Page 94 of The Nameless Ones

‘We have the email address,’ said Louis, ‘but I don’t trust Frend’s claim that using it involves just simple messages. I wouldn’t institute that kind of email contact without a protocol, and I don’t believe the Vuksans would either. There’s a tripwire.’

‘You really think Frend would risk his daughter’s life by not telling us about it?’

‘Frend is shrewd – maybe not as shrewd as he thinks he is, which puts him in the same category as ninety-nine percent of humanity, but still, shrewder than most. He knows we’re holding his daughter, but has only our word that we’ll release her if he does as we ask. He’s forfeited a lot of information to us, some of which may even be accurate, but he’ll hold back enough to enable him to play us, if he has to. It’s what I would do, in his position.’

‘But you don’t have a child,’ said Angel. ‘You can’t be sure what a father would do to save his daughter.’

‘You may be right,’ said Louis, ‘but I’ve met a lot of men like Anton Frend, and they never fail to disappoint. They become corrupted, and that corruption taints every relationship they have. He won’t sacrifice everything for Pia. He’ll sacrifice a lot, but not all he has. And like I said, he’s also sharp. At this moment, he’s figuring out the angles.’

‘Which are?’

‘First, go to the police or a crisis management firm: the latter’s more likely than the former, given the company Frend keeps, but either would cause us problems. Second, do exactly as we say, but that’s not in his nature. Third, come clean to the Vuksans, and use them to try and turn the tables on us, but that would be risky.’

‘Why?’

‘Because they’d view him as a liability, and probably get rid of him. He’d have to use the passports as bargaining chips – safe passage for the Vuksans in exchange for their help in securing his daughter’s return – but they’d be more likely to tear out his fingernails to force the delivery of the documents.’

Angel watched Louis’s expression change, which meant that he’d just spotted a fourth option.

‘Or?’ Angel prompted.

‘Or,’ said Louis, ‘it could be that I have the second choice wrong. Why not just do as we say? As long as the Vuksans are alive, Frend is in danger. Even if he does obtain new identities for them, it will be assumed that he knows the names on the passports, and where the Vuksans are hiding. He’ll never be able to sleep peacefully again because he and his family will always be in danger. Better to let us kill the Vuksans and put an end to the whole rotten business. But just in case we fuck up, or try to double-cross him—’

‘A tripwire.’

‘Yeah, but not the email, because then he has no deniability with the Vuksans. There’s something else we’re not seeing.’

‘You know what I’d be doing in Frend’s position?’ said Angel. ‘I’d be sharing my knowledge of the Vuksans and their latest plans with someone else, because I’d have been protecting myself all along.’

And Louis thought – not for the first time in their relationship – that, damn, the man was probably right.

Chapter LXXIII

Hannah Kauffmann contacted Frend just as he was returning to his hotel. He tried to force Pia from his mind so he could concentrate on what Kauffmann had to say.

‘You’ll have the passports tomorrow morning,’ she said, ‘but I may have underestimated the price.’

‘That is very unlike you,’ said Frend.

‘Your clients’ prospective new home is a peaceful Caribbean nation with a low international profile, and would like to stay that way. Unfortunately, its sugar industry is also in need of investment. Somewhere between those two competing pressures lies a way forward for you, but the risk factor requires payment of a premium to a new Sustainable Education Fund.’

‘And who is being educated,’ said Frend, ‘or is it impolite of me to ask?’

‘The children of the man who will sign off on the passports. He believes his offspring might benefit from studying in Switzerland. They want to learn to ski.’

‘How much?’

‘A quarter of a million euros per passport,’ said Kauffmann. ‘If it helps, that includes my fee.’

How, Frend wondered, would the world function without greed? Nothing would ever get done, or nothing worth doing.

‘It won’t be a problem,’ he said.

‘You’re certain? There might be repercussions if payment is not immediately forthcoming.’

‘Is that a threat, Hannah?’

‘All I’m saying is that it would be out of my hands, Anton. I’m simply the intermediary. This is a delicate system on which a small number of very powerful individuals have come to depend, some of them in the same line of work as your clients. Complicating factors push up costs for all concerned, as well as attracting the kind of attention that leads to temporary restrictions on the flow of documents. There is a reason you approached me and not one of the more, um—’

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