Indonesian Gold (26 page)

The following morning, when Campbell read of Tommy's
accidental death in
The Observer,
he immediately went to his office and removed the file
from his desk then sent it, anonymously, to the Jakarta representative for Amnesty International.
Later that day, he received a visit from immigration officials who asked to inspect copies of his
passport and residency permit, and a concerned call from his sponsors at the Bandung Institute
for Mines, enquiring as to why Military Intelligence was suddenly so interested in his
activities.

****

Alexander Kremenchug arrived in Vancouver only to discover
that Christopher Fielding was in Calgary, trying to talk up the Borneo Gold Corporation shares
with stockbrokers there. He checked into the Four Seasons on the corner of West Georgia and Howe,
and decided to fill in the afternoon researching the Marcos gold cache story, running through
dailies stored on microfilm at the Vancouver Sun. Kremenchug commenced his search around the time
Marcos passed away, and worked backwards from there.

After reading numerous accounts relating to the former
Filipino president's final years, he finally stumbled onto a number of court record reports
which, in his mind, gave considerable credence to General Dominguez's own account of how
Ferdinand Marcos had, in fact, recovered a substantial part of the Yamashita Gold, and that the
bulk of the cache remained intact. He read the foreign correspondent's coverage of testimony
given by Renato Marcos Vizcarra, a relative of the former dictator who revealed the names of
those who had been charged with the responsibility of selling other Marcos gold
deposits.

The story was bizarre. Vizcarra, now the Mayor of Ramon,
Isabela in the Philippines, claimed that some time after lunch on the Sunday prior to the court
proceedings, he had received a cell phone call warning him against testifying before the Senate
Blue Ribbon committee. Kremenchug was enthralled by the story.

“Hindi ka ba naaawa sa pamilya mo kung mag-te ka. Huwag
mo nang ituloy
” the voice had threatened in Filipino. (Don't you
pity your family for what will happen if you testify? Don't follow through with it, the
mysterious caller had warned.) As a result, it appeared that Vizcarra fell short of revealing
much more and now lived in constant fear for his life, accompanied by Marines whenever he
ventured out of his office or home.

Kremenchug
also learned that
Senator Juan Ponce Enrile had claimed that he had sighted photocopies of Marcos' gold
certificates estimated by the ailing industrialist, Enrique Zobel, to be worth thirty five
billion dollars prior to the late strongman's death in 1989. In Zobel's deposition before the
same Senate committee, he estimated the Marcos fortune to be worth one hundred billion dollars,
producing a photocopy of what he said was a one hundred and sixty million dollar US Treasury Note
in Marcos' name. The story then became even more intriguing when Kremenchug discovered another
article relating to a lawyer, Dr. David Chaikin who, because of his relationship with an
investigator concerned with the missing Marcos billions, noticed an entry of an amount of some
eight hundred thousand ounces of gold in a Credit Suisse statement. This had been submitted
during the hearings which, due to the European practice of using decimal points where the British
use commas to separate the value of thousands, the original report had been misinterpreted as
there being only eight hundred ounces of gold, the overall value shy by three hundred million
dollars!

Kremenchug smiled in admiration when he followed the other
stories, learning that witness after witness alleged that these funds had originally belonged to
Imelda Marcos' Trinidad Foundation, and how she had moved it around from Trinidad to her accounts
in Fides Trust and, after the Trinidad Foundation's collapse, assets were then moved to yet a
third foundation named Palmy. Kremenchug could find no evidence that the First Lady's gold
deposits were ever declared, or frozen, and, according to a related article, the Swiss
authorities advised that the Palmy Foundation's assets were only seventeen million dollars, of
which gold represented less than half a million.

But, it was the reported statement made by Imelda that
gave Kremenchug heart – that Madame Marcos had revealed that the bulk of her late husband's
fortune was made through clandestine gold trading. By five o'clock, Kremenchug had read enough,
and decided to catch a cab down to the Gaslight area for a stroll before catching an early night
in preparation for his meeting with Fielding, the next day.

****

‘Well, if it isn't the King of Kalimantan!' Walters
mouthed facetiously as Kremenchug entered BGC's now less than lavish executive
offices.

Surprised that Walters had been invited to participate in
the meeting, Kremenchug immediately abandoned the speech he had prepared for Fielding.

‘I'm pleased you're here, Scott,' Kremenchug improvised,
‘saves me having to go all through what I have to say, again.' The men all exchanged greetings,
the company President motioning his visitor to a chair.

‘When did you get in?' Walters accepted coffee from the
secretary, admiring her figure as she moved between the three men.

‘Early Wednesday,' Kremenchug replied, ‘that's one hell of
a long haul from Hong Kong.'

‘Worse, going the other way,' Fielding finally
spoke.

‘I know. Adds two, sometimes three hours,' Kremenchug
continued the banal conversation, wondering what had transpired between these two prior to his
arrival. He was
au fait
with respect to the financier's role – in fact, he had prepared a
separate proposition for Walters and had intended presenting this in private. Now, he was obliged
to change his strategy and deal with both men simultaneously.

‘How's it all going over in Western Australia?' Walters
asked, the barb deliberate.

‘The bastards will do some serious time,' Kremenchug
answered, not wishing to dwell on the matter, ‘let's not go there. I don't need to be reminded of
what might have been.'

‘Are you all clear?' Kremenchug knew that Walters was
trying to bait him.

‘And why wouldn't I be?'

‘There were enough rumors flying around over here to
suggest that some would believe that you had a hand in the spiking.'

Kremenchug
held his anger –
electing to ignore the remark.

‘How long are you staying?' Fielding
interceded.

‘Just long enough to settle this offer I have, then I'm
back to Indonesia.'

‘Kalimantan's still drawing a great deal of interest,'
Walters suggested.

‘Sure, and it's going to get even better, for some,'
Kremenchug decided to get straight to the matter at hand. ‘That's why I'm here. I've secured a
great property, and…'

Walters laughed sarcastically, slapping one leg with his
free hand. ‘Jesus, you've got balls!' he snapped, ‘You've single-handedly broken the back of this
company with your bogus prospects, and have the audacity to stroll in here as if nothing had
happened!'

‘Scott,' Fielding stepped in again, ‘let's hear what he
has to say. With the company the way it is right now, I'm willing to listen to just about
anything that'll get us out of the shit.'

‘Drag us in even deeper, would be more like
it!'

‘Let's hear him out.'

‘If you're going to try to stick us with another of your
worthless properties, then I can tell you right now, you'd be wasting everyone's
time.'

‘I'm not here to sell anyone anything,' Kremenchug's voice
raised a pitch, ‘I'm here to buy!'

‘Yeah, right,' Walters' lip curled at the
corner.

Kremenchug
raised one eyebrow
and challenged the financier. ‘If you don't like what I have to offer, I can take it
elsewhere.'

‘You can take it and shove…'

‘For Chrissakes, you two!' Fielding shot to his feet. ‘I
don't need any more of this shit!' He turned his back to the others and stepped towards the
window. ‘I've had enough!' He turned, and shook his head slowly in disappointment. ‘For what it's
worth I've been thinking seriously about giving it all away, and going back to working in the
field. BGC is all but finished. I had hoped to secure some interest in Calgary but the deal fell
through. As far as I'm concerned, that was the last chance we had to raise additional funding to
continue. I think it's time to de-list and place this operation in mothballs. Besides, we won't
be able to make salaries inside of three months – and I need an income.' He then dropped back
into a chair, threw one leg over the other and crossed his arms in a display of
disgust.

Fielding's outburst caught both Walters and Kremenchug by
surprise.

‘You can't be serious?' Walters asked, his voice filled
with scorn.

‘Never been more serious in my life,' Fielding remained
firm.

‘The hell you do!' Walters exploded. ‘I think we should
discuss this in private.' He glanced over at their visitor.

‘Can't we just cool it for a few minutes until you hear
what I've got to say?' Kremenchug pleaded.

‘Stay out of this Alex – you're not exactly flavor of the
month around here at the moment.' Then, glaring at the BGC President, ‘Have you suggested this to
anyone else?' Walters voice was hoarse – he had a major stake in BGC. ‘No, not yet.' Fielding
looked tired. ‘But I think I should make an announcement before the market closes at the end of
this week.'

Walters face became ashen. ‘That has to be a Board
decision,' he rasped, near-spilling his coffee as he fumbled to get the mug down on the
table.

‘Well, the way I see it, Scott, if I resign then you and
the other directors can do whatever you want.'

Shock turned to anger as blood filled the financier's
cheeks. ‘I've got the best part of half a million invested in this company, …' he paused,
suddenly short of breath, ‘…invested, I remind you, because of the misrepresentations you and
Kremenchug here made for startup funding.' He glared at both men. ‘Now you're telling me that
you're abandoning ship?' Walters leaned forward, his face grim. ‘My backers will be very, very
pissed!'

Kremenchug
seized the
opportunity. ‘Then, why not just sell your position?'

‘Offload my stock?'

‘Sure, my investors will take it off your
hands.'

‘What's the offer?'

‘A hundred and fifty grand.'

Walters sneered. ‘And who'd be stupid enough to pay that,
when it's currently trading for less than seventy thou?'

Kremenchug
knew that this was
his chance. ‘I can get you a hundred and fifty grand for your stock, and enough options to double
what you initially invested.' He then stretched, clasping both hands behind his neck, and waited,
knowing that Walters was digesting what he'd said.

‘What are you up to, Alex?' Walters eyes narrowed, anger
displaced with suspicion.

‘I'm not up to anything, Scott,' Kremenchug knew he had to
be careful here; the financier was nobody's fool. ‘I came to BGC first as I have a vested
interest.' He turned to Fielding. ‘You're not the only one hurting because of the company's
predicament, Chris. Baird and I have half a million shares we can't sell, don't
forget.'

At the mention of Eric Baird's name the BGC President
shook his head. ‘Wherever did you find that man?'

‘He has his uses,' Kremenchug wished to avoid discussing
the mistakes of the past. ‘What do you say, Scott, are you interested in selling your BGC
holdings to me?'

‘Why would you want to pay more than double the market?'
then, to Fielding, ‘Are you in on this?'

‘No, he's not,' Kremenchug came to the man's aid. ‘I was
going to make an offer to you both and I thought I'd discuss it with Chris first as you would
need to stay on.'

Fielding stared at Kremenchug as if he were crazy. ‘You're
offering to buy Scott out?' he asked disbelievingly, ‘Why?'

Kremenchug
knew that he had to
be convincing. ‘Because the structure is already in place, the company has a Contract of Work
with the Indonesian government and, most importantly, I have backers who are convinced that the
BGC leases in Kalimantan have value. I already own five percent. Scott's stock would take this up
to just over seventeen.' Christopher Fielding moaned inwardly – if only he had not remarried!
Now, his own BGC stock totaled less than that of even Baird's.

‘What's the deal?' the financier sounded less belligerent
now.

‘The incoming investors would want to have control,
and…'