‘I’ll come to the point. I’m a busy man. I don’t like wasting my time or anyone else’s. When we met in Venice you were talking about some crazy idea about ABCO having traded with the Nazis. I didn’t take you entirely seriously. I don’t have much respect for newspapermen — in my experience they’re either lazy or drunk, or both, and even when they do get hold of a good story, they usually screw it up. But you seem to be rather more persistent. You obviously not only believe this theory of yours, but you’re prepared to invest time and money in following it up.
‘Now ABCO’s a big organization and it can look after itself. But like all big organizations it has an image to protect. We get a certain amount of stick from time to time — usually from the eco-mob, when there’s a spillage — and lately we’ve had to lie down and stick our tongues up a few Arab arses, but on the whole we keep our noses clean.
‘But that doesn’t mean that we can afford, to have guys like you running round Europe spreading dirty stories about us. Unsubstantiated stories. Vicious, baseless lies. ’Course, if you tried to print anything, we’d have our lawyers on to you before the ink was dry. But by that time some of the dirt might have smudged off. You follow me?’
Hawn took his time answering: ‘I think I get the general drift of things. You’re warning me off. But you’re doing it in a pretty clumsy way. When we met at the Gritti, you pretty well laughed in my face and told me to get proof. Now, when I’m getting proof, you have me tailed by Otto here — who, by the way, is much too old for that sort of thing, surely? You may be warning me off, Robak. But you’re also whetting my appetite.’
Robak’s smooth square face showed about as much expression as the hotel furniture. ‘Hawn, I don’t often make mistakes. But it seems I made a mistake about you. Back in Venice I was interested to hear just how hard your theory was, and I decided it was pretty damn soft. I didn’t think you’d go through with it. I was wrong.’
‘How much do you know that I know?’
‘That’s why I have asked you up here. I want to find out. I know you’ve contacted a man called Salak. I don’t know how you got on to him, but it must mean that you’ve been doing some pretty deep digging.’
‘It wasn’t so difficult.’
There was a pause. Robak put a cigarette in his mouth, without lighting it. ‘Salak’s a tricky and expensive man to deal with. He wouldn’t talk to you for nothing. This must be costing you money. Who’s backing you?’
‘That’s none of your business.’
‘The hell it’s not. When you start investing in a smear campaign against ABCO, it’s all my business. You’re not a rich man, are you? I never met a newspaperman who was.’
‘I borrowed some money from a friend. Not an investment, just a loan,’ Hawn lied. ‘If Salak turns out to be that expensive, I’ll just have to cut my losses and go back to London.’
‘What’s Salak already told you?’
Hawn thought for a moment: Robak was certainly no man’s fool, and with the resources of ABCO behind him he could no doubt call on a highly sophisticated intelligence network. It was just a question of how much he already knew. Hawn’s experience had taught him that in a touchy situation like this it was always better to tell as much of the truth as possible; and even the most experienced interrogator knows that every question he asks gives away what he doesn’t know.
‘He said he worked for both the British and Germans during the war. And that there was a certain amount of dirty play with tankers calling into Istanbul from the Middle East. It seems his job was fixing false Bills of Lading and bribing the captains. He didn’t give me any details, and he didn’t mention ABCO.’
‘How much did he charge you for this information?’
‘Nothing. He seemed to treat it as though it were common knowledge.’
There was a long silence. Robak took the unlit cigarette from his mouth, tossed it away, shook out another, which this time he lit. ‘All crap. The same sort of crap you were shooting me at the Gritti. But I’ll give you a useful tip. Salak’s a hard and dangerous man. He swings a lot o’ lead in this city — on both sides of the fence. People who cross him don’t usually get the chance to apologize.
‘And I’ll give you another tip. The America-Britannic Consortium doesn’t like being crossed either. Our methods are rather more subtle — and they’re usually a good deal more effective. If you can persuade Salak — if you haven’t done so already — to give you facts and figures, you might find us on your back. And when that happens, you’re in trouble. Both of you. Keep out of this, Hawn.’ He looked at Anna. ‘Keep out of it, if only for her sake. You’re a couple of kids playing with a rattler. Not a toy,’ he added, smiling. ‘The kind that bites.’
‘Are you ordering us out of Istanbul?’
‘That would be the most sensible thing for you to do.’
‘And supposing we want to stay and see the sights?’
‘I understood you saw most of the sights the other day with Herr Dietrich here? But just as you like. Only remember this. If you contact, or make any attempt to contact Salak, I shall know about it. He may have a pretty good organization here, but so have I.’
Otto Dietrich yawned. Hawn
