«The function of Omega is as old as espionage itself, and extremely effective in these days of large corporations and huge conglomerates… Omega is a doomsday book.»
«A what?»
«Doomsday book. Lists containing hundreds, perhaps by now thousands, of individuals marked for the plague. In this case not bubonic, but blackmail. The men and women on these lists are people in decision-making positions in scores of giant companies in key fields. Many have enormous economic power. Purchasing as well as refusal-to-purchase power. Forty or fifty, acting in concert, could create economic chaos.»
«I don’t understand. Why would they? Why should they?»
«I told you. Blackmail. Each of these people is vulnerable, exploitable for any of a thousand reasons. Sex, extracurricular or deviate; legal misrepresentation; business malpractice; price-fixing; stock manipulations; tax evasion. The book touches a great many people. Men and women whose reputations, businesses, professions, even their families could be destroyed. Unless they comply.»
«It’s also a pretty low view of the business world, and I’m not at all sure it’s an accurate one. Not to the extent you describe it. Not to the point of economic chaos.»
«Oh? The Crawford Foundation made an in-depth study of industry leadership in the United States from 1925 to 1945. The results are still classified a quarter of a century later. The study determined that during this period thirty-two percent of the corporate financial power in this country was obtained by questionable, if not illegal, means. Thirty-two percent!»
«I don’t believe that. If it’s true it should be made public.»
«Impossible. There’d be legal massacre. Courts and money are not an immaculate combination… Today it’s the conglomerates. Pick up the newspaper any day. Turn to the financial pages and read about the manipulators. Look at the charges and countercharges. It’s a mother lode for Omega. A directory of candidates. None of those boys lives in a deep freeze. Not one of them. An unsecured loan is granted, a stock margin is expanded—temporarily—girls are provided to a good customer. Omega digs just a little with the right people and a lot of slime gets in the bucket. It’s not very hard to do. You just have to be accurate. Enough so to frighten.»
Tanner looked away from the blond man who spoke with such precision. With such relaxed confidence. «I don’t like to think you’re right.»
Suddenly, Fassett crossed back to the table and turned off the tape recorder. The wheels stopped. «Why not? It’s not just the information uncovered—that could be relatively harmless—but the way it’s applied. Take you, for instance. Suppose, just suppose, a story based on occurrences around twenty some-odd years ago outside Los Angeles were printed in the Saddle Valley paper. Your children are in school there, your wife happy in the community… How long do you think you’d stay there?»
Tanner lurched out of his chair and faced the shorter man across the desk. His rage was such that his hands trembled. He spoke with deep feeling, barely audible.
«That’s filthy!»
«That’s Omega, Mr. Tanner. Relax, I was only making a point.» Fassett turned the recorder back on and continued as Tanner returned warily to his chair. «Omega exists. Which brings me to the last part of … stage one.»
«What’s that?»
Laurence Fassett sat down behind the desk. He crushed out his cigarette, while Tanner reached into his pocket and withdrew a pack. «We know now that there’s a timetable for Omega. A date for the chaos to begin… I’m not telling you anything you don’t know when I admit that my agency is often involved in exchange of personnel with the Soviets.»
«Nothing I don’t know.»
«One of ours for two or three of theirs is the normal ratio…»
«I know that, too.»
«Twelve months ago on the border of Albania such an exchange took place. Forty-five days of haggling. I was there, which is why I’m here now. During the exchange our team was approached by several members of the Soviet Foreign Service. The best way I can describe them to you is to call them moderates. The same as our moderates.»
«I understand what our moderates oppose. What do the Soviet moderates oppose?»
«Same thing. Instead of a Pentagon—and an elusive military-industrial complex—it’s the hardliners in the Presidium. The militarists.»
«I see.»
«We were informed that the Soviet militarists have issued a target date for the final phase of Operation Omega. On that date the plan will be implemented. Untold hundreds of powerful executives in the American business community will be reached and threatened with personal destruction if they do not follow the orders given them. A major financial crisis could be the result. An economic disaster is not impossible… It’s the truth.
«That is the end of stage one.»
Tanner got out of his chair, drawing on his cigarette. He paced up and down in front of the desk. «And with that information I have the option to get out of here?»
«You do.»
«You’re too much. Honest to Christ, you’re too much!… The tape’s running. Go on.»
«Very well. Stage two. We knew that Omega was made up of the very same type of individual it will attack. It had to be, otherwise the contacts could never have been made, the vulnerabilities never established. In essence, we basically knew what to look for. Men who could infiltrate large companies, men who worked either in or for them, who could associate with their subjects… As I mentioned previously, Omega is a code name for a cell or a group of agents. There is also a geographical code name; a clearing house for the forwarding of information. Having passed through this source, the authenticity is presumably established because of its operational secrecy. The geographical code name for Omega is difficult to give an accurate translation of, but the nearest is ‘Chasm of … Leather’ or ‘Goat Skin.’»
«‘Chasm of Leather’?» Tanner put out his cigarette.
«Yes. Remember, we learned this over three years ago. After eighteen months of concentrated research we pinpointed the ‘Chasm of Leather’ as one of eleven locations throughout the country…»
«One of them being Saddle Valley, New Jersey?»
«Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.»
«Am I right?»
«We placed agents within these communities,» continued the C.I.A. man, disregarding Tanner’s question. «We ran checks on thousands of citizens—a very expensive exercise—and the more we researched, the more evidence we turned up that the Village of Saddle Valley was the ‘Chasm of Leather.’ It was a thorough job.
«Watermarks on stationery, analysis of dust particles the East German officer brought out in the sealed folders he gave us when he defected, a thousand different items checked and rechecked… But mainly, the information about certain residents unearthed in the research.»
«I think you’d better get to the point.»
«That will be your decision. I’ve just about concluded stage two.» Tanner remained silent so Fassett continued. «You are in a position to give us incalculable assistance. In one of the most sensitive operations in current U.S.-Soviet relations, you can do what no one else can do. It might even appeal to you, for as you must have gathered from what I’ve said, the moderates on both sides are at this moment working together.»
«Please clarify that.»
«Only fanatics subscribe to this type of insurgency. It’s far too dangerous for both countries. There’s a power struggle in the Soviet Presidium. The moderates must prevail for all our sakes. One way to accomplish this is to expose even part of Omega and kill the target date.»