East of the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page B

connection. Tell me about this deal and why it had to be salvaged. And how was Robert involved in it all?’ She leaned back and waited for Amelia to speak.
    ‘You do know this isn’t something that was in the press, so you shouldn’t talk about it to anyone?’
    ‘Of course,’ Mara said, sounding a little indignant. ‘Now go on. The deal was falling apart—’
    ‘Yes, and the Canadian company mentioned there – Prism – fought tooth and nail to keep it alive. That’s how Robert got involved. The question in my mind has to do with why they would suddenly sell a stake in what is supposed to be a very, and I mean very , lucrative joint venture with the Russians when they were desperate to save it a year ago?’
    ‘Any idea why the deal was falling apart?’
    ‘Well, Sibraz, the Russian company they mention here, was trying to renege on the deal. The diamond deposit they talk about in the article is supposed to be unbelievably rich and it was quite a feat for Prism to land the deal in the first place. They would never walk away from a resource like that without putting up a considerable fight.’
    ‘Okay, I think I’m with you so far. You haven’t said why the Russians were causing problems.’
    ‘Why were they trying to pull out?’ Amelia frowned. ‘Power, I suppose. Their reasons were never terribly clear. They never like to see their assets in foreign hands, but in this case they needed the foreign investment to help develop those assets. The line they fed the press at the time was that Prism wasn’t making the right commitments to move the venture forward. In other words, they weren’t investing enough, drilling enough, meeting deadlines, those sorts of things, which, by the way, are notoriously difficult when you’re operating in a country drowning in red tape.’ Amelia paused. ‘It’s not the first time something like this has happened. Intimidation, power play, egos, dodgy ethics – it’s all part of doing business in Russia, as you know very well.’
    Mara was silent for a moment, nodding to herself. ‘And why was Robert involved? I mean, he was the ambassador. As far as I know, it’s fairly unusual for an ambassador to get involved in these kinds of business deals.’
    Amelia nodded in agreement. ‘It was a little, yes. The circumstances were unusual. He would never have been involved, but this was a high-profile case and in the past he’d been instrumental in cementing other deals between Canadian equipment suppliers and Rosalmaz, Russia’s major diamond mining company.’
    ‘And of course I know how dedicated Robert was to enhancing Canada’s image and cooperation with Russia,’ Mara added, finishing the thought for her.
    Amelia didn’t need to reply as she thought of Robert’s fierce loyalty to his country and his passion to improve trade relations between the two countries.
    ‘So what happened?’
    ‘You mean, after Robert disappeared?’
    ‘Yes, in the past year.’
    Amelia sighed. ‘I don’t know. At the time the two companies were at loggerheads, the issue received a fair amount of press, but since then there’ve only been superficial repetitions of what was said before. I assumed that they’d reached some sort of agreement or at least a working arrangement. To be honest, despite the fact that I never liked what was going on, I didn’t make the connection until now.’ She felt foolish for saying it, because it made her theory sound even more untenable. She didn’t want it to appear as if she was grasping for any theory, however flimsy, as some sort of delayed way of handling Robert’s disappearance.
    Mara was silent for a moment and to her credit she didn’t point out the glaring gaps and assumptions in Amelia’s reasoning. ‘You said the Canadians would have continued to put up a fight, right?’
    Amelia nodded.
    ‘Could it be that they did exactly that all these months and that they have now simply tired of all this unprofitable power play? Do you know for a