…HAMBURG…
Voices in the background, scuffling noises, other sounds. Tilders was watching a display on the small silver titanium-shelled machine.
‘Alsterarkaden,’ he said. ‘Having coffee. The first bit’s just small talk, ordering.’
Anselm was looking at the photographs of Serrano and a dark-haired man. They were sitting at a table in one of the colonnade’s arches on the bank of the Binnenalster. In one picture, the man had a hand raised.
‘What’s his name?’
‘Registered in the name Spence,’ said Tilders.
‘Looks like joints missing on his right hand,’ said Anselm, showing the picture.
Tilders nodded. He was moving the tape back and forth.
Serrano’s voice, speaking English:.. anxious, you can imagine.
Spence: It’s very unfortunate.
Serrano: You would be able to get some help locally.
Spence: Things aren’t what they used to be, you understand.
Serrano: Surely you’ve still got… Spence: We don’t enjoy the same relationship, there’s a lot of animosity.
Serrano: So?
Spence: The other party may have to be told.
Serrano: You understand, it was a long time ago, we feel exposed, we’re just the sub-contractors.
Spence: You were his agents, not so?
Serrano: Agents? Absolutely not. Just in-betweens, you should know that.
Spence: I only know what filters down. I’m a bottom-feeder.
Serrano: His agents never. A dangerous man. Unstable.
Spence: You’re worried?
Serrano: You’re not? You should be worried. The Belgian’s one of yours.
Spence: I don’t know about that. I don’t work in the worry department.That’s a separate department. So I don’t have that burden.
Serrano: This isn’t helping, I hoped… Spence: You lost him. If you’d come to us this needn’t have happened.
Serrano: Well, it’s happened, there’s no point… Spence: His assets, you know about them.
Serrano: We gave some financial advice but beyond… Spence: Beyond bullshit, that’s where we should be going. I’ll say one word.Falcontor. Don’t say anything. It’s better we clean this up without the principal party being involved. They make more mess than they take away.
Serrano: So?
Spence: The person can be found. Marginalised. But we need all the financial details. The Belgian’s too. We would want control of everything now.
Serrano: I’m sorry, you don’t know who you’re dealing with. We don’t disclose things like that.
Spence: You came to us. I’m saying it’s the only way to guarantee your safety.
Serrano: Well, perhaps we’ll let this take its course, see what happens. See whose safety we’re talking about.
Spence: That’s an option for you. A very dangerous option, but, you want to be brave boys… Serrano: A threat? Are you… Spence: Don’t worry about money, worry about life. Know that saying? We need to know your position quickly.
Tilders pressed a button, opened his hands. ‘That’s it. Spence goes, doesn’t wait for the coffee.’
‘The service is bad everywhere,’ said Anselm.
‘Same place in two days.’
‘Kael’s all paranoia,’ said Anselm, ‘but Serrano doesn’t seem to give a shit.’
Tilders nodded, flicked back a piece of pale hair that fell down his forehead, separated into clean strands. ‘It appears like that.’
Anselm took the photograph of the man with the missing finger joints down the corridor, knocked. Baader swivelled from his monitor.
Anselm held out the photograph. ‘Calls himself Spence.’
Baader glanced. ‘Jesus, now you’re playing with the katsas?’
‘Katsas?’
‘His name’s Avi Richler. He’s a Mossad case officer.’
‘Thank you.’
Anselm went back to his office. Tilders put another tape in the machine, watched the digital display, pressed a button.
Serrano: Richler wants the details. He knows about Falcontor. Bruynzeel too Kael: The cunts, the fucking cunts.
Serrano: I said that to him. He says it’s about our personal safety.
Kael: They must have holes in their fucking heads if…Jesus.
Serrano: Well, who brought in the Jews? This boat is making me sick.
Kael: Don’t be such a child. What could be in the papers?
Serrano: Lourens said to me at the Baur au Lac in ’92 when we were meeting the fucking Croatians, he was snorting coke, he said people who betrayed him would have a bomb go off in their faces. He was paranoid you understand… Kael: In the papers? What?
Serrano: I don’t know. I told Shawn to take anything he could find. There could be instructions. Notes maybe, things he wrote down. There’s nothing on paper from us. Not directly.
Kael: What do you mean not directly?
Serrano: Well, obviously he would have had proof of some deposits I made.
Kael: Your name would be on them?
Serrano: Are you mad? The names of the accounts the deposits came from.
Kael: How secure is that?
Serrano: As it can be.
Kael: And this film?
Serrano: I told you. He said he’d found a film, someone came to him with a film, it was dynamite. He said, tell them it’s Eleven Seventy, they’ll fucking understand. That was when he wanted us to go to the Americans to solve his problem.
Kael: Eleven seventy? And you didn’t ask what it meant?
Serrano: He was shouting at me, you couldn’t ask him anything. And he was on a mobile, it kept dropping out. I couldn’t catch half of what he said.
Kael: You set this up, you’re the fucking expert who’s left us turning in the wind, you should fucking know better than… Serrano: Christ, Werner, he was your pigeon. You brought him to me. You’re the one who said the Sud-Afs were like cows waiting to be milked, stupid cows, you’re… Kael: You should shut up, you’re just a… Serrano: Calm down.
Kael: Don’t tell me to calm down.
A long silence, the sounds of the ferry, something that sounded like a series of snorts, followed by laboured breathing.
Silence, sounds of movement, a cough.
Kael: Paul, I’m sorry, I get a bit too excited, this is a worrying… Serrano: Okay, that’s okay, it’s a problem, we have to think. Richler wants an answer today.
Kael: You know what they want to do, don’t you?
Serrano: Maybe.
Kael: They want to tidy up. And they want the assets.
Serrano: These boats, I’m not getting… Kael: Tell him we agree but it’ll take time. Seventy-two hours at least.
Serrano: Where does that get us?
Kael: They’ll have this prick by then. If what he’s got is bad for us, we’re possibly in trouble. If not, we haven’t handed them our hard work on a plate.
Serrano: You don’t actually think he’ll believe me?
Kael: Of course he won’t. But they won’t take a chance.
Tilders switched off. ‘That’s it,’ he said.
‘Good bug,’ said Anselm. ‘You’re doing good work.’
‘Another put and take…’ Tilders shook his head.
‘If you can’t, you can’t. We don’t want to spook anyone.’
Tilders nodded. His pale eyes never left Anselm’s, spoke of nothing.