the kindness of their hearts and a hefty percentage of the profits. I
had been paying 38 percent tax but Suarez-Navarro got away tax free
since they claimed it was really government property anyway.
They had a sweet set-up.
“They closed the schools and the hospital – those things don’t produce,
you see. Pretty soon they had a strike on their hands. If you treat a
man like a man he kind of resents going back to being treated like a
pig – so there was a strike. That brought Ramirez out of his hole
fast. He called in the Army, there was quite a bit of shooting, and
then there was suddenly no strike – just fifty dead Indians and quite a
few widows.” He smiled grimly. “Does that answer your question about
the scruples of Suarez-Navarro?” I nodded. It was a nasty, story.
Campbell seemed to go off at a tangent. “I’m attending a conference
here in London, a conference on mineral resources.t “That’s how I found
you,” I murmured, but he took no notice.
“It’s a Commonwealth deal really but various other interested parties
have been invited to send observers. Suarez- 5 Navarro have two – you
can’t keep them out of anything – but another one arrived last week.
his name is Ernesto Ramirez.” Campbell’s voice was hard. “Ramirez
isn’t a conference man, he’s not a negotiator. He’s Suarez-Navarro’s
muscle man. Do I make my point?” We both nodded, intently.
“Well, I’m going to hammer it home real I ly hard. I’ve found Kane for
you.” “Well, I’ll be damned!” I said.
“You were going about it the hard way. I put someone on to watch
Ramirez and was told that a man called Kane had a two-hour talk with
him yesterday. Wehad Kane followed to where he’s in digs and I have
the address.” I reeled it off.
It was effective. Campbell said,”What?”disbelievingly, and Geordie
gaped at me. I enjoyed my moment.
“Kane came to visit me this morning,” I said, and told them both what
had happened. “I suggest you get him down to the docks and have a
serious talk with him,” I said to Geordie.
Campbell frowned and then his great smile broke on his face. “No, you
don’t,” he said. “Don’t ask him a damn thing. -JI Don’t you see
what’s happening?” Geordie and I shrugged helplessly. We weren’t
quick enough for Campbell in matters like this.
“Ever heard of industrial espionage? Of course you have.
Every big outfit runs a spy system. I do it myself – don’t much like
it, but I’ve got to keep up with the hard-nosed bastards in the
business.” He actually looked as if he enjoyed it very much. “Now
let’s reconstruct what’s been happening. You got, hold of something
you shouldn’t have – from the point of view of Suarez-Navarro. Ramirez
hotfoots it to England arrived the day before Kane came to see you, so
it’s a cinch they came together. Kane comes to you to find out if
Mark’s stuff has arrived yet, and he knows it has because you tell him
so yourself. He spins you a yarn as cover
– it doesn’t really matter what it is, Then Ramirez tells his boys to
snatch the stuff but you surprise them in the middle.” He lifted
hid’
eyebrows. “Does that make sense so far?” is Geordie said, “It makes
sense to me.” I said nothing. I was a little more doubtful, but if
this served to keep up Campbell’s interest I was all for it.
He continued, “But something goes wrong – they leave the diary and one
nodule. Ramirez doesn’t know this, but he does know you’ve contacted
me and that all sorts of enquiries are outincluding questions in court
about nodules. Oh yes, I bet he was there – or someone for him. He
must have had a shock %yhen you came to see me.
You see, he’d keep a tail on you as a matter of routine just to see if
you did anything out of the ordinary – and you did. So what does
Ramirez do now?” “I’ll buy it,”I said. “What does he do?” “He lays
Kane alongside you again,” said Campbell. “You gave him the perfect
opportunity – you practically invited Kane to come back. It’s Kane’s
job to find out what, if anything, is in the wind. But what Raniirez
doesn’t know is that you were suspicious of Kane right from the start,
and this gives us a Perfect opportunity. We string Kane along -employ
him, feed him any information we want him to know and keep from him
anything we don’t want him to know. We also keep him underfoot and
don’t lose him again.
That’s why you mustn’t ask him any awkward questions – not right now,
anyway.” I thought about it for a long time.
“Does this mean you’re coming in with us? Putting up the finance?”
“You’re damn right it does snapped Campbell. off Suarez/Navarro are
going to all this trouble they must be on to something big, and I’d
like to stab them in the back just for old times’ sake. I’ll put up
half a million dollars – or whatever it takes – and I ask only one
thing. That we get there, and do it, before they can.” Geordie said
gently, “It was a good idea of mine, wasn’t it?”
“What’s thaffasked Campbell.
“Geordie’s recruiting a private army,” I explained. “As he gets older
he gets more bloodthirsty.” A look passed between them for the second
time that made me feel like the outsider. Without saying a word they
were in full accord on many levels, and for a moment I felt very
inexperienced indeed.
Campbell said, “There’s another thing. My doctor is troubled about my
health, the goddam quack. He’s been pestering me to take a sea voyage,
and I’m suddenly minded to accept his advice. I’m coming along for the
ride.” “You’re the boss,” I said. I wasn’t surprised He turned to
Geordie -“Now, what kind of a ship have you, Captain?” “A brigantine,”
said Geordie. “About two hundred tons.
Campbell’s jaw dropped. “But that’s a little sailing ship!
This is supposed to be a serious project.” “Take it easy,” I said,
grinning at Geordie who was already bristling at any slight to
Esmerelda. “A lot of research vessels are sailing ships; there happen
to be a number of sound reasons.” ,All right. Let’s hear them.”
“Some of the reasons are purely technical,” I said. “For instance,
it’s easier to make a sailing ship non-magnetic than a powered ship.
Magnetism plays hell with all sorts of imF.tant readings. But the
reasons you’ll appreciate are purely economic.” “If you’re talking
economics you’re talking my language,” he growled.
“A research ship never knows exactly where it’s going. We might find
ourselves dredging a thousand miles away from the nearest land.
Station keeping and dredging take power and fuel, and an engine powered
ship would need a hell of a lot of fuel to make the round trip.
“But a sailing ship can make the journey and arrive on station with
close on full tanks, given careful management.
She can keep on station longer and no one need worry about whether
there’ll be enough fuel to get back. You could use a powered ship to
do the job but it would cost you – oh, million pounds plus. Geordie’s
boat will be fine.” “The day’s not been wasted,” Campbell said. “I’ve
learned Something new. I reckon you know your job, Trevelyan.
What will you need in the way of equipment?” So we got down to it.
The biggest item was the winch, which was to be installed amidships,
and storage space for 30,000 feet of cable below it. There was also to
be a laboratory for on-the-spot analysis and all the necessary
equipment would take a lot of money, and a lot of refitting.
“We’ll need a bloody big generator for this lot,” said Geordie.
“It looks as though it’ll take a diesel bigger than the main engine.
Lucky, isn’t it, that charter tourists take up so much space with
luxuries.” Presently Campbell suggested lunch, so we went down to the
dining room to do some more planning over grilled steaks.
It was arranged that I should concentrate on collecting equipment while
Geordie prepared Esmerelda and got his crew together. Very little was
said concerning the location, or the availability, of the strange
treasure we were after, and I knew that I alone could come up with
anything of use there.
I had some heavy studying ahead of me as well as all the rest.
“If you take on Kane it’ll mean we’ve got him in our Sights,” said
Campbell, harping back to his favourite subject. “Not that it makes
any difference. Ramirez is sure to have other scouts out. I’ll be
watching him too.” I’d been thinking about Kane.
“Your review of the situation was very well in its way, but it was