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was power personified. He was like a god, with health, magnetism and good looks seldom found in millionaires, and Julius couldn’t have counted his millions. James felt an odd excitement rising in him; he felt as he supposed the corps commanders under Napoleon or Wellington must have done when they sat in on the final conference before the battle. Heyderman glanced down the table towards his brother-in-law Arthur, who looked slighter and greyer, by comparison.
    â€˜We had better get down to the real business straight away,’ he said. ‘That all right with you, Arthur? We can go into the routine stuff later.’
    â€˜Of course,’ Arthur said mildly.
    â€˜Right. Now, gentlemen, I’ve come a long way in a hell of a hurry; some of you know me well enough to realize I wouldn’t do this myself or ask it of you unless there was a very good reason. Some two weeks ago I received word that the new mine near Archangel is in full production. It’s a bonanza!’
    Ray Andrews glanced quickly at Arthur Harris. His instincts had been right. Five years later that one mistake had caught up with him.
    â€˜This, gentlemen, is a big mine. I needn’t remind you that it should have been ours.’ Julius’s blue eyes stared down at his brother-in-law.
    â€˜I don’t think that’s relevant.’ Arthur’s voice was calm and cold. Inwardly he was shaking with anger. The great bastard – sitting there, rebuking him publicly. ‘We’ve never depended on the ownership of every mine. We control the outlet for the stones. We will in this case, if the Russians want to sell on the world markets.’
    Julius ignored him. ‘This looks like a mine with a long life and there’s no reason to suppose that their output will decrease. But that’s not all.’ He looked round at them, searching each face, and even David Wasserman began to feel uneasy. Heyderman cleared his throat. ‘I said the mine was a bonanza. It’s much more. It’s not just yielding top-quality gemstones, but fancies.’
    They all looked up at that. ‘Fancies’ – the trade name for the coveted coloured diamonds. Julius went on. ‘They’re bringing up some of the biggest, cleanest brown stones, Canaries, and blues ever mined. But, more than that, they’re bringing up these.’
    As he spoke, he plunged his hand into his breast pocket and brought out a clenched fist. He opened it. A two-inch square of white paper lay in his palm. He unwrapped it slowly. The stone blazed on the white surface like a big drop of blood. The fire and colour danced in the light as he held it out in front of them all.
    â€˜My God,’ David muttered. ‘My God …’ He could hardly speak. He reached out and Heyderman put the diamond into his hand. It trembled. ‘Never …’ He was shaking his head. ‘Never in my life …’
    â€˜Five carats,’ Heyderman announced. ‘Flawless. There’s never been a red diamond like it in the history of diamonds. And,’ his voice rose, ‘this is not the biggest. This is a sample ! This is the appetizer for the biggest investor of gems in the world.’
    Abdullah Bin Saladin, Chief Minister and blood brother of the King of Saudi Arabia. His collection of rare stones was unique, beyond price. He had tried and, through the error of a telephone bidder, failed to buy the only red diamond to come on the market in half a century. It had weighed under a carat. It had gone to a private collector in Japan.
    â€˜There are greens, too,’ Julius told them. ‘Big stones, marvellous colour and purity. But these …’ He took the red diamond from David and held it between thumb and forefinger. ‘These are beyond calculation, beyond price.’
    Kruger said, ‘But they can’t sell them. Not without us. They’re valueless if they can’t market them …’ He left the rest