Triple (36 page)

Eleven

In the bar at Heathrow Airport David Rostov ordered another round of

drinks and decided to take a gamble on Yasif Hassan. Ile problem, still,

was how to stop Hassan telling all he knew to an Israeli double agent in

Cairo. Rostov and Hassan were both going back for interim debriefing so

a decision had to be made now. Rostov was going to let Hassan know

everything, then appeal to his professionalism---such as it was. Tbe

alternative was to provoke him, and just now he needed him as an ally, not

a suspicious antagonist.

"Look at this," Rostov said, and he showed Hassan a decoded message.

To: Colonel David Rostov via London Residency FRom: Moscow Center

DATE: 3 September 1968 Comrade Colonel:

We refer to your signal g/35-21a, requesting further information

concerning each offour ships named in our signal r/35-21.

The motor vessel Stromberg, 2500 tons, Dutch ownership and

registration, has recently changed hands. She was purchased for DM

1,500,000 by one Andre Papagopolous, a ship broker, on behalf of the

Savile Shipping Corporation of Liberia.

Savile Shipping was incorporated on 6 August this year at the New Ybrk

office of Liberian Corporation Services, Inc., with a share capital of

five hundred dollars. The shareholders are Mr. Lee Chung, a New York

lawyer, and a Mr. Robert Roberts, whose address is care of Mr. Chung's

office. 7he three directors were provided in the usual way by Liberian

Corporation Services, and they resigned the day after the company was

set up,

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again in the usual way. The aforementioned Papagopolous took over as

president and chief executive.

Savile Shipping has also bought,the motor vessel Gil Hamffton, 1500

tons, for ze 80,000.

Our people in New York have interviewed Chung. He says that "Mr.

Roberte' came into his office from the street, gave no address'and paid

his fee in cash. He appeared to be an Englishman. The detailed

description is on file here, but it is not very helpful.

Papagopolous is known to us. He is a wealthy international businessman

of indeterminate nationality. Shipbroking is his principal activity.

He is believed to operate close to the fringes of the law. We have no

address for him. There is considerable material in his Ille, but much

of it is speculative. He is believed to have done business with Israeli

Intelligence in 1948. Nevertheless, he has no known political

affiliation.

We continue to gather information on all the ships in the list.

-Moscow Center.

H4ssan. gave the sheet of pape~ back to Rostov. "How do they get hold of

all this stuff?"

Rostov began tearing the signal into shreds. "It's all on file somewhere

or other. The sale of the Stromherg would have been notified to Lloyd's

of London. Someone from our consulate in Liberia would have gotten the

details on Savile Shipping from public records in Monrovia. Our New York

people got Chung's address out of the phone book, and Papagopolous was

on file in Moscow. None of it is secret, except the Papagopolous file.

The trick is knowing where to go to ask the questions. The squirrels

specialize in that trick. Ifs all they do!'

Rostov put the shreds of paper into a large glass ashtray and set fire

to them. "Your people should have squirrels," he added.

"I expect we're working on it."

"Suggest it yourself. It won't do you any harm. You might even get the

job of setting it up. That could help your career."

Hassan nodded. "Perhaps I will."

Fresh drinks arrived: vodka for Rostov, gin for Hassan.

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. Ken Folleff

Rostov was pleased that Hassan was responding well to his friendly

overtures. He examined the cinders in the ashtray to make sure. the signal

had burned completely.

Hassan said, "You're assuming Dickstein is behind the SavHe Shipping

Corporation."

"Yes."

"So what will we do about the &romberg?"

"Well . . ." Rostov emptied his glass and set it on the table. "My guess

is he wants the Stromberg so he can get an exact layout of the sister

ship CopareUl."

"It will be an expensive blueprint"

"He can sell the ship again. However, he may also use the Stromberg in

the hijack of the Coparellt-l doift quite see how, just yet.99

"Will you put a man aboard the Stromberg, like Tyria on the Coparelft?"

"No point Dickstein is sure to get rid of the old crew and fill the ship

with Israeli saflom FU have to think of something else."

"Do we know where the Stromberg is now?"

"I've asked the squirrels. They'll have an answer by the time I get to

MOSCOW."

I Hassan's ffight was called. He stood up. "We meet in Luxembourgr'

"I'm not sure. Ill let you know. Listen, theres, something I've got to

say. Sit down again."

Hassan sat down.

"When we started to work together on Dickstein I was very hostile to you.

I regret that now, I'm apologizing; but I must tell you there was a

reason for it You see, Cairo isn't secure. lirs certain there are double

agents in the Egyptian Intelligence apparatus. What I was concerned

about-and still am-is that everything you report to your superiors will

get back, via a double agent, to Tel Aviv; and then Dickstein will know

how close we are and will take evasive action."

"I appreciate your frankness.11

Appreciate, Rostov thought: He loves it "However, you are now completely

in the picture, and what we must discuss is haw to prevent the

information you have in your possession getting back to Tel Aviv."

Hassan nodded. "What do you suggest?"

"Well. Youll have to tell what weve found out, of course,

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but I want you to be as vague as possible about the details. Don't give

names, times, places. When you!re pushed, complain about me, say Ive

refused to let you share all the information. Doift talk to anyone except

the people you're obliged to report to. In particular, tell nobody about

Savile Shipping, the Stromberg, or the Copareft As for Pyotr Tyrin being

aboard the Copareffl-try to forget it."

Hassan looked worried. -Whaes left to tell?"

"Plenty. Dickstein, Euratom, uranium, the meeting with Pierre Borg ...

youll be a hero in Cairo if you tell half the litory.99

Hassan was not convinced. "Ill be as frank as you. If I do this your way,

my report will not be as impressive as yours."

Rostov gave a wry smile. "Is that unfair?"

"No," Hassan conceded, "you deserve most of the credit."

"Besides, nobody but the two of us will know how different the reports

are. And you!re going to get all the credit you need in the end."

"All right," Hassan said. "I'll be vague."

"Good." Rostov waved his hand for a waiter. "You've got a little time,

have a quick one before you go." He settled back in his chair and crossed

his legs. He was satisfied: Hassan would do as he had been told. "Im

looking forward to getting home."

"Any plans?"

"IT try to take a few days on the coast with Mariya and the boys. Weve

a dacha in the Riga Bay."

"Sounds nice.'

"It's pleasant ~here--but not as warm as where you're going, of course.

Where will you head for-Alexandria?"

The last call for Hassan!s flight came over the public address system,

and the Arab stood up. "No such luck," he said. "I expect to spend the

whole time stuck in filthy Cairo."

And Rostov had the peculiar feeling that Yasif Hassan was lying.

Franz Albrecht Pedler's life was ruined when Germany lost the war. At the

age of fifty, a career officer in the Wehrmacht, he was suddenly

homeless, penniless and unemployed. And, like millions of other Germans,

he started again.

He became a salesman for a French dye manufacturer:

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Ken FoHoff

small commission, no salary., In 1946 there were few customers, but by

1951 German Industry was rebuilding and when at last things began to look

up Pedler was in a good position to take advantage of the new

opportunities. He opened an office in Wiesbaden, a rail Junction on the

right bank of the Rhine that promised to develop into an Industrial

center. Ms product list grew, and so did his tally of customers: soon he

was selling soaps as well as dyes, and he gained entry to the U.S. bases,

which at the time administered that part of occupied Germany. He had

learned, during the hard years, to be an oppontunist: if a U.S. Army

procurement officer wanted disinfectant in pint bottles, - Peddler would

buy disinfectant in ten-gallon drums, pour the stuff from the drums into

secondhand bottles in a rented barn, put on a label saying "R A. Pedler's

Special Disinfectant" and resell at a fat proft

From buying in bulk and repackaging it was not a very big step to buying

ingredients and manufacturing. The first barrel of F. A. Pedler's Special

Industrial Cleanser-never called simply "soapt-was mixed in the same

rented barn and sold to the U.S. Air Force for use by aircraft

maintenance engineers. The company never looked back.

In the late Fiffies Pedler read a book about chemical warfare and went

on to win a big defense contract to supply a range of solutions designed

to neutralize various kinds of chemical weapons.

F. A. Pedler had become a military supplier, small but secure and

profitable. The rented barn had grown into a small complex of

single-story buildings. Franz married again-his first wife had been

killed in the 1944 bombing-and fathered a child But he was still an

opportunist at heart, and when he heard ;i;;;t a small mountain of

urannun ore going cheap, he smelled a profit.

The uranium belonged to a Belgian company called Socidt6 G&drale de la

Chimie. Chimie was one of the corporations which ran Belgium!s African

colony, the Belgian Congo, a country rich in minerals. After the 1960

pullout Chimie stayed on; but, knowing that those who did not walk out

would eventually be thrown out, the company expended all its efforts to

ship home as much raw material as it could before the gates slammed shut.

Between 1960 and 1965 it accumulated a large stockpile of yelloweake at

its refinery near

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the Dutch border. Sadly for Chimie, a nuclear test ban treaty was ratified

in the meantime, and when Chimie was finally thrown out of the Congo there

were few buyers for uranium. The yellowcake sat in a silo, tying up scarce

capital.

F. A. Pedler did not actually use very much uranium in the manufacture of

their dyes. However, Franz loved a gamble of this sort: the price was low,

he could make, a little money by having the stuff refined, and ff the

uranium market improved-as it was likely to sooner or later-he would make

a big capital profit. So he bought some.

Nat Dickstein liked Pedler right away. The German was a sprightly

seventy-three-year-old who still had all his hair and the twinkle in his

eye.. 17hey met on a Saturday. Pedler wore a loud sports jacket and fawn

trousers, spoke good English with an American accent and gave Dickstein a

glass of Sekt, the local champagne.

They were wary of each other at first. After all, they had fought on

opposite sides in a war which had been cruel to them both. But Dickstein

had always believed that the enemy was not Germany but Fascism, and he was

nervous only that Pedler might be uneasy. It seemed the same was true of

Pedler.

Dickstein had called from his hotel in Wiesbaden to make an appointment.

His call had been awaited eagerly. The local Israeli consul had alerted

Pedler that Mr. Dickstein, a senior' army procurement officer with a large

shopping list, was on his way. Pedler had suggested a short tour of the

factory on Saturday morning, when it would be empty, followed by lunch at

his home.

if Dickstein had been genuine he would have been put off by the tour: the

factory was no gleaming model of German efficiency, but a straggling

collection of old huts and cluttered yards with a pervasive bad smell.

After sitting up half the night with a textbook on chemical engineering

Dickstein was ready with a handful of intelligent questions about agitators

and baffies, materials-handling and quality-control and packaging. He

relied upon the language problem to camouflage any errors. It seemed to be

working.

The situation was peculiar. Dickstein had to Play the role of a buyer and

be dubious and noncommittal while the seller wooed him, whereas in reality

he was hoping to seduce Pedler into a relationship the German would be

unable or un-

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