by David Capps
Jake left Dr. Rosen’s office and walked toward the elevators. The hall was long, gray and slightly musty. The gray carpeting, flecked with tiny black threads, should have been replaced years ago, but instead it, along with a hundred other things, had lapsed into various stages of disrepair.
He took the elevator down to the ground level and stopped momentarily in front of the portrait of his father, legendary Special Agent Jarrod Hunter. He reached up and touched the frame, wondering what his father might have thought or said about his own struggles in the Bureau.
Fourth generation FBI, That’s quite a legacy to live up to.
He exited the southeast entrance that faces the corner of 9th and Pennsylvania. The warm, moist air of June in Washington, D.C. engulfed him as he pushed through the glass doors and out into the paved area around the main entrance to the building.
I’ve had enough of partners, he thought. The first one hadn’t died; but he had been placed on permanent disability due to injuries sustained in yet another gun battle. And now with Haden, enough was enough. He couldn’t take losing a third one.
The FBI is just going to have to find a way to allow me to work without a partner.
He walked between the large, round, concrete barriers that protected the main entrance from vehicles, potentially filled with explosives, from crashing in through the doors and taking the entire building down. His thoughts drifted to what he was going to tell his boss.
The racing sound of a car rapidly accelerating jolted him back to reality. As he looked up a speeding black vehicle struck a pedestrian crossing toward the FBI building. The collision propelled the man’s body into the intersection. The car swerved right onto Pennsylvania.
Typical black SUV found all over Washington, Jake thought, but without any plates. Movement of the man’s arm drew Jake’s attention back to the victim. He’s still alive. Jake raced into the intersection, waving his arms to stop the onslaught of traffic. Cars screeched to a halt as Jake knelt down to examine the injured man.
Bright red blood spread rapidly across the man’s right chest. It oozed through the otherwise crisp white shirt. Right ribs are broken. Jake checked for a pulse. Weak and rapid. He’s in shock. Scrapes and blood covered half of the man’s face. His right arm lay twisted and bent unnaturally. Broken, Jake concluded. Both legs, too. This is bad.
Two Metro Police officers ran into the street from the southeast corner. One cop held back traffic. The other approached Jake and the injured man. Jake pulled his credentials and shield from his inside jacket pocket and held them up for the officer to see.
“I’m Special Agent Jake Hunter, FBI,” Jake said. “He needs an ambulance, now!”
The Metro cop grabbed his radio and called it in.
“F…B…I?” the man said slowly, looking up into Jake’s eyes.
“Yes,” Jake said. “Just hold on, help is on the way.” The man coughed. Blood sprayed from his mouth forming small bright red droplets on the left jacket sleeve of Jake’s suit.
The man held up his left arm. “Take…watch.”
“You’re going to make it. Just hold on.” Jake closed his eyes momentarily and then looked away. He hated lying to people who were dying, but this was what he had been taught to do−give them some hope−some reason to cling to life.
“No,” the man said. He coughed again. Pink foam appeared in his mouth, a clear sign of massive lung damage. “You have…”
Jake had seen too many people die not to recognize a last request. He knows he’s not going to make it.
“You have…to…stop…them.”
“Stop who?”
“Take…watch.”
Jake looked at the watch. Both the minute and hour hands had a small skull on them. He was surprised by the sweep of the second hand. The watch was running backwards: counter-clockwise.
“What is this watch?” Jake demanded.
“Time…left.”
“Before what?”
“We…all…die.”
“What does that mean?” Jake leaned closer to the man’s face. “How are we all going to die?”
Jake held the man’s head up off the pavement. With the man’s last breath, pink foam and bright red blood welled up and flooded out of his mouth. Jake checked for a pulse; there was none. The very worst part of my job, Jake thought: being there when people die. Jake closed his eyes, lowered his head and breathed out slowly. He fought a deep sadness rising within his chest. I hate feeling so damned helpless.
“Bus is on the way,” the Metro cop said.
Jake looked up and shook his head. The Metro cop got back on his radio. The ambulance would still be on its way, but they wouldn’t need the lights and siren.
Jake examined the watch more closely. The hours were marked in twenty-four-hour increments, like a military watch. He noticed a small clear rectangular window in the watch face with the number 35 displayed beneath. No manufacturer or brand of any kind was visible. He took the watch off the man’s wrist and examined the back. No markings there either. Jake checked the man’s pockets. He found a wallet with identification, a plane boarding pass for a flight from New York to Washington and back later in the day, and a Metro Pass card.
It’s evidence—but they won’t need the watch for identification, or cause of death. Besides, he gave it to me. Technically, it wasn’t his when he died.
As Jake moved the watch, he noticed a brief green flash from the watch face. He moved it slowly in the sunlight, looking for the source of the flash. Then he saw it: a holographic image of a large bird. It seemed to float in the air, just under the clear bezel of the watch.
“Huh,” Jake said quietly. The image looked similar to an eagle, but it wasn’t the usual shape. Jake glanced around and slipped the watch into his jacket pocket.
A Metro Police cruiser pulled to the curb just past them on Pennsylvania Avenue. A sergeant got out and approached.
“You see what happened?”
Jake gave him a description of the car and showed him the victim’s identification.
“Detectives are a little backed up. It’ll be an hour or two before they get here. We might have crime scene techs here before that, but maybe not. Can you stick around for a while?”
Jake knew how the system worked. Homicide detectives were overworked in D.C., never enough hours in the day. Same deal for the crime scene technicians.
“Yeah, I’ve got nothing else to do, anyway. You guys look like you could use some coffee.” Jake took orders and went back into the FBI building. With the early summer warmth and humidity, the inside of the Hoover Building felt cooler than it actually was. The air inside smelled unmistakably musty and stale compared to outside.
Despite the depictions in the movies and on television, cooperation between local law enforcement and the FBI was very good. Jurisdictional lines were clear. This was a vehicular homicide within the realm of the Washington D.C. Metro Police. No federal issues were involved.
When Jake returned, more Metro cops had arrived and yellow police tape cordoned off the crime scene. Gawkers collected behind the yellow tape, an unavoidable part of every crime scene. Traffic had been re-routed, which only added to the general confusion a dead body in the street caused. A deputy medical examiner had arrived to evaluate the body. Jake handed her a cup of coffee and filled her in on what he had seen, including time and cause of death.
Two hours later, a team of Metro detectives ducked under the tape: Detectives Kurt Traeger and Craig Dirksen. Jake had worked with both of them before. Dirksen confirmed the victim’s identity: Daniel Jacobson, residing in Manhattan, New York, Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“Really?” Jake asked. “A vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank? In Washington?”
“Yeah,” Traeger said. “We see ‘em from time to time, visiting the politicos.”
“But this guy wasn’t anywhere near the political offices. It looked like he was coming here, to the FBI.”
“Why would you think
that?”
Jake cringed. He hadn’t told the other cops everything, but it was time now.
Well, except maybe for the watch.
“When I got to him, I identified myself as FBI to your patrolmen,” he said. “The vic seemed relieved and started mumbling something about all of us are going to die, and how I had to stop them. It seemed a little nuts to me, so I didn’t mention it to the sergeant.”
“Okay, we’ll run a drug panel with the autopsy. That may explain it,” Traeger replied.
Jake was now officially intrigued. A vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York comes to Washington, rides the subway instead of taking a limo, apparently wanting to talk to the FBI. But there’s an FBI field office in New York. Why not go there? And what about the watch, counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until, according to the victim, they would all die? What was that all about? And just before he gets to the front door of the FBI building, he’s killed by a hit-and-run driver. What are the odds of those things being just a coincidence?
Jake felt the sadness lifting and his pulse strengthen. He turned and headed back into the building to talk to his boss.
* * *
“Daniel Jacobson, Manhattan, Federal Reserve Bank VP,” Senior Special Agent William Briggs read off the computer screen. Jake patiently waited for his boss to continue. “He’s been under surveillance by the financial crimes division for the last year−suspicion of money laundering.”
“Anything actionable?” Jake asked.
Briggs computer pinged. “Huh.”
“What is it?”
“Inter-departmental notice. Customs is holding two Chinese businessmen at La Guardia Airport for not declaring financial documents in excess of $10,000.”
“And this concerns us how?” Jake asked.
“They were carrying a business card—Daniel Jacobson, Federal Reserve Bank. Outside of a passport and cell phones, the card is the only possession they have in addition to the financial instruments.”
“What kind of instruments?”
Briggs tapped a few more keys. “Gold bearer bonds, ten of them.”
“Denomination?”
“Hang on, there’s a graphic,” Briggs said. “Wow.”
“What?”
“Take a look.”
Jake had heard about these, but he’d never seen one before. “It says the bearer bond is in exchange for one metric ton of gold. The bonds are issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Face value is $1,120,000.”
“Yeah,” Briggs said. “Look at the date on the bonds.”
Jake leaned closer to the screen. “June 6th, 1941. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Ten tons of gold, at today’s prices?”
Jake ran the calculations in his head. “We’re at 384 million dollars, and that doesn’t include any interest that would have accrued. No wonder they didn’t want to declare them to customs!”
“I know you’re officially off duty, but their only contact was killed right in front of you. You want to take a look at the bonds and talk to these two?” Briggs asked. “I don’t actually have anybody else available.”
“What about the New York office?” Jake asked. “Wouldn’t they want to be on this?”
“Yeah, about that.” Briggs leaned forward. “If Jacobson was on his way to see us, and didn’t want to go to the New York Field Office for some reason, I’m thinking we should handle this quietly, and from here. You know what I mean?”
“At least until we have a better grasp of the situation?”
“Exactly.”
Jake smiled. He was excited to be involved in an investigation again.
* * *
Jake picked up Agent Ken Bartholomew from the Secret Service office on his way to the airport. Ken was the Secret Service’s top document expert. He was African-American, skinny as a rail with short-cropped hair and a struggling mustache.
“Thanks for the invite,” Ken said. “You said gold bearer bonds?”
“Yep, ten of ‘em. I’ve never seen one before. I’m hoping you have.”
“Oh yeah,” Ken replied. “If they are what I think they are, you’re in for an education.”
“That good?”
“That good. Rare as hen’s teeth.”
Jake looked over at him and chuckled.
Going through security at the airport reminded Jake of the watch in his coat pocket. He placed it in the gray plastic tray with his other belongings. The fact that he had two watches went un-noticed by the TSA.
Being a federal agent probably prompted a lower level of scrutiny.
He decided that wearing the watch was the safest place for it, even though it meant having two watches on his left wrist, his own, for telling time, and the other, running backwards, counting down to some mysterious event.
They caught the U S Airways 11:00 a.m. shuttle from Dulles to La Guardia. Jake had known Ken for eight years now. Ken was an Ole Miss grad with a degree in Accountancy and a minor in Art History. His attention to detail and uncanny ability to spot fakes drew the attention of not only the Secret Service, but the FBI, as well. In the end, Ken had selected the Secret Service instead of the FBI.
Too bad. Ken would have made a great agent.
It was 12:20 p.m. when they reached the Customs Office.
“Secret Service?” the Customs officer asked when they showed their credentials. “I thought you guys protected the President.”
“Some of us do,” Ken replied. “The Secret Service also investigates all crimes involving currency and counterfeit financial documents.”
“Huh,” the officer replied.
“The two Chinese nationals. What’s their story?” Jake asked.
“They haven’t said much,” the officer said. “They handed their passports to us and said they were here on business. They said they had nothing to declare. A quick check of the briefcase produced these.” He showed Jake and Ken the bearer bonds. “That’s when we took them into custody. They haven’t said a word since.”
“May I?” Ken asked, reaching for the bearer bonds.
“Yep,” the officer replied. “We don’t even know if the bonds are real. We need a determination before they can be charged.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Ken said.
“The bonds look old,” Jake noted.
Ken picked one up and held it to the light. “Is there a room we could use to examine the bonds?”
“Sure, right in here.” The officer led them across the hall to a small office.
“This could take a while,” Ken said. “We’ll let you know what we find.”
The officer seemed put off, but turned and left. Ken pulled a jeweler’s loop from his pocket and began to examine the bond in detail. Twenty minutes later he had looked at all ten bonds.
“Well, what do you think?” Jake asked.
Ken took a quick look around the room, checking for a listening device or camera. “Okay, here’s the deal. I’ve seen some of these bonds before. The story is that when the Japanese army was invading China in the run-up to World War II, wealthy families were being murdered and their possessions were plundered by the Japanese Army—Gold, jewels, artwork, anything of value. Many of the families in China had their gold shipped to the Federal Reserve Bank in New York for safe-keeping. After the war, wealthy Japanese families did the same thing. The bank issued gold bearer bonds as a receipt for the gold. The bearer bonds could be redeemed by anyone possessing the bond, supposedly, no questions asked.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?” Jake asked.
“Take a look right here.”
Jake looked at the bond closely. “The word annual is misspelled.”
“Right, and over here…”
“That isn’t even a real word. This is a fake.”
Ken held the bond up to the light. “And this do-hicky?”
“It’s a watermark,” Jake said.
“Yes, it is. The watermark and the paper are authentic.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. You’d think if someone went to the trouble of using authentic paper and creating the watermark, they would have spelled the words correctly.”
“You’re looking at one of the darker sides of our country’s history,” Ken said quietly. “The bearer bonds are authentic, issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on the date specified. The bank officials created the bonds with the mistakes in them, thinking the foreigners wouldn’t notice, and they didn’t. Decades later, when the bonds were presented, the bank officials simply claimed the bonds were forgeries, and refused to return the gold.”
“And because of the mistakes in the text of the bond, no one can prove the bonds are real,” Jake said.
“Precisely,” Ken replied. “In addition, the signatures on the bonds are fictitious, no one by those names ever worked for the Federal Reserve.”
“So you’re telling me the Federal Reserve Bank intentionally swindled these people out of ten tons of gold?”
“Nope,” Ken replied. “I’m saying the bank swindled them out of twenty-two thousand tons of gold.”
“What?” Jake said. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. At today’s prices, I make that 844.8 billion dollars.”
“And nobody was charged and prosecuted?”
“No real proof,” Ken said. “The Secret Service audited the bank’s records, which indicated 218 tons of gold had been received from Asian families, all of which had been redeemed by the families after the war. The bank claimed that no gold bearer bonds have ever been issued by a Federal Reserve System bank.”
“But here they are—ten of them. You said they’re authentic.”
“I know they are—but I can’t prove it. The Secret Service has been following various gold bearer bonds for decades. Everyone who examines the bonds comes to the same conclusion you did−that the bonds are fake.”
