
opened the file on the table by his side and extracted a single sheet of paper.
‘One senior officer and six inmates,’ he said, passing his research across,
pleased to have anticipated his father’s question.

The
old man studied the list of names for some time before he began licking his
lips. ‘Eduardo Bellatti must be our best bet,’ he said, looking up at his son.
‘If I remember correctly, he was sentenced to ninety-nine years for blowing
away a judge who once got in our way.’

‘Correct,
and what’s more, he’s always been happy to kill anyone for a packet of
cigarettes,’ said Tony. ‘So, if he takes care of Dollar Bill before July 15th, it
would also save us a quarter of a million dollars.’

‘Something
isn’t quite right,’ said his father as he toyed with a whisky, which he hadn’t
touched. ‘Perhaps it’s time to dig a little deeper,’ he added, almost as if he
was talking to himself. He checked down the list of names once again.

Al
Obaydi woke early the following morning, restless to be on his way to Baghdad
so that he could brief the Foreign Minister on everything he’d learned. Once he
was back on Iraqi soil he would prepare a full, written report. He went over
the outline again and again in his mind.

He
would first explain to the Foreign Minister that, while he was carrying out a
routine sanctions check, he had learned that the safe that had been ordered by
the President was already on its way to Baghdad. On discov ... ering this, he
had become suspicious that an enemy of the state might be involved in an
assassination attempt on the life of the President. Not being certain who could
be trusted, he had used his initiative, and even his own time and money, to
discover who was behind the plot. Within moments of his reporting the details
to the Foreign Minister, Saddam was sure to find out whose responsibility the
safe was and, more important, who had failed to take care of the President’s
well-being.

A
tap on the door interrupted his thoughts. ‘Come in,’ he called, and a maid
entered carrying a breakfast tray of two pieces of burnt toast and a cup of
thick Turkish coffee. Once she had closed the door behind her, Al Obaydi rose,
had a cold shower – not by choice – and dressed quickly. He then poured the
coffee down the washbasin and ignored the toast.

The
Ambassador left his room and walked down one flight of stairs to his office,
where he found the Chief Administrator standing behind his desk. Had he been
sitting in his chair a moment before?

‘Good
morning, Excellency,’ he said. ‘I hope you had a comfortable night.’

Al
Obaydi was about to lose his temper, but Kanuk’s next question took him by
surprise.

‘Have
you been briefed on the bombings in Baghdad, Excellency?’

‘What
bombings?’ asked Al Obaydi, not pleased to be wrong-footed.

‘It
seems that at two o’clock this morning the Americans launched several Tomahawk
Missiles at Mukhbarat headquarters in the centre of the city.’

‘And
what was the result?’ Al Obaydi asked anxiously.

‘A
few civilians were killed,’ replied the Chief Administrator matter-of-factly,
‘but you’ll be glad to know that our beloved leader was not in the city at the
time.’

‘That
is indeed good news,’ said Al Obaydi. ‘But it makes it even more imperative
that I return to Baghdad immediately.’

‘I
have already confirmed your flight reservations, Excellency.’

‘Thank
you,’ said Al Obaydi, staring out of the window at the Seine.

Kanuk
bowed low. ‘I will see that you are met at the airport when you return,
Excellency, and that this time everything is fully prepared for your arrival.
Meanwhile, I’ll go and fetch your passport. If you’ll excuse me.’

Al
Obaydi sat down behind his desk. He wondered how long he would be merely Head
of Interest Section in Paris once Saddam learned who had saved his life.

you
hear anything,’ was all he said before putting the phone back down.

Cavalli
remained at his desk for an hour after his secretary had left, working out what
needed to be done next.

Tony
dialled the number on his private line.

The
phone was picked up by the Deputy Warden, who confirmed in answer to Cavalli’s
first question that he was alone. He listened to Cavalli’s second question
carefully before he replied.

‘If
Dollar Bill’s anywhere to be found in this jailhouse, then he’s better hidden
than Leona Helmsley’s tax returns.’

‘But
the county court files show him as being registered with you on the night of
June 16th.’

‘He
may have been registered with us, but he sure never showed up,’ said the voice on
the other end of the line. ‘And it doesn’t take eight days to get from San
Francisco County Court to here, unless they’ve gone back to chaining cons up
and making them walk the whole way. Perhaps that wouldn’t be such a bad idea,’
he added with a nervous laugh.

Cavalli
didn’t laugh. ‘Just be sure you keep your mouth shut and your ears open, and
let me know the moment THE SECOND EMERGENCY meeting between the Foreign
Minister and his deputy took place on the Tuesday morning, again at short
notice. This time it was an unexpected direct call from the President that had
both Ministers rushing off to the palace.

All
Hannah had been able to piece together from the several phone calls that had
gone back and forth that morning was that at some point Saddam’s half-brother
had called from Geneva, and from that moment the Deputy Foreign Minister
appeared to forget the report he was preparing on the American bombing of
Mukhbarat headquarters. He fled from the room in a panic, leaving secret papers
strewn all over his desk.

Hannah
remained at her desk in the hope that she might pick up some more information
as the day progressed. While both Ministers were at the palace, she continued
to check through old files, aware that she now had enough material to fill
several cabinets at Mossad headquarters, but no one to pass her findings on to.

The
two Ministers returned from the palace in the late afternoon, and the Deputy
Foreign Minister seemed relieved to find Miss Saib was still at her desk.

‘I
need to make a written report on what was agreed at the meeting this morning
with the President,’ he said, ‘and I cannot overstress the importance of
confidentiality in this matter. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that
if anything I am about to tell you became public knowledge, we could both end
up in jail, or worse.’

‘I
hope, Minister,’ said Hannah as she put her glasses back on, ‘that I have never
given you cause for concern in the past.’

The
Minister stared across at her, and then began dictating at a rapid pace.

‘The
President invited the Foreign Minister and myself to a confidential meeting at
the palace this morning – date this memo today. Barazan Al-Tikriti, our trusted
Ambassador in Geneva, contacted the President during the night to warn him
that, after weeks of diligent surveillance, he has uncovered a plot by a group
of Zionists to steal a safe from Sweden and use it as a means of illegally
entering Iraq. The safe was due for delivery to Baghdad following the lifting
of an embargo under UN Security Council Resolution 661. The President has
ordered that General Hamil be given the responsibility for dealing with the
terrorists’ – Hannah thought she saw the Deputy Foreign Minister shudder –
‘while the Foreign Ministry has been asked to look into the role played in this
particular conspiracy by one of its own staff, Hamid Al Obaydi.

‘Our
Ambassador in Geneva has discovered that Al Obaydi visited the engineering firm
of Svenhalte AC in Kalmar, Sweden, on Monday June 28th, without being directed
to do so by any of his superiors. During that visit he was informed of the
theft of the safe and the fact that it was being transported to Baghdad.
Following his trip to Kalmar, Al Obaydi stayed overnight at our Interest
Section in Paris, when he would have had every opportunity to inform Geneva or
Baghdad of the Zionist plot, but he made no attempt to do so.

‘Al
Obaydi left Paris the following morning and, although we know he boarded a
flight to Jordan, he has not yet shown up at the border. The President has
ordered that if Al Obaydi crosses any of our national frontiers, he should be
arrested and taken directly to General Hamil at the headquarters of the
Revolutionary Command Council.’

Hannah’s
pencil flew across the pages of her shorthand notebook as she tried to keep up
with the Minister.

‘The
safe,’ continued the Deputy Foreign Minister, ‘is currently being transported
aboard an old army truck, and is expected to arrive at the border with Jordan
some time during the next forty-eight hours.

‘All
customs officers have received a directive to the effect that the safe is the
personal property of the President, and therefore when it reaches the border it
must be given priority to continue its journey on to Baghdad.

‘Our
Ambassador in Geneva, having had a long conversation with a Mr -’ the Minister
checked his notes ‘- Pedersson, is convinced that the group accompanying the
safe are agents of the CIA, Mossad, or possibly even the British SAS. Like the
President, the Ambassador feels the infiltrators’ sole interest is in
recovering the Declaration of Independence. The President has given orders that
the document should not be moved from its place on the wall of the Council
Chamber, as this could alert any internal agent to warn the terrorist group not
to enter the country.

‘Twenty
of the President’s special guards are already on their way to the border with
Jordan,’ continued the Minister. ‘They will be responsible for monitoring the
progress of the safe, and will report directly to General Hamil.

‘Once
the agents of the West have been apprehended and thrown in jail, the world’s
press will be informed that their purpose was to assassinate the President. The
President will immediately appear in public and on television, and will make a
speech denouncing the American and Zionist warmongers. Sayedi believes that
neither the Americans nor the Israelis will ever admit to the real purpose of
their raid, but that they will be unable to deny the President’s claim. Sayedi
feels this whole episode can be turned into a public relations triumph, because
if the assassination attempt is announced on the same day that the President
publicly burns the Declaration of Independence, it will make it even harder for
the Americans to retaliate.

‘Starting
tomorrow, the President requires a situation update every morning at nine and
every evening at six. Both the Foreign Minister and myself are to report to him
direct. If Al Obaydi is picked up, the President is to be informed immediately,
whatever the time, night or day.’

Hannah’s
pencil hadn’t stopped scribbling across her note pad for nearly twenty minutes.
When the Deputy Minister finally came to an end, she tried to take in the full
significance of the information she now possessed.