‘What’s the question?’
‘Why are you a congressman, Mr. Kendrick? With your money and professional reputation, you don’t need it. And I can’t imagine how you’d benefit, certainly not compared to what you could do in the private sector.’
‘Do all people seeking elective office do so solely for personal gain?’
‘No, of course not.’ Swann paused, then shook his head. ‘Sorry, that’s too glib. It’s a stock answer to a loaded stock question… Yes, Congressman, in my biased opinion, most ambitious men—and women—who run for such offices do so because of the exposure and, if they win, the clout. Combined, it all makes them very marketable. Sorry again, this is a cynic talking. But then I’ve been in this city for a long time and I see no reason to alter that judgment. And you confuse me. I know where you come from, and I’ve never heard of Colorado’s ninth district. It sure as hell isn’t Denver.’
‘It’s barely on the map,’ said Kendrick, his voice noncommittal. ‘It’s at the base of the southwest Rockies, doing pretty much its own thing. That’s why I built there. It’s off the beaten track.’
‘But why? Why politics? Did the boy-wonder of the Arab Emirates find a district he could carve out for his own base, a political launching pad maybe?’
‘Nothing could have been farther from my mind.’
‘That’s a statement, Congressman. Not an answer.’
Evan Kendrick was momentarily silent, returning Swann’s gaze. Then he shrugged his shoulders. Swann sensed a certain embarrassment. ‘All right,’ he said firmly. ‘Let’s call it an aberration that won’t happen again. There was a vacuous, overbearing incumbent who was lining his pockets in a district that wasn’t paying attention. I had time on my hands and a big mouth. I also had the money to bury him. I’m not necessarily proud of what I did or how I did it, but he’s gone and I’ll be out in two years or less. By then I’ll have found someone better qualified to take my place.’
‘Two years?’ asked Swann. ‘Come November it’ll be a year since your election, correct?’
‘That’s right.’
‘And you started serving last January?’
‘So?’
‘Well, I hate to disabuse you, but your term of office is for two years. You’ve either got one more year or three, but not two or less.’
‘There’s no real opposition party in the ninth, but to make sure the seat doesn’t go to the old political machine, I agreed to stand for re-election—then resign.’
‘That’s some agreement.’
‘It’s binding as far as I’m concerned. I want out.’
‘That’s blunt enough, but it doesn’t take into account a possible side effect.’
‘I don’t understand you.’
‘Suppose during the next twenty-odd months you decide you like it here? What happens then?’
‘It’s not possible and it couldn’t happen, Mr. Swann. Let’s get back to Masqat. It’s a goddamned mess, or do I have sufficient “clearance” to make that observation?’
‘You’re cleared because I’m the one who clears.’ The deputy director shook his grey head. ‘A goddamned mess, Congressman, and we’re convinced it’s externally programmed.’
‘I don’t think there’s any question about it,’ agreed Kendrick.
‘Do you have any ideas?’
‘A few,’ answered the visitor. ‘Wholesale destabilization’s at the top of the list. Shut the country down and don’t let anyone in.’
‘A takeover?’ asked Swann. ‘A Khomeini-style Putsch?… It wouldn’t work; the situation’s different. There’s no Peacock, no festering resentments, no SAVAK.’ Swann paused, adding pensively, ‘No Shah with an army of thieves and no Ayatollah with an army of fanatics. It’s not the same.’
‘I didn’t mean to imply that it was. Oman’s only the beginning. Whoever it is doesn’t want to take over the country, he—or they—simply want to stop others from taking the money.’
‘What? What money?’
‘Billions. Long-range projects that are on drafting boards everywhere in the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, and all of Southwest Asia, the only stable areas in that part of the world. What’s happening over there now isn’t much different from tying up the transport and the construction trades over here, or shutting down the piers in New York and New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Nothing’s legitimized by strikes or collective bargaining—there’s just terror and the threats of more terror provided by whipped-up fanatics. And everything stops. The people at the drafting boards and those in the field on surveying teams and in equipment compounds just want to get out as fast as they can.’
‘And once they’re out,’ added Swann quickly, ‘those behind the terrorists move in and the terror stops. It just goes away. Christ, it sounds like a waterfront Mafia operation!’
‘Arabic style,’ said Kendrick. ‘To use your words, it wouldn’t be the first time.’
‘You know that for a fact?’
‘Yes. Our company was threatened a number of times, but to quote you again, we had a secret weapon. Emmanuel Weingrass.’
‘Weingrass? What the hell could he do?’
‘Lie with extraordinary conviction. One moment he was a reserve general in the Israeli Army who could call an air strike on any Arab group who harassed or replaced us, and the next, he was a high-ranking member of the Mossad who would send out death squads eliminating even those who warned us. Like many ageing men of genius, Manny was frequently eccentric and almost always theatrical. He enjoyed himself. Unfortunately, his various wives rarely enjoyed him for very long. At any rate, no one wanted to tangle with a crazy Israeli. The tactics were too familiar.’
‘Are you suggesting we recruit him?’ asked the deputy director.
‘No. Apart from his age, he’s winding up his life in Paris with the most beautiful women he can hire and certainly with the most expensive brandy he can find. He couldn’t help… But there’s something you can do.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Listen to me.’ Kendrick leaned forward. ‘I’ve been thinking about this for the past eight hours and with every hour I’m more convinced it’s a possible explanation. The problem is that there are so few facts—almost none, really—but a pattern’s there, and it’s consistent with things we heard five years ago.’
‘What things? What pattern?’
‘Only rumours to begin with, then came the threats and they were threats. No one was kidding.’
‘Go on. I’m listening.’
‘While defusing those threats in his own way, usually with prohibited whisky, Weingrass heard something that made too much sense to be dismissed as drunken babbling. He was told that a consortium was silently being formed—an industrial cartel, if you like. It was quietly gaining control of dozens of different companies with growing resources in personnel, technology and equipment. The objective was obvious then, and if the information’s accurate, even more obvious now. They intend to take over the industrial development of Southwest Asia. As far as Weingrass could learn, this underground federation was based in Bahrain—nothing surprising there—but what came as a shocker and amused the hell out of Manny was the fact that among the unknown board of directors was a man who called himself the “Mahdi”—like the Muslim fanatic who threw the British out of Khartoum a hundred years ago.’
‘The Mahdi? Khartoum?’
‘Exactly. The symbol’s obvious. Except this new Mahdi doesn’t give a damn about religious Islam, much less its screaming fanatics. He’s using them to drive the competition out and keep it out. He wants the contracts and the profits in Arab hands—specifically his hands.’
‘Wait a minute.” Swann interrupted thoughtfully as he picked up his phone and touched a button on the console. ‘This ties in with something that came from MI-6 in Masqat last night,’ he continued quickly, looking at Kendrick. ‘We couldn’t follow it up because there wasn’t anything to follow, no trail, but it sure as hell made wild reading… Get me Gerald Bryce, please… Hello, Gerry? Last night—actually around two o’clock this morning—we got a nothing-zero from the Brits in OHIO. I want you to find it and read it to me slowly because I’ll be writing down every word.’ The deputy covered the mouthpiece and spoke to his suddenly alert visitor. ‘If anything you’ve said makes any sense at all, it may be the first concrete breakthrough we’ve had.’
‘That’s why I’m here, Mr. Swann, probably reeking of smoked fish.’
The deputy director nodded aimlessly, impatiently, waiting for the man he had called Bryce to return to the phone. ‘A shower wouldn’t hurt, Congressman… Yes, Gerry, go ahead!… “Do not look where you would logically expect to look. Search elsewhere.” Yes, I’ve got that. I remember that. It was right after, I think… “Where grievances are not born of poverty or abandonment.” That’s it! And something else, right around there… “Where Allah has bestowed favour in this world, although perhaps not in the after one.”… Yes. Now go down a bit, something about whispers, that’s all I remember… There! That’s it. Give it to me again… “The whispers speak of those who will benefit from the bloodshed.” Okay, Gerry, that’s what I needed. The rest was all negative, if I recall. No names, no organizations, just crap… That’s what I thought… I don’t know yet. If anything breaks, you’ll be the first to know. In the meantime, oil up the equipment and work on a printout of all the construction firms in Bahrain. And if there’s a listing for what we call general or industrial contractors, I want that, too… When? Yesterday for God’s sake!’ Swann hung up the phone, looked down at the phrases he had written, and then up at Kendrick.