Collins made a provisional arrangement. Rourke would be back in contact later that evening.
Collins’s final call that afternoon, shortly before four o’clock, was to Cromer.
‘Charlie. Just wanted to say the package we were lining up the other day looks good. The other two partners are very interested. We’re ready when you give us the word.’
‘Thanks, Dicky. I have a meeting later which should clarify things. I’ll be in contact tonight.’
At five o’clock, with the business of the day cleared from his desk, Cromer prepared himself for Yufru’s arrival. Valerie Yates was briefed to leave when she saw him. Cromer did not want the possibility of any eavesdropping, intentional or otherwise.
He had planned for himself the role he liked best – magnanimous, controlled, polite, manipulative. He did not wish to be overtly aggressive and thus risk forcing Yufru into a corner. If he had guessed correctly, it should be a delicate, but not difficult matter to persuade him that the two of them should be working together.
‘Mr Yufru, Sir Charles,’ came Valerie’s voice over the intercom.
‘Very good, Miss Yates, ask him to come in, and perhaps you could bring in some tea before you go…ah, Mr Yufru, I am sorry to impose upon your precious time. Shall we?’ And he indicated the sofas.
‘It is my pleasure, Sir Charles. Perhaps it is I that owe you an apology. I had no intention of involving you in such an extended intellectual exercise’, said Yufru, as he relaxed back into the ancient polished leather. He crossed his right leg over his left and set the crease of his grey trousers exactly over the kneecap.
‘Your idea interested me,’ Cromer said, ‘so much so that I began to treat it less as an intellectual exercise and more as a practical possibility.’
Yufru’s hands came to rest in his lap. He gave no hint of concern.
Cromer continued: ‘That way, I can be sure that my response will be complete and therefore as helpful as possible. It is because I think I now finally have a realistic answer to your question that I wish to speak to you.’
Valerie knocked at the door and brought in a tray bearing two neat little porcelain cups, teapot, sugar bowl, teaspoons, milk jug and lemon. Yufru was now utterly still, his face expressionless, his attention riveted on Cromer. As Valerie set down the tray on the table between the two men he said smoothly: ‘By all means let us cover all eventualities, Sir Charles.’
Cromer waited until Valerie had closed the door and resumed: ‘In our previous conversation, Mr Yufru, we discussed the possibility of my bank being presented with documents signed by the Emperor several months ago. I said an outdated signature would not be acceptable. I think I should tell you that the date alone would not be our only reason for our refusal to comply with instructions.
‘We are speaking of documents signed by the Emperor after his deposition. It is well known that he was not a free man. We have no reason to think he was badly treated; but equally we must assume, for our client’s sake, that instructions not in his direct interest might have been the product of coercion. In other words, in the circumstances you outlined, we would have a justifiable fear that he might have been forced to append his signature to documents not of his own devising. I fear, therefore, that we could not accept the Emperor’s instructions as both authentic and valid. The date, you see, would be irrelevant if the Emperor was a prisoner at the time of his signature.’
Yufru had begun to breathe a little quicker, the only sign of tension other than his unnatural stillness.
‘Are you in all seriousness telling me, Sir Charles, that a bank of your standing, with all its international connections, would refuse to honour the authenticated instructions of one of its most important clients?’
‘In law, the definition of the word “instructions” becomes somewhat equivocal in these circumstances. I am told that such a document would have the same status as evidence produced under torture. I mean no direct comparison, of course, but the possibility of signature under duress would, I assure you, render the instructions null.’
‘In English law, perhaps. But have you considered what the International Court at The Hague would have to say about all this?’
Cromer smiled. ‘I understand that the International Court can deal only with disputes between nations, that is, between governments. It has nothing to say on disputes between individuals, companies or other organizations. Those are dealt with under the laws of the countries concerned. In this instance, the possibility of signature under duress would invalidate any documents under English, Swiss or American law.’
Yufru’s eyes had opened wider. His mood had changed to one of incredulous anger.
‘You are claiming that the Emperor’s fortune can never, in any circumstances, be returned to its rightful owners. I find that an attitude of the greatest immorality. It will be seen by my superiors as a most cynical expression of capitalist imperialism.’
Cromer had touched the nerve he had been probing for. Yufru’s anger was a sign that Cromer’s speculations had been in some way correct. Yet the anger was assertive. It revealed neither fear nor surprise. Either he was an extremely accomplished politician or, as Cromer had guessed, he had still another card to play: the threat of exposure to a wave of hysterical anti-Western propaganda. It was time to pre-empt any such possibility, and retain Yufru’s goodwill.
‘I fail to make myself clear, Mr Yufru. My apologies. I did not say “in any circumstances”. I can imagine circumstances in which this problem might be solved in a way favourable to both of us. Perhaps the time has come to consider them…Your tea?’
The tea was another small piece in Cromer’s game. The ritual of hospitality offered reassurance and a distraction from confrontation.
‘But,’ continued Cromer, ‘the exercise will demand utter honesty on both sides.’
Yufru sipped, his tension dissipating, relieved that there still seemed a way forward, yet wary of Cromer’s mention of honesty.
He said: ‘Please go on.’
‘Very well. I want to suggest to you another…hypothesis. I will follow it with a suggestion that should relieve you of your difficulty. I have thought long and carefully about this. It will take a little time. I would ask you not to make any reaction until I have finished.’
Cromer stood up and began to walk slowly round the room. He did not wish to seem to be addressing Yufru directly. He became discursive, donnish.
He asked Yufru to suppose, for the sake of argument, that the Emperor was still alive, and that his mission had been to discover the circumstances in which any documents the Emperor might sign in the future would be accepted by Cromer’s Bank and its associates. Yufru would, of course, attempt to disguise the fact of the Emperor’s survival. He would hope that Cromer would give an assurance that documents several months old would suffice. In that case, no doubt Yufru would have produced such papers. Likewise, if Cromer had demanded a recent signature, duly signed documents would have appeared, with some plausible explanation.
‘What extraordinary assumptions,’ commented
