An Agent of Deceit

by Chris Morgan Jones

  ‘Nikolai? Yes. He’s a stooge. And a spook. He’s an old FSB man. Not a trader at all. Unlike his predecessor.’

  ‘Yes, what was that about? If what you say is right why would they let Gerstman leave?’

  ‘That,’ said Knight, ‘is an excellent question. I tried to interview him once, about a year before he went. Not very cooperative. Only a nipper, mind. He was different, more of a technocrat. Different breed, that – no oilman. He’d not have been out of place in a bank. A Western one at that.’

  ‘Have you spoken to him since?’

  ‘Since he left? No, no reason to. Too delicate. I hear he really did leave, though, didn’t just pretend. He’s in Berlin now, I think. God knows what he’s doing but word was he and Malin fell out.’

  ‘Over what?’

  ‘I’ve got no idea, Ben. None at all. Could be anything.’

  That was better, at least.

  Webster ran through in this head all the questions he might ask Knight and discarded most of them, partly because he didn’t want to reveal too much and partly because he could predict the answers. There was one, though.

  ‘How secure is Malin? Politically?’

  ‘That’s another good one.’ Knight drank some tea. ‘As far as I know, rock solid. Well, solid as someone like him can be in Russia. I dare say Trotsky felt pretty comfortable at one point. Put it this way, I can’t imagine what would do for him.’

  ‘Then why are you so nervous?’ This was a more intimate question than Webster had ever asked him before, and he watched carefully for Knight’s reaction.

  ‘That’s the bit I’d rather not discuss, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘You can’t leave it at that.’

  ‘I can, Ben, I can. Christ. You’ve got no idea, have you? None at all.’ He took a last gulp of tea. ‘That’s all. That’s your lot.’

  ‘Alan. Tell me this at least. Is it something that could hurt him?’

  Knight sighed in frustration. ‘Christ, Ben.’ A pause. ‘No, it isn’t. Quite the bloody reverse. Now that’s enough.’

  Webster looked at him for a moment and saw that he meant it. ‘OK, Alan. Sorry. Thanks for saying as much as you have. I appreciate it.’

  ‘Just promise me you won’t send me any more emails.’

  ‘Promise. Are you sure you don’t want any money?’

  ‘Quite sure, my lad. Quite sure. You can pay for my tea.’

  Webster did, and they parted outside the cafe, Webster to walk back to Ikertu, Knight off in the sunshine to see his next client, stooped in his coat.

  On his return, checking the urge to shout at his team, Webster shut himself away in his office and began to look for the article. He set about searching every database he knew, vast repositories of articles taken from the newspapers, magazines and unimaginably obscure trade journals of every country in the world. Most of Inessa’s writing was there – the straightforward early work, growing in commitment over time; the longer investigations for Novaya Gazeta; the handful of pieces in English – but he darted past it in fruitless pursuit of this one piece he half suspected did not exist, except, perhaps, in the increasingly fantastic mind of Alan Knight. He looked for Inessa’s name, for Faringdon, for Lock, for Malin. He tried every possible transliteration of her name and several outright misspellings. He searched in Roman text and Cyrillic. It simply wasn’t there.

  Finally, desperate to find it and desperate not to, he researched Energy East Europe itself, a journal he only dimly knew. Its articles first appeared in March 2001 but stopped in April three years later, suggesting that it no longer existed. Some of its reporting had found its way on to the Internet, referenced or stolen by other sites, and there Webster found enough to explain why he hadn’t been able to find what he was looking for. The earliest pieces he saw had been published in 1998, which meant that for its first three years its output hadn’t found its way into any electronic file; quite simply, the databases had taken a while to pick it up.

  EEE seemed to have been largely the work of one man. Half the articles had been written by Steve Elder, an American who now worked for a lobbying company in Washington. Webster thought he remembered him as one of the many journalists who had come to Moscow for a season or two and then left before it took full hold of them. His or not, the magazine had been published in London, and that, at least, was good news.

  He found it after twenty minutes at the microfiche readers in Westminster Reference Library. He went himself because he wanted to be the one who read it first.

  ‘Irish Company Buys Assets On Behalf of Russian State’ was the title, halfway through the August edition. It was four pages, probably two thousand words, and there was the byline: ‘Inessa Kirova, Russia Correspondent’. Webster read it through three times, forcing himself to concentrate on the text and ignoring the voice that kept asking why he hadn’t known about this before.

  The Irish company was Faringdon, which in recent months had been busy buying assets across what the article called ‘Russia’s near-abroad’: a Romanian refinery on the Black Sea, a petrochemical plant in Belarus and a gas storage facility in Azerbaijan. Inessa had found Faringdon as anonymous then as he found it now – more so, perhaps, because back then it had done less. She gave its address, its date of incorporation, its directors (Lock was dismissed in a sentence as a ‘lawyer of little reputation’) but went no further, content, perhaps, to leave it mysterious.

  The second half of the article was fascinating, not for what it said (Knight had intimated as much, and more) but for what it left out. Faringdon, she wrote, was a vehicle directed by factions within the Ministry of Industry and Energy to channel Russian influence over its neighbours’ energy industries. Where companies had once been used for espionage, to provide cover or logistics, the newly open arms of capitalism now allowed the Russians to own what they had once only thought to observe. The plan had taken on fresh urgency when the financial crisis of 1998 left assets cheap and Russia looking weak and foolish in the eyes of the world. The article finished with some well-reasoned speculation about what Faringdon would turn its attention to next.

  Malin wasn’t mentioned. It seemed odd that Inessa should have learned so much from such a good source and not know the name of the person within the ministry pulling the strings. But then the whole article rang false. Unusually for Inessa’s work it made no mention of its sources, not even to say that they couldn’t be revealed, and the story read as if it had been brought to her already half-formed by someone who had an interest in seeing it in print. But if that was the case, why publish it in an obscure London trade magazine with a tiny and specialist audience? Why fail to name Malin? Why write it without any form of substantiation? Why, for heaven’s sake, give it to Inessa, of all people?

  That was the strangest thing of all. It didn’t read like Inessa’s work. It was unbalanced; it failed to convince; it wasn’t good enough. It was no wonder that no one else had thought to take up the story.

  Webster spent another half-hour checking earlier and later editions for any further mention of Inessa’s name, found none, and left less wise and more preoccupied than after his conversation with Alan Knight.

  Almost ten years earlier, in the days after Inessa’s funeral, he had made a list of the stories that might have killed her. Eventually he had trimmed it, according to wherewithal and motive, from a dozen to three: a story about a corrupt Duma member and the head of organized crime in Sverdlovsk, the killing of a chemicals executive in Moscow, and the series about the owners of the Kazakh aluminium factory. But the same problem undermined each. It made no sense for a Russian to kill a journalist on foreign soil, even just across the border in Kazakhstan, because to do so was to complicate what had become almost routine. In Russia journalists seemed to die in two places – in Chechnya, where law did not exist and violence came to everyone; and in their homes, mugged on the landings of their apartments, robbed, dashed to their deaths by their own hand – and convictions followed either too quickly or not at all. During
his time in Russia three or four journalists a year had died this way, and for every murder that was filed neatly away as an opportunist crime by vagrants or drunken neo-Nazis there were half a dozen that would simply never be solved. Whoever had felt threatened by Inessa would have been wise to finish her at home, because that’s where she was least safe and they most protected.

  But this story was different. There was enough at stake here, and enough that was already strange, for its ending to be an anomaly. Webster imagined Malin at the beginning of his great project, the patient loyalist, national glory and untold profit ahead of him, threatened by a young woman who knew so much more than she should. For him it might make sense. Webster could feel unseen components of the puzzle rearranging themselves in his subconscious, moving into place, tempting him to believe that this, at last, was the knowledge he had been missing for ten years.

  To have a theory, though, was not unusual. He had had theories before and nothing had come of them. The important thing with a theory was to let it settle, resist its charms, interrogate it quietly and see if it held up.

  But before being disciplined about it he called Steve Elder at his new job and found him happy to talk. Elder had indeed been in Moscow: stringer for the New York Times from 1993 to 1994; they had met once, at a British embassy reception. He could remember the article, and Inessa, even though they had never met. She had sent him the piece, half-finished, as the first instalment of a series about the new politics of Russia’s reviving energy industry. She wasn’t an energy specialist but he knew her work and liked this story; oil prices were beginning to rise after the crisis the year before and everyone was looking to see what Russia would do in its energy policy – and besides, it was ‘juicy’. He had paid the usual rate for the first article only, but had promised to look at the others when she knew exactly what they were going to be about; at the time she hadn’t been wholly clear.

  It was late summer when he published. When he read of her death, perhaps two months later, he had written a note to Novaya Gazeta. His wife had commented that it was strange, almost, that she was the first Russian journalist he knew to die, there were so many.

  No, he hadn’t thought it odd that she should send him the article. Even then, in the early days of the magazine, he had had all manner of people sending him ideas and stories. Had anyone suggested a connection between the article and her death? No, they had not. Elder had always assumed that it was one of the many minor oligarchs she had done so much to annoy. And no, it hadn’t occurred to him that it was inadequately sourced. In fact he remembered it quite differently.

  The conversation had ended there, more or less, with Elder a little prickly and Webster satisfied that this was all he was going to learn.

  The theory would just have to settle. In the meantime he had his case, and there Alan Knight and Inessa had left him with the sense that he knew at once much more and no more than he had before; as if he’d asked for directions and been given only a full history of his destination. The one thing that he could act on was what Knight had said about Dmitry Gerstman. Every investigator loved a disgruntled ex-employee, and Gerstman was mysterious to boot. People didn’t simply leave organizations like Malin’s without fuss. They stayed, or they were thrown out, or there was a fight.

  The only thing that gave Webster pause was that he knew nothing about the man. There was a little in the report that Tourna had given him but, he discovered, it had all been taken from the website of Gerstman’s new company. Also there, at least, was a photograph of him, a good one, as these things go, in black and white. In it he looked neat, disciplined, a little severe; but not, thought Webster, haunted. Probably in his mid-thirties. One of the young Russian technocrats, raised on margins and business models rather than rigorous central planning. His new company, Finist Advisory Services PartG, offered strategy consulting to energy and petrochemical companies. It wasn’t really clear what that meant, but whatever it was it seemed to be focused on central Europe. Gerstman had a partner called Prock, and elegant offices just off Kurfürsten-damm in west Berlin.

  Webster’s preference was to steer a friendly journalist towards him to tease out some clue that might magically unlock his motivation. Gerstman was so precious – their only real source – that they might have only one chance to win him over. Hammer had thought this a waste of time and an insult to Gerstman. ‘He deserves you, not some stringer. What are we going to find out? We know he doesn’t like Malin. We know he’s not going to tell you anything straight away. But he might over time, and he might talk to Lock. And it’s something to tell Tourna. You need a relationship with him. Better to start one now.’

  Berlin was warm for October but Webster, misled by the forecast, had brought a coat, which was now annoying him. The more one carried the more irritating travel became. For a single night away he would take his briefcase, and in it a fresh shirt and fresh underwear, a razor and a toothbrush, a notebook, a pen and something not too heavy to read; never, if he could help it, a laptop. Gliding through the airport with no bag to wheel round like a helpless dependant made him feel light and purposeful, somehow more agile. Today the coat was weighing him down.

  No matter. He would go straight to the hotel. Unusually, he only had one meeting in Berlin, and that he had not yet arranged. Through some mild subterfuge he had learnt from Gerstman’s secretary that he would be in Berlin until Friday, after which he would be travelling for several weeks. Today was Tuesday. He had spent some time trying to find or engineer an introduction to him through some shared acquaintance, but without success. So now he had arrived with no plan, his only thought being that to be in Berlin would make it more difficult for Gerstman to decline a meeting.

  Webster didn’t know the city – he had been here only once before, and that for a meeting at the airport with a client from Ecuador – and now he wasn’t really taking it in. He was preoccupied by what he wanted from Gerstman. To see Malin’s weaknesses; to understand Lock; to verify Knight’s theory. Ideally, to find a lead that would support Tourna’s allegations of massive corruption. As the thought came to him he knew it was ridiculous to expect so much. Perhaps the true value of talking to Knight had been to show him this was hopeless. He chided himself for failing to recognize early enough the one objection to the case that really mattered: that it was impossible. It was laughable to think that he and Hammer and a ragbag of failed spies and conflicted journalists posed any threat to a man like Malin. They were an instrument of Tourna’s vanity, and vain enough themselves.

  But he would still try. You never knew. If Gerstman was nursing a grudge that hadn’t yet played out, if he saw the opportunity to take revenge, well, you never knew. It happened. What one man knows can bring down an organization. Every so often.

  It was noon as they approached the western centre of the city. He decided to have a look at his target first and check in to the hotel later, so he asked the driver to take him to the western end of Kurfürstendamm where Gerstman had his offices, on a side street just round the corner from the theatre. Webster paid his fare and sat on a bench opposite the nineteenth-century building. With luck Gerstman would go out for his lunch; Europeans, sensibly, usually did.

  With an eye on the door he went through his messages. Tourna had called when he was on the plane. He was going to be in London in a fortnight’s time and wanted to discuss progress. If there wasn’t any movement by then, thought Webster, that might be the time to stop. The very thought made his spirits sink.

  At quarter past, people began leaving the building in ones and twos. Webster hoped that he would recognize Gerstman from his picture; he had no idea of his height or colouring. A little after half past, a tall, rather sleek man appeared, dressed in a black suit, white shirt, and dark-blue tie; this was Gerstman. Walking with him was someone shorter and broader whom Webster recognized as Gerstman’s partner, Prock. Webster followed them at a distance of perhaps twenty yards. The two men were walking briskly enough, and talked all the while. After five minutes they w
ent into an Italian restaurant, not particularly smart, and there Webster left them, returning to his bench.

  Exactly an hour later Gerstman and Prock returned. Webster waited five minutes and then called the main Finist office number. He spoke to the receptionist, then to Gerstman’s secretary; he explained that his name was Benedict Webster, that he was calling from a company called Ikertu Consulting, and that he would like to speak to Mr Gerstman about a subject of shared interest. There, he thought, now we’re out in the open. She told him that she was very sorry but Mr Gerstman was not available. Had he gone out? Yes he had. When would he return? She couldn’t say. Webster thanked her and hung up.

  Finist’s number was Berlin 6974 5600. Webster dialled 6974 5601 and reached a fax machine. 5602 rang for a while and diverted to Prock’s secretary. He hung up and dialled 5603.

  ‘Gerstman.’

  ‘Herr Gerstman, this is Benedict Webster. I work for a company called Ikertu Consulting. I was wondering whether . . .’

  ‘How do you have my direct line?’

  ‘I was wondering whether I might talk to you for half an hour.’

  ‘I don’t talk to people I don’t know,’ said Gerstman, and hung up.

  Webster dialled the number again. Gerstman picked up the phone on the first ring and immediately put it down again.

  Webster looked at his phone, raised an eyebrow, and stood up. It was a short walk to his hotel. He left his briefcase and coat there and wandered out to find lunch.

  At four o’clock he took up his station on the bench, now in sun, and watched the Berliners going about their business. He found them difficult to place: in London and in Moscow he could read fluently the signs that suggested what a person might do, where he might live, what he might hold important – the cut of a suit, the quality of a shoe, the newspaper carried, the accent spoken, the unconscious gait – but here the language was different and the people, he began to suspect, less easy to classify. These observations kept Webster occupied for a while but by five the offices were beginning to empty and his thoughts to stray, despite himself, to Inessa.