“I agree we have to interrogate him,” Wang replied, “but Captain, I suggest that we just let him come in tomorrow, then ask him to step into the conference room. We don’t want to give him a heads-up that we’re onto him.”
“Good idea. We’ll confiscate his laptop as soon as we get him in here, then John, you can deny his access into Big Brother as soon as we do.”
“The question is, if he did sell out Garcia, who did he sell him out to?” De Niro asked.
“The Pacifico cartel …?” Wang offered. “After all, he was looking into their operation down there.”
“Yes, but how did they know that?” Ricci replied. “If we work from the premise that Les was paid to tell the cartel that Garcia was investigating them—“
“Then it couldn’t be the cartel,” De Niro finished his thought. “It would mean they had no idea they were being investigated. That means there’s someone else … another player.”
“Zamani …?” Wang offered again. “But how would he know about our investigation? How would he even know about The Watchman … and what would be his tie-in to Les?”
“One thing’s for sure, nothing in Les’s background check tied him in with anyone like Zamani or I would have known about it.” Wang replied.
Everyone became quiet again. De Niro broke the silence.
“We have a lot of unanswered questions, but at least it looks like we know the questions to ask and whom to ask them to. Let me know how it goes tomorrow with Les.”
De Niro disconnected the call. He sat for a few moments trying to get his mind around all of it then he heard Dollor neigh.
“Okay boy, let’s get you back to the stable.”
Chapter 23
The Foster Lafayette Hotel
Bahman Fard’s Suite
Washington, D.C.
1:30p.m., Sunday, July 17, 2011
Bahman Fard opened the door to his suite to let Les Pastak in then he closed it behind him.
“Hello Les. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you for awhile. Take a seat, may I get you—“
“Mr. Fard, let me get to the point. Five days ago, Agent Garcia went missing. His transponder stopped transmitting and there was no trace of him except for his abandoned car. Then Friday his transponder started transmitting again and do you know from where … from a Pacifico Cartel drug farm about 600 kilometers south from where he last reported in! Now The Watchman is sending a team down there to investigate!! Mr. Fard, what did you do with the transponder code I gave you? Who did you give it to?!”
Fard smiled softly.
“Les please calm down and sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down, Mr. Fard I want you to answer my questions!”
Fard walked over to a stand with a pot of tea sitting on it and took his time pouring himself a cup.
“I would offer you some, but I remembered that you don’t care for tea.”
“Mr. Fard, do you also remember what you said to me? You were only supposed to photograph Agent Garcia! The people back at The Watchman think he’s dead … and so do I! I want to know what you did to Agent Garcia and I WANT TO KNOW NOW!”
As soon as Pastak raised his voice, Fard sprang at him. He splashed the boiling tea onto his face, then breaking the cup against the side of the cocktail table he put a pointy shard to his throat. Pastak was temporarily blinded and howling in pain.
“Les, let’s get a few things straight, shall we? First, you will never raise your voice in my presence again, is that understood?”
“Aghhh my face … you scalded my face, you bastard!”
Fard pressed the shard into Pastak’s neck until blood appeared around it.
“Les, I will not repeat myself.”
Pastak was riveted in pain from the burns to his face and eyes, and from the sharp object drawing blood from his throat.
“Okay … okay. Yes, I understand!”
“Now Les, I’m going to remove my jagged tea cup from your throat, please don’t make me use it to pluck out your eyes.”
Fard slowly pulled the ceramic shard from Pastak’s neck and put it down on the cocktail table. It had blood on it. Pastak used one hand to wipe the tea remnants from his eyes and put his other hand over the wound to his neck, trying to hold back the bleeding.
Fard walked over to the teapot and poured himself another cup of tea, then sat down next to Pastak.
“I’ve told you before, Les, I don’t have to answer any of your questions, but you have to answer mine. Now concentrate Les. I want you to tell me the truth and I don’t want to repeat my questions, do you understand?”
Pastak nodded his understanding. He was shaking from shock.
“First, you said that The Watchman is sending a team down to this drug farm. You need to tell me everything about that and Les, this time leave nothing out or I’ll have your limbs removed from your body as you watch!”
Pastak could hardly think straight from the pain.
“One team … four men … they’re traveling down there on De Niro’s yacht, Santana.”
“They can get to this farm by boat?”
“No … they’re gonna use a chopper from the boat to put them down near the farm.”
“Just four men …? Who are these men … are they soldiers?”
Pastak blinked his eyes numerous times trying to look around the room.
“I think you damaged my eyes! I can’t see … everything’s blurry!”
“Les, Les, Les … perhaps you didn’t take me seriously when I told you I will remove your eyes with a fragment from this tea cup if you make me repeat myself and don’t answer my questions! Who are the men?”
“I don’t know them … I mean, I know one … his name is Santappia, he was a Marine. The others, I have no idea who they are. I’d guess ex-military.”
Fard scratched his chin as he collected his thoughts for a moment then continued.
“Let’s move on. Les, you only told us about Agent Garcia. Was there another agent attached to that …what did you call it … that I-G investigation?”
Pastak hesitated another moment until he saw the blurry figure of Fard motioning towards him.
“Wait … there was another agent, but he wasn’t sent to Mexico. You asked me to only tell you about activities out west! The other agent was sent—“
“To Qatar, yes I know. Unfortunately for you, I didn’t learn that from you, Les, but from one of our plants in an investment bank there. Just an hour ago, he informed us that someone was asking questions that we’d rather not have anyone ask.”
Some of Pastak’s pain subsided just enough for him to start thinking clearly again.
“I don’t understand, Mr. Fard. What does that have to do with our interest in obtaining the Mexican government as a client?”
“Les, your making me have to decide which of your eyes I will remove first … you’re asking me questions again.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’m just … I don’t understand … any of this.”
“Then let me explain to you, Les, the position you’ve placed us in and in which you have placed yourself. There is a … link between Qatar and Mexico that we do not want discovered. Apparently, somehow Mr. De Niro’s Watchman agency has stumbled upon it. That potentially puts at risk, a very important operation of ours that’s about to get underway. What I need to know from you Les is did that agent in Qatar report yet and if he did, what exactly did he report?”
“I don’t know anything about what that agent did or didn’t report.”
“Then you will tie into their system again and check.”
“Mr. Fard, I can’t. Okay, I don’t know anything about that agent, but I do know that they’re starting to put the pieces together to something. I have a gut feeling that it’s only a matter of time before they check and see that I was the one that gave away Garcia’s location!”
“Les, you have no choice, you really don’t. You see, if you don’t check right now, in front of me, you won’t leave this room alive
.”
Fard called out in Farsi and a moment later two large Middle Eastern men stepped into the room. Both were wearing black jackets with mocks underneath and one was wielding a brand new, fourth generation Glock 23 pistol with a noise suppressor extending from its muzzle.
Beads of sweat started dripping from Pastak’s temples.
“Mr. Fard, please. I’ll do it, but how can I be sure that you won’t just kill me anyway, after I tell you what you want to know.”
“You can’t be sure of that Les, but you can be sure that this gentleman pointing his pistol at your head will certainly pull the trigger if you don’t comply.”
Pastak’s mind raced as he took his iPhone from his inside jacket pocket and opened the Big Brother app that was installed on it. He entered his user name and password and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he still had access to the system and to the Operation India-Golf 070510 files. His hands started to shake as he continued to type into the phone. After a moment, he sighed out of frustration.
“Mr. Fard, could I have a cup of that tea please? I need something to calm my nerves or this’ll take forever.”
“I thought you didn’t like tea, Les?”
Les stopped typing and looked up at Fard.
“Listen, Mr. Fard, I’d much prefer two fingers of scotch to calm my nerves!”
Fard clenched his eyebrows then motioned to the man not pointing the pistol, to satisfy his request.
Pastak took a sip from his cup of tea.
“Thank you. Now, let me check on the other agent … okay, yes, he did report in. It says here, he came up with someone named … Aref Zamani? Do you know him?”
Fard blinked, trying his best to show no emotion hearing the name of his boss spoken by the infidel.
“What did he report about this man?”
Pastak took a minute to read and scroll down. Then he looked up slowly.
“It says that this man Zamani wired $25 million to the warehouse operation that Agent Garcia was investigating.”
Fard pursed his lips.
“Go on, does it say anything more?”
“No, the agent just reported that he discovered the name of the man that owned the private equity company that made … the investment into the Mexican warehouse operation. Mr. Fard, I don’t understand any of this, but I won’t ask you—“
Fard jumped up from his seat. Pastak’s heart almost stopped, until he saw Fard utter something to the man with the gun then he left the room. The man kept the gun pointing at him, but he didn’t look like he was ordered to pull the trigger.
Fard hit a speed-dial button on his cell connecting him with Zamani, as soon as he entered the bedroom.
“Sir, we have a few problems. The Watchman knows about the account in Qatar. They also know about the $25 million wired to Mexico and they know that the account belongs to you. Yes sir, I had the infidel confirm it right in front of me. Sir, there’s something else. They discovered the location of where those idiot Mexicans buried the agent’s body. Yes sir, on one of their drug farms in the south of Mexico … I understand, I’ll contact them and give them warning. One more thing sir, I had to play rough with the infidel. I’m not sure how much more use he can be to us. Apparently they’re close to discovering that he was the leak … Yes sir he still has access to their system … I understand. I’ll have him check. What do you want me to do with the infidel afterwards … I understand.”
The call was disconnected from the other side. Zamani was not at all pleased to hear what Fard had told him. Fard returned to the room with Pastak and his men.
“Les, there’s a way for you to remain alive. This turn of events has left none of us with many choices. You know, you really should have told me about that other agent. If you had, we could have made him disappear like we did Agent Garcia. Then none of this would be necessary.”
Pastak took his hand away from the wound on his neck. He checked his hand to see if it was still bleeding … it wasn’t. You didn’t exactly make Agent Garcia disappear, did you … you Iranian moron! I better think fast or I’m gonna end up buried next Garcia!
“None of what, Mr. Fard …? Let me rephrase … just tell me what I need to do to walk out of this room and I’ll be glad to do it!”
“You said that their system keeps tabs on the location of everyone. I need you to look in their system and see if there is a transponder code for Mr. De Niro’s location.”
Pastak couldn’t hide his emotions. He was terrified by the request and its implications. He hesitated.
“Les, you know the saying, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound?’ Well, you are in, up to the bloody wound on your neck, my good man. We need to have leverage on Mr. De Niro. We simply need to be able to persuade him to get his agency to back off from their investigations into our affairs. You understand?”
Pastak nodded.
“Very good, go to it then and I hope for your sake that you find something that will help us.”
Pastak started looking into the area of the system where he found Garcia’s transponder code. He never considered himself technically advanced with computers but the threat of losing his life inspired him to try his best. He searched more and more fervently as beads of sweat dripped from his brow. Out of the top of his eyes, he could see Fard sitting patiently to his left and the man with the gun standing between him and the door to his right. The other man apparently disappeared into the other room.
Pastak tried accessing in every way he knew using his ops access, when it occurred to him. Instead of searching through the operations areas of Big Brother, why don’t I just search through my HR interface?
As soon as he patched in via his HR interface, he discovered that not only did he have access to De Niro’s transponder code, but there were also transponder codes for De Niro’s two sons.
I already caused the death of Agent Garcia by believing Fard. I’m not brave, but I can’t just hand over the transponder codes to De Niro and his kids to this madman, no matter how I feel about him. Bottom line though, I’m not getting out of this room either way … unless I do something!
Pastak’s desperation led to inspiration. He downed the tea in his cup then turned to the man with the gun.
“May I have some more tea, please?”
The man looked over at Fard, who was busy typing into his iPhone. Fard looked up with impatience, nodded then went back to what he was doing. The gunman carefully stepped over to the tea pot and with one hand, picked it up while keeping his pistol trained on Pastak. He walked over and began pouring the tea into Pastak’s cup. Pastak purposely moved the cup letting some of the tea drip onto his leg. In an instant, he jumped up as if he’d been scorched again, catching the gunman by surprise. Taking a page from Fard’s book, he tossed the tea in his cup into the gunman’s face then shoved him out of the way and ran out the door of the suite. In the process though, he dropped his phone, but there was no way for him to turn back and get it.
The gunman moaned in agony as the second man ran back into the room. Fard jumped to his feet, pointing out the door.
(In Farsi) “Get him!”
Drawing his own suppressed Glock 23, the second gunman ran out the door only to see Pastak working his way through a small crowd of people heading for the elevators. The gunman quickly concealed his weapon and tried in vain to reach Pastak but Pastak had pushed his way onto the elevator and a moment later the doors closed. The gunman ran back into the suite.
(In Farsi) “I’m sorry sir. He got onto the elevator before I could stop him.”
Fard held up his hand with Pastak’s phone in it.
“He dropped this. Go after him and get rid of him when you catch him. I don’t need him anymore… and take this other bumbling fool with you!”
Fard waited for the two gunmen to leave the room then he hit the auto-dial button on his phone again, connecting him with Zamani. He examined Pastak’s phone as he did.
“Sir, the infidel has temporarily escaped from us but I have his phone an
d it’s still connected to the Watchman’s system. Allah is kind! It not only has the transponder codes for Mr. De Niro, but also for his two sons. Thank you sir … no, don’t worry; our men will take care of the infidel. There is nowhere he can run. He can’t go to the police or back to The Watchman. Yes sir, I’ll return to New York immediately.”
Fard carefully placed Pastak’s phone onto the table and copied the transponder codes to a pad. When he was done, he pulled the battery from Pastak’s phone, dropped the phone on the floor and smashed it with the heel of his shoe then he picked up the hotel phone.
“Yes, this is Mr. Fard. Please send housekeeping to my room. I’ll be checking out within the hour, but I’m afraid I entertained a rather clumsy guest.”
Chapter 24
Aboard Santana
Station keeping off the Mexican Coast
Approximately 60 miles north of Acapulco, Mexico
1:00a.m., Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Captain Charles “Red” Golden had been the skipper of the Santana since Cris De Niro had taken possession of her the year before. She was built in Holland by the renowned Millennium Super Yachts, to Captain Golden’s specifications and had taken over two years to build. Like almost everyone else that De Niro hired (with the exception of Concho), he had carefully vetted Red Golden before making him an offer to come to work for him.
Rear Admiral Golden spent his entire adult life in the U.S. Coast Guard, retiring after 33 years of distinguished service. Golden would never forget, the week after he retired, receiving a call from Mr. De Niro offering him the opportunity of a lifetime. Never marrying or living inland, he saved up for his retirement with the intention of buying a small yacht and living on it, sailing from one port to the next. When Cris De Niro made golden the initial offer to work for him, he originally turned him down, telling him about his retirement plans. He was shocked speechless when the billionaire replied, “That’s a great plan, Admiral. If you agree to my offer, you can live out those plans and be paid handsomely while you do … the only difference would be that you do it on my yacht.”
The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) Page 16
