The Scarlatti Inheritance(127)
“What is it you want of us?” Myrdal was a cautious bargainer. “A few might rather weather your threats than accept your demands.… Sometimes I think it is all a game. What are your demands?”
“That this … association be disbanded at once. That all financial and political ties in Germany with whatever factions be severed without delay! That those of you who have been entrusted with appointments to the Allied Controls Commission resign immediately!”
“No! No! No! No!” Heinrich Kroeger was enraged. He banged his fist with all his might upon the table. “This organization has taken years to build! We will control the economy of Europe. We will control all Europe! We will do it!”
“Hear me, gentlemen! Mr. Myrdal said it’s a game! Of course, it’s a game! A game we expend our lives on. Our souls on! It consumes us, and we demand more and more and more until, at last, we crave our own destruction.… Herr Kroeger says I can’t live without the power I’ve sought and gained. He may be right, gentlemen! Perhaps it’s time for me to reach that logical end, the end which I now crave and for which I’m willing to pay the price.… Of course, I’ll do as I say, gentlemen. I welcome death!”
“Let it be yours, then, not ours.” Sydney Masterson understood.
“So be it, Mr. Masterson. I’m not overwhelmed, you know. I leave to all of you the necessity of coping with this strange new world we’ve entered. Don’t think for a minute, gentlemen, that I can’t understand you! Understand what you’ve done. Most horridly, why you’ve done it!… You look around your personal kingdoms and you’re frightened. You see your power threatened—by theories, governments, strange-sounding concepts which eat away at your roots. You have an overpowering anxiety to protect the feudal system which spawned you. And well you should, perhaps. It won’t last long.… But you will not do it this way!”
“Since you understand so, why do you stop us? This undertaking protects all of us. Ultimately yourself as well. Why do you stop us?” D’Almeida could lose the Franco-Italian rails and survive, if only the remainder could be saved.
“It always starts that way. The greater good.… Let’s say I stop you because what you’re doing is a far greater blemish than it is a cure. And that’s all I’ll say about it!”
“From you, that’s ludicrous! I tell you again, she won’t do it!” Kroeger pounded the flat of his hand on the table, but no one paid much attention to him.
“When you say time is running out, Madame Scarlatti, how do you mean it? From what you said, I gathered time had run out. The expensive road had been taken.…”
“There’s a man in Geneva, Mr. Masterson, who’s awaiting a phone call from me. If he receives that phone call, a cable will be sent to my offices in New York. If that cable arrives, the operation is canceled. If it doesn’t, it’s executed on schedule.”
“That’s impossible! Such complexity untangled with a cablegram? I don’t believe you.” Monsieur Daudet was certain of ruin.
“I assume considerable financial penalties by the action.”
“You assume more than that, I would suspect, madame. You’ll never be trusted again. Scarlatti will be isolated!”
“It’s a prospect, Mr. Masterson. Not a conclusion. The marketplace is flexible.… Well, gentlemen? Your answer?”
Syndey Masterson rose from his chair. “Make your phone call. There’s no other choice, is there, gentlemen?”
The men of Zurich looked at each other. Slowly they began to get out of their chairs, gathering the papers in front of them.
“It’s finished. I am out of it.” Kindorf folded the manila envelope and put it in his pocket.
“You’re a beastly tiger. I shouldn’t care to meet you in the arena with an army at my back.” Leacock stood erect.
“You may be bullshitter, but I’m not gonna slip on it!” Landor nudged Gibson, who found it difficult to adjust.
“We can’t be sure.… That’s our problem. We can’t be sure,” said Gibson.
“Wait! Wait! Wait a minute!” Heinrich Kroeger began to shout. “You do this! You walk out! You’re dead!… Every God damn one of you leeches is dead! Leeches! Yellow-bellied leeches!… You suck our blood; you make agreements with us. Then you walk out?… Afraid for your little businesses? You God damn Jew bastards! We don’t need you! Any of you! But you’re going to need us! We’ll cut you up and feed you to dogs! God damn swine!” Kroeger’s face was flushed. His words spewed out, tumbling over one another.