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out of Brazil.
    However, the massive scope of this
particular contract made the circumstances somewhat unusual.
    Eduardo realised that it would be most
damaging to his international reputation if he started the assignment and then
was seen not to complete it. He re-read the reports over a quiet dinner in his
room and retired to bed early, having wasted an hour in vainly trying to place
a call through to his wife.
    De Silveira’s first appointment the next
morning was with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Eduardo wore a
newly-pressed suit, fresh shirt, and highly polished shoes: for four days no
one would see him in the same clothes. At eight-forty-five there was a quiet
knock on the door of his suite and the secretary opened it to find Colonel
Usman standing to attention, waiting to escort Eduardo to the bank. As they
were leaving the hotel Eduardo again saw Manuel Rodrigues, wearing the same
pair of jeans, the same crumpled tee-shirt, and probably chewing the same gum
40
    The Comb as he stepped into a BMW in front
of him. De Silveira only stopped scowling at the disappearing BMW when he
remembered his Thursday morning appointment with the minister in charge of
ports, followed by a meeting with the President.
    The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
was in the habit of proposing how payment schedules would be met and completion
orders would be guaranteed.
    He had never been told by anyone that if the
payment was seven days overdue he could consider the contract null and void,
and they could take it or leave it. The minister would have made some comment
if Abuja had not been the President’s pet project. That position established,
de Silveira went on to check the bank’s reserves, long-term deposits, overseas
commitments, and estimated oil revenues for the next five years. He left the
Governor in what could only be be described as a jelly-like state. Glistening
and wobbling. Eduardo’s next appointment was an unavoidable courtesy call on
the Brazilian Ambassador for lunch. He hated these functions as he believed
embassies to be fit only for cocktail parties and discussion of out-of-date
trivia, neither of which he cared for. The food in such establishments was
invariably bad and the company worse. It turned out to be no different on this
occasion and the only profit (Eduardo considered everything in terms of profit
and loss) to be derived from the encounter was the information that Manuel
Rodrigues was on a short list of three for the building of the new port in
Lagos, and was expecting to have an audience with the President on Friday if he
was awarded the contract. By Thursday morning that will be a short list of two
and there will be no meeting with the President, de Silveira promised himself,
and considered that was the most he was likely to gain from the lunch until the
Ambassador added:
    “Rodrigues seems most keen on you being
awarded the new city contract at Abuja. He’s singing your praises to every
minister he meets. Funny,” the Ambassador continued, “I always thought you two
didn’t see eye to eye.”
    Eduardo made no reply as he tried to fathom
out what trick Rodrigues could be up to by promoting his cause.
    Eduardo spent the afternoon with the
Minister of Finance and confirmed the provisional arrangements he had made with
the Governor of the bank. The Minister of Finance had been forewarned by the
Governor what he was to expect from an encounter with Eduardo de Silveira and
that he was not to be taken aback by the Brazilian’s curt demands. De Silveira,
aware that this warning would have taken place, let the poor man bargain a
little and even gave way on a few minor points that he would be able to tell
the President about at the next meeting of the Supreme Military Council.
Eduardo left the smiling minister believing that he had scored a point or two
against the formidable South American.
    That evening, Eduardo dined privately with
his senior advisers who themselves were already dealing