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chose to register under an assumed name, not wanting
anyone to know the identity of the woman he was with.
    The chairman of Prentino International
walked down the centre ofthe hotel’s main corridor and stepped into a waiting
lift. His legs went weak and he suddenly felt sick. In the corner of the lift
stood a stubby, balding, overweight man, who was dressed in a pair of old jeans
and a tee-shirt, his mouth continually opening and closing as he chewed gum.
    The two men stood as far apart as possible,
neither showing any sign of recognition. The lift stopped at the fifth floor
and Manuel Rodrigues, chairman of Rodrigues International S.A., stepped out,
leaving behind him the man who had been his bitter rival for thirty years.
    Eduardo held on to the rail in the lift to
steady himself as he still felt dizzy. How he despised that uneducated selfmade
upstart whose family of four half-brothers, all by different fathers, claimed
they now ran the largest construction company in Brazil. Both men were as
interested in the other’s failure as they were in their own success.
    Eduardo was somewhat puzzled to know what
Rodrigues could possibly be doing in Lagos as he felt certain that his rival
had not come into contact with the Nigerian President. After all, Eduardo had
never collected the rent on a small house in Rio that was occupied by the
mistress of a very senior official in the government’s protocol department.
    And the man’s only task was to be certain
that Rodrigues was never invited to any function attended by a visiting
dignitary when in Brazil. The continual absence of Rodrigues from these state
occasions ensured the absent-mindedness of Eduardo’s rent collector in Rio.
    Eduardo would never have admitted to anyone
that Rodrigues’ presence worried him, but he nevertheless resolved to find out
immediately what had brought his old enemy to Nigeria. Once he reached his
suite de Silveira instructed his private secretary to check what Manuel
Rodrigues was up to. Eduardo was prepared to return to Brazil immediately if
Rodrigues turned out to be involved in any way with the new capital project,
while one young lady in Rio would suddenly find herself looking for alternative
accommodation.
    Within an hour, his private secretary
returned with the information that his chairman had requested. Rodrigues, he
had discovered, was in Nigeria to tender for the contract to construct a new
port in Lagos and was apparently not involved in any way with the new capital,
and in fact was still trying to arrange a meeting with the President.
    “Which minister is in charge of the ports
and when am I due to see him?” asked de Silveira.
    The secretary delved into his appointments
file. “The Minister of Transport,” the secretary said. “You have an appointment
with him at nine o’clock on Thursday morning.” The Nigerian Civil Service had
mapped out a four-day schedule of meetings for de Silveira that included every
cabinet minister involved in the new city project.
    “It’s the last meeting before your final
discussion with the President.
    You then fly on to Paris.”
    “Excellent. Remind me of this conversation
five minutes before I see the minister and again when I talk to the President.
“
    The secretary made a note in the file and
left.
    Eduardo sat alone in his suite, going over
the reports on the new capital project submitted by his experts. Some of his
team were already showing signs of nervousness. One particular anxiety that
always came up with a large construction contract was the principal’s ability
to pay, and pay on time. Failure to do so was the quickest route to bankruptcy,
but since the discovery of oil in Nigeria there seemed to be no shortage of
income and certainly no shortage of people willing to spend that money on
behalf of the government. These anxieties did not worry de Silveira as he
always insisted on a substantial payment in advance; otherwise he wouldn’t move
himself or his vast staff one centimetre