间谍,一项蒙着神秘之纱、充满惊险刺激的职业。当有机会当间谍的时候,相信我们中的每个人都愿意尝试一把,或是为揭开间谍职业里的神秘之纱,或是为经历一番惊心动魄的斗智斗勇,又或是为其极具诱惑力的待遇,本文作者也是如此。然而,在一己之私与公众权益之间,在观点受制于人与客观反映事实之间,作者却均选择了后者。
Last February I got an offer from Kroll1), one of the world’s largest private investigation firms, to go undercover2) as a journalist-spy in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The call came while I was sitting in a parking lot, trying not to cry over the spare tire that had mysteriously gone missing from my rented baby blue Atos. The E-Z Rent-a-Car agent said the replacement would cost $200. I knew the magazine I was on assignment for could never afford such a fee, meaning I would barely break even3) on the story.
But just then my cell phone rang. It was a private-investigator friend calling about a “research” job in the jungle. I would have to go to Ecuador to work with a group that does espionage for Fortune 500 companies. Was I interested? “I’m sure you could use the money,” he said, bluntly.
A week later, I was on a plane to Colombia. The Kroll recruiter my friend put me in touch with didn’t seem eager to talk over the phone. He invited me to join him for a long weekend at a luxury hotel in Bogotá.
去年2月,全球最大的私人调查公司之一 ——科罗尔公司向我抛来了橄榄枝,工作内容是让我用记者身份作掩护,去厄瓜多尔的亚马逊丛林当一回密探。
电话打来的时候,我正坐在一个停车场里,竭力抑制要哭的冲动,因为我租来的蓝色奥托斯小车备胎竟然离奇失踪了。E-Z汽车租赁公司的代理人说换个备胎要两百美元,我知道给我安排活儿的那家杂志社是无论如何不会为我出这笔费用的,这样的话,写完稿子我只怕连自己不赔不赚都不能保证了。
可就在那时,我的手机响了。电话是一个做私人调查员的朋友打来的,说是给我介绍一份去丛林里“搞调查”的差事。我得去厄瓜多尔,与一帮为世界500强公司当间谍的人合作。我会感兴趣吗?“我敢肯定你用得上这笔钱。”他直截了当地说。
一个星期后,我坐上了前往哥伦比亚的飞机。我朋友安排我与一名科罗尔公司的招募人员联系,这位老兄似乎不愿意在电话里多说,而是邀请我去波哥大的一家豪华酒店与他共度整个周末。
I arrived after dark at the hotel located on a quiet street in a modern, glassed-in building. I hadn’t heard from Sam, my Kroll contact, in days. But not knowing where or when I would meet him only heightened the intrigue. Who were these shadowy people and what was this job that couldn’t be discussed over the phone?
I needn’t have worried. As soon as I walked in, the receptionist slid a note over the front desk with a number for Sam. A bellboy who took me to my room to rest for a few minutes gave me a purple flower and offered me a glass of red wine. By then I was imagining Sam as the Hollywood amalgam4) of a spy—dashing, dangerous, rugged5) yet refined. But when the elevator doors opened into the lobby, the man I saw just looked like a guy from L.A. in a black shirt and jeans.
That night, we drank tequila6), smoked cigarettes, and went salsa7) dancing, and Sam confessed that before moving to Kroll full-time, he had worked as a researcher for Larry Flynt8) on a pre-election campaign to take down George W. Bush. “After that, I couldn’t work in journalism anymore,” he said. The thought didn’t seem to pain him, I noticed. Sam was going gray9), and carried himself with the ease that comes with professional achievement. He had obviously grown used to the comforts of Kroll’s upper management. And the message seemed to be that these were comforts I could grow used to as well.
天黑之后,我到了那家酒店。它坐落在一条安静的街道上,是一座外墙用玻璃装饰的现代建筑。我已经好几天没听到萨姆的任何音信了——萨姆就是科罗尔公司的那个联系人。不过,不知何时何地能见到他反而让我感觉事情更加神秘。这些神秘莫测的人到底是谁?这项不能在电话里谈论的工作到底是什么呢?
其实我用不着担心。一进酒店,接待员就从前台给我递来一张便签,上面写着萨姆的电话号码。一名服务生把我带到我的房间稍事休息,还送给我一朵紫色的花,并倒了杯红酒给我。那个时候,我还在畅想,萨姆应该是具备好莱坞电影中所塑造的间谍的诸多特征——魅力四射、充满危险、相貌粗犷但举止优雅。可是,当通往大厅的电梯门打开的时候,我看到的不过是个在洛杉矶随处可见的穿着黑衬衫和牛仔裤的家伙罢了。
那天晚上,我们一起喝龙舌兰酒,抽雪茄,还跳起了萨尔萨舞。萨姆坦言自己在到科罗尔公司从事全职工作前,曾在拉里·弗林特领头的一个团队里做研究员,目的是在总统预选期间将乔治·W·布什扳倒。“打那以后,我就没法在记者圈里混了。”他说。我注意到,说起这件事的时候他似乎并不怎么难过。萨姆头发已近花白,职业上的成就使他看上去安逸泰然。很明显,他已经习惯了科罗尔公司高管工作所带来的舒适生活。而且他似乎在向我传达一个信号——我也可以习惯这种舒适。
The next morning, we met in a large suite at the hotel. Over several hours, Sam explained my assignment, should I choose to accept it.
In Lago Agrio, Ecuador, he told me, one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in history is being fought out in a jungle court. A group of citizens represented by American trial attorneys and an NGO called the Amazon Defense Coalition10) are suing Texaco11) on the grounds that the company polluted routinely and wantonly during the 20-odd years it operated there. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco dumped 330 million gallons of oil around Lago Agrio, poisoning their water supply and sickening them with cancers and other diseases.
In Texaco’s defense, however, Sam explained that it’s not entirely obvious who should be responsible for the damage. Texaco built and operated the wells at the center of the dispute back in the early 1970s. But the state-run oil company, PetroEcuador, has owned a 62.5 percent share in the wells since 1977. For that reason, when it came to cleaning up the sludge12), the government assigned just 133 of the 321 sites to Texaco; PetroEcuador took responsibility for the rest. Texaco spent $40 million in its cleanup efforts, and when the work was done, analysts from a Quito university came to collect oil and water samples. By 1998, all of Texaco’s sites had been approved, and the Ecuadorian government signed a full release.
By then, the first lawsuit was already being argued in U.S. courts. That suit, filed in New York in 1993, was eventually dismissed, but it paved the way for the current suit, filed in Ecuador in 2003. This time, Chevron13) is the defendant—the California-based oil company purchased Texaco in 2001. Chevron rests its defense on three pillars: Chevron itself never operated in Ecuador; the Ecuadorian government already released Texaco from these claims; and, finally, the plaintiffs have committed fraud.
第二天早晨,我们在酒店的一个大套房里会面。萨姆花了几个钟头向我介绍我的工作任务——如果我接受这一工作的话。
他告诉我,在厄瓜多尔的拉戈·阿格里奥,有史以来最大的环境诉讼案之一正在丛林地区的一家法庭激烈上演。委托美国庭审律师代理辩护的一些居民和一个名叫“亚马逊河防卫联盟”的非政府组织将德士古公司告上了法庭,理由是该公司在当地运营二十多年来,一直都在日复一日、肆无忌惮地污染环境。原告声明,德士古公司在拉戈·阿格里奥周边倾倒了3.3亿加仑石油,污染了他们的饮用水,引发了癌症和其他疾病。
不过,萨姆却站在德士古公司一边,他解释说,到底谁该为造成的损害负责并不完全明朗。20世纪70年代初期,德士古公司开始在该纠纷所涉及地区的中心地带建造和经营油井。但是从1977年起,国营的厄瓜多尔石油公司拥有了这些油井62.5%的股份。正因为如此,在对一共321个油井进行油污清理时,政府只给德士古公司分配了133个,其余的皆由厄瓜多尔石油公司负责。德士古公司在清理工作上投入了4,000万美元,工作结束后,基多一所大学的分析员过来收集了石油和水质样本。到1998年,德士古旗下的所有油井都通过了检测,厄瓜多尔政府签署了完全免责的证书。
那个时候,第一起诉讼已经开始在美国法庭展开辩论。此次诉讼于1993年向纽约法庭提起,最终被驳回,但它却为眼下这起诉讼铺平了道路,这起诉讼于2003年在厄瓜多尔提起。这一次站在被告席上的是雪佛龙公司——这家总部位于加利福尼亚的石油公司在2001年收购了德士古公司。雪佛龙为自己所作的辩护基于三个理由:雪佛龙公司本身从未在厄瓜多尔开展业务;厄瓜多尔政府已经放弃追究德士古公司的责任;最后一点,原告方有欺诈行为。
Until fairly recently, it seemed that Chevron would prevail. But starting in 2006, a series of dramatic changes took place. Rafael Correa14) won the presidency. In an interview, he said, “ Our oil company [PetroEcuador] has also done a lot of damage in the rainforest, but it is very clear that the problem comes from the Chevron-Texaco period.”
The case truly began slipping away from Chevron when the Ecuadorian court assigned a single independent expert to assess the environmental damages. The expert settled on a $27.3 billion figure that Chevron alone would be held responsible for covering. A judgment could come as early as the first quarter of 2011, and at this stage, many believe Chevron will lose.
Sam explained that once the company realized it was losing the PR battle, it regrouped and hired Kroll. Based in New York, Kroll has a global network of employees, vast resources, and powerful connections. Given this reach15), I knew Kroll could hire someone with a medical background, legal training, or at least some familiarity with Ecuador. But there was a reason they wanted me.
With one Google search, anyone could see that I was a journalist. If I went to Lago Agrio as myself and pretended to write a story, no one would suspect that the starry-eyed16) young American poking around was actually shilling17) for Chevron.
截至距今不久为止,雪佛龙看上去还是稳占上风的。但从2006年开始,情况却发生了一系列戏剧性的变化。拉斐尔·科雷亚当选总统,他在一次采访中说:“我们的石油公司(即厄瓜多尔石油公司)还对雨林造成了很大的破坏,但显而易见,问题的源头却要追溯到雪佛龙-德士古时期。”
情况真正开始朝着不利于雪佛龙公司的方向转变,是从厄瓜多尔法庭指定了一名专家来对环境破坏的程度进行独立评估开始的。这名专家最后认定,雪佛龙公司应当为其所造成的环境破坏承担273亿美元的赔偿。判决结果在2011年的第一季度就要公布,而就现阶段来看,许多人相信雪佛龙将要败诉。
萨姆解释说,该公司意识到自己将要输掉这场公关斗争后,立即重新部署,并雇请了科罗尔公司。科罗尔公司总部设在纽约,员工遍布全球,并且有着丰富的资源和强大的关系网络。考虑到科罗尔公司这样强大的影响力,我知道它完全可以找个有医学背景、受过法律培训或者至少是比较熟悉厄瓜多尔的人。但他们却看上了我,这里面当然是有原因的。
不管是谁,用谷歌搜索一下,就会发现我是一名记者。要是我亲自去拉戈·阿格里奥,假装要写一篇报道,没有人会怀疑这个充满幻想、四处探听消息的美国青年实际上是雪佛龙公司雇用的骗子。
My assigment, should I choose to accept it, involved a health study that took place around 2007, when a Spanish human-rights activist named Carlos Beristain went to Lago Agrio. After interviewing 1,000 residents, Beristain concluded that the community suffered abnormally high cancer rates, and his study became a key part of the court-appointed expert’s report. But Chevron thought something was fishy18): Beristain had failed to disclose the names of all his assistants or of the people interviewed. To Chevron, the names were key to proving that the interviews were real. Was it possible that the plaintiffs had colluded with Beristain to handpick the interviewees? Kroll wanted me to find out.
“You know you’re irreplaceable,” Sam told me on my last night in Bogotá. We were sitting outside a fancy Peruvian restaurant. The smoke from Sam’s cigarette curled in the lamplight, giving the moment a film-noir19) feel. But by then the excitement had mostly worn off20), and I wasn’t sure I could do this and live with21) myself. “There is no other Mary Cuddehe,” Sam continued. “If you don’t do this job, we’ll have to find another way.” Then he told me how much he could pay: $20,000 for about six weeks of work. Plus expenses.
Part of me wanted to say yes. I was thrilled by the idea of a six-week paid adventure in the jungle, and I was curious about the case. Had the health study been fixed? Were the plaintiffs colluding with Beristain? Was Chevron desperate and paranoid22), merely trying to smear23) its opponents? Despite my curiosity, I knew I had to say no. If I’m ever going to answer those questions, it will have to be in my role as a journalist, not as a corporate spy.
如果我接受这项工作的话,我的任务与2007年前后进行的一项健康研究有关,当时一个名叫卡洛斯·贝里斯坦的西班牙人权主义者来到了拉戈·阿格里奥。在走访了1,000名当地居民后,贝里斯坦得出结论:当地人的癌症患病率异常高,他的研究结果也成为法庭指定的那名专家所写报告的重要组成部分。不过,雪佛龙公司认为有些地方值得怀疑:贝里斯坦并未透露他所有助手的名字,也未将受访者的姓名公诸于众。在雪佛龙看来,姓名是证明访问真实性的关键所在。原告方与贝里斯坦有没有可能串通一气,精心挑选了受访者呢?科罗尔公司希望我能查个水落石出。
“你知道这事非你莫属。”我在波哥大的最后一晚,萨姆这么对我说。我们当时坐在一家漂亮的秘鲁餐馆外面,萨姆手中的雪茄散发出的缕缕烟雾在灯光中缭绕,颇有些黑色电影的感觉。但是此时,我的兴奋感已经消失殆尽,而且我不确定自己能否胜任这项工作,也不知道能否忍受做这项工作的自己。“没有第二个玛莉·库德赫了,”萨姆接着说道,“如果你不干,我们也只好再想别的办法了。”然后,他告诉我他能支付的酬金:工作大约六周,付我两万美元酬金,其他开支另算。
我心里的某个角落还是有点想把这件事应承下来的。一想到能在丛林中历险六周,而且还带薪,我就很激动,况且我对这个案子充满好奇。那项健康研究是否做过手脚?原告方与贝里斯坦是否暗中勾结?雪佛龙公司是否已经到了孤注一掷、偏执妄想的地步,现在只想抹黑对手?但尽管无比好奇,我知道自己必须拒绝。如果一定要弄清这些问题,我也应当以一名记者的身份,而不是去做企业的间谍。
1. Kroll:科罗尔公司。它是一家全球风险咨询公司,总部设在纽约,主要提供安全咨询、金融情报与咨询、私人调查、商业情报调查等服务。
2. undercover [7QndE5kQvE] adj. 秘密从事的,秘密的,被雇进行间谍活动的
3. break even:收支相抵,得失相当
4. amalgam [E5mAl^Em] n. 混合物,不同元素的结合
5. rugged [5rQ^Id] adj. 粗壮的,身体强健的
6. tequila [tE5ki:lE] n. 龙舌兰酒
7. salsa:萨尔萨舞曲,拉丁美洲一种流行舞曲,混合了加勒比黑人音乐节奏、古巴管乐队旋律和一些爵士和摇滚乐的因素。
8. Larry Flynt:拉里·弗林特(1942~),美国出版商,以创办色情杂志、信奉极端自由主义而闻名。
9. go gray:(头发)变得灰白
10. Amazon Defense Coalition:亚马逊河防卫联盟。这是一个于1994年创立的非政府组织,主要关注厄瓜多尔亚马逊地区的环境和公众权利问题。
11. Texaco:德士古公司,世界著名跨国石油公司之一,主要从事石油和天然气的勘探、生产、炼制、运输和销售等。
12. sludge [slQdV] n. 烂泥,污泥
13. Chevron:雪佛龙,世界最大的跨国能源公司,总部位于美国加州圣拉蒙市,其业务范围渗透天然气工业的探测、生产、提炼、营销、运输、石化、发电等各个方面。
14. Rafael Correa:拉斐尔·科雷亚(1963~),2006年11月首次当选为厄瓜多尔总统,并于2009年4月再次当选为总统。
15. reach [ri:tF] n. 影响力
16. starry-eyed:幻想的,过分乐观的
17. shill [FIl] vi. 充当雇用骗子
18. fishy [5fIFI] adj. 怀疑的或引起猜疑的
19. film-noir [5fIlm5nwB:(r)] adj.〈法〉具有悲观(或宿命论)色彩的影片的,黑色电影的
20. wear off:逐渐减弱,消失
21. live with:忍受(不愉快的事)
22. paranoid [5pArEnCId] adj. 多疑的
23. smear [smIE] vt. 涂污,诽谤