But he was impressive to me nevertheless.'
'How so?'
Narva remained silent for a moment. 'I think it was his dummy2
confidence which moved me. And I had the impression that he was a very careful man at the same time. It is a good combination, that—confidence and care.'
'And he trusted you.'
'That too,' Narva agreed. 'He was prepared to place himself entirely in my hands, and to be paid by results only.'
'And you undertook to get his family out?'
'That was to be the final payment.'
'If things went wrong, you mean?'
'No. He did not believe things would go wrong—'
They always believed that. Although with his experience Little Bird ought to have known better.
'After he had satisfied me he was resolved to retire, and he wished his children to grow up in freedom.' Narva nodded at Audley wisely. 'I think it was for them that he did this thing, professore, for his wife and for his children more than for the money. He came close to saying as much. But in any case, I myself have no doubt of it.'
Richardson examined Narva closely. The man had no son himself, the wife whom he adored—so the record stated with a flash of sentiment—having died childless. But that did not mean he was without those family feelings which ran ocean-deep in every good Italian; even watered down in his own veins Richardson had felt this un-English characteristic tug at his affections.
More to the point, however, it helped to account for Narva's dummy2
curious feelings for the Hotzendorffs: by the purest accident the little Kraut had found a chink in the tycoon's armour.
And Audley too had found the same weakness, though not by accident.
'Yes—' Audley coughed apologetically '—but things did go wrong.'
'Not at first. In fact not until the last.'
'Exactly how did they go wrong?' asked Richardson, inflecting the question carefully so that it should not be apparent that this was the first certain intimation he had received that Little Bird's death had not been from natural causes.
'No—' Audley raised a finger '—let's take one thing at a time.
You said a moment ago that what he sent wasn't so spectacular. I don't follow that, frankly.'
Narva gave a short, understanding grunt. 'Yes, I see that might seem contradictory . . . but I will try to tell you how it was—'
'After that first mention of the North Sea?'
'That is right—and after I had indicated my interest. He said then that his contact had seen a top secret memorandum forecasting Western European oil requirements during the next ten years. The figures were substantially as one would expect, taking into account the development of natural gas and atomic power stations, and allowing for some protection of coal industries. Nothing in the least unusual, there was.
dummy2
'But in the section on sources of supply there was an extraordinary discrepancy. And what it amounted to was that by 1978 half of it would be coming from a new source—
something in excess of 200 million tons.'
Richardson caught Narva's attention. 'But they're finding oil all the time. Couldn't this be Alaska and Canada— the North Slope, or whatever they call it?'
'No.' Narva shook his head. 'All the other known potential sources were listed—Australian and African as well as American. And Hotzendorff said there were strong indications that it was the North Sea which was the new source.'
'So what did you do?'
'I sent three of my best men out—one into Shell-Esso, one to Xenophon and one to Phillips. And I asked Hotzendorff to get more precise information.'
'You didn't believe it?'
'Let's say rather I was not prepared to reject it, professore. I know the Russians are very interested in European power sources, they have their surplus production to market, just like any poor capitalist nation.'
As an Italian, Narva would know that better than most, thought Richardson. Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi's dealings with the Russians since the mid-fifties had been a source of considerable annoyance to some of their NATO partners.
'Not to mention the political aspects,' murmured Audley dummy2
helpfully.
'That is precisely what he did mention next,' Narva agreed quickly. 'Apparently the Russians foresaw a period during which the Middle Eastern producers would attempt to increase prices as much as possible—that would be maybe until 1975. Then there would be a happy time, when the European nations would be no longer vitally dependent on foreign sources. And finally there would be an increasing chauvinism against the big American companies operating here, particularly as U.S. home production dried up.'
