The Hadrian Memorandum - Allan Folsom [202]
Now, as he watched the surveyors set up near the bottom of the hill, he let his thoughts drift back to his conversation with President Harris in the private library at the heavily guarded farmhouse in New Hampshire.
“I guaranteed the Russian agent, Yuri Kovalenko, that the Bioko photographs would never be released, especially not to Washington’s security agencies, where, for any number of reasons, they might be leaked. If they were, he would be put in a very compromising position that could cost him his life. The only reason I’m not ashes in an urn somewhere is because of him. I gave him my word because I trusted you would back me up, not just because of our relationship but because I knew you were concerned the Russians might circulate the CIA video and wouldn’t want the photographs released, either. Without them there’s no evidence that Striker or Hadrian or SimCo was involved in the war, meaning the video alone would be nothing more than a clandestine record of the atrocities Tiombe practiced against his own people and of little use for either propaganda or blackmail.”
He remembered President Harris listening carefully and then telling him that he would do everything he could to see that Kovalenko’s life and reputation were not put in jeopardy but that he could not guarantee the photographs would not be brought forth if the matter went to trial. Marten told the president he was aware of that and in the pause that followed offered his suggestion.
“Mr. President,” he’d said, “you want the backing of Abba and his people. This other stuff comes out, General Mariano, the memorandum—all or part of it—and suddenly Abba’s not a friend but an enemy. World opinion of you and the U.S. will be ugly, maybe even provoke violence, and you’ll have the Russians and probably the Chinese stepping all over themselves to secure the Bioko leases. All the things you worried about when I told you about the photographs in the first place. Yes, you can go to trial against Striker and Hadrian and SimCo or—”
“Or what? Just forget about it? Is that your idea?”
“Hear me out.”
“Go ahead.”
“Somebody takes Hadrian’s Loyal Truex aside and strongly recommends that he get out of the protective security business. Maybe announce that the company made mistakes in Iraq and has decided to change its name and go in a different direction. As for Striker, the real heavy there was Sy Wirth, and he’s dead. Anne’s father built the business from the ground up, and she wants to shed its tarnished image with Hadrian. She’s been in and around the oil business her entire life. Give her the reins. Let her run the company.”
“And do what?”
“Equatorial Guinea is a tiny, impoverished country that’s been stomped into the ground by Tiombe and dictators before him. Abba appears to be some kind of democratic savior, but he has nothing to work with, so the best he can do is try to heal the misery the war has left behind, something that can take years to achieve, if it can ever be done at all. So let Striker stay there and exploit the Bioko field with Anne as boss and with the caveat the company give Abba’s government eighty percent of the gross oil revenue after costs are realized. And with a caveat to Abba that the money be used for infrastructure—clean water systems, sewage treatment plants, schools, hospitals, paved roads, things like that, and with a chunk of it put into the development of new businesses. Maybe even arrange for a third party to oversee the transfer and allocation of funds to make sure they go where they’re supposed to. You and I both know that sooner or later the idea of oil as a major energy source is going to slide into history, and you can’t have an entire country lifted up from nothing to something approaching a decent life that is wholly dependent on something that is going to vanish and leave them with nothing.
“I may sound like a dreamer, but what I’m suggesting can work. I was there. I saw those people and the conditions they live under. Poverty and abuse by Tiombe and his regime is the reason why Abba came to power