I shook my head.
‘And you know nothing about the Middle East.’ He was staring at me and his eyes had the suggestion of a twinkle. ‘It has its humorous side, you know. The boy must have thought you a most remarkable lawyer.’ He went back to the document again. ‘Further, it commits the Company to the payment of an advance of a hundred thousand pounds in respect of oil royalties of fifty per cent, provided always that Sheikh Makhmud and his son agree to grant to the Company the sole concession from date of signature to the year two thousand. Well,’ he said, ‘there’s your undertaking. The boy must have had a touch of the sun when he typed that.’ And he tossed it across to me. ‘Read it yourself and tell me what you think of it — as a lawyer.’
I glanced through it quickly, wondering what he expected me to see in it. ‘It looks perfectly legal,’ I said.
‘Exactly. That’s what makes it so damned odd. He’d taken the trouble to look up all the legal jargon for that sort of a document.’ He leaned suddenly forward. ‘He couldn’t have got that in the desert, could he? It means he looked it up before ever he went out there, before he’d even run his survey.’
‘What are you suggesting?’
‘That his report’s a phoney. I’m not a fool, Grant. That boy’s been got at, and I can guess who’s got at him. Here. Take a look at the survey report.’ He thrust it at me. ‘He used his own typewriter for that. The other’s different, probably an office machine. He typed that document and then went out into the desert-’
‘David lost his life as a result of that survey,’ I reminded him.
‘Did he? How do you know what caused his death?’ He glared at me. ‘You don’t, and nor do I. Nobody knows- or even what’s happened to him. Has anyone mentioned the Whitaker Theory to you?’
‘I know about it,’ I said. ‘Is that why you think he’s been got at?’
He nodded. ‘Way back in the thirties Charles Whitaker began claiming that we’d find the oilfields continuing down from the Gulf here between the sand seas of the Empty Quarter and the Coastal mountain ranges to the east. It seemed a possibility, and remembering how Holmes’s theory had finally been proved right in Bahrain, I took a chance on it and moved some of my development teams in from the coast. It was an expensive business and Buraimi was about the limit from the practical point of view. I was operating partly in the Sharjah sheikhdom and partly in Muscat territory, and after I’d burned my fingers, even the big companies like Shell and ARAMCO wouldn’t look at his theory.’
That was a long time ago now,’ I said.
‘Yes, before the war.’
‘What about Saraifa? Did you do any development work there?’
‘No, it was too far from the coast. I sent a geological party in 1939, but the initial reports weren’t very encouraging and then the war came and the chap in charge of the survey was killed. We didn’t try again, though Charles was always pressing us to do so. He had a political appointment for a short time after the end of the war, but when he rejoined the Company in 1949 he was still just as convinced that he’d be proved right in the end.’ He shook his head. ‘Poor fellow! It had become an obsession — Saraifa in particular; he wanted us to try again there. The wartime development of desert transport made it a practical proposition, but the political situation between Saraifa and Hadd was worsening, and anyway I’d lost faith in his theory by then.’ He stared at the foolscap sheets in my hand. ‘If that survey report had been turned in by one of our most experienced geophysicists I wouldn’t touch it.’
‘Because of the political factor?’
‘No. Not just because of the political factor.’
‘What then?’
He hesitated. ‘Because it doesn’t fit in with the reasons I’m out in the Gulf area.’ He stared at me then, his eyes narrowed above the tired pouches of flesh. ‘The fact is,’ he said, ‘the Company’s been spending too much money out here and getting too little in return. Nobody is supposed to know this yet — not even Erkhard, though I think he’s guessed. My instructions are to carry out a thorough investigation of all our development projects in the Gulf with a view to cutting down our commitments. It amounts to a reassessment of the value of each project and those that show no real promise of yielding results are to be abandoned. So you see-’ He gave a little shrug, his hands spread out. ‘This is hardly the moment for me or anybody else to involve the Company in new commitments.’
‘I see.’ There was really nothing more to be said and I folded the papers and put them in my briefcase.
‘It’s a funny thing.’ He was leaning back in his chair, his eyes half-closed, chuckling to himself. The Company did this once before. They sent Alex Erkhard out and because I was sick and hadn’t the energy to fight him, he got my job. And now, four years later, I’m back with the same powers he had and the knowledge that he’s made more mistakes than I did and lost the Company a lot of friends.’ Again that dry, rasping chuckle, and then his eyelids flicked back. ‘What I’ve told you is in the strictest confidence, you understand. You’ve been put to a lot of trouble to contact me. I thought it only fair to explain the situation to you. If it’s any satisfaction to you, I’d add that a report like that isn’t conclusive. Seismology never is; it’s simply an indication. The only way to be sure you’re sitting on an oilfield is to drill down and find out.’
‘And suppose Whitaker’s doing just that?’
‘Hmm. To know the answer to that we’d have to know the locations the boy was surveying and where his father’s drilling.’ He stared at me. ‘Well, there it is. You’ve got your instructions-’
I nodded. There was no point in continuing the discussion. ‘You’re going back to Bahrain, I take it, Sir Philip?’
‘Bahrain? Oh, you’d like a lift in my plane, is that it?’
I nodded. ‘Please.’
He seemed to hesitate. But then he said, ‘All right.’ He picked up his drink. ‘You know my pilot — Otto Smith? Perhaps you’d be good enough to get him for me.’ He tapped his leg. ‘Can’t move about like I used to.’
‘I’ll get him,’ I said. And I went out and left him there, leaning back in the chair with his eyes half-closed as though exhausted.
I had some difficulty in finding Otto, but eventually I ran him to earth in the showers, sitting naked, smoking a cigarette and gossiping with the navigator. I waited whilst he dressed and then went back with him to the manager’s office.
Gorde was in the same position, but now he had my briefcase open on his lap and he was peering down at a sheet of paper he held in his hand.
I can’t remember what I said to him — I was too angry. I think I called him some pretty unpleasant names, but all he said was, ‘What did you expect me to do?’ His tone was mild. Almost he seemed amused. ‘If I’d asked you to let me see the locations you’d have refused. Quite rightly.’ And he added, ‘I just wanted to check them against the position where his truck was found.’
‘But you’ve no right-’
‘Of course, I’d no right,’ he said. ‘But yelling at me and getting yourself into a muck sweat won’t alter the fact that I now have them. Do you know where they are?’ he asked, peering up at me.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I haven’t had an opportunity-’
‘On the Saraifa-Hadd border. Right bang on the bloody border.’ He glared at me. ‘I suppose you’ll tell me you didn’t know that the border was in dispute?’ The way he said it implied that I’d tried to put something over on him. Angrily I told him that I didn’t have the advantage of his lack of scruples. ‘I kept strictly to my instructions and refrained from opening the envelope until I’d seen you.’
‘All right,’ he said. ‘We’ll talk about it in a moment.’ He levered himself round in his chair. ‘Is the plane refuelled yet, Otto?’
‘I don’t know, sir. I’ll check if you like. Are you wanting to leave right away?’
‘Yes, right away. But first I want you to check that your tanks are full. A personal check please. You’ve got to have enough fuel on board to fly to the Saraifa border and back.’