The Hadrian Memorandum Read Online Free PDF

read it and handed it back.
    “What does this have to do with me?”
    President Harris looked at him directly. “After Haas received his brother’s letter, he did some homework and learned that SimCo has been in existence for just over a year. In that time it signed two long-term contracts, one to provide Striker with security services in Equatorial Guinea and another to do the same as a subcontractor to Hadrian in Iraq.”
    “You’re suggesting there’s some kind of arrangement between Striker and Hadrian that involves SimCo in both Iraq and Equatorial Guinea.”
    The president nodded. “That’s what Hass thought. He apologized to Ryder for having the mind-set of a novelist and then told him he was fully aware of Ryder’s interest in the Striker/Hadrian situation in Iraq. ‘Is it not possible, my friend,’ he told him, ‘that United States taxpayers may be secretly footing the bill for what is happening in Equatorial Guinea as well?’ ”
    “You mean SimCo is a front for Hadrian in Equatorial Guinea.”
    “Perhaps.”
    “It’s not illegal.”
    “Unless it’s being done, as Haas suggests, to have the U.S. taxpayers unknowingly fund it, the money coming from the Striker/Hadrian/State Department contracts in Iraq.”
    “Striker’s a very successful oil company with apparently enough trouble in Iraq. Why would they do something like that and expose themselves even more?”
    “Don’t know that they did. But I’d like to find out,” the president took a bite of the salmon, washed it down with mineral water, and then looked back to Marten. “There may be nothing to it at all. Everything might be wholly legal. On the other hand, things in Equatorial Guinea are happening quickly and with a lot of bloodshed, and if Striker and Hadrian are somehow trying to make a profit from it with taxpayer money we need to know. At this stage there’s not enough to alert the CIA or anyone else. Moreover, if we did, we would risk tipping our hand to Striker and Hadrian, because they have very good friends in both the Agency and in the Pentagon. On top of that, an intelligence inquiry, even a quiet one, might very well be leaked to the media, and then we would have to deal with that.”
    Marten stared at the president. “I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
    “Joe Ryder suggested we send an ‘independent contractor’ of our own down there to quietly look around and see what’s going on. Somebody who knows what he’s doing and can have some straight talk with Father Dorhn, then report back with what he thinks is happening, if anything.”
    Marten put up his hands in protest. “Mr. President, I’m honored at the suggestion, but I’ve got five very demanding accounts breathing down my neck.”
    “Father Dorhn has been in Equatorial Guinea for fifty years.” The president ignored his objection and speared a neatly sliced piece of Irish potato. “If anyone knows what’s going on there he does, and from his letter he seems to know quite a lot.”
    “Either that,” Marten pushed back, “or Theo Haas is just worried about him and wants someone to do something about it. Or maybe, as he said, he just has the mind-set of a novelist and is trying to create a story where there is none. He doesn’t have his rascally reputation for no reason.”
    President Harris grinned. “My sense is that you’re right. Probably what you’ll end up with is a week’s all-expenses-paid vacation at an island paradise.”
    Marten put down his fork and stared at the president. “Aw, come on, cousin, you can find somebody else.”
    “As competent and trustworthy as you?”
    “There are hundreds, probably thousands of people as competent and trustworthy as me. Probably even more competent and trustworthy.”
    The president looked up and let his eyes find Marten’s. “Perhaps, my dear friend, but I don’t know them.”

7
    BIOKO. 12:20 P.M.
    Marten felt harsh sunlight cross his face. A second later there was a