SEVEN
IT HAD been Rivera’s father who’d been the sports fisherman, pursuing the blue marlin and the other big- game fish off the Keys and the Grand Bahama Bank. Rivera had fished, too, quite competently, but he’d never gotten the pleasure from it that the older man had. He’d learned the principles, of course; the use of the proper bait to catch the best fish. And carried that principle on. Which was why he’d initially, unquestioningly, advanced so much money to Belac, with the assurance that any additional personal expenditure would be instantly recompensed. And Belac had responded fishlike. But not like a marlin. Like a greedy, eat-all shark. His father had despised shark as game fish.
The unscheduled meeting was at Belac’s request. The arms dealer came confidently into the London embassy office and at once, proudly, announced, “I want you to see what I’ve achieved.” He produced a list but read from it himself. ‘Two hundred Kalashnikov rifles, with six thousand rounds of ammunition. One hundred Red Eye missiles and two hundred Stinger missiles. Three hundred assorted Czech handguns and three thousand rounds of matching ammunition. There are five hundred grenades and two hundred antipersonnel land mines.…” The man looked up, giving a self-satisfied smile. “And ten tanks. All en route, aboard ship, without the need to go through Japan or the Arab Emirates.” He smiled further. “Your original request only listed five armored personnel carriers. I have secured fifteen, if you wish to increase the order.” He’d already put down a deposit, from his own money again.
“I will check back with my people,” Rivera promised. By how much, he wondered, had Belac overextended himself?
“And not just that,” Belac continued briskly. “I have two thousand jungle-camouflaged uniforms and three thousand of the latest type of army boot. Also practically an unlimited supply of infantry materiel—webbing, field equipment, stuff like that.”
“Again, I’ll check.” Gently prompting, Rivera said, “What about the remaining tanks?”
“The auction is still to come,” the Belgian said. “I will be bidding, of course, through an agent.”
“And the electronic systems?” pressed the diplomat.
“I have already established through a Swiss
Rivera refused him the escape. “We discussed the method at our first meeting.”
Belac nodded, in apparent recollection. “An order has been placed through Stockholm,” he assured. “Which brings us to the point of my coming here today—”
“Money?” cut in Rivera, again.
“The request is for a VAX-11/78,” Belac said, in another unnecessary reminder. “That’s the system employed within the U.S. Pentagon itself! It is going to be very expensive; maybe more than we first budgeted for.”
“It’s precisely
“Expensive, like I said,” repeated Belac.
“How much?”
“I have committed a great deal of my own money, on the basis of our understanding,” Belac said generally. “I shall need another thirty-five million working capital at least.” He spoke as if the sum were unimportant. He looked at Rivera in open-faced, almost innocent expectancy.
Rivera smiled back just as innocently. “I am surprised at the need for such a large payment, so quickly after the first advance of thirty-five million.”
The arms dealer faltered, just slightly. He gestured toward the list between them and said, “I have just told you what has been purchased and shipped. Three vessels have had to be chartered. Commissions paid. Deposits made, for other material you want.”
“Like the VAX communication equipment?” Rivera persisted.
There was a further hesitation. “I may need the full time allowance there,” Belac conceded.
“Wouldn’t you agree that on my part I have been very generous in the agreement we have reached?”
“Yes,” Belac allowed doubtfully, unsure of the direction the ambassador was taking, but not liking it, whatever it was.
“Particularly in not insisting upon there being a penalty clause understood between us, in the event of nondelivery of any of the items you’ve guaranteed to supply,” Rivera continued, laying more bait.
“Yes,” Belac said again. The Cuban was performing for his own benefit. In what public court did the fool imagine suing to recover any penalty sum?
“I think one should be established,” Rivera announced. “Here, today.”
“What have you in mind?” Belac asked, tolerantly going along with the diplomat.
“A percentage,” Rivera said. In the excitement of the moment Rivera was unable precisely to calculate the additional, interest-earning profit to himself, through whom all funding had to flow and in whose account any withheld money would remain, if Belac failed to keep to his own established timetable.
“I don’t understand,” Belac complained, his complacency wavering.
“Our agreement was upon an expenditure of a hundred and fifty million?”
“Yes,” accepted Belac, fully alert now.
“Of which thirty-five million has already been advanced?”
“And spent,” Belac insisted at once. “Not only spent but greatly exceeded.”
“I propose there should be a ten-percent withholding upon all future advances, that sum to be paid as and when the articles for which it is committed are delivered.”
Belac was too urbane a negotiator to burst out with an instant rejection but it was very close. Icily controlled, he said, “That’s not acceptable, under any circumstances, Excellency. As I have made clear, I have already gone to considerable personal expense and effort, committed myself to great expense with other people. In the business I follow, everything depends upon personal reputation.”
And why you’ve no alternative but to agree, thought Rivera. He said, “Which was why the thirty-five million was advanced, surely!”
“An advance on account,” Belac said, unsettled now. “And from it I have extended other advances on account, accounts that my suppliers expect me to honor in full and on time.”
“
He’d been loo confident of die limitless money continuing, Belac admitted to himself. Now he was trapped, with timed deliveries that had to be paid for. Desperately, vowing somehow to repay in kind the smirking bastard sitting opposite him, Belac said. “Without another advance of thirty-five million, everything collapses. My suppliers simply won’t deal with me.”
His voice had lost its smooth, imperturbable tone. He waited, but the Cuban said nothing. Practically pleading, Belac said, “I have given personal guarantees. Payments are arranged on fixed dates. We agreed you would immediately cover any additional, necessary expenditure, for God’s sake!”
Make up the shortfall from your own funds; you’re rich enough, thought Rivera. He said, “I’ll advance the next thirty-five million, less the ten percent withholding, to protect my delivery being on time.…” He allowed just the right degree of hesitation. “Or would you have me change the whole arrangement? Withdraw some of the requirements from you and spread them to other dealers: the VAX computer particularly, if you are finding that difficult.”
“No!” Belac said too quickly. If that happened, some of the subsidiary dealers with whom he’d made arrangements would realize the purchases were being spread and would imagine him to be in difficulties, which he was. And would be in greater difficulty when they demanded their money immediately, frightened he had a cash shortage. What Rivera was allowing him—$31,500,000—would just be enough to cover the commitments for which
