An asymmetrical War

Tekst
Loe katkendit
Märgi loetuks
Kuidas lugeda raamatut pärast ostmist
An asymmetrical War
Šrift:Väiksem АаSuurem Aa


An asymmetrical War

1. Auflage, erschienen 4-2021

Umschlaggestaltung: Romeon Verlag

Text: Larry B. Ritter

Layout: Romeon Verlag

ISBN (E-Book): 978-3-96229-825-8

www.romeon-verlag.de

Copyright © Romeon Verlag, Jüchen

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Alle im Buch enthaltenen Angaben, Ergebnisse usw. wurden vom Autor nach bestem Gewissen erstellt. Sie erfolgen ohne jegliche Verpflichtung oder Garantie des Verlages. Er übernimmt deshalb keinerlei Verantwortung und Haftung für etwa vorhandene Unrichtigkeiten.

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek:

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.

Larry B. Ritter

AN ASYMMETRICAL WAR

Ukraine second half of 2014

„Russia had lost the finance war already in April of 2014! The falling value of the russian shares and the ruble will cost the russian economy dozens of billions. If the price of oil continues to fall also, Russia has to work on a financial fiasco in 2015 and thereafter.”

Financial expert in April 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

First Act: Half dead

Scene 1: The Wannsee-conference

Scene 2: Learning, not to exist

Scene 3: Presentation at the ‘Holy Gral’

Scene 3: Presentation at the ‚Holy Grail‘

Scene 4: The ‚Helvetia‘ Conference

Scene 5: Marriage in Kiev

Scene 6: Summer vacations

Second Act: Locked in

Scene 1 : Strategic Options

Scene 2: Collecting the Entrance Fee

Scene 3: Rebirth of a Relationship

Scene 4: The Surprise in Divonne

Third Act: Break Through in New York

Scene 1: Sleeping through the Danger

Scene 2: The last battle?

Scene 3: Kept in Detension

Last Act: „You’re in the Army now“

Scene 1 : Jela‘s World

Scene 2: Visiting the country side

Scene 3: Attack from the Side

Scene 4: Financial Barrage

Scene 5: Day of the confessions

Scene 6: A new Option

Main Characters:

Other Actors:

PREFACE

This book is the second in a series of three dealing with the financal questions of the Ukrainian crisis, and its actors are the same like in the first one called „The lock keeper of Kiev - Ukraine in spring of 2014“. Whereas the first volume is focussing on the step-by step lifting of the financial embargo as background of the international conflict, the second volume explains the mostly invisible elements of the financial war between Russia and the West.

It explains how the strategic makro-economical finance variables like exchange rate and fincial reserves change as a consequence of the western embargo. In this game the cash supply of the Ukranian economy is playing a decicive role.

This is much more complicated as shown in the press as the situation is totally assymetrical in a sense that one side (the West) is playing the game as economic war whereas the others (Russia) puts its focus on military actions like in the Krimea and the East of the Ukraine.The cold war of which one starts to speak again is primary a dialogue with closed ears in 2014 when the Russian put military pressure on the Ukraine and others want to ruin Russia with economic measures.

As the situation is developpingrather fast, the historic context can only be taken into account until November of 2014. The leverage of the oil price change can only be estimated. In any case it will only multiply the described effects.

Later events can logically not be taken into account. So, the fact that a US citicen was appointed finance minister of the Ukraine is pure coincidence! The live of our hero Bob Horner and the poeple around him is pure fiction! An overvieuw of the members of the family and other important people is given at the end oft he book.

A special thank-you goes to my friend Serge Rosenberg, who had helped me with his wealth of software and business experiences. Christian Huck has given support to the german version with his professional know-how. A big thank-you also to him!

Geneva, November 2014

Larry, B. Ritter

FIRST ACT: HALF DEAD
Scene 1: The Wannsee-conference

When Bob woke up, his head was empty and hurt quite a lot. It was as if a rock of the size of a sky-scraper was lying on the right side of his head. He could not open the eye and with the left eye he could only perceive that it was a new day already. The room was giving the pompous charm of a Marriott hotel. But where was he and where was his wife Jela? His right arm was touching the bed next to him. No Jela! It was cold and so he pulled the cover from her side over towards himself. The american banker with an English father and a German mother was rather proud that he managed to do this. He imagined that it smelled a bit like her hair and with this positive feeling he fell asleep again.

Again he was cold and he woke up. The tall man remembered that he had gone to have dinner with Abbey at midnight. He had the picture of this friend of his wife, an exciting Amercan with short blond curls, before his eyes. She had wished him a long and refreshing sleep afterwards. Otherwise he didn’t remember much. On the way to the bathroom he felt unusually weak but had the reflex to see whether the door to the floor was locked which was the case. He must have been in a terrible condition!

He was in underwear and the rest of his clothes were neatly put into the cupboard. Had Abbey undressed him? He even found his telephon under one of the cushions in the bed. His head seemed to fall apart even though he had not drunk a lot. And it could not be age, at not even fourty. It was strange! He took a long shower and started to feel better.

The sky-scraper on his head had shrunk to the size of a normal five story townhouse. He sat down and thought of his family. His daughter Marlene, called by everyone ‚Lena‘ was jumping up at him to embrace him, yelling „mon Daddy Chéri”and he felt much better.

In his jacket he found a piece of paper. Abbey wished the ‚young man‘ a very nice day and a long life. What a strange message? Why should this day be nicer than any other day? Then a lightning struck him in the head. He should actually be at the conference at the Big Wannsee Lake to discuss his relations with the government of the Ukraine. He looked at his wrist watch: they were waiting there for him since at least two hours. He opened his phone which was full of messages. It seemed as if half the world had called or sent SMS.

Like he had learned it from his wife he cursed and listened to the messages:

 

“Where the hell are you, Werner?”, at 8:45 Uhr.

“Call me, it’s urgent., Natascha”, at 9:00.

“Without you we don’t get anywhere, Walter”, at 9:25.

The SMS of Abbey*said: “9:45: Turn on the TV news. I almost love you!”

Bob threw himself on the bed and turned the TV on. The local station ony gave some news in German which he didn`t understand; he interpreted the undertitles as ‘Gas-explosion in Wannsee-Villa. Many deaths feared.’ Another lightning hit his brain, his blood pressure went up like a rocket. Bob ran into the bathroom and took his usual cocktail of pressure-reducing pills plus two extra aspirins. He had had already enough experience with his bloodpressure problems

The next things he did was to call all friends who had left mesages. He didn’t get any response and he didn’t want to call Abbey. He had to clean up his head not to make any mistake. She had the potential to be a mistake.

She had picked him up the evening before the big meeting at the old shabby airport of the ex-RDA and brought him to the hotel which was close to her studio at the Potsdamer Platz.

Later they met in the restaurant which was just downstairs in her apartment building. They had lots of things to discuss about the Ukraine. She had not even touched him but with all the wine she took she became personal:

“Bob, you should know that you are the first man in my life who screws up my priorities. I love your wife who doesn`t respond to my calls any more and feel attracted to her husband. You can laugh at me and I have earned it. Non-the-less I would like to sleep with you tonight.“

And the power woman put her hand on his thigh. Looking into her blue eyes which were a super fit for the blond curls, he could understand that his wife was attracted by this extraordinary journalist. She was really tough without being rough. They drank a bit more and finally Bob confessed:

“You are a strange bird and you fascinate me without any doubt. I wish to tell you something which has to stay just between the two of us.”

Not to hurt her he was very indirect with what his friend, the CIA-general had confessed to him. He had told him that Abbey was short before getting arrested because of her work for the Russian TV ‘Russia Today and Tomorrow’ because of high treason.

She only laughed about this as she knew about it since quite some time: „Let’s go up to my place.”As it had been the last time when Jela was with them, they made love in this special way as Abbey liked it. Slowly her style changed from simple sex into tenderness and around two she melted: “I hate you, Bob, as I begin to really love you.”

Then she had one of her strange ideas and needed something to eat. She managed to get Bob in a tourist restaurant in the Sony-center where she ordered a full meal, whereas he only ordered some desert. He grumled a bit while she enjoyed every bite and the wine. As he had finished before her, he went to the bathroom and then they finished their glases. They went back to her place and he refused a second round as all of a sudden he felt dead tired.

Now he asked himself whether she had put something in his wine.

After Bob treated his head once again with cold water he called the general who had not heard anything yet. He gave Bob the order not to leave his room and not to call anybody.

“In case this attack was meant for your Ukrainian fund you better play the dead man.”

He found that to be funny while Bob was thinking about Abbey with his humming head. Did the tall woman with her assertive behavior and the short curls had saved his life? When he finally wanted to call her, the general was faster but was not joking any more:

„Bob Horner, it seems that you are officially dead. Listen very well and do not call anybody!”

“My contacts in Berlin tell me, that a strange meeting of investors from the West and financial experts from the Ukraine in a villa on Lake Wannsee was blown up. The police has no idea about the number of people killed and whether Government members of the Ukraine are among them.“

“To keep the story out oft he political playing field, there are no names or functions made public as long as possible. But sooner or later it will hit the broad public anyhow.”

Bob imagined the general with his glasses on and his crew cut when he continued: “Most probably they will stay with the story of a gas explosion. I will work out an approach of what you should do or not and call you tonight. It is simple what you need to do now. Take some paper and write it down:

“You go and buy a new phone with a prepaid volume. Your old phone is taboo! You call your wife with the old phone and tell her about the nice life in Berlin. Tell her that you will give her a new number later today.

On the way back to your hotel you buy something to eat. You book the next flight to Geneva with a stop-over in Bruxels or so.

You put a list of people together who absolutely need to know that you are alife but don’t call them before we have talked tonight. Most of them should have your new number only if it is absolutely necessary.

Last advice: the old phone is taboo; you leave it somewhere in the Metro, in a taxi or somewhere that it will create the impression that you are moving around in Berlin.”

Finally the message hit Bob: Were all his friends and Pjotre of the finance ministry really dead? Who else got killed and who had done it? With trembling hands he packed his suitcase and went to buy a new phone. His head was slowly doing better but what was he doing in a world where they just killed his friends?

With all the shops in the two shopping centers at the Potsdamer Platz he was quickly successful with the phone. He even followed the advice to buy something to eat and called the general under the new number. He got some news right away: Among the death there are two women. One of them is from the catering service.” Was this confirming the death of Natascha? For a long time he was thinking of the charismatic woman with whom he had an almost telphatic understanding and who made him lose his willpower only by looking at him or touching him.

With all the confusion in the head he was sad but all his ideas were mixed up with questions regarding Werner und Walter. Not to fall into muddy uncertainty he took the list oft he ‚orders‘ of the general. Knowing that Jela was in her lunch break he told her about the lost phone and gave her the new number with the request to hand it over to Sandrine, too and Laura, his ex-chef.

In her typical ironic style she asked him whether he had had a good night with Abby as if she knew. But he did as if he had to go back into the meeting. To stay busy, he booked a flight via Amsterdam in the evening and took a taxi to the Tegel airport. As quickly as possible he wished to get out of the hotel even if he had to wait for several hours in the airport.

After having hidden his old phone between the cushions of the taxi he started the list of people who he had probably lost in the explosion. The big number had a strange effect on him. Somehow he couldn’t concentrate his sadness on one person. However it felt as if his well-defined world had come to a shrieking halt.

In the lounge at the airport, he had just finished his list, as he received his first call on his new phone. It was the general, who gave him the name of a person who would call him with a password. He also controlled whether Bob had done his homework. Then he had new insructions for him:

“Please, call Jela not to pick you up at the Geneva airport. You rent a car on the french side of the airport and you go to Divonne for one night.”

He made sure that Bob could follow. “Tomorrow morning, you do as if you are going to work but take the country road back and we talk to each other then, ok, young man? You noted everything?” In goog old military tradition he asked Bob to repeat everything.

Bob‘s head was clear now and he noticed that the pills were helping him. Despite the enormous accelleration that things were getting, he felt calm and controlled. So he called Gregor in the bank in Kiev and also Elena ’only to say hallo‘. Later his friends in the Ukraine would remember that he called them after the attack of which they would hear soon.

He did the same with Sybil in Frankfurt who was unusually nervous and asked him several times regarding her husband.

It was rather difficult for Bob to lie but he had no other option because he was not even sure whether Walter was dead. He saw her in front of his eyes with her white skin, the blond hair brushed to the side, the eyes with their changing colors and her face expressionless when she managed her billions.

He also saw how her face changed when she looked at him as ex-lover. How should he explain to her with her baby in the arm that her husband had died doing business for her in the Ukraine?

Half an hour before take-off his new contact identified himself on the phone with the password in a typical Berlin accent:

„My name is Fred, and I replace Werner as your leading officer.”

This call made it clear: it was the Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND, who was leading him now, and that Werner was also dead. However, Bob could not explain the american accent of Fred and stayed prudent. When he followed up on his impression the young man on the other end laughed and promised to explain later.

“For the moment we got more important things to do; both services see the best option for you to get the attack out of the public consciousness in all four countries involved in this affair.“ One could hear how he grinned when he continued.

“To be dead is your best chance not to be really dead. So you have a minimal chance to protect yourself and your family.“

The dry style of the young man showed that he didn’t know what he was saying. He could not know what it meant to be dead or to have a family. However, his logic was brutal but clear. While Bob was digesting the message, the BND-cowboy continued:

„Tomorrow morning you do what the CIA-general has ordered you to do and move in the appartment which he has reserved for you. It is in the fancy buildung next to the casino in Divonne. You will have a beautiful view across a little lake over to the Alps and you move in the … ” and he gave him the address and the code-number for the garage and the appartment.

“The really complicated thing will be how you deal with your family and the other people close to you. Be clear in your mind: if more than four or five people are informed your cover is not worth anything in latest three weeks.“

While Bob was still thinking, he continued: „ And this should be people in which you have 100 percent confidence otherwise it will even go faster. Let them swear on the head of their beloved ones!”

With that it was obvious that Fred had a sense of difficulty to ask a family to demonstrate sadness while daddy was quite ok. Bob was surprised to get this sign of compassion from him.

In the plane Bob dreamt of his wife, the greek-italian beauty on which everything was long and elegant: the black hair, the legs and the hands, even the nose, With her 180 cm she was almost as tall as her husband and on the sport side she could keep up with many long-distance runner. In brutal contrast to her elegant appearance was her language shaped by many years of university lingo only buffered for small children. His heart was getting heavy when he knew that he had to live without her for some time.

Scene 2: Learning, not to exist

After midnight, when Bob arrived in Divonne everyone in the house was sleeping already, so that he decided to sleep in the guest room. For quite some time he couldn’t fall asleep.What a day! His head wanted to digest everything at once but that didnt work at all. So he took an additional Aspirin and that helped. So he ended the day of the Wannsee conference as the only one of his friends in his own house with his family.

In the morning he enjoyed every member of his clan as if it was for the last time. He even took care of the two babies which they called the twins. When daughter Lena had to go to school he brought the seven-year old to the corner where her friend Jean- Pierre would meet her. He embraced her several times until she asked him whether everything was alright. This was a warning : he should not overdo anything otherwise the whole story would blow up.

 

Back in the house he ordered an extraordinary family reunion with the participation of Lise, the pediatrician who lived next door but spent most of her time with Jela whom she had helped to get back on her legs after her coma.

When he asked his wife to call at work in the CERN to tell them that she would come later she wanted to yell at him but when she saw his eyes she did what he had asked her to do.

Without the usual british humor Bob explained to his ladies what had happened in Berlin. He didn’t forget to mention that Abby had saved his life. Two days ago he had fallen in his bed totally drugged. When he added that at least four of his business friends were killed and that it was better that he disappeared for a while from the usual ways of life it was totally silent. Only the coffee machine made its usual noice.

The ladies turned pale, the pregnant Sandrine fell almost off her chair so that Lise had to put a wet cloth on her forefront, and Jela‘s pupils were rotating in all directions. Her mouth started to wince and the babys felt that this was the moment to start to cry.

To finish this scene of horror, Bob continued that he would not come back to the house for at least a week and this only during the night with his rented car. They should write down its number.

He made clear that he was close by and easy to reach. Again there was no noise but the babbling of the babies. Then Jela took on the role of the head of the family:

”Well, what the f… should I say? This man gets me into a almost deadly situation, saved our child and made me a second one and now he wants us to ran around to tell all people lies that he has died in Berlin because of heart trouble.“

She could not even smile: „In reality he was only teaching many rich ladies how anglo-saxons do sex.“

The little french teacher couldn’t totally hide her yealousy and her aggressiveness came through. She added: “Jela, you forgot the american journalists.“ Instinctively she held her thick tummy with Bob’s child with both hands.

“On the other side,“ Jela continued, “He led me through the darkest time of my life, helped me in my depression and gave me and several others in this room endless delight, isn’t it, ladies?” Sandrine, who should be touched most nodded her head and Lise was too clever to stay neutral. She had learned to stay in the background.

“If you want us to support your Hudini-trick you need to tell us precisely what we have to tell the kids, the school and the funeral home.”

Bob was proud of his wife and loved her more than any time before in his life. Her unlimited loyality he judged as extraordinary! What a woman! He went around the table, kissed her on the cheeks, hesitated and then did the same with Sandrine. When he continued he put his hands on Lise’s shoulders:

“For the next few days I will be on a business trip in Berlin if somebody asks. Please, do not change anything in your daily routines except that Jela stops doing her jogging without body guards. Starting from tomorrow I can provide you with answers regarding your questions you or others might have. Till then, Jela, please don’t talk to Elena or Abbey. It must be clear to all of us: we are playing with our lives and the one of the people around us.”

All nodded their heads but everyone saw someone else before their eyes. “It is difficult to control your communication the whole day long, I know, but we four will be responsible in case someone gets killed or kidnappeded.”

With the exception of Sandrine they all left the house. Bob went to see Jela before she drove off to say good-bye: “I find it phantastic what you just did . I love you even more!” Not many words, but exactly the right ones! She saw herself kneeling in the Deutschen Dom in Berlin where she gave her second marriage promise as she could not remember the first one. This had happened not a long time ago.

Then Bob went into Lise’s practise . He embraced her and asked her to keep an eye on the girls. She was proud that he took her as responsible at this level. She loved the closeness to the Horner clan and the work with Jela after her coma. This way she could also take care of her sick mother in the house next door. This one was similar to the Horners‘ but not freshly renovated. Her only problem was her yealousy towards Sandrine who was pregnant of Bob whereas her time was running out soon.

Lise was clear in her mind that there was no place for another person in the ménage à trois but the fact of the baby was quite heavy. She could live with the fact that Bob wanted to buy a house for Sandrine to make her independent financially, but this …

Bob stayed another hour with his little darling Sandrine who was totally disturbed. The kids adored her because she could do many things despite being so tiny. He remembered when they fell in love when she helped him and his family during the crisis after Jela’s injury and Lena‘s abduction*. It was not clear whether Jela had seduced her when Bob was in the Ukraine but this was not imortant now.

With the acceptance of Jela she had become an integral part of their ménage à trois. As a teacher she was normaly calm and practical but now all her fear exploded out of her. He responded calmly and explicitely. Her horror vision was to get a child without a father. He kissed her face and caressed her round tummy until she finally fell asleep.