by Geoff Wolak
‘Got the hostages out safely, but back at base – waiting transport, an unhappy bunch of Nigerian gunmen turned up, two hostages wounded.’
‘Not Nigerian Government...’
I shook my head, and he nodded, and I was soon moving on to the Director.
She stood. ‘Are you well, no injuries?’
‘No, Ma’am, all well, but Captain Hamble got a head cut.’
‘The Nigerian Ambassador also got a head cut, as well a head bashing from the press today, quite a bashing. Still, they should do more to control gangs in their country.’
‘Indeed, Ma’am. They need to refinery their approach.’
She hid her smile and scowled at me.
A grey-haired man approached, a casual suit worn. ‘We talk on the phone often,’ he began. ‘Deputy Chief.’ We shook. ‘You’re as I imagined you before I saw the photos.’
‘You ... you have a file one me, like ... some spy agency or something?’ I teased.
He shot me a look.
I glanced at the guy sat down. ‘What does he know?’ I whispered.
‘All of it, we came clean when we figured we had enough to make it too valuable to lose.’
‘And the FBI?’
‘Not up to speed yet, if they ever will be, and they still think you’re an Israeli.’
I nodded, and with tea cup in hand I found my reserved seat, left hand to David, GCHQ on my left. Everyone sat, looks exchanged as to who might go first, but the Assistant National Security Advisor, Larry White, was obviously in charge.
‘Thank you for hosting this meeting today, and your kind welcome, and your kind offer of further intel sharing and cooperation.’ He steepled his fingers. ‘We were recently made aware of the asset, and his intel gathering, and it’s particular value, and that value does seem to be of an extreme nature.
‘We’ve had a briefing of past interactions, which ... shocked us, to say the least, concerned us, but we have been persuaded that the value outweighs the inherent risks, and that future benefits are of an extremely valuable nature.
‘And I must say that I am ... surprised that the asset is with us today, and walking around in plain sight.’
The Director cut in, ‘He’s a captain in the British Army, and ... house trained.’
A few wide smiles broke out, not least mine. I got a look from White.
‘What I meant was ... other assets of this nature don’t visit Langley for a cup of coffee and a chat around the water cooler. They ... keep a low profile.’
The Director put in, ‘As part of a special forces unit ... everyone knows not to photograph him, and the British press know that, and ... he’s more widely known by his nickname than his real name, which I’ve forgotten.’
I smiled. ‘When I come to sign a check, I have to stop and think who I am.’
They laughed.
The Deputy Chief said, ‘A hazard for those with numerous alter egos. One of our naval officers asked him if he was a Brit agent, and he replied ... depends on the day of the week.’
Many laughed, wide smiles adopted.
White smiled, but was reserved. He checked his notes. ‘You speak Russian, and have taken the place of a dead Russian assassin, or did so several years ago, and you infiltrated a Russian gang in Panama – getting to a high position within their ranks, and since then you’ve established – as your alter ego, links with various African dictators, numerous drug gangs, and a great many Russian gangsters around the world.
‘We’re aware that you have a working relationship with, amongst others, Tomsk, Gorskov, Libintov, and the one known as The Banker, and that they have supplied details of arms shipments to terrorists.’
‘Yes, Sputa in particular,’ I told him. ‘But I have not sought such information, but could do so if I have specifics to look for.’
‘And ... how exactly does it work? I’m assuming you don’t just meet around the water cooler.’
‘The various individuals have business relationships with each other, and they often overlap the interests of the British Government or your CIA. In Liberia, my friends in low places were instrumental in saving the lives of British soldiers.’
‘How so?’
‘As Petrov, I struck a deal with the President of Liberia.’
‘Deal?’
‘I got him together with Tomsk, deals discussed, cooperation promised, and in return found out what he wanted, what he feared, and where the synergies were with British and French desires in the region.’
‘The French know all about you?’
‘No. I deal with the French as a British Army captain.’
‘Deal with..?’
‘I have high level communication channels, we cooperate on hostage rescue, and I trained their hostage team, French Echo.’
‘And they trust you to the point that they had you lead the investigation into this poison attack...’
‘One project overlapped another, and what started as a North African issue widened, but ... it has been suggested that my involvement with the investigation may have provided them with someone to blame should it have gone wrong.’
He took in the faces. ‘You’re not reacting to that.’
The Defence Secretaryput in, ‘We suspected that might be the case, a few loud words behind closed doors. But it went off well. And Wilco is sharp enough to know the game he’s in.’
‘Wilco is alter ego number one, the captain...’
‘Yes,’ I confirmed.
He took a moment. ‘The tip offs we get. Is there any way that they could get to the press?’
‘Tomsk knows, I know, the people in this room know, and that’s it. But the people in this room do not know when and what those tip-offs are, Tomsk does not keep records – and couldn’t read his own handwriting if he did.’
They smiled.
‘So they would be hard to prove.’
‘I believe so.’
‘And they will continue?’
‘As long as Tomsk fears you, so yes.’
‘What does he fear?’
‘US Marines landing. But ... we all know that the Government and people of Panama would resist such a move, and never forgive you.’
‘Our relationship with them has soured ... thanks to the DEA debacle.’
‘I think ... your relationship soured long before that, with your colonial attitude towards them.’
The Director hid her grin.
White considered that. ‘Perhaps, we have had a checked history. But now they won’t let the FBI or DEA in.’
‘No need.’
‘No need?’
‘If there’s someone in Panama you want, other than Tomsk, let us know and we’ll hand them over.’
‘And is it true that he’s taken over the whole drugs trade there?’
‘Ninety five percent of it.’
‘Which makes him a very rich, and very dangerous man...’
‘You’d have to meet him to know that is not the case. He’s five foot five, with a pot belly, and at the sound of gunfire he screams like a girl and hides under the table.’
Smiles broke out.
‘A colourful description, but he controls a large part of the drugs trade.’
‘He has brought law and order to the border, he spends money on roads and schools, he has stopped the killings and the punishment beatings, the beheadings, and he was instrumental in handing you the Cali Cartel.’
‘You were there, in Cali?’
‘Yes, as my alter ego Petrov, leading the Russian men as they grabbed the cartel leadership. Is your government happy with getting the Cartel?’
‘Yes, of course, very happy, but some awkward questions remain as to what happened on the ground. It’s down as being British special forces.’
‘The plan involved Russians mixed in with British soldiers, my team, and if it had gone wrong we would have made sure that the Russians got the blame.’
‘Your team ... British soldiers ... worked alongside Russian gunmen?’
; ‘Yes, and they got on well, although the Russians did teach my lads a few swear words in Russian.’
Smiles creased cheeks.
‘And you know the Bolivian drug cartel leader?’
‘We have a good working relationship.’
‘And that’s part I fail to grasp. Why do you have a working relationship ... when you should be trying to apprehend him and bring him to justice?’
‘Ah, that’s easy. Which would you prefer: one drugs bust today, a good write-up in the papers, or one a month for the next year?’
He considered that, and took in the faces. ‘The answer would be one a month. Are you suggesting that such things are regulated and manufactured?’
‘Yes, very much so.’
‘We can’t turn a blind eye to known criminals.’
‘Thing is ... they’re not known to you, you don’t know where they are, and you’ve had no luck in apprehending them - Cali Cartel being one such example. Since Tomsk agreed to tip you off, you’ve had a good drugs bust every other week going back a year, and that will continue – as a deliberately managed programme, by us, the British.
‘You, sir, are not breaking any laws, you’re answering the phone and then acting on a tip off. You, sir, are not encouraging such a programme, nor did you set it up, but ... found out later on. Fact is, even if you tried to stop it, the tip-offs would keep going to your people, who would be in a great deal of trouble if they ignored the tip-offs.’
‘That is a good point,’ the Director pointed out. ‘Be remiss to ignore a tip-off and let drugs and guns through. That could have people arrested, not the other way around.’
‘You’ve given this some thought,’ he noted. ‘And you’re correct, we never asked for them, nor instigated it. But you seem to be saying that some high profile individuals go unpunished.’
‘Not at all,’ the Home Secretary put in. ‘You tell us where they are, get us the evidence, we’ll go arrest them.’
People hid smiles as White stared back at the Home Secretary.
White finally said, ‘You’re suggesting that we don’t know where they are, when your man does know where they are.’
The Home Secretary turned to me. ‘Do you know here they are?’
‘Tomsk - yes, Libintov – no, Gorskov – no, The Banker – no. All done over the phone.’
‘But you’re not looking for them...’
‘Not unless ordered to do so.’
White turned to the Director. And waited.
‘I’m waiting for the Prime Minister to get back to me on it,’ she said less than convincingly.
‘And if we asked you to go find them..?’
The Director began, ‘Mister White, we recently had a very serious threat against the UK in the poison, followed very soon after by a very serious threat to our interests in Africa. On both occasions it was Petrov ... that got us vital and timely intel, or we would have suffered terrible consequences.
‘The work that has been done is too important to undo, and has proven vital to our national security interests at several key junctures, and ongoing projects are equally as important to us. And although we all recognise that the information is coming from criminals, the information is far too valuable to ignore because of our expected or implied morality regarding the source.
‘If a known criminal, or terrorist, tells us that nerve agent is on its way ... who in their right mind is not going to at least look at it as being a possible threat. And if one of our sources tells us that nerve agent is heading to the States, will your morality get in the way?’
‘No, of course not, we’d at least take some steps.’
‘And how would you explain it afterwards?’ she pressed.
‘That ... we’re still trying to work out. For now we’d say it came from you lot.’ He turned his head to the Deputy Chief. ‘You have specific desires here?’
‘There are a few Russians and east Europeans we’re interest in, yes, in particular their sale of arms into the Middle East, into Africa and various other regions. We have a list, and with some cooperation we’d like to go looking for these fellas, but not with the intent of arresting them – not yet, we want the complete picture – who did what, who did the weapons go to.
‘Stopping this Tomsk guy won’t stop the drugs trade, it will always be there. Stopping Libintov won’t stop arms movements, someone will replace him. But if we can get a complete picture, from the source to the end user, then we have the start of a policy, and then we can have some effect.
‘What we would like is that we draw a map of interconnections and flesh it out, without arresting anyone nor alerting them to our interest, till we have a complete picture. We already have a map, but it has gaps, and we sometimes find that some of our highly valued assumptions are ... horse shit. And to start with, Wilco’s connection to The Banker is the first real lead we’ve had on him.’
‘What would you like me to ask him?’ I offered.
‘Well, we have a list of terrorist groups -’
I held up a flat palm. ‘Incorrect assumption number one. As a matter of principal ... he would never talk to terrorists or loan them money, certainly not Arabs, but people who he lends money to lend it on – and he does not always know about it.’
‘Sounds like you already know him well,’ the Deputy Chief nudged.
‘We chat.’
White said, ‘Why do think he would not supply Arabs?’
‘He’s a Jew, living in New York.’
‘He’s a New York Jew!’ White exploded.
‘And has a working relationship with Mossad,’ I lied. ‘A house in Tel Aviv. At least ... someone in Mossad is hiding him.’
‘Jesus,’ White let out. ‘And they’re supposed to be on our side.’
The Director noted, ‘And you flew all this way to ask us about him.’
White was not impressed, but held his tongue. He faced me. ‘And is he likely to cooperate with you, as Petrov?’
‘Yes, he has already agreed to do so.’
‘Then I’ll leave the various people to work on it with their opposite numbers. Colonel Mayhews.’
‘Mathews, sir.’
‘Yes, sorry.’
Mathews began, ‘We’ve cooperated with Captain Wilco - and I thought that was his damn name – on several hostage rescues, and the results have been good, the newspaper inches have been good, and we hope for more of the same in the future.’ He made eye contact with me. ‘Is there ... anything more we could be doing to move that project along?’
I told him, ‘You already cooperate when we need it, and your military has assisted us when we needed it, and I’m sure there will be many more opportunities for joint rescues – as and when they crop up. There are no issues, no problems, both sides are happy – we have an American officer embedded with us.
‘But, Mister White, the one thing that has not been discussed is the greatest threat to both of these projects, and that is your FBI’s keen desire to see Petrov caught and behind bars.’
‘They can’t catch someone that doesn’t exist,’ he pointed out.
‘If I’m dressed as Petrov, pretending to be him in some Central American country and they grab me, it will be an odd day in court ... when I say who I really am, and who in particular knew all along.’
He took a moment to consider that. ‘I’ll discuss that up the line, and we can chat to the FBI Director behind closed doors. But as your alter ego you directly broke laws?’
‘Not that I would admit to.’ I waited.
‘Is there evidence out there of what he did?’
‘No reliable witnesses other than Panamanian Government Ministers – who will not cooperate with you, a bunch of Russian gunmen, a few drug dealers, no CCTV, maybe some prints. No crimes on US soil, none against US citizens I think. But I was the right hand man of someone sending drugs into the States.’
‘And the story of you shooting down one of our helicopters is just a story..?’
‘Yes, CIA assisted with it.’
We laughed.
‘So it’s not something new to us, people are allowed to pose as criminals undercover.’
The Deputy Chief put in, ‘FBI think Petrov is an Israeli agent.’
‘They do?’ White queried. ‘What the hell for?’
‘We’re not sure. But as Captain Wilco ... the FBI hate him, and as Petrov the FBI really hate him.’
‘Why do they hate the captain?’ White puzzled.
I explained, ‘I called them in to pick up weapons we seized in West Africa, a few times, same Agent Manstein. But most of the time my lads made use of the weapons rather than hand them over. FBI wanted to catalogue them, my guys wanting to use them.’
The Director put in, ‘The FBI has no jurisdiction in the jungles of Liberia, they just think they do.’
I added, ‘In Ivory Coast, when I knew the FBI team was on its way, I persuaded the young US Marines to open the crates and to fire off the weapons.’
Most around the table laughed.
‘As I left the perimeter, the FBI were shouting at the young Marines having fun with RPGs that the FBI wanted to catalogue.’
‘And the FBI team snared in Nicaragua?’ White nudged.
‘Nicaragua, sir, where’s that?’ He was not impressed. ‘Rest assured ... that if the FBI get close to Petrov it will not be pretty, it’ll be a bad newspaper headline for you.’
Meeting ended, White packed his case and led his aides out, the rest of us standing and chatting, fresh tea made. I thanked Colonel Mathews before he headed off, on his way to Germany. The head of Mi5 tapped me on the shoulder, smiled and left, the Home Secretary and Defence Ministers grinning at me as they left. That left the spy types.
We sat back down.
‘So how do we move this forwards?’ the Deputy Chief began, tie loosened.
I responded, ‘I go visit some of these bad boys, friendly chat, collect what intel I can without arousing suspicion. Oh -’ I turned my head to the Director. ‘- Our friend in Monrovia picked up the Freetown bomb maker. I doubt that due process will be followed, but he will give up names.’
