Honor Among Thieves

The banker nodded from time to time, and made the occasional note on the pad in front of him.

“I would also like the plastic tube placed in a strongbox for the time being. The key to the box should be handed over to Mr. Al Obaydi when, and only when, you have received the full payment by wire transfer. The money should then be deposited in my No. 3 account in your Zurich branch.”

“And are you able to tell me the exact sum you anticipate receiving from Mr. Al Obaydi?” asked the banker.

“Ninety million dollars,” said Cavalli.

The banker didn’t raise an eyebrow.

The Archivist looked up the name of the Commerce Secretary in his government directory, then picked up his phone and pressed one button. 482-2000 was now programmed into his speed dial.

“Department of Commerce.”

“Dick Fielding, please.”

“Just a moment.”

“Office of the Director.”

“This is Secretary Brown.”

The Archivist had to wait only a few seconds before the call was put through.

“Good morning, Mr. Secretary,” said an alert voice.

“Good morning, Mr. Fielding. This is Calder Marshall, Archivist of the United States of America.”

“I thought…”

“You thought…?”

“I guess they must have misunderstood. How may I help you, Mr. Marshall?”

“I’m trying to trace a former employee of yours. Rex Butterworth.”

“I can’t help you on that one.”

“Why? Are you also bound by the Privacy Act?”

Fielding laughed. “I only wish I was.”

“I don’t understand,” said the Archivist.

“Last week we sent Butterworth a merit bonus, and it was returned, ‘No forwarding address.’”

“But he has a wife.”

“She got the same response to her last letter.”

“And his mother in South Carolina?”

“She’s been dead for years.”

“Thank you,” said Calder Marshall, and put the phone down. He knew exactly whom he had to call next.

Dummond et cie is one of Geneva’s more modern banking establishments, having been founded as late as 1781. Since then the bank has spent over two hundred years handling other people’s money, without religious or racial prejudice. Dummond et cie had always been willing to deal with Arab sheik or Jewish businessman, Nazi Gauleiter or British aristocrat, in fact anyone who required their services. It was a policy that had always reaped dividends in every trading currency throughout the world.

The bank occupied twelve floors of a building just off the place de la Fusterie. The meeting