while Vitogiannis pulled out fi les and Grant fi red up a black Apple laptop.
Taking a seat in front of the desk, Mac laid it out for the Bennelong team. ‘My discussions were brief this morning, guys, but the person I spoke with basically summed it up.’
‘Yes?’ asked Grant, plugging the internet cable into the back of the machine and leaning back from the laptop.
‘You see, Alex, government loan guarantees are knocked back for basic reasons: either the customer is in a nation or market considered viable for a bank or other commercial fi nancier, so the deal doesn’t need Johnny Taxpayer reaching into his pocket.
‘Or the deal itself makes a couple of the principals very rich but has got fuck-all to do with jobs or encouraging innovation or building national competitive advantage. With me?’
‘Sure,’ said Grant, nodding, ‘but I think we qualify under those two and I believe we’re also a company with a trading track record, if that’s something else you were going to mention.’
Holding up three fi ngers, Mac smiled. ‘That’s three pluses for Bennelong. But my person – and he was risking his job just to give me this small piece – he tells me that the weak link is the end-user certifi cate.’
‘What?!’ burst out Grant, a frustrated man. ‘We make control systems for power stations and public water companies! Shit! ‘
‘You know,’ said Mac, drawing it out, ‘the candidate always thinks that the end-user certifi cate is about him. But when you think about it, it’s really about -‘
‘The end user,’ said Vitogiannis. ‘I agree, Richard – but I thought we’d provided a full dossier on NIME? Certainly everything we had.’
Mac put his fi ngers into cathedral position, pushed his nose into the gap. ‘My guy tells me that there’s worries about the – what did you call it?’
‘NIME,’ said Vitogiannis. ‘It’s an acronym, in Bahasa. Basically means something like national electricity consortium of Indonesia.’
‘Yeah, that’s it, NIME,’ Mac continued. ‘He says the principals look like rent-a-directors – you know, fronts, accountants, lawyers. Faces to put on the prospectus. But they have nothing to do with the equity.’
Vitogiannis nodded, swapped a look with Grant. ‘Okay, so…?’
Mac decided to pull back. ‘Look, guys, it’s not my deal, I know nothing about this. But if we have an NIA logjam around an end-user certifi cate, then either you tell me who these people are so I can resell it, or the minister’s own people are going to be in his ear about these people, right?’
‘Yeah,’ said Grant. ‘It’s perhaps not so simple.’
‘Okay,’ said Mac. ‘The other part of the end-user certifi cate is something to do with defence? Nuclear research?’ said Mac, shrugging at Grant, asking him to take it from there.
‘Okay, that makes sense,’ said Grant, relieved not to have to talk about NIME. ‘When we did the buy-out from Betnell, fi fteen years ago, we inherited algorithms for uranium enrichment, for their Type-3 reactors. The management buy-out was for the control systems, but when it came to settlement they had listed these algorithms in the acquisition manifest. Our real aim was to get the naval C and C systems and the public utility control systems, but we got this bonus that, frankly, has turned into a curse.’
‘You knew what they were?’
‘Only in the broadest sense – they’re part of the control systems for a Type-3 reactor which is not even built anymore. I have no idea how valuable they are. I only know they still work because a few years ago I had a visit from CSIRO,’ said Grant, referring to the Commonwealth’s peak science body. ‘But I always suspected they were ASIO because they asked more about my new partner, Michael, and our future plans than they did about the algorithms.’
‘Well, that’s part of the logjam right there,’ said Mac, quietly impressed with Australian intelligence for doing the footwork. ‘If we can take that out of the deal – make it transparent for Canberra
– then all we have to do is get a better picture of the end user, and I’ll massage it from there. As long as they’re not crooks or terrorists, we can probably get you over the line.’
‘Actually,’ said Grant, looking pleased with himself, ‘we’re spinning all those enrichment algorithms – and all the navy C and C codes – into a separate company. We’ll be a cleanskin by the time we do the NIME deal.’
Mac’s ears pricked up. ‘Spinning off? You mean, selling the code?’
‘Well, a staged buy-out, really,’ said Vitogiannis. ‘Naveed has a deal -‘
Grant and Vitogiannis stared at one another. Grant broke the stare, threw his pen on the desk, looked at the ceiling. ‘Okay, Mr Davis, we signed a non-disclosure agreement with the guy representing the NIME group. He didn’t want his identity revealed, but I guess that really means to the banks and the government, right?’
‘So, who’s Naveed?’ said Mac, expressionless.
‘He acts for NIME, and put the deal together for the code,’ said Grant.
‘Really?’
‘Yeah,’ said Alex Grant. ‘It’s fortuitous, I mean the timing and everything.’
‘Timing?’
‘Yeah – we’re signing all the code stuff over at lunch. It’ll clear the way for the main NIME deal, right?’
Stunned, Mac fought for composure. ‘It might clear the way, guys, but we still have the end-user issue. Tell me something about Naveed.’
‘Not much to say,’ said Grant, looking at his watch. ‘He’s a former banker who manages an infrastructure fund.’
‘So he’s connected with the Indonesian government?’ probed Mac.
‘No,’ smiled Grant. ‘He’s a foreigner. Pakistani, I think.’
CHAPTER 32
Mac rang Davidson as soon as he got away from the meeting and they tossed around several spellings for ‘Naveed’. Davidson said he’d make some inquiries and get back on the Naveed connection, but he didn’t want Mac trying to intercept either of the NIME deals.
‘I know what your instincts are, mate,’ drawled Davidson. ‘But the gig is surveillance, right? Mainstreet is about who’s behind NIME.
That’s all you need to do, okay?’
‘Okay,’ said Mac. ‘But just so you know what’s happening up here.’
‘Roger that.’
Mac signed off and turned to Diane, who sat cross-legged on the sofa reading an in-hotel magazine.
‘I need more on Vitogiannis – sorry, I mean Michael,’ he said.
‘Really, Richard?’
‘Yeah, he looks sporty. You might like to lure him into some ten nis perhaps? Maybe nine holes of golf? I’ll even let you win; that might fascinate him.’
‘It’ll have to be tennis. I haven’t played golf for eighteen months because of my shoulder.’
‘He’s having a lunch meeting with NIME right about now,’ said Mac, checking the time. ‘And I said I’d catch up with them for pre-dinners at the lagoon bar.’
‘So I’m doing the afternoon shift?’
‘Pre-dinners too, if that’s how it’s heading,’ said Mac, smiling.
‘What do we want from him?’ asked Diane.
Mac thought about it. ‘Dreams and ambitions. I’m interested to know where he sees himself in fi ve years’ time.’
‘Dreams, huh? The man or the money?’
‘With blokes, it’s the same thing.’
They rode in the back of the S-class, taking a stop-start journey into downtown. The traffi c went from bad to worse in Jakarta and Edwin held forth about it.
‘When I come from Manila ten year ago, Jakarta is mad and crazy, but still you can get around. But now -‘ He held his hands up in the Asian shrug as they came to another stop.
