The Last Compromise Read Free Page A

intervals.
They were fat and obvious, because their edges were formed by several curves
dropping at the same moment.
    ‘Again,’
Hans said. ‘To see this you have to crunch the numbers, as we did. As Viktor
did. It could be that nuclear material has gone missing in four European
countries, simultaneously on four specific occasions, within the last two years.’
    ‘These
are deep drops,’ Tienhoven noted.
    ‘The
drops in actual numbers are not significant,’ Viktor explained. ‘What is
significant is the drop in proportion to the amounts that would be expected
statistically. The deviation from the normal deviation. And that’s what these
curves show. In addition, here we have isolated the figures for just one specific
type of nuclear material: low-enriched uranium in the form of fission targets,
the final form in which it is delivered to reactors. In the total of all
nuclear materials used every year in Europe, these dips would not be detectable
at all.’
    Hans
kept a straight face as Viktor was explaining it. In truth he’d had to look up
what fission targets were, for at least Hans had never heard the term before.
Apparently enrichment meant making the uranium more usable for reactors; targets
were the finished product, pieces of metal that were then subjected to a hail
of whatever particles they bombarded them with.
    Tienhoven
waited for a moment, then he turned to Hans. ‘Why did you choose to look at
nuclear material reports, and not something else?’
    ‘It
was a test run,’ Hans said. ‘To see whether the method would generate results
in a case where the information consists of large sets of numbers. It could’ve
been something different.’
    ‘Why
low-enriched uranium?’
    ‘We
did several materials. This was the only one where there was an anomaly like
you see it on the screen.’
    ‘Where
is the direct relevance to anti-fraud?’
    ‘The
relevance to anti-fraud, I think, lies in the records of our own atomic energy
department,’ Hans said. He’d known this question would come. ‘If their records
are clean, if everything is accounted for as far as they are concerned, we can
hand this over to the national authorities of the four countries in question.
Let them deal with it. Or let the atomic energy people start a probe of their
own. But if the records are not clean, if there really is something, and
Commission staff knew or should have known about it but they didn’t tell
anyone,’ Hans looked over to Viktor, pausing for a moment. ‘Well, then there
could be grounds to start an anti-fraud investigation.’
    Viktor
and Hans both looked at Tienhoven. Viktor did because he had been looking at
him all the time anyway. Hans did because he needed his opinion. His decision.
And some praise perhaps.
    ‘Thank
you,’ Tienhoven said finally, getting up from his chair. Hans and Viktor also
got up. ‘You and Hans will work on this together I suppose,’ Tienhoven said. ‘Hans
is still project manager. But this is not an official investigation. It’s still
experimental research. Have a safe trip back to Luxembourg.’ He shook hands
with Viktor, nodded to Hans, and left the room, leaving the door open.
    Well,
so much for the praise. But it was fair enough, objective completed. Hans
looked at Viktor, his black hair, his small glasses, his shaven chin, his mute grin.
The guy was on loan from the statistics department, temporarily attached to
anti-fraud to help build statistical analysis capacity to search for illegal
activity within the Commission. He might stay here for good once the project
would be over. Viktor would keep doing all the math, Hans would cover the
investigative side of the project. And for now Viktor was still based in
Luxembourg, and the offices of the Commission’s atomic energy department were partly
in Luxembourg as well. It all made sense.
    ‘Are
you all right with this?’, Hans asked Viktor. Viktor just smiled at him, saying
nothing. ‘So, let’s. When’s your train