"Yes, but it's just a commercial one. It's not secure. I can get you an encrypted sat phone pretty quick."
"We use an encrypted messaging app," Lucas said. "I'll email you a link, and you can install it on your cellphone. It's not one that's generally known. It leaves no trace — not even the origin and destination numbers. I'll get it to you this afternoon."
"Okay. I'll install it as soon as I get it. What else can I do for you this morning, Mr. Lucas?"
"I think we've covered everything. I can catch an early flight back to Miami. I'll be back in touch after I confer with my client. If you think of anything before that, you have my phone number." Lucas smirked. "But be careful what you say on the phone; it's not secure."
Delaney chuckled. "Come, Mr. Lucas. I'll show you to your car."
22
"What's next on your agenda, Marie?" Dani asked, as the three of them enjoyed wine and hors d'oeuvres in Vengeance's cockpit.
"We found the trap; now we must place the bait, yes?"
"The target ship suits you for an ambush site, then?" Liz asked.
"Yes," Marie said. "It is a better place than I had hoped. The problem now is to get Delaney there. You said earlier that you had an idea."
"I do," Dani said. "And we know more about what Delaney knows, now.
"He's been asking questions about Connie and me and Liz, so he probably thinks Connie had a connection with Montalba. Maybe he thinks she had something to do with his death, maybe not.
"He's no doubt picked up the rumor that a bunch of ex-FARC people may be under contract to kill him. And he's desperate for money; he's probably looking for a replacement for Montalba. You agree so far?"
Liz nodded and sipped her wine.
"Yes," Marie said. "But he is talking with Lucas, who appears to be connected to these DiGenova people. We don't know what Lucas told him today. He may have a new source of funds."
Dani grinned. "It won't matter."
"How can it not matter?" Marie said.
"Because my guy in Nassau can wipe out his bank accounts any time we want."
"You mean hack into them and transfer the funds?"
"He can do that, but that's not all. He can make the account disappear — leave the bank with no electronic record. They'll have no evidence that the account was ever there, let alone the money that was in it."
"How can he do this?"
"Crosley set up a lot of the backbone stuff for the international interbank networks. He knows more about how all that works than anybody else, and he's got a loose organization of people all over the world who work with him. As I mentioned, I've used him before. Connie has too, so don't worry about that part. I'll come back to how we'll use that, okay?"
"Okay, if you say he can do this, I trust you."
"We'll use it to establish our credibility with Delaney; we'll take his money, then offer to give it back. So what the DiGenovas have done won't matter."
"I see." Marie was nodding her head. "But how do we get him to come to the target ship?"
"We need something physical, something that Delaney will have to come and get," Dani said.
"What, for example?" Liz said.
"I'm thinking like a blackmailer," Dani said. "Two people had enough on Delaney to put him behind bars. One's Montalba; the other's O'Toole. Can either of you think of anyone else?"
"No," Liz said.
"But Montalba's dead, and O'Toole's out of reach for us," Marie said.
"What records did you keep of Montalba's interrogation?" Dani asked.
"Ah!" Marie said. "I think I understand. But we only recorded a few key sessions."
"Delaney doesn't have to know that. All he has to know is that we have recordings. He'll recognize Montalba's voice. We need a long enough snippet for him to be sure it's Montalba."
"Yes! I know exactly the session we need. I can have this emailed in a few minutes."
"Good," Dani said. "The other thing I'll need is the bank information for SpecCorp's main accounts."
"I will have those in the same email. This is no problem."
"Then we have everything we need. Here's my plan. I'll have Crosley wipe out SpecCorp's bank accounts tonight. In the morning, I'll call Delaney and pretend to be Connie, although I won't mention her name.
"I'll mess with him about how I'm calling on the phone that his people recovered from the thief, just to rattle him. Then I'll tell him I'm taking Montalba's place, and that he'd best do as I say because he's flat broke. He'll mouth off, and I'll tell him to look at his bank balance. I'll give him an hour or two and then call back. With me so far?"
"Yes," Marie said, smiling. "Tell me more."
"When I call him back, I'll play the snippet of Montalba. We need something damning in that — something that will cause Delaney to make a snap judgment."
"Yes," Marie said. "I have the thing we need; I remember this session well."
"I'll tell him we have more, and that if he will work with us as he did with Montalba, we will hand over the original recordings."
"He won't believe that," Liz said. "He'll be sure we'd keep copies."
"Yes," Dani said. "I know. But we'll tell him that there's more. We'll tell him Montalba gave up material he can use to manipulate other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and that it's included in the recordings we're offering him."
"But Montalba did not give us such information," Marie said.
"It doesn't matter. He'll have to pick up the recordings. We'll tell him he must come in person."
"Okay," Marie said. "If he agrees to come in person, we have him, yes?"
"Yes," Dani said. "And if he agrees, we say we will re-establish his bank account overnight, but we'll hold back most of the money until we have an agreement."
"I think he'll agree to anything you demand," Liz said. "But he'll show up at the target ship prepared to wipe us out — maybe try to capture us."
"Of course he will," Marie said. "But do not worry about this. I have a few people to make sure we are okay. I like this plan. Let me get the information you need, Dani."
"Good. As soon as you get the account numbers, I'll put Crosley to work."
"What did you get from listening to Lucas?" Delaney asked.
Larry Thompson crossed his legs, putting his left ankle on his right knee and grasping it with his right hand. He was sitting in one of the guest chairs across the desk from Delaney.
"Well, I wouldn't want to play poker with him. He's a cool operator."
"How well could you see his face in the video feed?"
"Well enough. He didn't give away anything he didn't intend to; that's for sure."
"Yeah. I'm irritated that our people got caught on the phone tap."
"I've spoken to them about that already. Lucas has his office swept every day; there was no way to avoid his discovering the taps."
Delaney frowned. "So he knew we were listening?"
"He knew somebody was listening. He couldn't know for sure that we were the ones."
Delaney nodded. "Then what he said on the phone may have been for our benefit."
"That's the way I read it. Unless he thinks someone else may be listening. But if he has it swept daily, the coincidence of timing would point to us."
"How did he learn about Kilpatrick?"
"We're working on that one," Thompson said. "I followed up with Kilpatrick. He had his office swept and got back to me already. It was clean, and he hasn't discussed this with anybody but me and O'Toole. He figures O'Toole's behind it, unless it's somebody at the prison."
"Lucas seemed to know a lot about O'Toole," Delaney said.
"Makes sense that he would, if his client's a long-time competitor of O'Toole's."
"Yeah, I agree. I'd waste O'Toole in a heartbeat, except for what he told Kilpatrick about life insurance. You think that's a bluff?"
Thompson shrugged. "Could be, but he was in a position to document all kinds of stuff we wouldn't want in the public domain. Plus, he's been at this
game for a long time. There's every reason to believe what he said."
"Who would he use?"
"Come on, Clayton. It could be anybody. No way we'll figure that one out."
"Should we spring him?"
Thompson scrunched up his face and shook his head. "Get serious, Clayton."
"I'm thinking we work a trade with him, Larry. We'll offer to spring him if he gives us whatever he's holding."
"You're not thinking straight, boss. He wasn't born yesterday. He might give you something, but you know he'll keep himself covered, long term. He's not going to show you all his cards. Forget him, for now. He's not our biggest problem."
"Yeah, I know. But I'm worried that the DiGenovas might take him out, from what Lucas said. That could trigger the release of whatever O'Toole claims to have, and then we'd be screwed."
"Yeah, you're right," Thompson said. "I was going to mention that. When you get into serious negotiations, you need to make sure they agree to leave O'Toole alone. There's risk there, all right. I saw that coming when Lucas asked about our current relationship with O'Toole."
"Where's my leverage on that, Larry?"
"They want SpecCorp up and running, for the same reasons Montalba did. They want us to clean their dirty money and maybe provide heavy muscle now and then. You need to come clean with them on O'Toole. Blame it on Montalba."
"But they know the score; they go way back with O'Toole," Delaney said. "They're bound to know he introduced us to Montalba, so there's no way they'll think it's Montalba's fault."
"Okay. But if they want to take over Montalba's operation, they have to protect O'Toole. There's more to that than just SpecCorp. You can bet O'Toole's got all kinds of dirt on everybody he ever touched, and that includes a lot of the drug networks that Montalba acquired from him."
Delaney nodded. "Good point. I just need to convince them that keeping O'Toole alive makes business sense. Maybe if our luck holds, they won't bring it up."
"If they don't bring it up, you need to, and soon," Thompson said. "You as good as signed O'Toole's death warrant this morning."
"How's that?" Delaney asked.
"You told Lucas O'Toole could put us in an embarrassing position. They already don't like him. You just gave them one more reason to blow him away."
"Oh, shit. I see what you mean. I meant to do just the opposite, but I only gave them part of the story, didn't I?"
"Yeah. I think you'd better reach out to Lucas on that, sooner rather than later, Clayton. They may knock him off and present it as evidence of their good faith, after the conversation you and Lucas had."
"I'll call him when we're done here. I wanted your reaction on the Barrera thing, and FARC."
"He was cagey on that, wasn't he?" Thompson said. "They know she was talking with Montalba. That much is clear. He didn't quite say that she used the FARC people to do him in, but damn near it."
"You think she's working with them?" Delaney asked.
"The DiGenovas, you mean? I hadn't put that together. Why do you ask?"
"They're long term competitors of O'Toole's. O'Toole sold out to Montalba. Barrera was a competitor of O'Toole's and then Montalba's. Lucas said she's got a Colombian connection — first I've heard of that. And this ex-FARC bunch probably wasted Montalba. He tied her to the ex-FARC people. And the rumor about a hit on me…"
"So far, it sounds like the source of that rumor is Lucas and his people, Clayton. But otherwise, you may be onto something. Got any ideas on how to check that out?"
"I wish we had a channel to Barrera. I'm trying to think of a way to approach her. Think about it and let me know if you come up with anything."
23
"Is it time?" Dani asked, as they lingered over the remains of breakfast.
"You have heard from Crosley, yes?" Marie asked.
"Yes," Liz said. "Delaney's penniless."
"Any last-minute advice?" Dani asked, picking up the satellite phone.
"No. We have role-played it enough times; it must not seem too polished. Make the call." Marie brandished the cloned smartphone. "I will give you the authentication code."
Dani nodded and pressed the power button on the satellite phone, watching the screen until it acquired a satellite connection. She entered the six-digit code to unlock the phone. "Here goes." She opened the directory and selected the single entry for Delaney, pressing the green connect button. There was a single ring tone, and the screen flashed, "Enter 6-digit authentication code," the cursor blinking.
The cellphone in Marie's hand pinged, and she entered a passcode, unlocking it and opening the messaging app. "The PIN is 619130," she read, enunciating carefully.
"619130," Dani repeated the digits as she keyed them into the satellite phone.
"Authentication successful," the screen on the satellite phone flashed, followed a second later by a ring tone.
Delaney was sitting at his desk nursing his second cup of coffee when his phone emitted a distinctive ring tone. Startled, he set the coffee down, sloshing some on his desk, and looked at the caller ID display. "Call from Guillermo Montalba," he read, frowning.
Thinking someone in the SpecCorp lab must be testing the satellite phone, he lifted the handset, barking, "Yeah? What do you want?"
"Good morning, Mr. Delaney." The voice was a young woman's.
"Who is this?" Delaney asked, his tone harsh.
The woman laughed. "Take a wild guess."
"This is no joking matter. I don't know who you are, or what you're doing in my lab, but I'll soon find out. You can't escape from the building."
She laughed again. "Silly man. I'm not in the building, and this is not the phone that's in your lab."
"But... You... It..." he stammered, flipping a switch on his desk telephone, starting a recorder.
"Technology is amazing, isn't it, Mr. Delaney?"
"Who are you?"
"Don't want to try your luck? Out of ideas?"
"This isn't a game, young woman. You're in serious trouble."
"Trouble? That's a familiar place for me. How about you? Do you cope well when you're in trouble? We're about to find out."
"What do you want?"
"I hear you lost a major investor recently. That would be the man who used to call on this phone."
"What would you know about that?"
"Enough to know the security codes to make this call. That should tell you something."
"Did you know this... ah, investor, as you called him?"
"It would be reasonable for you to assume that I met him, wouldn't it? I'm using his phone, and I have the codes."
"That's not his phone. We have his phone. Who are you?"
"You're right. This isn't his phone. I did have his phone, but it was stolen from me. This is a clone. As I said, technology is amazing. Oh, and if you're thinking you'll track this phone, forget it. The GPS on this one's disabled. Once we reach an agreement, I'll tell you how to find me. Assuming we're going to do business together, we'll need to meet in person."
"Do business together?" Delaney asked. "What did you have in mind?"
"You're desperate for cash; I have a surplus that I need to invest."
"What makes you think I'm desperate, as you put it?"
"Have you looked at your bank balance recently?"
"None of your business. Who are you?"
"You should be able to figure out who I am. You have enough clues, and you've been asking enough questions in Miami. But you need to go count your money right now, Mr. Delaney. Trust me on that; you're flat broke. But never fear; I can save you. All it takes is a phone call. Now, call your bank and talk to whoever you trust about your situation. I'll be back in touch."
"But who — " Delaney stopped when he heard the connection drop.
He dialed Larry Thompson's extension, taking a sip of his coffee as he waited for Thompson to pick up.
"Yeah, Clayton? What's new?"
Delaney summarized the call. "Come on in, Larry. I recorded it."
&
nbsp; "Okay, but should I check the lab first? Make sure the phones are both still there?"
"She said they'd cloned them."
"Yeah, I know. Let me check; I'll talk to the techs about that, too. And get them to work on trying to track that phone. Give me five or ten minutes, okay?"
"Yeah, sure. I'll check with Legrand while you do that."
"Legrand? You mean about the bank accounts?"
"Yeah."
"She was bullshitting you, Clayton."
"Maybe. See you in a few minutes."
Delaney disconnected from Thompson and dialed Bill Legrand's extension. "Bill?"
"Yeah, Clayton. What can I do for you?"
"What's the balance in our main account?"
"I'll look. Bear with me for a second."
Delaney could hear the clicking of Legrand's computer keyboard.
"That's damned strange," Legrand said. "I can't get into our account on line. Let me call the bank; I'll get back to you in a few minutes, okay?"
"Sure." Delaney hung up his phone.
Taking a swallow of coffee, he leaned back in his swivel chair, puzzling over the phone call. He put aside the question of how the woman got her hands on the phones and the access codes.
Clearly, someone had gotten to Montalba before he died. That was the only way this could have happened. That meant the woman was probably working with the people who killed Montalba.
She was offering to take Montalba's place. There wasn't much doubt about that. Could she be the Barrera woman? Or was she connected to the DiGenovas, assuming that's who Lucas represented?
And why did she want to meet with him? He'd never met Montalba face to face. He shook his head. Maybe Thompson would have thoughts on how to proceed.
Delaney picked up the morning paper and began scanning the headlines, looking for an article to distract him until Thompson and Legrand got back to him.
"How did I do?" Dani asked.
"Well enough," Marie said.
"You stopped short of telling him you were Connie, though," Liz said.
"I know. It didn't seem like the right thing to do, once we got going."
Bluewater Target: The 15th Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers) Page 17
