The Hadrian Memorandum - Allan Folsom [199]
Suddenly Anne was looking at him. What was this? He’d given it to Kovalenko in Praia da Rocha. She’d seen him do it. He looked at her and smiled gently.
“I switched cards at the last minute,” he confessed gently, then looked back to the president. “Mr. President, if I may.”
The president nodded.
“Meeting here the way we are—by the way, I didn’t miss the guards in the woods or the snipers on the roof—seeing you and Attorney General Kotteras here personally, and knowing the way Ms. Tidrow and Congressman Ryder have been kept in protective seclusion, I think it’s safe to assume you’ve kept this whole thing very compartmented, an extremely close-to-the-vest, eyes-only investigation with just the people here and a few select others included on a need-to-know basis. With the exception of certain people in the Secret Service and the Marshals Service, neither the CIA nor any other agency has knowledge that this is taking place. Is that right?”
“The attorney general and I are old friends. We’re here on a brief fishing trip. This house belongs to his family. That’s all anyone knows.”
“Then”—Marten stood up—“I think we ought to be reasonably secure.” He reached into his jacket pocket, lifted out a handkerchief, and unwrapped a small square object from it, then handed it to the president. “The memory card from Father Willy’s camera. On it are at least two hundred more photographs of what was going on in Bioko, some of them, as I told you previously, far more damaging than those you’ve already seen.”
Anne glared at him.
“Insurance.” He smiled. “I kept it in case anything happened to the photographs, or to you. I put it in an envelope and addressed it to myself in Raisa’s apartment. I forgot I had until we were in the hospital, then I asked Mário to mail it for me. I was afraid maybe he hadn’t. It showed up in my mail a couple of days ago.”
“And Kovalenko got the card with the indecent pictures of sunbathing nubiles,” she said flatly.
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I don’t know that they were all that indecent.”
“Mr. Marten,” the president cut in firmly. “You should know that Ms. Tidrow has agreed to tell us what she knows about the Striker/Hadrian arrangement in Iraq and the Striker/Hadrian/SimCo conspiracy to arm the rebels in Equatorial Guinea. You should also know that, aside from Mr. Ryder’s investigation into possible violations of State Department contracts, the heads of all three companies may be charged in the World Court with sponsoring war crimes and crimes against humanity. Of particular interest will be the photographs of Conor White with General Mariano in the Bioko jungle that Ms. Tidrow has described and that I trust are on the memory card.”
“Yes they are.”
“Mariano has already been convicted in absentia by that same judicial body for war crimes committed while he was a commander in the Chilean army under Augusto Pinochet. Attorney General Kotteras and Congressman Ryder believe members of the boards of directors of both Striker and Hadrian may be subject to prosecution as well, dependent on the depth of their involvement with company operations. Ms. Tidrow’s testimony, while extremely helpful, will not shield her from prosecution if evidence of her complicity should be found. It’s something she’s been made aware of.”
“Mr. President.” Marten looked around the room. “I respectfully suggest that all of it was done under the accord and agreement presented in this Hadrian Memorandum that was drawn up by the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I don’t think you would want that to come out in The Hague. And it would have to come out if Ms. Tidrow or myself, for that matter, were subpoenaed to appear, simply because we are both aware of the memorandum