‘9 November.’
‘Pretty recent. Let’s see it.’
The outline flashed on the screen:
.—AMRAN Ltd Consortium formed 28 October 1979. Comprised of Intercon Oil Corp., American Petro Ltd, Hensell Oil Products Corp., Sunset Oil Intern’l Inc., The Alamo Oil Company, The Stone Corporation, Bridges Salvage Corp.
Objectives: Stronger market position, joint experimental ventures, consolidation of markets, increased financial strength. Chief Executive Officer: Alexander Lee Hooker, Gen of the Army (Ret); VP, Operations: Jesse W. Garvey, Gen, US Army (Ret); VP, Marketing: (Position vacant since death of Vice President Ralph Greentree, 1.3.80.) Chief Financing Institution: First Boston Common Bank. Home office: Tanabe, Japan.
‘I’ll be damned. I thought the Hook was dead. I haven’t heard anything about him in years,’ O’Hara said. ‘And their main base is in Japan.’
‘Where’s Tanabe?’ asked Eliza.
‘On the east coast of Honshu, about a hundred miles from Kyoto. Desolate goddamn place.’
‘Chameleon’s really got it in for AMRAN,’ said Eliza. ‘He’s killed most of the executives in the consortium. The Thoreau was owned by Sunset Oil. The guy who was killed on Maui had pictures from the Thoreau.’
‘Anybody wanna take bets on how old Ralphie Greentree died?’ said the Magician.
‘Just for the hell of it, Magician, check Alamo and see if they’ve had any recent deaths in the high echelons.’
The Magician asked for a profile on Alamo Oil. There it was, four lines down:
—David Fiske Thurman, Chairman of the Board, Alamo Oil Company, killed in single-car wreck, outskirts of Dallas, Texas, 4.8.77.
‘Try Ralph Greentree.’
—Ralph Greentree, former Executive Vice President of Alamo Oil Company and Marketing VP of AMRAN, drowned while vacationing in Honolulu, 1.3.80.
‘It’s getting better,’ O’Hara said. ‘Guess who was on Maui two days before that?’
‘Hinge,’ Eliza said.
‘Right. Greentree drowned three days after Hinge killed the man on Maui and lifted the film from the Thoreau. Honolulu’s a thirty-minute plane ride from Maui.’
‘What else?’
‘Try one more. Try this Stone Corp., see what we can find out.’
Izzy revealed the following:
—The Stone Corporation. Holding company in the power and energy field. Corporation’s widespread holdings are not a matter of public record, but are known to include nuclear power plants in Ga, NC, Ala, Fla and national and international oil-refining properties. Temporary Executive Officer, Melvin James, replacing C.L.K. Robertson III, who died in crash of private plane, 6.25.78.
‘Jesus,’ said the Magician, ‘I’d like to think some of these people actually died in accidents. But I’ve got serious doubts,’
‘How about this final entry?’ Eliza said. They bad overlooked the last paragraph of the outline:
Newest acquisition: merger with Japanese conglomerate, San-San. 5.10.79
‘What’s this San-San?’ Eliza said.
‘It’s a very powerful company over there,’ said O’Hara. ‘But I really don’t know much about it.’
‘I’ve had it,’ the Magician said.
He got up and stretched. Eliza slipped behind the keyboard, changed disks and started feeding the last few entries from Lavander’ s book into Izzy.
‘Don’t you ever get tired?’ the Magician asked in a somewhat annoyed tone.
‘It’s youth,’ O’Hara said.
Their energy had carried them for hours and now, suddenly, all three of them seemed to fall apart at once. They decided to take a break and let Izzy print out the remaining entries in Lavander’s book.
Eliza, spotting the entry as they were leaving for dinner, said, ‘O’Hara, better look at this.’
There it was, on the print-out, one of the last entries:
—Midas/lo 354,200/109, 12/lgr Ghawar/es 2bb/d 0-112.
The three of them hunched over the printer, staring at the entry for several seconds.
“Midas is lost...” O’Hara said.
‘What?’ said Eliza.
‘That’s what Danilov said, “Midas is lost.” Midas isn’t a person, it’s a company or place. Wonder what all these figures mean. And what is “Jo”? And “Gha’..var”?’
‘I haven’t seen another entry like this,’ Eliza said. ‘Usually you can tell what the figures mean.’
