Tom Clancy's Op-center Balance of Power - Tom Clancy [14]
"Then he is an ambitious Basque. But he is still a Basque."
Ramirez smiled again. "Deputy Serrador does not wish to be a spokesman for the fishermen, shepherds, and miners forever. He wants to lead them."
"He can lead them over the Pyrenees into France," said Carlos. "I won't miss any of them."
"I wouldn't either," said Ramirez, "but then who would fish, herd, and mine? The bank managers and accountants who work for you, Carlos? The reporters who work for Rodrigo's newspapers or Alfonso's television stations? The pilots who work for Miguel's airline?"
The other men smiled, shrugged, or nodded. Carlos flushed and acceded with a gracious nod of his head.
"That's enough about our curious bedfellow," said Ramirez. "The important thing is that America's emissary has been slain. The United States will have no idea who did it or why, but they will be extremely wary about becoming involved in local politics. Deputy Serrador will caution them further when he meets with the rest of the contingent later this evening. He'll assure them that the police are doing everything they can to apprehend the killer, but that the prevention of further incidents cannot be guaranteed. Not in such troubled times."
Carlos nodded. He turned to Miguel. "And how is your part going?"
"Very well," said the portly, silver-haired airline executive. "The discount air fares from the United States to Portugal, Italy, France, and Greece have proven extremely popular. Travel to Madrid and Barcelona is down eleven and eight percent respectively from the levels of last year. Hotels, restaurants, and car services are feeling the loss. The ripple effect has hurt many local businesses."
"And revenues will fall even further," Ramirez said, "when the American public is told that the slain woman was a tourist and that this was a random shooting."
Ramirez drew on his cigar and smiled. He was particularly proud of that part of the plan. The United States government could never expose the identity of the dead woman. She had come from an intelligence and crisis management center, not from the State Department. Nor could the United States reveal the fact that she had gone to Madrid to meet with a powerful deputy who feared a new civil war. If Europe ever learned that an American representative of this type had been scheduled to meet with Serrador, America would be suspected of trying to position the players to its own advantage. Which was exactly why Serrador had asked for her. With one shooting, Ramirez and his group had managed to gain control of both the White House and Spanish tourism.
"As for the next step," Ramirez said, "how is that coming, Carlos?"
The black-haired young banker leaned forward. He placed his cigar in the ashtray and folded his hands on the table. "As you know, the lower and middle classes have been hurt very seriously by the recent employment cutbacks. In the past six months, Banquero Cedro has restricted loans so that our partners in this operation"-he indicated the other men at the table-"as well as other businesspeople, have been forced to raise consumer prices nearly seven percent. At the same time they've cut back production so that there has been an eight-percent drop in trade of Spanish goods throughout Europe. The workers have been hit hard although, thus far, we haven't curtailed their credit. We've been extraordinarily generous, in fact. We've been extending credit to repay old debts. Of course, only some of that money goes to relieve debt. People make new purchases, assuming that credit will be available to them again. As a result, interest on loans has compounded to levels eighteen percent higher than they were at this time last year."
Ramirez smiled. "In conjunction with a fall in tourism, the financial blow will be severe when that credit is not made available."
"It will be extremely severe," said Carlos. "The people will be so deeply in debt they will agree to anything to be out of it."