East of the Sun (11 page)

‘Nick?’

‘You know, when you answered the phone. You thought it was Nick.’

‘Oh, nobody, just an acquaintance.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, listen, Cathy, there’s another call waiting. I have to go.’

‘Okay, but don’t forget about Wednesday.’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t. See you then.’

It was a lie, of course. There was no other call waiting. She just didn’t want to field questions about Nick from Cathy or anyone else. The less people knew about what she was up to and what kind of help she was getting, the better.

Her words turned out to be prophetic though, because as soon as she’d put down the phone, it rang again, making her jump.

‘Hello?’ she answered, exhaling slowly to calm her racing pulse.

‘Mrs Preston? I am phoning from reception. Mr Sanford is here to see you.’

‘Oh, yes, thank you. Would you ask him to wait for me in the restaurant? I’ll be down in a few minutes.’

As she stepped out of the elevator, she walked straight into the hotel’s informal restaurant cum wine bar. It was surprisingly dark and when she glanced up at the restaurant’s high glass ceiling, she saw that the night was cloudy. Candles flickered on a few tables. In one corner an overweight businessman was leaning over to touch a very young Russian woman’s hand. The girl looked bored and Amelia wondered what she would have to endure in the night to come for the sake of a few dollars. Three other tables were occupied – there was a group of three well-dressed men in serious conversation, a lone woman who wore the dazed look of a new expat in town and at the last table Nick was getting to his feet as she approached. His size nearly stopped her in her tracks. Although he was relatively slender, his height made him look like a Swedish giant. Strange that she hadn’t really noticed it before.

‘Hello,’ she smiled and sat down.

He returned her smile. ‘How are you today?’

She rolled her eyes, surprised at her ability to make light of such a nightmarish day. ‘Don’t ask.’ He seemed a little unnerved by the change in her demeanour since their first meeting, so she continued. ‘You? How was yours?’

He let out a sigh. ‘It was certainly interesting.’

She glanced at the mineral water and half-drunk coffee in front of him when the waiter approached their table.

‘Have you eaten?’ she asked.

He shook his head.

‘Shall we have something? I’m starving.’

‘Eh, yes, but I don’t think we should talk here.’

Amelia sat back. What was she doing? For a moment she’d chosen to believe she was unimportant and untouchable, that she could have dinner and a conversation with a harmless acquaintance, that those who had already hurt Robert could no longer hurt her. She’d better get a grip on herself. Nick was right. The arrival of the second note was proof that her presence in Moscow had not only been noticed, but was making someone nervous. She would be foolish to ignore her situation, even if only for a few hours.

‘Shall we eat something first and talk later?’ she asked more soberly.

He hesitated, running his fingers through his blonde hair, looking ill at ease in his surroundings. ‘Let’s go for a walk, maybe eat something elsewhere?’

While they waited for the waiter to bring his bill, Amelia watched him shifting uncomfortably in the chair, which looked far too small for him. Had it not been for his eyes, he would have looked like a gentle, uncomplicated giant with his open, friendly smile, but his greyish-green eyes held something back, as if he’d discovered or experienced something during his life that kept him from being a simple man.

On the opposite side of the road, across from the National Hotel’s main entrance, Manezh Square was quiet. Cloud cover ensured that the night wasn’t freezing, but it was still brisk outside and by unspoken agreement they set off at a fast pace. The stale, warm air of the pedestrian underpass stood in sharp contrast to the night air and they hurried through the throngs of young people standing around in groups, smoking and drinking beer. They didn’t speak until they emerged from the underpass again.

‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ Nick suddenly spoke next to her.

She looked up at him, surprised at the sentiment in such an obviously pragmatic man. She followed his gaze and for a moment they stood together in the cold night, looking at the vast red walls of the Kremlin, lit up by powerful lights.

‘It is, yes,’ she finally replied. ‘Beautiful and . . .’

‘Sinister?’

She nodded. ‘It’s almost tangible, isn’t it?’

‘Come on, I know a good sushi place,’ Nick interrupted their thoughts. ‘You do eat sushi, don’t you?’

‘I love it,’ she said, and felt unfamiliar contentment with the comfortable note between them. It felt good after the harrowing day she’d had.

‘I’ve discovered a few things, Amelia,’ he said as they walked across the ancient cobblestones in the direction of Lubyanka Square. ‘As I said, they’re certainly interesting.’

‘Tell me,’ she said, impatient to make progress, to learn something of real value. ‘And just so you know, you don’t have to edit anything for my benefit. I’d prefer it if you didn’t.’

He looked at her before he spoke. ‘Okay. I’ll get right to it then. Your gut reaction to that article may very well have been the right one—’

‘Really?’ Amelia interrupted, suddenly out of breath at the prospect of taking a bigger step towards the truth.

‘Turns out, and this is only a rumour, mind, but I’ve heard variations of it from several different sources now, which makes it a little more believable.’ He hesitated, glancing at Amelia again. ‘It turns out that the diamond deposit the two companies are exploring may not be that valuable after all.’

‘What? What are you saying?’ Amelia stopped mid-stride, staring at him.

‘It sounds like the Canadians have discovered that the deposit isn’t as rich as it was once believed to be, and that’s the real reason why they wanted to get out now. That’s why they’ve sold their stake in the joint venture.’

Amelia stared down at the smooth cobbles under her feet. This was the first time since she’d made her decision to return to Moscow that someone had affirmed that she wasn’t completely mad to have started her search for the truth.

‘Can it be true? I can hardly believe it.’

‘Rather difficult to comprehend, isn’t it? According to what I’ve heard, the deposit may be considerably smaller than initially reported and therefore not as valuable.’

‘But this is unbelievable!’ Amelia’s mind reeled at the many possibilities this new piece of information presented. She found herself incapable of generating a single pertinent question and simply followed Nick through a narrow passage between two old buildings.

‘Here we are,’ Nick interrupted her chaotic thoughts, and quickly led her down a flight of stairs into a relatively quiet basement restaurant. Once they’d checked in their coats, he chose a table that had no other patrons next to it.

Amelia slumped into a chair. ‘So, I was right about one thing at least. This is proof. Something strange
is
going on.’

For a few moments Nick looked at her thoughtfully before he spoke again. ‘Probably. But slow down, Amelia. Probably, not definitely.’

‘You trust your sources, right?’

‘That’s the difficult part. Yes and no. The people I heard it from are generally reliable, but in big business, especially in the mining business, and even more so in Russia, deception and misinformation are not uncommon occurrences.’

He reached across the table and gently tapped the back of her hand with one finger. ‘Did you hear me, Amelia?’

The touch slowed her down. Okay,’ she nodded and took a deep breath, ‘I heard you.’

‘Good, it’s really important that you do. This could still mean nothing. Jumping to conclusions at this point could be counterproductive at the least.’

‘I understand that, but for argument’s sake, though, let’s assume that it isn’t misinformation, or disinformation, for that matter.’

‘Okay,’ Nick nodded, letting her run with it.

‘First question is: does Sibraz know?’ Amelia asked, making an attempt to stay focused and think through the implications one by one.

‘I don’t know the answer to that yet. One would think so. It’s almost impossible to believe that they wouldn’t know.’

‘So, theoretically the Canadians found out and decided to sell their stake immediately, before it would become known to the wider market, to ensure that they would still be able to find a company to take their place in the joint venture, right?

‘It’s a possible scenario, yes. It’s the most obvious explanation.’

‘If it was at all possible, they wouldn’t have wanted Sibraz to know so that they would be able to get out of the deal without too much hassle, but if Sibraz did know, surely they wouldn’t have much choice in allowing Prism to sell?’

‘Maybe, maybe not. It would all depend on the details of the contract between them, but there is always some uncertainty when a deposit is being explored. Typically a partner can’t back out simply because the deposit is smaller than everyone thought it was. But, given the complicated history of the deal, Sibraz probably wouldn’t have had too much say in forcing them to honour the contract,’ Nick said, ‘but it’s a question of timing. The company who had access to this information first would have been the one with more leverage in negotiating the terms of the dissolution of the partnership.’

‘Nick,’ Amelia said carefully, ‘you said it’s only a semi-trustworthy rumour.’

‘Unfortunately that’s all I have right now.’

‘I’m wondering if and how one could substantiate this. I never thought I’d involve anyone in this, but do you think it would be possible to find out the true value of the deposit? And more importantly, the timing – who knew what when?’

Nick frowned lightly. ‘That’s a tough one. The project’s chief geologist should know. Or perhaps Prism negotiated to have their own geologist check the findings.’

‘Do you know who the chief geologist is? Or anyone close to him?’

‘No.’

‘Is it something you could find out?’

He thought for a moment. ‘I think so. But it’ll take time. And you have to bear in mind that, even if we have a name, everyone involved in the project would most likely have signed confidentiality clauses. If that doesn’t deter them from talking, fear will. It would be hard to even get close to anyone with deeper knowledge of the whole thing.’ He watched her for a moment. ‘Sorry, that’s not what you wanted to hear, I know, but it’s the reality of the situation.’

Amelia shrugged. ‘It’s still worth pursuing, don’t you think?’ She couldn’t get dejected about the likelihood of it being another dead end. Hadn’t she known that things wouldn’t be easy?

‘I’ll look into it,’ Nick offered.

‘Are you sure?’

‘It’s a long shot and I don’t want you to have unrealistic expectations, but I’ll look into it,’ he said again.

‘Thank you, Nick. I appreciate this.’ Mara’s persistence about talking to him was starting to make sense.

A waiter came over to take their orders.

‘Do you know anything about this third party who took over Prism’s stake?’ Amelia asked when they were alone again.

‘EME? It’s not a major player, it’s listed in the UK, has money to invest in global expansion and, as far as I can tell, doesn’t know a thing about the rumoured lesser value of the deposit.’

Again Amelia was silenced by his words. So far, almost everything was conjecture on their part and even that seemed too complicated to decipher.

‘This could be at the root of what happened to Robert. Maybe he found out,’ she said.

Nick didn’t reply, but listened carefully as she continued.

‘Robert was trying to save the deal, but he would have wanted to warn Prism if he found out, and it would have changed the situation completely. Before this I thought he wouldn’t have been enough of a threat to them, but if Sibraz knew about the lower value, it would have given them a very strong motive to silence him.’

‘Yes, but only if they knew about the lesser value of the deposit. Remember, they were the ones who were trying to dissolve the partnership in the first place,’ Nick reminded her.

Amelia fell silent. This was getting more complicated by the second. ‘If someone like Robert found out, the Russians would have gained nothing from exiting the partnership. If this all came to light during negotiations, they would have reversed their agenda and would have wanted to keep the deal intact, wouldn’t they?’

Nick nodded slowly. ‘Possibly. If you assume a number of things, but they could still have spun it any way they wanted to, though. Logical, linear reasoning is not always applicable in assessments of Russian business practices.’

They were both silent for a few moments, each considering what Nick’s discovery meant. The waiter came back and placed a platter if sushi and sashimi between them.

‘What about the Canadians?’ Nick asked.

‘What about them?’

‘What if they found out at the same time Robert did?’

‘I would imagine they would be pleased to find out sooner rather than later. And if they did, why would they see Robert as a threat? He was on their side and would have wanted to help them.’

‘They wouldn’t have been too happy to find out about the value of the deposit. It would have implied the loss of a significant amount of money. These deals require a lot of money to be set up in the first place. I don’t think they would have been able to sell their stake for the same amount once the news of the lesser deposit became known.’

‘That may be so,’ Amelia persisted, ‘but surely it would have been better to lose some money in the short term rather than continue to spend money and end up not generating the huge profit they were expecting.’

Nick shrugged and half-nodded. He was about to say something when his phone rang.

He glanced at the screen. ‘Amelia, excuse me, I’m going to step outside to take this quickly.’

She nodded and watched as a few long strides took him to the restaurant’s door. His blonde head disappeared from sight.

She still couldn’t believe that her intuition had been right about the deal between Prism and Sibraz. Had Robert had the same gut feeling about it? She knew how dogged he could be about following his instincts. What if it was his own persistence that had placed him in danger? They needed to track down the project’s geologist, of that she was certain.