The Lone Wolf At Cover by John Michell

Author:John Michell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: moscow, cold war, ussr, indonesia, langley, moldova, love and death, kgb thriller, mi6 operative, spies politics
Publisher: John Michell

For now, however, on taking back the licence from Davison, I pretended to be suddenly indignant. ‘Listen, what’s this got to do with me? All I want to know is where I can put 300 grand without this fucking government taxing the eyes out of it.’

Davison had seen it all before and wasn’t fazed. ‘We get a lot of tyre kickers come in. It’s important we know that you’re serious.’

‘I’m bloody serious, mate, trust me.’

Davison’s body language told me he was far from convinced, but my producing a licence now had him interested enough to be doing a mental calculation of his commission if I did turn out to be genuine. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Where do you live right now?’

‘Got a bird,’ I said. ‘We shack up out the back of her olds’ house.’

‘Address?’

‘67 Clifton Gardens, Maida Vale,’ I told him. It was currently a building site.

‘Telephone number?’

‘Mate, we’re in the fucking granny flat. Who has a phone in there?’

Davison shook his head slightly. ‘Did you have any particular investment preference?’

I told Davison I’d be happy with anything paying reasonable interest. ‘What I want,’ I said, ‘is to avoid paying UK tax.’

Davison said this was easier said than done. ‘Apart from the United States, Canada and Singapore,’ he said, ‘the UK doesn’t have a lot of Double Taxation Agreements.’

‘What the bloody hell are Double Taxation Agreements?’

‘Treaties with other countries that recognize if you’ve paid tax overseas you don’t need to pay it here.’

‘Ri…g…ht,’ I said, stringing out the word so as to convey I hadn’t understood at all. I then made my play. ‘A mate of mine told me about investment opportunities in a place somewhere in Africa. In mining he said. It started with Z but I can’t remember it. Apparently it’s all in the news.’

‘Your adviser probably means Zambia,’ Davison responded. ‘There are some companies involved in copper mining there but I wouldn’t recommend them. The political risk is through the roof.’

‘No, no, wasn’t Zambia,’ I said, pretending to rack my brains. ‘Like I say it’s on the telly. I seen something on it myself just the other day.’

‘You don’t possibly mean Zimbabwe, do you?’ Davison asked.

Uncurling my left index finger and pointing it towards Davison’s chest, I exclaimed, ‘That’s it, mate, that’s it.’

Davison put down his pen and closed his notebook. He had given up on me. ‘Sorry Mr Spinks but Phoenix does not recommend investment in Zimbabwe. Politics,’ he said, turning the palms of his hands upwards. ‘There hasn’t really been a decent investment environment there since the 1960s. And now the political risk is off the scale, much worse than Zambia. We took the decision quite a long time ago to give Zimbabwe a wide berth and to date nothing’s convinced us to change our mind.’

I pretended to be flummoxed. ‘Well what the fuck is Wally talking about?’

Davison stood. Our interview was over. ‘That,’ he said, ‘you’d have to ask Wally.’

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