Honour Among Thieves

preparing the text for his address on the GATT at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. He took a break to have lunch with Senator Mitchell, the Majority Leader. At three, the President -' 'Did President Clinton remain in the White House the whole morning?' 'Yes, sir. He didn't leave the White House all day. He spent the afternoon with Mrs Clinton in discussions with her health-policy task unit.' 'Could he have slipped out of the building without even you knowing, Patty?' The scheduling secretary laughed. 'That's not possible, sir. If he had done that, the Secret Service would have informed me immediately.' 'Thank you, Patty.' 'Glad to have been of assistance, sir.' Once the meeting at Dummond et cie had broken up, Cavalli returned to his hotel room to wait for Franchard to call and confirm that the sum of forty million dollars had been deposited in his No. 3 account in Zurich. As long as the transaction was closed within the hour, he would still have easily enough time to catch the 4.45 out of Geneva for Heathrow and make the early-evening connection to New York. Cavalli began to get a little anxious after thirty minutes passed and there had been no call, and even more so after forty. After fifty, he found himself pacing around the room, staring out at the fountain, and checking his watch every few moments. When the phone eventually rang, he grabbed it. 'Mr Cavalli?' enquired a voice. 'Speaking.' 'Franchard here. The document has been verified and taken away. It might interest you to know that Mr Al Obaydi studied one word on the parchment for some time before he agreed to transfer the money. The agreed sum has been credited to your No. 3 account in Zurich as you specified.' 'Thank you, Monsieur Franchard,' said Cavalli without further comment. 'My pleasure, as always, Mr Cavalli. And is there anything else we can do for you while you're here?' 'Yes,' replied Cavalli. 'I need to transfer a quarter of a million dollars to a bank in the Cayman Islands.' 'The same name and account as the last three transactions?' asked the banker. 'Yes,' replied Cavalli. 'And the Zurich account, presently registered in the name of Mr Al Obaydi: I want to withdraw one hundred thousand dollars from it and. . .' Monsieur Franchard listened carefully to his client's further instructions. 'State Department.' 'Can I speak to the Secretary of State?' 'Just a moment.' 'Office of the Secretary.' 'This is Calder Marshall. I'm the Archivist of the United States. It's vitally important that I speak with Secretary Christopher.' 'I'll put you through to his executive assistant, sir.' 'Thank you,' said Marshall, and waited for a very short time. 'This is Jack Leigh. I'm executive assistant to the Secretary. How may I help you, sir?' 'To start with, Mr Leigh, how many executive assistants does the Secretary of State have?' 'Five, sir, but there is only one senior to me.' 'Then I need to speak to the Secretary of State urgently.' 'Right now he's out of the office. Perhaps the Deputy Secretary can help?' 'No, Mr Leigh, he cannot help.' 'Well, I'll certainly let Secretary Christopher know you called, sir.' 'Thank you, Mr Leigh. And perhaps you'd be kind enough to pass a message on to him?' 'Of course, sir.' 'Would you let him know that my resignation will be on his desk tomorrow morning by nine a.m. This call is simply to apologise for the harm it will undoubtedly do to the President, particularly given the short period of time he has been in office.' 'You haven't spoken to anyone from the media about this, have you, sir?' asked the executive assistant, sounding anxious for the first time. 'No, I have not, Mr Leigh, and I shall not do so until noon tomorrow, which should give the Secretary ample time in which to prepare answers to any questions that he and the President will undoubtedly be asked by the press when they learn my reason for resigning.' 'I'll have the Secretary get back to you as quickly as I can, sir.' 'Thank you, Mr Leigh.' 'Glad to have been of assistance, sir.' She flew into the Cayman Islands that morning and took a taxi to Barclays Bank in Georgetown. She checked her account to find it had been credited with three payments of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One on March 9th, another on April 27th, and a further one on May 30th. There was one still to come. But, to be fair, Cavalli might not learn of the death of T. Hamilton McKenzie until he had returned from Geneva. 'And we have another package for you, Miss Webster,' said