you can imagine,” the lawyer continued, “the European countries refused to hire corsairs, in the Paris Declaration of 1856 to be exact. And other countries also refused, such as the United States in the Hague Conferences in 1899 and 1907. Therefore, we can rule out any Western country’s support of our proposed measures. If they were in favor of our ideas they would just carry them out by their own means.”
Egger paused. It seemed he wanted to make sure they understood how complicated the situation was.
“It seems we’ve come to a dead end,” the lawyer smiled. “However, we may be able to kill two birds with one stone.”
Another pause.
“The Somali government is the only one that’s able to give us not only the go-ahead to work within their territory, but also the letter of marque.”
Once again Egger paused in a way that Reyes now understood as his way of making the subject more dramatic.
“No doubt gentlemen,” Egger continued once his audience had assimilated his proposal, “you may be asking yourselves if I’m forgetting that Somalia is, after all, a failed State and that the government barely has any power. Be that as it may, the new government is starting to be recognized by the Western countries. This, together with a little bit of positive publicity, will put the Westerners on our side and we won’t have any opposition at all. We need to show them that after all, Somalia is not doing anything other than protecting its own interests.”
Reyes was beginning to like Egger’s plan. But there was still a problem.
“Do we have the means to get in contact with and negotiate with the Somali government?” he asked Gotthelf.
Gotthelf smiled and said, “Leave that to me.”
And for the second time that morning, a feeling of relief. They had their law man and a negotiator for the upper echelons. It looks like now it’s my turn to put my hand to the plow, he thought.
Once the legal matter was resolved Reyes knew it was his turn.
“As far as I’m concerned Mr. Gotthelf,” he said, “I think I have a first draft of what we’re going to need.”
He went on to explain what type of ship he thought was ideal and the different options he was considering. To conclude he said, “I think my work here is done so, if it’s okay with you, I’ll return to Spain where I have the appropriate contacts for the work I’m about to do.”
Chapter Two
One week later, at his home in Las Rozas, Reyes closed his Mac Book exhausted. As soon as he had arrived in Madrid he had called all his contacts in the small world of naval construction. They weren’t few and until now he had not received one positive response. Some had given him the runaround as soon as they heard what he wanted. Others had promised to look into it and then had called him a few days later to tell him that what he wanted was not feasible. And the last group was made up of those who hadn’t replied yet.
At this point he was barely holding out hope. Everything had seemed so simple in Gotthelf’s office, or at least possible. But now he was facing the harsh reality. Pure logic dictates that the market doesn’t offer goods that have never been requested.
However, he wasn’t one to give up so easily and while he waited for good news or a brilliant idea he had moved on to the second part of his project: getting a crew.
Just like with the ship, common sense dictated that he would find the most qualified people in the military sector. But, same as with the ship he knew it wasn’t going to be feasible. He knew enough soldiers to know that their great sense of duty and service to their country would keep them from engaging in such an enterprise like the one he was proposing, especially the officers. Maybe he could convince a couple here or there but they wouldn’t be the best and he needed really good people.
He also knew that the most important ones were the captain and his officers. Most would want to select their own men. That was a good thing for two reasons: It would make for a united and committed crew. And second, it would relieve Reyes of an important burden of the job. A job he knew the future ship’s captain, if he ever found him, would be much better qualified than him to carry out. He was a strategist. He wasn’t used to working with such detail. And what better person than the one who was going to be in charge to select his own people?
It had been quite a few days since he had started looking for his future captain. After ruling out the military sector he had begun looking among the staff of shipping companies and related corporations with no success. Most of them had no experience in anything related. Which was, Reyes thought grimly, absolutely logical. Most of the very few that had experience (all of them from the Navy), had terrific contracts and awesome jobs that they were obviously not going to quit. The rest weren’t really good enough, or they were too old, or retired, or in one case, completely crazy.
For the first time since everything had started Reyes really thought that he was not going to make it. It was just too difficult.
However, he had never given up on something and this was not going to be the first time. That’s why he kept looking and making phone calls, moving heaven and earth and even underground. He was sure that by now all of Spain knew he was planning on putting together a ship to take to Somalia and hunt pirates. Maybe a little publicity couldn’t hurt, he thought.
That morning Gotthelf had called to inform him that the conversations with the Somali vice-president, whom he evidently knew, were going well and that Egger was starting to prepare drafts of the necessary documents. However, now they needed something more tangible in terms of the ship. In other words, they had done their part and the only thing left to do was his part.
Defeated and exhausted he went to bed. While he dozed off he thought that maybe the next day when his mind was fresh he would come up with a masterful idea.
#
At ten the next morning the previous night’s hope had vanished completely. After getting up early, showering and having a breakfast of coffee and toast, he had tackled the work with lots of energy. But now two hours of negative results had put him in a bad mood. There was just no way.
Then the phone rang.
Expecting another negative response in a list that seemed never-ending he picked up the phone.
“Yes.”
“Good morning, Jaime Reyes? My name is Felipe Nieto from Navantia in Cadiz.
“Hello Felipe, it’s me. How may I help you?”
Navantia in Cadiz. If he remembered correctly they had already responded with a resounding ‘no’ about a week ago. What could they possibly want?
On the other end of the line, a voice undeniably from Cadiz answered.
“Listen, when you told me about your project I honestly told you that we couldn’t do anything for you. To tell you the truth, I got the impression you weren’t surprised to hear that.”
Reyes let him keep talking.
“But the situation has changed considerably. As I’m sure you know, Portugal is going through some bad economic times and it seems as if in the last few months it’s gotten considerably worse.”
Reyes
