‘It’s a dead-set fake,’ Jones told Cavalier an hour later, handing him a two-page report for his analysis. ‘Not amateursville, but not brilliant either. The page with the signature is at least a year older than the two other pages. The stock of paper is different and discernible. The computer font is the same but the ink is from two different types of toners.’ He paused to draw on his cigarette. ‘Forgers think they are smart by wearing gloves, but we can detect the make of gloves they wear. For what it’s worth, there are also different fingerprints on the first two pages when compared to the page with the signature.’

The stock exchange and the police were notified of the attempted fraud. The police were slow to act, but when Cavalier investigated, he discovered that the company making the acquisition was registered at a false address in Hobart. It was a phantom set-up created to destroy Haut’s entire operation. Mindful of this, and the apparent desperate, fraudulent action it represented, Cavalier stepped up his probes into Conquer’s general operations.

31 A TARGET TOO DANGEROUS

31

A TARGET TOO DANGEROUS

Cavalier put together a well-researched, part-speculative article on Conquer’s probable troubles over reserves. He placed it again in the UK’s Financial Times and it was by-lined ‘Special oil industry correspondent Hugh Howsie-Montegue’.

‘Who is that journalist?’ Haut asked over the phone when he read the piece.

‘Me. The editor is a very old friend who owes me. He accepted all my commentary after I sent him support documents such as balance sheets and so on. We both know that Conquer will huff and puff. If they were dumb enough to take it to court, the paper would extract more mileage out of the issue.’

Conquer reacted to the article, releasing a strong denial. The corporation delivered the newspaper a writ. The editor ignored it and sent Cavalier an email that he was going to keep following the story with a team of reporters.

‘Go for it!’ Cavalier emailed back.

‘Thank you so much, oh, and check your bank account,’ the editor replied. ‘You should have an extra ten thousand pounds in it for your troubles.’

*

That day, Bleulance called for another meeting of Conquer executives at his Champs-Élysées office.

‘Your lawyers sent the Financial Times a writ,’ he said to de Cobb. ‘Has that stopped them writing about Conquer?’

‘So far. But I don’t trust them.’

Bleulance turned to Joslin.

‘No one seems to be able to tell me who the journalists are behind the attacks on Conquer. Always anonymous or a pseudonym. The Financial Times refused to release the real name. The editor was threatened with his position, but he still would not supply it. The Guardian editor also refuses to divulge a name.’

‘We must be somewhat circumspect,’ Patrice Daniel warned. ‘If we push too hard, it may backfire on Conquer.’