Ortega detected a smirk behind Bryant’s words.
“Why should I believe you?”
“You don’t have to. Check for yourself. I’ll stay on the line.”
Ortega pressed the mute button.
“Luis! Get over here!” The carved wooden doors to the outer office opened and Luis appeared. He brushed his hand across his pale forehead, adjusting his thinning hair into a mid-life comb over.
“Get this call traced. Find out where he’s calling from.”
He would get his money back one way or another. Bryant might also lead him to Clara.
Luis nodded and backed out of the doorway to call whoever they owned at the phone company.
Ortega released the mute button.
“How do I know you are who you say you are?”
“Number one: I know about the money. Number two: I know about you. No one else has made the connection. Not yet. That should be worth something.”
“Are you threatening me, Mr. Bryant?”
“I don’t threaten people, Mr. Ortega. I just thought we could share.”
“I don’t share what is mine.”
“That’s open to interpretation. Last time I checked, the money belonged to Liberty Diamond Mines.”
“I might be willing to give you something. Not fifty percent. That’s out of the question.”
“You’re not a very good listener, Mr. Ortega. I told you what I want. Fifty percent. Non-negotiable.”
Ortega paused. He learned long ago never to rush to conclusions. Why would Bryant ask for a cut if he already had the money? He wouldn’t. It meant he needed something else in order to get it. What was Bryant missing? Clara? Money for a well-placed bribe? A password?
“I’ll need more time.”
“No time like the present, Mr. Ortega.”
“Mr. Bryant, you haven’t proven anything. So what if it’s no longer in the account? It doesn’t prove you have it or know where it is.”
“I thought you might say that. So, in a gesture of good faith I’ve sent you an advance deposit.” Bryant laughed. “Look in your Lebanon trust account. See the million dollars?”
“What million dollars?” Ortega typed furiously, fumbling to sign into his other account. His hands trembled as he waited for the login. There it was. A deposit dated yesterday for a million dollars even.
“See it? That’s a little present from me. Call it a show of good faith.”
“How did you do this?” Ortega was furious. Where had Bryant obtained his account information? Only Clara and his accountant knew about this one. Which of the two had double-crossed him? How many more of his bank accounts had been breached? What other information about his organization had been uncovered? He pulled out his linen handkerchief and blotted at the beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
“Does it matter?”
Ortega didn’t answer. He needed time to think.
“You know, Mr. Ortega, most people show more gratitude when someone gives them a million dollars. At least you could say thank you.”
Ortega blew up.
“You bastard! That’s my money! You stole it. It’s not yours.”
“Subject to interpretation. Officially I’m the one who stole it. But we both know it was you.”
Ortega thought he detected a smile in Bryant’s voice. He was obviously enjoying every minute of it, drawing his words out to torture as long as possible.
“Mr. Ortega? You know the old saying—It’s no crime to steal from a thief? Describes us to a tee, don’t you think?”
Ortega didn’t answer. His gut roiled with fury as he tried not to explode.
He added one more name to his list. With or without the money, Bryant would not last the week.
49
“Get away from me!” Kat screamed as she ran into her office with Cindy in close pursuit. “I’m calling the cops!”
She grabbed her cell phone off the desk and punched in 911. Cindy’s leather-clad arm grabbed hers and pinned it against the desk. Kat’s knuckles banged against the wood as she tried to tighten her grip on the cell phone. She cursed herself for her stupidity. Of course Cindy would have known about her escape by now. Why hadn’t she just grabbed her laptop and left, instead of waiting for Cindy to come and finish her off?
“Ouch! You’re hurting me!” Kat’s size advantage was useless against Cindy’s martial arts tricks.
“Kat! Stop fighting me and I’ll let you go. What the hell’s wrong with you?”
Cindy’s arm rested on top, pinning Kat’s to the desk like an arm wrestle champion. She heard the 911 operator’s distant voice as she struggled to pull her arm up and away. At least the cell phone remained in her grip as she tried not to disconnect.
“This is 911. Police, fire, or ambulance?”
“Police! Help me!” Kat screamed in the general direction of her phone. Cindy pulled at her fingers, trying to wrench the phone out of Kat’s grasp with her free hand. Kat tightened her fingers around it to prevent Cindy from disconnecting. The voice was faint, hard to hear from her outstretched arm two feet away.
“—calling from a cell phone? What address are you calling fr—?”
“Ouch!” Kat let out a screech of pain as Cindy pressed sharply on a spot on her palm. Her fingers involuntarily released the phone, and Cindy grabbed it, pressing the END button. The connection was lost.
“Kat—stop the histrionics! Can’t you just relax for a minute and let me explain?”
Kat rubbed her palm. The agonizing pain she had felt a moment ago was completely gone, like it had never happened. How did Cindy inflict such pain without any lasting impact? Kat snapped back to the present. Her arm was free, but she was still alone in a room with a killer.
“Are you going to kill me now?”
“Of course not! You get into yourself into more trouble without getting me involved. You run in dark deserted parks, tamper with murder scenes, and threaten mobster’s daughters. I’m the one who saved your butt. Gus wanted to kill you!”
“You saved me? Kicking me and leaving me for dead on the McBarge?” Kat crossed her arms and glared at Cindy. “I could’ve died of exposure.”
“Well you don’t seem any worse for wear to me. You need a shower, though—you smell like seaweed.” Cindy’s nose wrinkled. “If I hadn’t gone to the McBarge with them, they would’ve finished you on the spot. I convinced Gus you were worth more alive than dead. Taking you and Nick there was my idea, to keep you out of danger and buy some time until we could arrest them.”
“You didn’t protect Nick, you got him killed.”
“Relax. He’s safe.”
“But I heard the shot.”
“That was staged. Nick played dead until we got back to shore.”
It was plausible. Maybe Cindy was telling the truth.
“What about Gus and Mitch?” Kat asked, watching Cindy for any sign of deceit. She was in no hurry to run into either of them again. She sat on the edge of her chair as her heartbeat settled back down to double digits.
“Arrested. Locked up until at least tomorrow.” Cindy moved from the doorway and lowered herself into the overstuffed armchair facing Kat’s desk, still looking very biker chic and none the worse for wear. “Kat, I’m a cop. I had to make it realistic. Or blow my cover. That would have put both of us in real danger.”
“Well, those kicks were real enough. My back’s never going to recover.” A spasm shot up her spine at the mention of it.
“I’d rather give you a bruise than let you die.”
“How selfless of you.” Kat avoided Cindy’s gaze. “Did you really have to put all your weight into it?”
“Kat, they were under orders to kill you. It had to be authentic. I convinced them to wait. The Black Scorpions could use you as a bargaining chip with Ortega.”
Maybe it was true.
“Assuming I believe you—now what?” Kat leaned against the chair back, suddenly very tired. She relaxed her shoulders and let out a deep breath.
&
nbsp; “You tell me what you know, and I’ll do the same. I’ve been trying to do that for the last ten minutes.”
“Okay. But no more martial arts–torture stuff.” Kat studied her palm. No trace of Cindy’s pressure-point magic remained.
“Deal. And you were right about Clara. Ortega brought her in to watch Nick. And your suspicions about the diamond-laundering pan out too.”
“I knew it. And now that Ortega’s discovered how lucrative it is, he’s decided to take over the company.” Kat updated Cindy on the Porter takeover and Clara’s absence from the shareholder vote this morning.
“Do you think she made a run for it?”
“I didn’t think she’d go without the money. And it’s frozen, right?” Kat realized in horror that she was still logged into the Bancroft Richardson website. All Cindy had to do was come around to her side of the desk to see that she’d hacked into the Opal Holdings account. Ever since cracking the password, she had been logging in to make sure the money was still there. Only this time, it wasn’t. Somebody had made a transfer out. A five billion dollar transfer. That was one of the three amounts on Clara’s coffee-stained list. It also happened to be exactly the same amount stolen from Liberty.
“Right. Kat, why are you staring at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’ve done something you don’t want me to know about. I know that look.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kat clicked her mouse to log off the account. But the screen was frozen, the Opal Holdings account visible on her computer screen. She sucked in her breath. Cindy the cop would be very upset she had broken the law. And if it were Cindy the thug instead, she would kill her. Either way, she couldn’t let her see it.
“Why would she go without the money? She must have known the takeover vote wasn’t going to succeed.” Cindy was oblivious to the panic encircling Kat. She continued surmising. “Maybe Ortega pulled her out himself. Things have been heating up with the Black Scorpions lately. Ortega missed a payment. On purpose. The Black Scorpions didn’t like that.”
The Black Scorpions gang had a lock on the local drug trade. They also dealt in the black market weapons trade and were suspected in a number of unsolved underworld shootings.
“How do you know all this?” Kat pressed every key, but the screen remained stuck. She tried not to let her panic show. Could Cindy be bought? “Are you working for Ortega too?”
“Well, not officially.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Kat’s heart started to race again. She eyed her cell phone, which Cindy had just placed back on the desk. Even if she could reach it, she was no match for Cindy. And her screen was still frozen.
“Kat, I’ve been inside the Black Scorpions for over two years now. I’m in charge of logistics, including getting the product in and out without detection. That’s how I met Ortega. He supplies guns for our—I mean their—heroin.”
“And he controls them?” Kat flipped her laptop over. She pulled off the battery cover and ripped out the battery. She had to shut off that incriminating screen.
“No. They’re business partners. But Ortega’s a smart guy. He’s always trying to find ways to maximize his profits. So he’s paying me on the side. I give him a bit more product, and he slips a bit of spending money my way. And a bonus if everything goes well. Why are you dismantling your laptop?”
“It’s so annoying—it keeps freezing up on me. Going well means what? You kidnap people? Kill them?”
“Relax. It’s all part of the undercover work. We stop things before they go too far. I infiltrated the Black Scorpions so we could shut down their heroin trade. When we found out Ortega was involved, the operation took on a whole new dimension because of his international terrorist and organized crime connections. Besides outfitting the Black Scorpions, Ortega supplies arms to most of the world’s major terrorist organizations. We’re working with the police in Argentina and Lebanon to bring down his empire.”
“Weren’t the Black Scorpions involved in all those gang murders? Trying to annihilate the other gangs in a turf war?”
At least Cindy couldn’t see what she had on her screen anymore. She put the battery back in and rebooted her laptop, waiting and wondering if there was any money left.
“Yes. And they’ve pretty much cornered the heroin trade here. Ortega got involved with them about two years ago.”
“Couldn’t you have told me all this before?”
“No. Even if I knew—which I didn’t, it would’ve blown my cover. I still don’t quite see how Liberty fits into all this.”
“Hmmm. Two years ago? Clara showed up at Liberty about the same time your gang starts dealing with Ortega.” Kat’s brain was clicking. “That’s when Nick was getting anonymous death threats. Then he cashed in all his stock options, causing panic amongst the shareholders. He never did say why. It was a big story at the time.”
“He must have needed money for something. Didn’t you say something about Nick having a gambling habit?”
“There were rumors he had overextended himself at the casino.” More than just rumors, Kat thought. Everyone knew he was in trouble.
“He must have used money from the stock options to pay his gambling debts. But it wasn’t enough. So he paid off one loan shark with another?”
“Not quite,” Kat said. “Ortega must have settled his debt. But guys like Ortega aren’t good Samaritans. And Ortega’s too big to be into petty loan sharking. If he bailed Nick out, it was with strings attached. Nick must have given him something in return.”
“Like what? You said he was broke.”
“Even with no cash, he’s still got something valuable. He controls Liberty. That’s worth something.”
“So how would that help Ortega?”
“Access. Suddenly Ortega has access too, especially with Clara installed as CEO. Liberty mines diamonds. Ortega launders diamonds. Those diamonds you had tested were from the Congo and Sierra Leone, remember?” Kat studied her computer screen. She needed to get back into the Opal Holdings account at Bancroft Richardson. Whoever made the first two transfers might have transferred the rest of the money by now. But with Cindy here, she couldn’t risk going back in.
“Kat, you’re brilliant. So the five billion must be related to the diamonds too?”
Kat didn’t answer. She scanned at Clara’s coffee-stained list of account transfers. It would only take a few minutes to transfer the rest of the money.
“Kat?”
“Uh-huh?” Kat was transfixed by Clara’s list. The other two transfers on the list were for $23.4 and $21.6 million. Once the money was gone, it would be lost forever.
“Kat, are you paying attention?”
Kat decided to risk it. She logged back in, half listening to Cindy, who was talking about the diamond laundering. This time she compared the numbers on the list with that on the screen. The first transaction mirrored the account details she had fished out of Clara’s garbage, but with one difference. This time the bank name was listed, a detail that had been missing from Clara’s cryptic list. The five billion had transferred to the Bank of Cayman this morning, around the same time as the Liberty shareholder meeting. She had to get rid of Cindy.
The next two transfers were to banks in the Channel Islands and Liechtenstein. All told, the transfers totaled $49.9 billion, almost all of the money in the Bancroft Richardson account.
50
“How could this happen? Tell me it’s a mistake. Please.”
Kat could only hear Cindy’s side of the conversation, obviously unhappy with what the caller was telling her. Kat didn’t care. As long as Cindy kept talking on her cell phone, it would buy time. She went into overdrive.
The money might be gone from Opal Holdings’ Bancroft Richardson account, but at least she had a good idea of where it might be. She copied down the Bank of Cayman account number from the transaction details on the screen and compared it to the coffee-stained paper she had retrieved from the
raccoon standoff at Clara’s house. The account numbers matched. Now all she had to do was hack into Opal Holdings’ Bank of Cayman account. It sounded easy enough.
Cindy’s voice trailed off down the hall. Good. She was safe from interruption for at least thirty seconds.
Half listening to Cindy, she carefully typed in the account number and checked the screen. She couldn’t afford to waste even one of her login attempts with sloppy typing, since she would only be able to make a few guesses at the password.
Cindy’s voice came closer again.
“Okay, call me back once you know. What?”
And now she receded back down the hall again.
She had to be quick. She couldn’t let Cindy discover she was hacking into other people’s bank accounts.
Next was the password. Did Clara use Vicente’s name again? Probably. Most people used the same password everywhere, changing it only when they had do, like adding a number or capital letter, as required by computer system or website. Amazing how otherwise smart people made themselves vulnerable. Opening themselves up to hackers, which technically speaking she was, as of right now. She typed vicente, watching as the password field filled with seven asterisks.
Cindy’s voice and footsteps grew louder as she neared Kat’s office. Kat’s hands rested above the keyboard, momentarily paralyzed as she listened to Cindy arguing with the unidentified caller.
“What do you mean, they’re gone? Who gave the go ahead to release them?”
Cindy was right outside the door.
Kat’s fingers were suspended in midair, poised to strike or abort, depending on what Cindy did next.
“Oh yeah? Well I’d like to talk to him.” Cindy turned on her heels and paced down the hall towards reception. Her voice faded.
Kat pressed enter and bit her lip.
The Bank of Cayman screen refreshed and she was in. Opal Holdings’ account information stared back at her on the monitor.
“No. I’m not waiting. Do it right now.”
Cindy’s voice grew louder and angrier. Kat paused and listened to her heels click in quick succession as she walked back towards Kat’s office. She stopped just outside the door.
[Katerina Carter 01.0] Exit Strategy Page 22
