State Of Fear Page 6

Page 6

 

  Kim placed a call down there. Then, about that time, it came up on his screen that the check had cleared. Kim called Damon and asked him if he wanted to drop the inquiry. Damon said no, check it out.

  Kim had a brief conversation with Miguel Chavez at the Banco Credito Agricola in San Jos?. Chavez said he had gotten an electronic deposit from the Moriah Wind Power Associates via Ansbach (Cayman) Ltd. , a private bank on Grand Cayman island. That was all he knew.

  Chavez called Kim back ten minutes later to say he had made inquiries at Ansbach and had obtained a record of a wire transfer that was paid into the Moriah account by the International Wilderness Preservation Society three days before that. And the IWPS transfer noted in the comment field, "G. Morton Research Fund. "

  John Kim called his Vancouver client, Nat Damon, to ask what the check was for. Damon said it was for the lease of a small two-man research submarine.

  Kim thought that was pretty interesting, so he telephoned his friend George Morton to kid him a bit, and ask why he was leasing a submarine. And to his surprise, Morton knew absolutely nothing about it.

  Evans finished taking down notes on the pad. He said, "This is what some bank manager in Vancouver told you?"

  "Yes. A good friend of mine. Why are you looking at me that way?"

  "Because its a lot of information," Evans said. He didnt know the banking rules in Canada, to say nothing of Costa Rica, but he knew it was unlikely that any banks would freely exchange information in the way Morton had described. If the Vancouver managers story was true, there was more to it that he wasnt telling. Evans made a note to check into it. "And do you know the International Wilderness Preservation Society, which has your check for a quarter of a million dollars?"

  Morton shook his head. "Never heard of them. "

  "So you never gave them two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?"

  Morton shook his head. "Ill tell you what I did do, in the last week," he said. "I gave two hundred and fifty grand to Nicholas Drake to cover a monthly operating shortfall. He told me he had some problem about a big contributor from Seattle not coming through for a week. Drakes asked me to help him out before like that, once or twice. "

  "You think that money ended up in Vancouver?"

  Morton nodded.

  "You better ask Drake about it," Evans said.

  "I have no idea at all," Drake said, looking mystified. "Costa Rica? International Wilderness Preservation? My goodness, I cant imagine. "

  Evans said, "You know the International Wilderness Preservation Society?"

  "Very well," Drake said. "Theyre excellent. Weve worked closely with them on any number of projects around the worldthe Everglades, Tiger Tops in Nepal, the Lake Toba preserve in Sumatra. The only thing I can think is that somehow Georges check was mistakenly deposited in the wrong account. Or amp;I just dont know. I have to call the office. But its late in California. Itll have to wait until morning. "

  Morton was staring at Drake, not speaking.

  "George," Drake said, turning to him. "Im sure this must make you feel very strange. Even if its an honest mistakeas I am almost certain it isits still a lot of money to be mishandled. I feel terrible. But mistakes happen, especially if you use a lot of unpaid volunteers, as we do. But you and I have been friends for a long time. I want you to know that I will get to the bottom of this. And of course I will see that the money is recovered at once. You have my word, George. "

  "Thank you," Morton said.

  They all climbed into the Land Cruiser.

  The vehicle bounced over the barren plain. "Damn, those Icelanders are stubborn," Drake said, staring out the window. "They may be the most stubborn researchers in the world. "

  "He never saw your point?" Evans said.

  "No," Drake said, "I couldnt make him understand. Scientists cant adopt that lofty attitude anymore. They cant say, I do the research, and I dont care how it is used. Thats out of date. Its irresponsible. Even in a seemingly obscure field like glacier geology. Because, like it or not, were in the middle of a wara global war of information versus disinformation. The war is fought on many battlegrounds. Newspaper op-eds. Television reports. Scientific journals. Websites, conferences, classroomsand courtrooms, too, if it comes to that. " Drake shook his head. "We have truth on our side, but were outnumbered and out-funded. Today, the environmental movement is David battling Goliath. And Goliath is Aventis and Alcatel, Humana and GE, BP and Bayer, Shell and Glaxo-Wellcomehuge, global, corporate. These people are the implacable enemies of our planet, and Per Einarsson, out there on his glacier, is irresponsible to pretend it isnt happening. "

  Sitting beside Drake, Peter Evans nodded sympathetically, though in fact he took everything Drake was saying with a large grain of salt. The head of NERF was famously melodramatic. And Drake was pointedly ignoring the fact that several of the corporations he had named made substantial contributions to NERF every year, and three executives from those companies actually sat on Drakes board of advisors. That was true of many environmental organizations these days, although the reasons behind corporate involvement were much debated.

  "Well," Morton said, "maybe Per will reconsider later on. "

  "I doubt it," Drake said gloomily. "He was angry. Weve lost this battle, Im sorry to say. But we do what we always do. Soldier on. Fight the good fight. "

  It was silent in the car for a while.

  "The girls were damn good looking," Morton said. "Werent they, Peter?"

  "Yes," Evans said. "They were. "

  Evans knew that Morton was trying to lighten the mood in the car. But Drake would have none of it. The head of NERF stared morosely at the barren landscape, and shook his head mournfully at the snow-covered mountains in the distance.

  Evans had traveled many times with Drake and Morton in the last couple of years. Usually, Morton could cheer everybody around him, even Drake, who was glum and fretful.

  But lately Drake had become even more pessimistic than usual. Evans had first noticed it a few weeks ago, and had wondered at the time if there was illness in the family, or something else that was bothering him. But it seemed there was nothing a miss. At least, nothing that anyone would talk about. NERF was a beehive of activity; they had moved into a wonderful new building in Beverly Hills; fund-raising was at an all-time high; they were planning spectacular new events and conferences, including the Abrupt Climate Change Conference that would begin in two months. Yet despite these successesor because of them?Drake seemed more miserable than ever.

  Morton noticed it, too, but he shrugged it off. "Hes a lawyer," he said. "What do you expect? Forget about it. "

  By the time they reached Reykjav?k, the sunny day had turned wet and chilly. It was sleeting at Keflav?k airport, obliging them to wait while the wings of the white Gulfstream jet were de-iced. Evans slipped away to a corner of the hangar and, since it was still the middle of the night in the US, placed a call to a friend in banking in Hong Kong. He asked about the Vancouver story.

  "Absolutely impossible," was the immediate answer. "No bank would divulge such information, even to another bank. Theres an STR in the chain somewhere. "

  "An STR?"

  "Suspicious transfer report. If it looks like money for drug trafficking or terrorism, the account gets tagged. And from then on, its tracked. There are ways to track electronic transfers, even with strong encryption. But none of that tracking is ever going to wind up on the desk of a bank manager. "

  "No?"

  "Not a chance. Youd need international law-enforcement credentials to see that tracking report. "

  "So this bank manager didnt do all this himself?"

  "I doubt it. There is somebody else involved in this story. A policeman of some kind. Somebody youre not being told about. "

  "Like a customs guy, or Interpol?"

  "Or something. "

  "Why would my client be contacted at all?"

  "I dont know. But its not an accident. Does your client have a
ny radical tendencies?"

  Thinking of Morton, Evans wanted to laugh. "Absolutely not. "

  "You quite sure, Peter?"

  "Well, yes amp;"

  "Because sometimes these wealthy donors amuse themselves, or justify themselves, by supporting terrorist groups. Thats what happened with the IRA. Rich Americans in Boston supported them for decades. But times have changed. No one is amused any longer. Your client should be careful. And if youre his attorney, you should be careful, too. Hate to visit you in prison, Peter. "

  And he hung up.

  Chapter 6

  TO LOS ANGELES

  MONDAY, AUGUST 23

  1:04 P. M.

  The flight attendant poured Mortons vodka into a cut-glass tumbler. "No more ice, sweetie," Morton said, raising his hand. They were flying west, over Greenland, a vast expanse of ice and cloud in pale sun beneath them.

  Morton sat with Drake, who talked about how the Greenland ice cap was melting. And the rate at which the Arctic ice was melting. And Canadian glaciers were receding. Morton sipped his vodka and nodded. "So Iceland is an anomaly?"

  "Oh yes," Drake said. "An anomaly. Everywhere else, glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate. "

  "Its good we have you, Nick," Morton said, putting his hand on Drakes shoulder.

  Drake smiled. "And its good we have you, George," he said. "We wouldnt be able to accomplish anything without your generous support. Youve made the Vanutu lawsuit possibleand thats extremely important for the publicity it will generate. And as for your other grants, well amp;words fail me. "

  "Words never fail you," Morton said, slapping him on the back.

  Sitting across from them, Evans thought they really were the odd couple. Morton, big and hearty, dressed casually in jeans and a workshirt, always seeming to burst from his clothes. And Nicholas Drake, tall and painfully thin, wearing a coat and tie, with his scrawny neck rising from the collar of a shirt that never seemed to fit.

  In their manner, too, they were complete opposites. Morton loved to be around as many people as possible, loved to eat, and laugh. He had a penchant for pretty girls, vintage sports cars, Asian art, and practical jokes. His parties drew most of Hollywood to his Holmby Hills mansion; his charity functions were always special, always written up the next day.

  Of course, Drake attended those functions, but invariably left early, sometimes before dinner. Often he pleaded illnesshis own or a friends. In fact, Drake was a solitary, ascetic man, who detested parties and noise. Even when he stood at a podium giving a speech, he conveyed an air of isolation, as if he were alone in the room. And, being Drake, he made it work for him. He managed to suggest that he was a lone messenger in the wilderness, delivering the truth the audience needed to hear.

  Despite their differences in temperament, the two men had built a durable friendship that had lasted the better part of a decade. Morton, the heir to a forklift fortune, had the congenital uneasiness of inherited wealth. Drake had a good use for that money, and in return provided Morton with a passion, and a cause, that informed and guided Mortons life. Mortons name appeared on the board of advisors of the Audubon Society, the Wilderness Society, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Sierra Club. He was a major contributor to Greenpeace and the Environmental Action League.

  All this culminated in two enormous gifts by Morton to NERF. The first was a grant of $1 million, to finance the Vanutu lawsuit. The second was a grant of $9 million to NERF itself, to finance future research and litigation on behalf of the environment. Not surprisingly, the NERF board had voted Morton their Concerned Citizen of the Year. A banquet in his honor was scheduled for later that fall, in San Francisco.

  Evans sat across from the two men, idly thumbing through a magazine. But he had been shaken by the Hong Kong call, and found himself observing Morton with some care.

  Morton still had his hand on Drakes shoulder, and was telling him a jokeas usual, trying to get Drake to laughbut it seemed to Evans that he detected a certain distance on Mortons part. Morton had withdrawn, but didnt want Drake to notice.

  This suspicion was confirmed when Morton stood up abruptly and headed for the cockpit. "I want to know about this damn electronic thing," he said. Since takeoff, they had been experiencing the effects of a major solar flare that rendered satellite telephones erratic or unusable. The pilots said the effect was heightened near the poles, and would soon diminish as they headed south.

  And Morton seemed eager to make some calls. Evans wondered to whom. It was now four a. m. in New York, one a. m. in Los Angeles. Who was Morton calling? But of course it could concern any of his ongoing environmental projectswater purification in Cambodia, reforestation in Guinea, habitat preservation in Madagascar, medicinal plants in Peru. To say nothing of the German expedition to measure the thickness of the ice in Antarctica. Morton was personally involved in all these projects. He knew them in detail, knew the scientists involved, had visited the locations himself.

  So it could be anything.

  But somehow, Evans felt, it wasnt just anything.

  Morton came back. "Pilots say its okay now. " He sat by himself in the front of the plane, reached for his headset, and pulled the sliding door shut for privacy.

  Evans turned back to his magazine.

  Drake said, "You think hes drinking more than usual?"

  "Not really," Evans said.

  "I worry. "

  "I wouldnt," Evans said.

  "You realize," Drake said, "we are just five weeks from the banquet in his honor, in San Francisco. Thats our biggest fund-raising event of the year. It will generate considerable publicity, and itll help us launch the conference on Abrupt Climate Change. "

  "Uh-huh," Evans said.

  "Id like to ensure that the publicity focuses on environmental issues, and not anything else. Of a personal nature, if you know what I mean. "