by David Graham
“Are these companies effectively providing state-approved mercenary services to the Colombian government?”
“Absolutely,” replied Holmes. “That’s the stock-in-trade of these companies, their stated business; a well-established business.”
“Rubbish,” countered Dalton. “These are professional companies engaged in the provision of expert training services under controlled conditions, nothing more.”
“Controlled enough to have had five of their employees killed a short time ago?” Holmes retorted.
Before Dalton could come back, Boswell cut across him. “Senator, there was strong reaction to the incident Dr Holmes is referring to. A fumigation run which went terribly wrong and resulted in the death of a number of US citizens working for the contract companies. Were we guilty of overreaction?”
“No, of course not. The deaths were tragic,” the Senator replied, “but it would only compound the tragedy if we were to allow them to be used by opportunists whose only interest is in undermining Plan Coca.”
“So, the issue of these companies conducting business in Colombia has been blown out of proportion?” Boswell asked Holmes.
“Well, I don’t know about that but, certainly, if people want to examine aspects of Plan Coca there are other places they could start.”
“And where would that be?”
Dalton fidgeted in his seat.
“I think the biggest problem is the Plan’s obvious failure to address the human rights violations which the Colombian paramilitaries continue to commit,” Holmes said.
“But isn’t one of the Plan’s main remits to eliminate FARC and the ELN?”
“It’s not them I’m referring to. There’s overwhelming proof that a number of other paramilitary organisations are operating under the direction of the Colombian Military. The well-intentioned policies of the US administration are being used by elements in the Colombian power structure for their own ends.”
“There’s no ‘overwhelming proof’, simply a lot of unsubstantiated claims,” Dalton shot back.
“Can you give any hard examples?” Boswell demanded of Holmes.
“Well, there’ve been numerous occasions where US equipment provided to the Colombian army has ended up in the hands of these organisations. Independent humanitarian organisations have verified these weapons were subsequently used to slaughter innocent people.”
Before Dalton could question Holmes’ claim, Boswell interrupted again.
“If the US government were to insist that all links between the Colombian military and these groups were severed, would this address your concerns?”
Holmes shook his head, “Unfortunately, there’s strong circumstantial evidence that the majority, as much as seventy-five per cent of the Colombian command, have been directly implicated, by action or omission, in the campaigns of death squads.”
“This is ridiculous,” the furious Dalton exploded. “I can’t believe the viewers out there are believing this nonsense for a second. What are you saying? That the United States of America is knowingly aiding paramilitary death squads?”
“I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting for a second that either US Forces or particular politicians who support the Plan are in any way involved,” Holmes said, shaking his head. “But don’t you think it’s worrying that no one in the State Department would be aware of this collusion?”
“What’s the precise nature of this circumstantial evidence you refer to?” Boswell asked him.
“Consider how often the right-wing paramilitaries have moved in perfect sync with the Colombian army’s Plan Coca manoeuvres. Time and again the army announces it’s about to target an area that its unofficial allies have already established a presence in. The paramilitaries operate as an advance guard, quashing the organised civilian opposition to the crop eradication.”
Boswell was facing Holmes by this stage, apparently absorbed by what the author had to say, with his back practically turned to the Senator. Dalton could see that it was quickly becoming a two-way exchange, an exchange which he realised would further damage Plan Coca’s public perception. Unfortunately, there was no civil way in which he could re-assert his presence and the Plan would not benefit by its strongest champion appearing ill-mannered or aggressive. He resolved to sit tight in the hope that the normally even-handed Boswell would give him a chance to rebut Holmes’ claims.
“And what would you contend is behind the paramilitary’s actions?” the presenter asked.
“Greed. There’s the obvious greed involved in controlling areas which can produce such abundant quantities of coca and opium but there’s also the fortunes which stand to be made from the planned infrastructural development.”
“How would that work?”
“Half a billion dollars has been earmarked as part of Plan Coca to develop the area specifically hit by the Plan. This is a laudable attempt by the US Government to ensure that the people hit most heavily by fumigation and crop eradication are helped.”
“So the areas which are supposed to benefit from the aid have suddenly become incredibly valuable?” Boswell offered.
“Exactly, the paramilitaries and those who back them want to move the people out of these areas so that they’re the ones to benefit from this windfall.”
“Well, you’ve certainly raised some points which one hopes will be addressed by the pro-Plan contingent,” Boswell said, turning to Dalton, leading the Senator to believe he was going to get his opportunity to point out the flaws in Holmes’ assertions until the host continued, “Now, onto another worrying aspect of the Plan, the link many of its critics have established between it and the ongoing violence in our major cities. Senator, Paul Forester writing today in the Washington Tribune quotes unnamed Capitol Hill sources who maintain that the DEA has been aware that the Colombian cartels have been engaged in a war with their European counterparts for some time. Your reaction?”
One of Dalton’s aides had mentioned the article briefly before they had gone on the air but there had been no warning that Boswell would raise it. Totally unprepared, nonetheless he had to attempt an answer.
“Well, it may be that the European crime syndicates have seen how much Plan Coca has weakened the Colombian cartels and are seeking to exploit the situation but ...”
“In fact, Mr Forester contends that the feud between these drug superpowers may be more to blame for the drug shortages of recent months and that the apparent successes of Plan Coca have been unfairly flattering.”
“That’s preposterous. The success of Plan Coca has been well established and is a matter of record. All of this is pure conjecture coming from the anti-Plan camp.”
“I see ... Well, thank you Senator, Doctor, I’m sure we’ll be returning to Plan Coca quite soon.” The camera closed in, blocking out the shot of the two guests to focus on a head-and-shoulders shot of Boswell. “Now, when we return after the break, we’ll have Andrew Pryor with us for our weekly look at the markets.”
eight
Andrew Brewer hurried through the park, oblivious to the happy scenes playing out around him. Kids threw frisbee, joggers and power walkers went about their circuits industriously, and all around small groups of people lay on the grass soaking up the sunshine. They may as well have been invisible. He hated these meetings. It would have been preferable if they could have conducted all communication remotely, but these personal contacts served a vital purpose of reassuring both parties of the other’s continued commitment. It didn’t help him that there was nothing obviously suspicious in them being seen together. There were countless plausible reasons why they might be meeting but he knew why they actually were meeting.
As usual his advance team had vouched for the security of the location, a location he had chosen himself. His appointment had arrived alone fifteen minutes earlier and multiple sweeps of the park had been performed. The other man reclined on a park bench, head back and eyes closed, enjoying the good weather. Sensing Brewer’s approach, he stood to greet him a
nd suggested a stroll along one of the park’s paths.
“Well,” Brewer’s companion began, “favourable reports from Colombia. The pipelines have been free of attack for six weeks now. The pressure the Alliance is under has effectively crippled the rebels. I’d be surprised if they last out the year. I think it’s time to start tying up loose ends.”
“Sooner the better,” agreed Brewer.
“A quick run-through on the other objectives. Madrigal first. He’s very vulnerable. A leadership challenge is imminent. This time the challenge will succeed!”
“Serves the bastard right,” smiled Brewer viciously. “All he had to do was play ball but he insisted on sticking his nose into areas that didn’t concern him. Once he’s out of the way, with the new territories we’ve gained, it should be no time at all before production’s running at an all-time high.”
“For there to be any point in revamping production, the hostilities will have to stop,” the other stressed. “Steps are being taken to persuade the Kosovars to desist but they’ll have to see that the Alliance is also stopping.”
“With the Alliance in such disarray, I can’t see why that wouldn’t be forthcoming. They all desperately need a chance to get revenues flowing again.”
“Yes,” he agreed, “but we’ll only get one shot at a ceasefire, so Larsen needs to be reined in. Can you take care of that?”
“Of course. I assume he’ll need to be eliminated?” Brewer asked, failing to hide his enthusiasm.
“Leave that to me, all you need is to stall his next operation; give me some time.”
“Are you sure? I’ve handled all of the field operations to date; I can set something up with one phone call.”
“No, you’re doing enough already. I’ll deal with him.”
Brewer would have preferred to plan Larsen’s death himself. He suspected the other man did not trust his objectivity where the Dane was concerned.
“Okay, if you insist,” Brewer said.
“I know Larsen’s potential and we need to be sure about this. If he were to learn ...” He drifted for a moment before he snapped himself out of it. “Anyway, returning to our objectives, between the negative press following the contractors’ deaths, which you so ably organised, and the coverage of the drug feud, Plan Coca’s in tatters.”
“Still, there’s been no indication yet that the plug will be pulled,” Brewer reminded him.
“It’s already been agreed at the highest levels,” came the reassurance. “All that’s required is to provide the administration with the appropriate opportunity. The ceasefire we’ve discussed will serve. They’ll rush to issue an announcement of the Plan’s suspension.”
“Suspension implies temporary,” Brewer pointed out.
“That’s simply an exercise in face-saving, it won’t be relaunched. I doubt a similar strategy will be contemplated again in our lifetime.”
“Excellent. Alright, all other loose ends are well in hand. Excluding Larsen, the other participants who constitute possible threats can be handled within the week.”
“With no danger of Larsen being alerted?”
“None whatsoever,” Brewer answered confidently. “We deliberately structured the operations so that he was provided with a completely new team each time out. When the mission was over he never saw them again.” Brewer’s companion did not appear to be quite convinced by his certainty, so he added, “Tuur was a perfect example. Once you alerted me of his indiscretions, he’d been taken care of within seventy-two hours, and Larsen’s still none the wiser.”
“How do you think Wallace is going to react when it starts grinding to a halt?”
“He’ll be relieved to get as far away from the whole mess as he can. He’s lost the stomach for his vendetta and, once you arrange for Larsen to be dealt with, he’ll have the perfect excuse to drop it. I’m still not convinced we shouldn’t just get rid of him too.”
“All in good time, if he doesn’t pose an immediate danger, I’d rather wait. We’re already making a lot of moves and he’s still got some very powerful connections, why take an unnecessary risk by alerting them?”
“That about wraps everything up then!” said Brewer, preparing to say goodbye.
“Not quite. There may be one more person we need to consider.”
“Who?”
“A DEA agent, Diane Mesi, who’s approached the Agency for help. She’s looking at the possibility that the conflict is being orchestrated by a third party.”
“I thought you said the investigations were being managed. How did this happen? Jesus, how much does she know? Who has she been talking to?”
“Take it easy. She’s in a minority of one, isolated and a long way from figuring out what’s going on. If I’m correct, she’s heading in entirely the wrong direction.”
“How can we be sure? Shouldn’t she be dealt with as a precaution?”
“The situation’s being watched closely. If at any stage it seems more prudent to handle her, we’ll know.”
After Brewer had been pacified a little more, they finished up the meeting and he headed back to his waiting limousine. By contrast, his companion, deciding it would be a sin to waste the glorious weather by returning to the office immediately, started another leisurely circuit of the park.
She pushed herself back from the desk, stood up and tried to stretch the day’s tension from her shoulders. Another long frustrating day was coming to an end. Any sense of momentum generated after her visit to Tom Hughes at the CIA had almost totally dissipated. Mesi had spent countless hours talking to the various police officers responsible for the investigations of the attacks on Alliance resources but had gotten nowhere. There had been no evidence of involvement by any of the first group of operatives whom Tom had identified and she was now working her way through a second batch. Meanwhile Tom had been equally unsuccessful in turning anything up from a series of interviews with personnel from the various stations under his control. She knew that a lot of investigations succeeded through this kind of tedious, repetitive investigative work but it was becoming difficult to keep her hopes alive. Tuur’s death had been a real body blow. Had he been alive perhaps he could have worked with Tom to learn Lorcy’s real identity. That one breakthrough might have been all they needed. Wearily, she walked over to the water fountain and splashed some cold water on her face.
Her lack of progress had only encouraged Samuels in believing he had been right all along. She still found it hard to understand why he had such a preference for believing that it was a straightforward war between the Kosovars and the Alliance. Yes, her theory meant they still had work to do to discover what had kicked off the conflict, but look at the alternative. If this was just a bloody transatlantic crime war then how did you even begin to go about stopping it? At least a third party provocateur, if identified, might be neutralised.
She looked at her watch and saw it was after eleven o’clock. More than sixteen hours in the office. She should really head home: some sleep and time away might help. She mulled it over and decided to give it another half hour before calling it a day. She decided to put Tom’s folders to one side and try a change of approach; she couldn’t bear to trawl through another file for the time being. She took out a sheet of blank paper, turned her back on the computer and started randomly writing facts about the investigation, possible theories, ways to progress, whatever came to mind. At first, all it accomplished was to relax her a little, limber up mental muscles fatigued from hours of poring over documentation. But then something gradually started to emerge.
None of the crime scenes had supplied anything other than the indications of Kosovar involvement. She was convinced this had been left deliberately, meaning the perpetrators had successfully avoided leaving any real indication of their identity. If this kind of professionalism was a constant throughout all of their activities, the investigation was doomed to fail. However, what had been obvious, especially after speaking to Tuur, was that the Mexican operation had required good advance in
telligence. Tom and she had dedicated a lot of time to finding people who might have contributed to it. But due to the fact that she was the only full-time person on the investigation, they had pursued the intelligence angle solely by looking for likely candidates in Tom’s files. At the edge of her consciousness, she began to realise there was another route to explore. It was a long shot but worth a try. Was there a chance that even one of the reconnaissance phases of any operation had not been performed to the same standard of professionalism as the subsequent attacks? If so, a trail may have been left. A trail she could follow.
She spent some time trying to figure out a way to test this before deciding that what was required was a query that linked several distinct databases, something far beyond her own modest SQL skills. Luckily she got on well with one of the senior data operators and he agreed to return to the office after she had apologised for disturbing him at home but stressed the how important it was. When he arrived she explained what was required. She wanted to compile a list of people who had entered more than one of a list of specified countries up to ninety days before a number of associated dates. The countries had all been the sites of possible operations and the dates those of the attacks. Ninety minutes later, after the query had been built and started, she headed home.
The scope of the search meant it took the query over thirty-six hours to run. One hundred and fifteen people were found to have visited more than one country within the specified timeframes with thirty-four visiting more than two. Mesi set about the task of running background checks on these thirty-four, which took the remainder of the working week and right through to Saturday evening. Nineteen people worked for multinationals involved in either telecommunications or manufacturing. She put these to one side. Eleven more were students who had been travelling during their vacation and were now back at college. These too could be disregarded for the moment. The last four were more difficult. All appeared to provide a consultancy service which was vaguely defined. It took almost a full day to nail down what the first two did before being able to dismiss them. It was only on the third of the four that she hit pay dirt.
