continued. ‘They haven’t told anyone where it is.’
‘Chief,’ McNutt said, ‘I still don’t—’
‘It’s the twenty-first century,’ Cobb exclaimed. ‘Simply locking the gold away in a depository doesn’t mean anything in this era. There’s no pleasure in just looking at it. The treasure does them no good stashed in a vault,
unless they declare it and use it as collateral
. If they can’t draw against it, what good is it? And if they had taken out a loan against it, the whole world would have known by now. Ergo, they don’t have it.’
Jasmine wasn’t satisfied quite yet. ‘Couldn’t they simply be hoarding it in secret?’
‘To what end?’ Cobb replied. ‘The only reason to keep it secret would be to privately negotiate its return with the Romanian government. But you already told us that they refuse to negotiate. So unless you can look me in the eye and honestly tell me that you think every Russian prime minister of the last century chose to perpetuate a ruse against Romania rather than bolster his crumbling economy, they simply don’t have the gold.’
The room was silent again as everyone considered Cobb’s statement. Papineau was contemplative too, but mostly about Cobb. He wondered how he had figured it out so quickly.
‘So - we’re not going to Russia?’ McNutt said. ‘I’m confused.’
Cobb ignored McNutt and turned toward Jasmine. ‘Things were far from stable in Russia during World War One, right?’
‘Yes. By any standard, it was basically chaos,’ she replied. ‘During the time when the Romanian treasure shipments were sent and secured, Tsar Nicholas the Second and his family were murdered, the Romanov dynasty ended, and the revolutionary Bolsheviks took power. Furthermore, the Red Army and the White Army factions were tearing each other apart, and there were military disasters plaguing the Russian Army at the German front. Between the violent uprising of the new regime and the soldiers everywhere dying and deserting, it was a complete disaster.’
‘Anything else?’ Cobb asked.
‘Let’s see …’ Jasmine thought. ‘In October 1916, with the Germans a mere two hundred miles from Moscow, the rail workers went on strike. Soldiers from the front were sent to force them back to work. Instead, the soldiers joined the railway workers.’
‘So the lines of defense are disintegrating, the enemy is at the gate, and the capital is in ruins. Time that out with the shipment.’
‘Two months after the second Romanian shipment arrived “safely” in Moscow’ - she emphasized the irony of the word
safely
with air quotes - ‘Nicholas the Second abdicated. The provisional government which preceded Lenin and the Communists was ineffective, to say the least.’
‘What was the mood in Moscow?’ Cobb asked.
‘Confused. Unhappy. Desperate. They had to burn furniture to keep from freezing. They were starving. Finally, in December 1917, there was an armistice with Germany.’
‘Who did or did not know about the Romanian treasure?’
‘I’m sure the Germans knew there were treasures,’ Jasmine surmised. ‘If not from their extensive spy network, then from the Romanovs or the Communists who were pawing at power and infiltrating government offices one after the other. Even after the armistice, the Germans kept coming in a classic nineteenth-century-style land grab. They marched into the Ukraine unopposed. The Russians ceded that territory and other contested or coveted regions to protect themselves, to give themselves a geographical buffer.’
‘Where?’ Cobb wanted to know.
‘The Baltic Provinces. Finland, parts of Poland—’
‘Which the Russians could never have held,’ Papineau reminded her. ‘Even absent the Germans, the war had not left them with the necessary manpower.’
‘Very true,’ Jasmine said. ‘That’s when the Allies invaded Russia, just to stop Germany from getting their hands on Russian resources.’
‘Okay,’ Cobb concluded. ‘So
‘Chief,’ McNutt said, ‘I still don’t—’
‘It’s the twenty-first century,’ Cobb exclaimed. ‘Simply locking the gold away in a depository doesn’t mean anything in this era. There’s no pleasure in just looking at it. The treasure does them no good stashed in a vault,
unless they declare it and use it as collateral
. If they can’t draw against it, what good is it? And if they had taken out a loan against it, the whole world would have known by now. Ergo, they don’t have it.’
Jasmine wasn’t satisfied quite yet. ‘Couldn’t they simply be hoarding it in secret?’
‘To what end?’ Cobb replied. ‘The only reason to keep it secret would be to privately negotiate its return with the Romanian government. But you already told us that they refuse to negotiate. So unless you can look me in the eye and honestly tell me that you think every Russian prime minister of the last century chose to perpetuate a ruse against Romania rather than bolster his crumbling economy, they simply don’t have the gold.’
The room was silent again as everyone considered Cobb’s statement. Papineau was contemplative too, but mostly about Cobb. He wondered how he had figured it out so quickly.
‘So - we’re not going to Russia?’ McNutt said. ‘I’m confused.’
Cobb ignored McNutt and turned toward Jasmine. ‘Things were far from stable in Russia during World War One, right?’
‘Yes. By any standard, it was basically chaos,’ she replied. ‘During the time when the Romanian treasure shipments were sent and secured, Tsar Nicholas the Second and his family were murdered, the Romanov dynasty ended, and the revolutionary Bolsheviks took power. Furthermore, the Red Army and the White Army factions were tearing each other apart, and there were military disasters plaguing the Russian Army at the German front. Between the violent uprising of the new regime and the soldiers everywhere dying and deserting, it was a complete disaster.’
‘Anything else?’ Cobb asked.
‘Let’s see …’ Jasmine thought. ‘In October 1916, with the Germans a mere two hundred miles from Moscow, the rail workers went on strike. Soldiers from the front were sent to force them back to work. Instead, the soldiers joined the railway workers.’
‘So the lines of defense are disintegrating, the enemy is at the gate, and the capital is in ruins. Time that out with the shipment.’
‘Two months after the second Romanian shipment arrived “safely” in Moscow’ - she emphasized the irony of the word
safely
with air quotes - ‘Nicholas the Second abdicated. The provisional government which preceded Lenin and the Communists was ineffective, to say the least.’
‘What was the mood in Moscow?’ Cobb asked.
‘Confused. Unhappy. Desperate. They had to burn furniture to keep from freezing. They were starving. Finally, in December 1917, there was an armistice with Germany.’
‘Who did or did not know about the Romanian treasure?’
‘I’m sure the Germans knew there were treasures,’ Jasmine surmised. ‘If not from their extensive spy network, then from the Romanovs or the Communists who were pawing at power and infiltrating government offices one after the other. Even after the armistice, the Germans kept coming in a classic nineteenth-century-style land grab. They marched into the Ukraine unopposed. The Russians ceded that territory and other contested or coveted regions to protect themselves, to give themselves a geographical buffer.’
‘Where?’ Cobb wanted to know.
‘The Baltic Provinces. Finland, parts of Poland—’
‘Which the Russians could never have held,’ Papineau reminded her. ‘Even absent the Germans, the war had not left them with the necessary manpower.’
‘Very true,’ Jasmine said. ‘That’s when the Allies invaded Russia, just to stop Germany from getting their hands on Russian resources.’
‘Okay,’ Cobb concluded. ‘So
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