East of the Sun

by Janet Rogers

  When asked if it was true that the Canadians had decided to pull out because the relationship between the partners had deteriorated too much, and if the Russian company had proven too difficult to work with, CEO Bruce Jennings and his head of Operations, Carl Riverton, denied the rumour and would only say that the deal no longer made sense when considered as part of their other operations.

  ‘It is simply not true. We felt very honoured to work with Sibraz, but when it became clear that this specific JV would not complement our long-term goals for the company, Sibraz agreed that we could sell our stake to the party of their choice. It was a difficult decision to make, but it was a step we took in the interest of Prism and its shareholders. We are confident that this will be a flourishing partnership and we wish them every success.’

  The final articles contained comments from industry analysts. Almost all of them pointed out that forming joint ventures required a significant amount of work and were never entered into lightly.

  These things typically take several years to get off the ground and it is unusual for this one to collapse so soon after formation, especially given that exploration activities in northern Russia are limited to the summer months each year, one commentary read. Others went further and asserted that Prism would have lost a lot of money by exiting the partnership prematurely, and that shareholders would not be satisfied with the limited explanation given so far.

  Amelia sighed. The stack of articles contained depressingly scant details; in fact, they just added more questions. The only positive thing about them was that she felt somewhat justified about her own suspicions. If so many industry insiders smelled a rat, surely there had to be one. But how was she ever going to be able to unearth all that was hidden?

  Finally, reluctantly, she pulled an envelope from the bottom of the pile of articles. She knew what was inside, knew its contents only too well, but pulled out the single clipping anyway. It was dated a little over a year before and the words were no easier to read now than they’d been then:

  The Canadian Embassy in Moscow issued a statement yesterday confirming the disappearance of the Canadian ambassador, Robert Preston, on Thursday night of last week. Their statement added few details to what is already known about the shocking incident. All that has been acknowledged at this stage is that Ambassador Preston was apparently kidnapped on his way home after a function at the Marriott Grand Hotel on Tverskaya Street. His deserted car was found only a few blocks away from the Canadian Embassy and ambassador’s residence. Both the Ambassador and his driver are missing. No one has claimed responsibility and no demands have been made. The lack of communication from the kidnappers has caused security specialists to fear the worst, but according to detective Alexander Kiriyenko, who is currently in charge of the investigation, all leads will be pursued vigorously.

  Several statements were released by members of the international community in Moscow today, all expressing shock and dismay and all praising Mr Preston as a valuable leader in the diplomatic community in Russia.

  The Ambassador’s wife, Amelia Preston, has issued no statement and was not available for comment.

  Amelia stared at the clipping. She never did comment. Not then and not later either. What did one say anyway when the unthinkable happened? When your partner – the man who, just that morning, in his state of exhaustion, had spilled coffee on a new white shirt – was snatched from the life you had together and all that was left of him was that stain? How could you comment when you could barely live with the knowledge that you didn’t have a meaningful last moment together, a moment that could perhaps have eased some of his burden?

  It wasn’t possible to speak of that heartache. And so she never did.

  Amelia slipped the clipping back into the envelope and placed it at the bottom of the pile again. The need to release statements no longer existed. All she required of herself now, was to act.

  4

  Mara Tshabalala stared at Amelia uncomprehendingly, her deep brown eyes puzzled. For a second time she bowed her head to look at the newspaper clipping in her hand. There was a moment’s hesitation before she raised her glasses to her eyes and started reading it again, this time aloud, as if hearing the words would help her understand their hidden implications:

  ‘“In an announcement that stunned industry experts, the Canadian mining exploration company Prism disclosed yesterday that it had sold its stake in a joint venture with Russian mining company Sibraz. The JV was formed three years ago to explore and mine a diamond deposit located in the Kola Peninsula, in the northern region of Murmansk. Prism denied that the sale had anything to do with repeated reports in the past of conflict between the two companies. A spokesperson for the company declined to disclose details of the sale, and would only say that a British entity had taken over their 49%.”’

  Incomprehension competed visibly with scepticism and concern on Mara’s usually kind face.

  ‘This was the company Robert was helping, Mara.’ Amelia said, eager for her old friend to understand.

  ‘Okay. And . . . what exactly does that mean?’ Mara glanced down at the piece of paper again. ‘Sorry, Amelia, I know I’m probably trying your patience, but I just don’t follow. What are you saying this means? If there’s some greater significance here, I’m not sure I understand what it is. How could this have brought you back?’

  This. A well-fingered newspaper cutting that Amelia had carried with her for the past three weeks after discovering it by chance. Indeed, how had a mere piece of paper possessed the power to bring her back to a place she hated and feared in equal parts? A good question and one she wanted to answer.

  It took effort not to rush ahead in an attempt to do so. This was the first time she’d spoken to anyone about her suspicions and the pent-up words weren’t coming out right. Over the past weeks, when she’d lain in bed, obsessively going over the reasons for her disquiet night after sleepless night, it had all made sense, but now, as she’d feared, her feeble explanations felt like desperate, incoherent speculation.

  Should she even be sharing the details with Mara? Despite the fact that she considered her a friend, she had so little in common with the woman sitting opposite her. Aside from the fact that both their husbands had been ambassadors to Russia, they couldn’t have shared more contrasting backgrounds. Mara Tshabalala came from southern Africa and had lived a life filled with struggle and sacrifice while Amelia had enjoyed many of the opportunities available to the child of a middle class family living in an affluent country.

  When she’d first arrived in Moscow, green and inexperienced in the strange world of the Foreign Service, Mara had immediately reached out and the easy kinship and basic understanding between them had quickly developed into a solid friendship. If anyone would be able to understand how complex the situation appeared to be, it would be Mara. On the other hand, Mara and her husband Wilfred were entering their last year of service before retirement to South Africa. Mara had never had an easy time in Moscow. Overcoming racism in her own country only to be subjected to more intolerance here in Russia seemed like a cruel joke. Should she really be burdening Mara with knowledge of a situation that didn’t involve her and which could even turn out to be dangerous for her? Was she being selfish in her desire to have an ally?

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, aware that Mara was still waiting for an explanation, ‘maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I’m not really sure I should be telling you why I’m here. I’m pushing you to understand something that must sound rather fanciful, to say the least. Perhaps we can talk again in a few days’ time, after I’ve had a chance to speak to some people and hopefully have a little more clarity.’

  ‘Amelia,’ Mara said, leaning forward. ‘I know you. I’m very sure you wouldn’t have come back if you didn’t think it was absolutely necessary. At least I hope you wouldn’t have. The point is that I can see this is important, even if I don’t understand it all immediately, so tell me, help me understand. Maybe I can help you think through whatever i
t is that’s bothering you so much about this business deal. And if I can’t, it may just help you to unburden.’ She hesitated, her next words tentative. ‘At the risk of sounding patronising, it really looks like you could do with a little of that.’

  The small reception room that Mara had brought her to half an hour earlier fell silent. From somewhere on the other side of the closed door Amelia could hear the faint noises of the residence’s kitchen staff setting about preparing the evening meal.

  ‘I suppose you think I’m hysterical,’ Amelia said, deflated. Compulsively she spooned more sugar into her already sweet coffee, driven by an urge to act, to do something with her restless hands.

  ‘No, I don’t. Not hysterical.’ Mara gave Amelia a sympathetic smile. ‘I don’t mean to diminish the significance of what you believe this article means, but to me it kind of just seems like a normal business announcement.’

  ‘Of course that’s what it seems like, because that’s what it’s designed to be. I just think there is something wrong when a company that has worked so hard to salvage a deal would suddenly sell its stake to some, I don’t know, some obscure third party! What if there’s a connection?’

  ‘To Robert?’ Mara asked very carefully.

  Amelia winced at the mention of his name. She sighed and gestured at the clipping, which was still in Mara’s hand. ‘To be honest, I don’t blame you for being confused. It doesn’t make much sense to me either. None of this makes sense. It’s just a gut reaction combined with a few random facts.’

  ‘Why don’t you try and tell me the whole thing, from beginning to end?’

  ‘I don’t know where the beginning is, Mara. That’s part of the problem. And as far as I’m concerned, there is no end yet.’

  ‘Something – this thing – brought you back and if it hadn’t been significant, you wouldn’t have been here. Just tell me what you know. Start wherever you think makes sense.’

  ‘All right. I’ll try.’ Amelia took a deep breath. ‘Last year, in the months before Robert disappeared, he was asked to get involved in that,’ she said, pointing at the article. ‘Things were pretty stressful for him, but because of the confidentiality requirements of the agreement he couldn’t really tell me too much about it. At the time I was simply worried about the toll it was taking on him, and then, when he disappeared, I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. There was so much chaos and uncertainty around me and I was just trying to figure out what to do and where to go, but now . . .’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Now I think the negotiations may have actually had something to do with his disappearance.’ There, she’d said it, and even to her own ears it sounded crazy.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I really think there’s a link somehow between what he was involved in and the reason he was taken. Perhaps someone didn’t want the talks to continue.’

  ‘All right,’ Mara said evenly, ‘I’m curious to know why you feel there may be a connection. Tell me about this deal and why it had to be salvaged. And how was Robert involved in it all?’ She leaned back and waited for Amelia to speak.

  ‘You do know this isn’t something that was in the press, so you shouldn’t talk about it to anyone?’

  ‘Of course,’ Mara said, sounding a little indignant. ‘Now go on. The deal was falling apart—’

  ‘Yes, and the Canadian company mentioned there – Prism – fought tooth and nail to keep it alive. That’s how Robert got involved. The question in my mind has to do with why they would suddenly sell a stake in what is supposed to be a very, and I mean very, lucrative joint venture with the Russians when they were desperate to save it a year ago?’

  ‘Any idea why the deal was falling apart?’

  ‘Well, Sibraz, the Russian company they mention here, was trying to renege on the deal. The diamond deposit they talk about in the article is supposed to be unbelievably rich and it was quite a feat for Prism to land the deal in the first place. They would never walk away from a resource like that without putting up a considerable fight.’

  ‘Okay, I think I’m with you so far. You haven’t said why the Russians were causing problems.’

  ‘Why were they trying to pull out?’ Amelia frowned. ‘Power, I suppose. Their reasons were never terribly clear. They never like to see their assets in foreign hands, but in this case they needed the foreign investment to help develop those assets. The line they fed the press at the time was that Prism wasn’t making the right commitments to move the venture forward. In other words, they weren’t investing enough, drilling enough, meeting deadlines, those sorts of things, which, by the way, are notoriously difficult when you’re operating in a country drowning in red tape.’ Amelia paused. ‘It’s not the first time something like this has happened. Intimidation, power play, egos, dodgy ethics – it’s all part of doing business in Russia, as you know very well.’

  Mara was silent for a moment, nodding to herself. ‘And why was Robert involved? I mean, he was the ambassador. As far as I know, it’s fairly unusual for an ambassador to get involved in these kinds of business deals.’

  Amelia nodded in agreement. ‘It was a little, yes. The circumstances were unusual. He would never have been involved, but this was a high-profile case and in the past he’d been instrumental in cementing other deals between Canadian equipment suppliers and Rosalmaz, Russia’s major diamond mining company.’

  ‘And of course I know how dedicated Robert was to enhancing Canada’s image and cooperation with Russia,’ Mara added, finishing the thought for her.

  Amelia didn’t need to reply as she thought of Robert’s fierce loyalty to his country and his passion to improve trade relations between the two countries.

  ‘So what happened?’

  ‘You mean, after Robert disappeared?’

  ‘Yes, in the past year.’

  Amelia sighed. ‘I don’t know. At the time the two companies were at loggerheads, the issue received a fair amount of press, but since then there’ve only been superficial repetitions of what was said before. I assumed that they’d reached some sort of agreement or at least a working arrangement. To be honest, despite the fact that I never liked what was going on, I didn’t make the connection until now.’ She felt foolish for saying it, because it made her theory sound even more untenable. She didn’t want it to appear as if she was grasping for any theory, however flimsy, as some sort of delayed way of handling Robert’s disappearance.

  Mara was silent for a moment and to her credit she didn’t point out the glaring gaps and assumptions in Amelia’s reasoning. ‘You said the Canadians would have continued to put up a fight, right?’

  Amelia nodded.

  ‘Could it be that they did exactly that all these months and that they have now simply tired of all this unprofitable power play? Do you know for a fact that they didn’t fight to keep the deal alive? Isn’t it possible that the conflict has cost them too much already?’

  Amelia hesitated. She knew it was possible, but was unwilling to let go of the feeling that it was more than that. ‘Anything’s possible,’ she conceded, ‘but there’ve been no reports or evidence of dissatisfaction since the negotiations ended. And you know how difficult it is to keep the lid on souring relations here. Especially for close to a year.’

  Mara nodded and considered Amelia’s story for a few moments. ‘You’ve been to the embassy?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I can’t even imagine how strange that must have been.’

  ‘It was. Good to see old friends and familiar faces, of course, but Robert’s photo on the wall knocked me a little. I don’t know, Mara, you’re right, it’s really weird to be back.’

  Mara sighed deeply and sat back in her chair. ‘So you’ve come back to make sense of it?’

  Amelia was almost too nervous to nod. ‘Who better than me?’

  ‘Does the embassy know why you’re back? Do they know about your theory?’

  ‘Not exactly.’ Amelia caught the expression on her friend’s face. ‘I don’t want t
o be shadowed by a security person. Of course I’ll ask them for assistance, but I think I stand a better chance of finding answers if people think I’m here for things like admin and closure.’

  ‘What about the police?’ Mara asked carefully.

  ‘I’m planning on contacting them, but as far as I know, the authorities have found nothing in the past year. They’ve made no progress and I know nothing more than I did last year.’

  ‘Amelia, dear, last year they told you to leave. Have you forgotten how concerned the embassy was about your safety? What gives you reason to believe anything has changed? You’ve made a certain connection between this deal and what happened to Robert, and I can see that it’s important to you. How could it not be? But wouldn’t it be better to go home and have someone else look into it again? I’m worried about you, please think through this very carefully.’

  She had given it thought, plenty of thought, in fact.

  ‘Does it really matter if nothing has changed, Mara? So what if there’s still danger out there? What could possibly happen now that would be any worse than what’s already happened?’

  Her words were followed by a momentary silence during which she could see the protest form on Mara’s lips, but before Mara could utter any of the objections she herself had thought of over the previous weeks, she continued. ‘Don’t change my mind, Mara. I’m going to try and find the truth about what happened to Robert and I plan to find out who’s responsible. I promise you I’ll go home, but only then. I don’t think life can go on for me if I don’t do this.’

  5

  ‘You don’t speak with a Canadian accent, Mrs Pearson,’ the man behind the government-issue desk observed. He seemed to have forgotten, or was pretending to forget, that he’d met her before. Although their meeting the previous year had been brief and had taken place in the frenzied days after Robert had gone missing, there was no way it would have been possible for him to forget the high profile case he had been, and still was, if only on paper, responsible for. He busied himself with the arrangement of his diary and pens, avoiding eye contact with Amelia.