Hot Siberian Read Online Free Page B

of producing, but he put stock in the formidable figures that the System’s security people came up with through its informants. At first the System had viewed the Russian diamonds as merely a potential threat, one that the System with its stranglehold on the marketing aspect of the trade could easily cope with. There had even been some talk early on about profiting from the situation by allowing the Russians to market some of its goods through the System. That met with graven resistance from the board of directors. The very idea! it had huffed.
    Then came the African problems and a change of heart.
    If the System was to survive, an affiliation between it and the Russians would have to be. Churcher, however, wasn’t about to expose his wounds and beg mercy. He tried some finagling.
    He promoted the rumor that an important diamond find had been made in northern Australia. It was reported to be a huge field that could be easily and quite inexpensively mined. What was more, the gem yield percentage was phenomenally high, higher than had ever been gotten out of South Africa or even out of Namibia.
    This blessed, bountiful Australian find was, of course, a feint. There was some truth to it. There were diamonds in northern Australia. The System had known that for ages. However, it had also known that the diamonds found there were mainly small and of inferior quality. What Churcher hoped was that all the to-do over the Australian find would flush the Russians, get them to come out and ask the System if it would be so kind as to help market their diamonds. The System would, with perfectly measured reluctance, condescend.
    The Soviet Minister of Foreign Trade was Grigori Savich. He didn’t take the System’s bait. He just nosed around it and eyed it carefully.
    Churcher casually extended an invitation to Savich to come to London for a friendly chat.
    Savich told Churcher to come to Moscow and talk business.
    Churcher went.
    The Soviets did not mention how the System had made them pay dearly for diamonds right after the war, but no doubt they kept it in mind. They politely permitted Churcher to say his opening piece about how the System with its years of marketing experience and its established setup could be put to profitable use by the Soviets. That was true, and the Soviets agreed. They were most cordial. They agreed to everything up to the point of terms. When it came to stating terms, Churcher was interrupted by Savich. From Savich’s unequivocal tone, Churcher gathered that the Soviets knew the System was negotiating from weakness. He just assumed his soft face and nodded.
    The deal was cut. All the way to its small print.
    The Russians would from then on supply the System with the diamonds it needed for the world market.
    The System was saved. Just a few months short of having to fold.
    It was never publicized that the System and the Soviets had become such cozy business bedfellows. That would have been bad for business, especially damaging in the West on the retail level. Why give the men in the United States, for instance, a political excuse for not buying a diamond bauble or two for their lady loves? Instead, the System saw to it that Russian diamonds in general were disparaged, said to be on the small side, to be rather undesirably grayish and difficult to cut because they were brittle. Everyone, even the best-informed diamondaires in the trade, bought the scenario.
    The Soviets and the System.
    Over the years their secret collaboration prevailed.
    Rupert Churcher prevailed.
    However, on that Friday afternoon in May in the late 1980s, as Churcher studied himself in the mirror above the commode in his private lavatory off his private office on the fourth floor at 11 Harrowhouse, he had doubts that he would last long enough to get his knighthood. Yesterday the Africans, today the Russians, he mentally complained. It was a dreadful much. Just moments ago he had excused himself and left the three Russians