Sniper's Honor(83)
“People, people,” said the director, to quell the laughter and keep Gershon and Cohen from chewing each other alive with zingers for the next twenty minutes.
“All right,” said Gershon. “I do have a situation. Not a crisis, not an emergency, not a catastrophe, but a situation.”
“Enlighten us while I eat my knishes,” said Cohen.
“Item one: an unheard-of firm buys a great deal of platinum in South Africa, surreptitiously flies it to Astrakhan on the Caspian. Item two: it turns out that this same firm, called Nordyne GmbH, out of Lausanne, Switzerland, has also quite recently acquired a defunct ceramics factory in Astrakhan, spent several million refurbishing the place, spent several hundred thousand fencing it, and has hired a Chechen security team for twenty-four-hour surveillance and protection. Bad boys, shooters, heavily armed. Ready to repel commandos.”
“Why would commandos be interested in ceramics in Astrakhan?” asked Cohen.
“Why would Jews be interested in ceramics in Astrakhan?” asked the assistant director.
“Because,” said Gershon, “that same firm has just spent yet more money, all of it, by the way, nearly untraceable so far, acquiring the following equipment from various surplus industrial manufacturing suppliers. From the Poles, a fractional distillater; from the Turks—the Turks!—a crystallization reactor; from the British, a filtration system; from the Swedes, a ten-thousand-cubic centimeter drying tunnel; and from the Germans, metal bending equipment. As well as belts, electric motors, bins, the bric-a-brac of manufacture. However, a quick check of local job-shop printing manifests turns up no links to Nordyne Ceramics, meaning no quote sheets, no catalog, no printed packaging, no advertising, and by inference, no sales force.”
“A world without salesmen,” said Cohen. “Perhaps they should get the Nobel Peace Prize!”
Laughter, and Gershon almost responded with “A salesman named Herzl put us here,” but he knew that would set off a crazed war of quips and cracks and instead took a breath.
“Another development,” said Gershon. “It seems whoever is running this plant hasn’t hired Russians but has brought in a Chechen workforce, about twenty women, related to the same bunch that handles the security. I learn this from the indefatigable Precious Metals Industry Reporter, which is worth every penny of the $4,775 yearly subscription fee I don’t pay. Consider: the Chechen women will be isolated, keep to themselves, may even live on-site, under the watch of the gunmen-boyfriends. They won’t be circulating in Astrakhan proper, and they won’t be part of familial and clan networks, so the yakkity-yak factor is eliminated. More security, cleverly thought out, but not so high-profile as to capture attention.”
“What does platinum have to do with all this?”
“If I knew, I’d tell you,” said Gershon.
“There’s not enough data to blow it up,” said the director, again to laughter. “Maybe tomorrow.”
“Platinum, I do know, is remarkable for its catalytic abilities,” said Gershon. “I have to call a chemist for more details, but it has an odd capacity, with its very presence, to change something into something else. By magic rays or something, I wish I knew. Are there any geniuses here?”
“I flunked high school chemistry in Passaic,” said Cohen. “Does that help?”
“Gershon,” said the director, “take a day off tomorrow and come back the next day with all the possibilities of platinum as a catalyst. You need to get out more, anyway.”
“I will, I will. I merely call your attention to the fact that a chemical manufacturing concern of unknown sponsorship and product involving a great deal of tradecraft and security expertise has been set up not far, by sea, from the Iranian port of Bandar-e Anzali. I consider that suspicious. Whatever product they are manufacturing could be of some threat to the state of Israel, and once in Iran, by either official or unofficial action, it could be deployed against us by any number of means. Moreover, as we know, our intelligence assets in that country are focused on Tehran, their nuclear facility, and certain military installations. As for the huge land of the interior, we have no feet on the ground, and if anyone in that vast region wants to cook up a nasty surprise, we might be the worse for it. As I say, a situation, not an emergency. But I would like to have a satellite flyby authorized for a closer look at this plant; I would like to assign consular personnel in Switzerland to investigate Nordyne GmbH; I would like to suggest that intelligence concerning Nordyne GmbH be sought in our barter sessions with cooperating agencies; and I would like to suggest that we all brush up on our high school chemistry, especially Cohen.”