Alex Dryden - Red to Black

When I’d eaten half of what he’d ordered and pushed the tray away, he said, ‘I’m going to Germany. Just for the night.’

‘You’re seeing Dieter?’

‘Yes.’

I thought for a moment.

‘Was it really worth it, what we did?’ I said. ‘Transdnestr?’

‘What you did, yes. Every intelligence agency in Europe will have to act.’

‘Will they? Act, I mean?’

‘I’ve been waiting to give Adrian something like this for years. How can he ignore it? A high-profile German firm illegally running huge sums of illegal Russian cash across European borders.’

‘I hope you’re right.’

Finn kissed me again and told me he’d see me the next day.

Finn meets Dieter at a Spanish restaurant in Frankfurt at four in the afternoon, having persuaded the manager to stay open by the simple expedient of ordering two bottles of his most expensive Vega Sicilia wine.

‘We’re celebrating,’ he tells Dieter.

The German, always less flamboyant than Finn, looks uneasy at the vast cost, and at the quantity.

‘Come on, Dieter. Relax,’ Finn says. ‘You’ve found what you’ve been wanting to find for fifteen, eighteen years. You have the five names, you know what Exodi exists to do.’

‘What difference will it make?’ Dieter replies grumpily.

Going out to this chic, expensive restaurant is more than a celebration. There is something reckless about it, and Dieter, I believe, sees that too. There is an element of carelessness in Finn’s exuberant mood. It’s as if coming close to the end of the job for him means nothing more than beating Adrian.

It is tempting to wonder if he asked me to marry him as one last-ditch attempt to save himself; to give himself a new beginning, something to live for, a way to look beyond the job.

They eat and drink a great deal, but Dieter refuses to talk about his findings while they are in the restaurant.

They take a taxi away from the centre of the city to the Schwan-heimer forest. Finn has bought a bottle of whisky, and Dieter knows a path that leads straight into the forest’s heart.

‘The five names in the Dresden file are linked to Exodi by the payments they receive, of course,’ Dieter began. ‘But it’s the reason they’re being bribed that shows us what the real sums, the huge sums Exodi possesses, are intended for,’ he says. ‘The five are all German citizens. They have many directorships in different companies, but they are all connected to just one company. This company is unique to all of them.’

‘The Russians want information about the company,’ Finn asks impatiently.

‘Very special information, yes. The company’s a defence contractor named Hammerein,’ Dieter says. ‘Based in Essen. It’s one of Germany’s biggest defence contractors. Hammerein has a large stake in Europe’s defence enterprise, European Air Defence Systems.

‘One of the five is on the board of the company,’ Dieter continues. ‘The other four–three men and a woman–are non-executive directors. One has access to a highly discreet department that is concerned with technological secrets. But this, I think, is a blind to suggest that it is technology the Russians are after. It isn’t technology. It’s something much bigger than that.’

Finn drinks the whisky on its own.

‘And what’s that, Dieter?’ Finn says. ‘What’s the ultimate goal?’

‘It’s a typically complex, post-war German phenomenon,’ Dieter says wearily. ‘The whole system was designed so that no one could get their hands on all the vital organs of the German state as Hitler did. It goes like this. Every seven years, for one day only, the board of Hammerein resigns, including the senior government minister who sits on the board.

‘On this single day, for a few hours and only every seven years, it is possible for anyone to buy shares in the company, to buy enough shares to take control of it. This has always been just a formality, of course. The members of the board are always automatically reappointed by shareholders, and the day passes as it has done for more than fifty years, without anything changing. It is an old post-war construct in order to guard against any company from the military-industrial complex becoming a law unto itself.’

‘And this special day? When is it?’ Finn asks the German.

‘In just over eight months’ time.’

‘And if Exodi is paying these employees, what is it buying? Not just the date?’

‘The date is important. No doubt the date and this curious window of opportunity itself were unknown to the Russians. Nobody outside the board and a few key shareholders really know it. So, yes, the Russians bought that. But they’re also buying the strategy. They plan to buy one of Europe’s biggest defence companies on the one day it can be bought. They’re buying the expertise to buy enough shares during the course of twenty-four hours before the government can react. Six billion dollars’ worth. That would take inside knowledge. These board directors would be key to that. They can line up which shareholders will sell and which won’t.

‘So. To pursue the end of taking over one of Europe’s three key defence companies, Exodi is paying large sums of money into Merrill Lynch in Paris and into Goldman Sachs in New York. These brokers will be the ones actually buying the shares, but of course in a client name set up for the purpose, which is impossible to trace in so short a time. It is a hit of enormous proportions.’

Whether it’s because of the whisky on top of the wine, or because of the incredible prospect of Russia buying one-third of Europe’s air defence industry, Finn doesn’t seem to grasp what Dieter is saying.

‘Exodi are trying to buy…?’ he says.

‘The Russians are aiming to buy the European air defence pro-gramme,’ Dieter replies. ‘That’s Hammerein’s particular speciality. Effectively buy it, with Germany’s third, anyway.’

‘Christ. Dear, beautiful Mikhail…’ Finn mutters.

‘Mikhail?’

Finn nods vaguely and Dieter doesn’t pursue it.

‘But that’s not the end of it,’ Dieter says. ‘Buying control of Hammerein you would think would be enough, even for the Russians. But Exodi has many more billions at its disposal than what is needed to buy just Hammerein. Buying one of Europe’s main defence contractors is, incredibly, only the tip of the iceberg, Finn. The Russian strategy is broader than that and Europe’s defence industry is just the beginning. The two hundred and fifty company names in the Dresden file? They are all potential targets. The Kremlin intends to buy whatever it needs in Europe to give it control over Europe. Principally, that’s energy companies, pipelines they have the product, the oil and gas themselves- but the Plan is to ensure that Western European governments will answer to the Kremlin for all their energy needs by 2025. They’ll own the supply and control the demand. In a decade or so, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow would like to control the way the European Union works, through its very bloodstream.’

‘And Europe’s defence industry is just another company for them? Christ.’

To Finn, this is at last a vindication of everything he’s said and worked to achieve for over six years. It’s what he lost his job for, what the boy in Luxembourg died for, it’s his revenge on Adrian, the other bad father in Finn’s life. It’s also the end. It’s the way he’s chosen that leads in his imagination to me–to us–for good. This is close to all he needs and he’s barely listening to Dieter.

‘The price of oil has given the Russians the thing they’ve always lacked; a very large chunk of the world’s riches.’

And then Finn seems to snap out of whatever dream line he’s been following.