Noble House

  Alan Medford Grant beamed. “Quite right! My 8,500 pounds a year is lavish indeed, Mr. Dunross. Oh yes. Yes indeed.”

  “Can you think of a better investment for me?”

  “Not if I perform correctly, if I and the ones I choose are the best to be had. Even so, 30-odd thousand pounds a year in salaries—a fund of up to 100,000 pounds to draw on for … for informants and information, all secret monies … well, I hope you will be satisfied with your investment.”

  “If you’re the best I’ll recoup a thousandfold. I expect to recoup a thousandfold,” he had said, meaning it.

  “I’ll do everything in my power of course. Now, specifically what sort of information do you want?”

  “Anything and everything, commercial, political, that’d help Struan’s plan ahead, with accent on the Pacific Rim, on Russian, American and Japanese thinking. We’d probably know more about Chinese attitudes ourselves. Please give me more rather than less. Actually anything could be valuable because I want to take Struan’s out of the China trade—more specifically I want the company international and want to diversify out of our present dependence on China trade.”

  “Very well. First: I would not like to trust our reports to the mails.”

  “I’ll arrange a personal courier.”

  “Thank you. Second: I must have free range to select, appoint and remove the other members of the committee—and spend the money as I see fit?”

  “Agreed.”

  “Five members will be sufficient.”

  “How much do you want to pay them?”

  “5,000 pounds a year for a nonexclusive retainer each would be excellent. I can get top men for that. Yes. I’ll appoint associate members for special studies as I need them. As, er, as most of our contacts will be abroad, many in Switzerland, could funds be available there?”

  “Say I deposit the full amount we’ve agreed quarterly in a numbered Swiss account. You can draw funds as you need them—your signature or mine only. You account to me solely, quarterly in arrears. If you want to erect a code that’s fine with me.”

  “Excellent. I won’t be able to name anyone—I can’t account to whom I give money.”

  After a pause Dunross had said, “All right.”

  “Thank you. We understand one another, I think. Can you give me an example of what you want?”

  “For example, I don’t want to get caught like my predecessor was over Suez.”

  “Oh! You mean the 1956 fiasco when Eisenhower betrayed us again and caused the failure of the British-French-Israeli attack on Egypt—because Nasser had nationalized the canal?”

  “Yes. That cost us a fortune—it wrecked our Middle East interests, almost ruined us. If the previous tai-pan’d known about a possible closure of Suez we could have made a fortune booking cargo space—increasing our fleet … or if we’d had an advanced insight into American thinking, particularly that Eisenhower would side again with Soviet Russia against us, we could certainly have cut our losses.”

  The little man had said sadly, “You know he threatened to freeze all British, French and Israeli assets in the States instantly if we did not at once withdraw from Egypt when we were a few hours from victory? I think all our present problems in the Middle East stem from that U.S. decision. Yes. Inadvertently the U.S. approved international piracy for the first time and set a pattern for future piracies. Nationalization. What a joke! Theft is a better word—or piracy. Yes. Eisenhower was ill-advised. And very ill-advised to go along with the fatuous political Yalta agreement of an ailing Roosevelt, the incompetent Attlee to allow Stalin to gorge most of Europe, when it was militarily clear to even the most stupid politician or hidebound general that it was contrary to our absolute national interest, ours and the United States to hold back. I think Roosevelt hated us really, and our British Empire.”

  The little man steepled his fingers and beamed. “I’m afraid there’s one big disadvantage in employing me, Mr. Dunross. I’m entirely pro-British, anti-Communist, and particularly anti-KGB, which is the main instrument of Soviet foreign policy, which is openly and forever committed to our destruction, so some of my more peppery forecasts you can discount, if you wish. I’m entirely against a left-wing dominated Labour Party and I will constantly remind anyone who will listen that the anthem of the Labour Party’s ‘The Red Flag.’” Alan Medford Grant smiled in his pixy way. “It’s best you know where you stand in the beginning. I’m royalist, loyalist and believe in the British parliamentary way. I’ll never knowingly give you false information though my evaluations will be slanted. May I ask what your politics are?”

  “We have none in Hong Kong, Mr. Grant. We don’t vote; there are no elections—we’re a colony, particularly a free-port colony, not a democracy. The Crown rules—actually the governor rules despotically for the Crown. He has a legislative council but it’s a rubber-stamp council and the historic policy is laissez-faire. Wisely he leaves things alone. He listens to the business community, makes social changes very cautiously and leaves everyone to make money or not make money, to build, expand, go broke, to go or to come, to dream or to stay awake, to live or to die as best you can. And the maximum tax is 15 percent but only on money earned in Hong Kong. We don’t have politics here, don’t want politics here—neither does China want us to have any here. They’re for the status quo too. My personal politics? I’m royalist, I’m for freedom, for freebooting and free trade. I’m a Scotsman, I’m for Struan’s, I’m for laissez-faire in Hong Kong and freedom throughout the world.”

  “I think we understand one another. Good. I’ve never worked for an individual before—only the government. This will be a new experience for me. I hope I will satisfy you.” Grant paused and thought a moment. “Like Suez in ’56?” The lines beside the little man’s eyes crinkled. “Very well, plan that the Panama Canal will be lost to America.”

  “That’s ridiculous!”

  “Oh don’t look so shocked, Mr. Dunross! It’s too easy. Give it ten or fifteen years of enemy spadework and lots of liberal talk in America, ably assisted by do-gooders who believe in the benevolence of human nature, add to all this a modest amount of calculated Panamanian agitation, students and so on—preferably, ah, always students—artfully and secretly assisted by a few highly trained, patient, professional agitators and oh so secret KGB expertise, finance and a long-range plan—ergo, in due course the canal could be out of U.S. hands into the enemy’s.”

  “They’d never stand for it.”

  “You’re right, Mr. Dunross, but they will sit for it. What could be a better garrotte in time of hostilities, or even crisis, against your main, openly stated capitalistic enemy than to be able to inhibit the Panama Canal or rock it a little? One ship sunk in any one of a hundred spots, or a lock wrecked, could dam up the canal for years.”

  Dunross remembered how he had poured two more drinks before answering, and then he had said, “You’re seriously suggesting we should make contingency plans against that.”

  “Yes,” the little man said with his extraordinary innocence. “I’m very serious about my job, Mr. Dunross. My job, the one I’ve chosen for me, is to seek out, to uncover and evaluate enemy moves. I’m not anti-Russian or anti-Chinese or anti-East German or anti any of that bloc—on the absolute contrary I want desperately to help them. I’m convinced that we’re in a state of war, that the enemy of all the people is the Communist Party member, whether British, Soviet, Chinese, Hungarian, American, Irish … even Martian … and all are linked in one way or another; that the KGB, like it or not, is in the center of their web.” He sipped the drink Dunross had just refilled for him. “This is marvelous whiskey, Mr. Dunross.”

  “It’s Loch Vey—it comes from a small distillery near our homelands in Ayr. It’s a Struan company.”

  “Marvelous!” Another appreciative sip of the whiskey and Dunross reminded himself to send Alan Medford Grant a case for Christmas—if the initial reports proved interesting.

  “I’m not a fanatic, Mr. Dunross, nor a rab
ble-rouser. Just a sort of reporter and forecaster. Some people collect stamps, I collect secrets….”

  The lights of a car rounding the half-hidden curve of the road below distracted Dunross momentarily. He wandered over to the window and watched the car until it had gone, enjoying the sound of the highly tuned engine. Then he sat in a high-winged chair and let his mind drift again. Yes, Mr. Grant, you certainly collect secrets, he thought, staggered as usual by the scope of the little man’s knowledge.

  Sevrin—Christ almighty! If that’s true …

  How accurate are you this time? How far do I trust you this time—how far do I gamble?

  In previous reports Grant had given two projections that, so far, could be proved. A year in advance, Grant had predicted that de Gaulle would veto Britain’s effort to join the EEC, that the French general’s posture would be increasingly anti-British, anti-American and pro-Soviet, and that de Gaulle would, prompted by outside influences and encouraged by one of his closest advisors—an immensely secret, covert KGB mole—mount a long-term attack on the U.S. economy by speculation in gold. Dunross had dismissed this as farfetched and so had lost a potential fortune.

  Recently, six months in advance, Grant had forecast the missile crisis in Cuba, that Kennedy would slam down the gauntlet, blockade Cuba and exert the necessary pressure and not buckle under the strain of brinkmanship, that Khrushchev would back off under pressure. Gambling that Grant was correct this time—though a Cuban missile crisis had seemed highly unlikely at the time forecast—Dunross had made Struan’s half a million pounds by buying Hawaiian sugar futures, another 600,000 on the stock market, plus 600,000 for the tai-pan’s secret fund—and cemented a long-range plan to invest in Hawaiian sugar plantations as soon as he could find the financial tool. And you’ve got it now, he told himself gleefully. Par-Con.

  “You’ve almost got it,” he muttered, correcting himself.

  How far do I trust this report? Thus far AMG’s committee’s been a gigantic investment for all his meanderings, he thought. Yes. But it’s almost like having your own astrologer. A few accurate forecasts don’t mean they’ll all be. Hitler had his own forecaster. So did Julius Caesar. Be wise, be cautious, he reminded himself.

  What to do? It’s now or never.

  Sevrin. Alan Medford Grant had written: “Documents brought to us and substantiated by the French spy Marie d’Orleans caught by the Sûreté June 16 indicate that the KGB Department V (Disinformation—FAR EAST) have in situ a hitherto unknown, deep-cover espionage network throughout the Far East, code name Sevrin. The purpose of Sevrin is clearly stated in the stolen Head Document:

  “Aim: To cripple revisionist China—formally acknowledged by the Central Committee of the USSR as the main enemy, second only to capitalist U.S.A.

  “Procedure: The permanent obliteration of Hong Kong as the bastion of capitalism in the Far East and China’s preeminent source of all foreign currency, foreign assistance and all technical and manufactured assistance of every kind.

  “Method: Long-term infiltration of the press and media, the government, police, business and education with friendly aliens controlled by Center—but only in accordance with most special procedures throughout Asia.

  “Initiation date: Immediate.

  “Duration of operation: Provisionally thirty years.

  “Target date: 1980–83.

  “Classification: Red One.

  “Funding: Maximum.

  “Approval: L.B. March 14, 1950.

  “It’s interesting to note,” Grant had continued, “that the document is signed in 1950 by L.B.—presumed to be Lavrenti Beria—when Soviet Russia was openly allied with Communist China, and that, even in those days, China was secretly considered their Number Two enemy. (Our previous report 3/1962, Russia versus China refers.)

  “China, historically, is the great prize that always was—and ever will be—sought by imperialistic and hegemonic Russia. Possession of China, or its mutilation into balkanized subject states, is the perpetual keystone of Russian foreign policy. First is, of course, the obliteration of Western Europe, for then, Russia believes, China can be swallowed at will.

  “The documents reveal that the Hong Kong cell of Sevrin consists of a resident controller, code name Arthur, and six agents. We know nothing about Arthur, other than that he has been a KGB agent since recruitment in England in the thirties (it’s not known if he was born in England, or if his parents are English, but he would be in his late forties or early fifties). His mission is, of course, a long-term, deep-cover operation.

  “Supporting top-secret intelligence documents stolen from the Czechoslovak STB (State Secret Security) dated April 6, 1959, translate in part, ‘… between 1946 and 1959 six key, deep-cover agents have been recruited through information supplied by the controller, Arthur: one each in the Hong Kong Colonial Office (code name Charles), Treasury (code name Mason), Naval Base (John), the Bank of London and China (Vincent), the Hong Kong Telephone Company (William), and Struan and Company (Frederick). According to normal procedures only the controller knows the true identity of the others. Seven safe houses have been established. Among them are Sinclair Towers on Hong Kong Island and the Nine Dragons Hotel in Kowloon. Sevrin’s New York contact has the code name Guillio. He is very important to us because of his Mafia and CIA connections.’”

  Grant had continued, Guillio is believed to be Vincenzo Banastasio, a substantial racketeer and the present don of the Sallapione family. This is being checked through our U.S. sources. We don’t know if the deep-cover enemy agent in the police (covered in detail in another section) is part of Sevrin or not but presume he is.

  “In our opinion, China will be forced to seek ever-increasing amounts of trade with the West to counterbalance imperialist Soviet hegemony and to fill the void and chaos created by the sudden withdrawal in 1960 of all Soviet funding and technicians. China’s armed forces badly need modernizing. Harvests have been bad. Therefore all forms of strategic materials and military hardware will find a ready market for many years to come, and food, basic foodstuffs. The long-range purchase of American rice futures is recommended.

  “I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, AMG, London, August 15, 1963.”

  Jets and tanks and nuts and bolts and rockets and engines and trucks and petrol and tires and electronics and food, Dunross thought, his mind soaring. A limitless spectrum of trade goods, easy to obtain, easy to ship, and nothing on earth like a war for profit if you can trade. But China’s not buying now, whatever they need, whatever Grant says.

  Who could Arthur be?

  Who in Struan’s? Jesus Christ! John Chen and Tsu-yan and smuggled guns and now a KGB agent within. Who? What about…

  There was a gentle knock on the door.

  “Come in,” he said, recognizing his wife’s knock.

  “Ian, it’s almost eight,” Penelope, his wife, said, “I thought I’d better tell you. You know how you are.”

  “Yes.”

  “How did it go today? Awful about John Chen, isn’t it? I suppose you read the papers? Are you coming down?”

  “Yes. Champagne?”

  “Thanks.”

  He poured for her and replenished his glass. “Oh by the way, Penn, I invited a fellow I met this afternoon, an ex-RAF type. He seemed a decent fellow—Peter Marlowe.”

  “Fighters?”

  “Yes. But Hurricanes—and Spits. Is that a new dress?”

  “Yes.”

  “You look pretty,” he said.

  “Thank you but I’m not. I feel so old, but thank you.” She sat in the other winged chair, her perfume as delicate as her features. “Peter Marlowe, you said?”

  “Yes. Poor bugger got caught in Java in ’42. He was a POW for three and a half years.”

  “Oh, poor man. He was shot down?”

  “No, the Japanese plastered the ’drome before he could scramble. Perhaps he was lucky. The Zeros got two on the ground and the last two just after they were airborne—the pilots flamed
in. Seems those four Hurricanes were the last of the Few—the last of the whole air defense of the Far East. What a balls-up that was!”

  “Terrible.”

  “Yes. Thank God our war was in Europe.” Dunross watched her. “He said he was a year in Java, then the Japanese sent him to Singapore on a work party.”

  “To Changi?” she asked, her voice different.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh!”

  “He was there for two and a half years.” Changi in Malay meant “clinging vine,” and Changi was the name of the jail in Singapore that was used by the Japanese in World War II for one of their infamous prisoner-of-war camps.

  She thought a moment, then smiled a little nervously. “Did he know Robin there?” Robin Grey was her brother, her only living relative: her parents had been killed in an air raid in London in 1943, just before she and Dunross were married.

  “Marlowe said yes, he seemed to remember him, but clearly he didn’t want to talk about those days so I let it drop.”

  “I can imagine. Did you tell him Robin was my brother?”

  “No.”

  “When’s Robin due back here?”

  “I don’t know exactly. In a few days. This afternoon the governor told me the delegation’s in Peking now.” A British Parliamentary Trade Delegation drawn from MPs of the three parties—Conservative, Liberal and Labour—had been invited out from London by Peking to discuss all manner of trade. The delegation had arrived in Hong Kong two weeks ago and had gone directly on to Canton where all trade negotiations were conducted. It was very rare for anyone to get an invitation, let alone a parliamentary delegation—and even rarer to be invited on to Peking. Robin Grey was one of the members—representative of the Labour Party. “Penn darling, don’t you think we should acknowledge Robin, give a reception for him? After all, we haven’t seen him for years, this’s the first time he’s been to Asia—isn’t it time you buried the hatchet and made peace?”