methods and resources are sophisticated. His imagination and appetites are unrestrained.”
Burden's point was well made, and chilling.
“Okay, ”Titus said, “just tell me this: Can you stop him? Can you save lives?”
Burden didn't answer immediately, and with every second he hesitated, Titus's hopes diminished with a grim effect on his spirit.
“I think I can stop him, ”Burden said. “I can save lives. But I can't save all of them. I've told you that. That's what I think.
“You have to remember, ”he continued, “Tano's ego is tied directly to his stature in his own mind. He's warned you. You go against that warning, and you've insulted him by not respecting his power to dictate to you. He's going to make you pay for it. And he's going to make sure you know you're paying for it.”
Titus was feeling trapped.
“I could just cough up the money. Get it over with.”
“Yeah, you could do that, ”Burden agreed. “And maybe that would end it for you. But it would also guarantee that Luquin would go on doing what he does, and with even more resources. You'd guarantee that someone else would be put through the same hell that you're going through. And your money would be financing it. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want that on my conscience.”
Titus found it a little difficult to get his breath.
He looked toward the windows and the opened doorway. He felt alienated, estranged from his life before last night. Adrift. Outside, the light and the sounds were foreign. The language was foreign. The smells belonged to other people, and the rhythm of life belonged to another culture. It all contributed to a sense of uncertainty.
Uncertainty, however, was only part of it. His anger was still there, too, slowly evolving into a determination to fight back. Somehow. But not at the cost of someone else's life. Not even one. Burden was probably right that Luquin would find out if he went to the FBI. Sooner or later. And then there was Burden's other prediction, that someone was going to die anyway, regardless, just so Luquin could establish his authority.
He looked at Burden, who was studying him just an arm's reach across the round table, his face a narrative of the effects of sustained secret struggles. Whatever his life had been like, it wasn't entirely hidden from anyone who cared enough to try to understand what they were looking at. It was sculpted into his face and had shaped the sorrowful angle of his eyes. Whatever it was this man knew, he'd paid dearly for it. Titus couldn't ignore that.
And then there was Gil Norlin's advice: If you follow this guy's recommendations, you won't have to worry about whether or not you're doing the right thing. You can believe what he says.
Titus took a deep breath, one that reached down into the place that made him what he was, to the place that defined him.
“Okay, ”he said to Burden, “let's do whatever it is we have to do. And let's do it as fast as we can.”
Chapter 15
“Guys like Tano have brilliantly taken advantage of the effects that terrorism has had on U.S. domestic security, ”said Mattie Selway. She was the roan-haired woman Titus had seen in Burden's war room earlier in the day. She had joined Titus and Burden in the study, bringing with her a black ring binder that she kept in her lap, occasionally flipping the pages back and forth, making notes.
“They foresaw that for the immediate future, at least, the preponderance of the U.S.'s law enforcement, intelligence services, and domestic security would be poured into reacting to this new threat. Addressing a crisis like this creates a kind of tunnel vision in the national psyche. People want the damn thing solved, they want it to go away. The government wants to accommodate them. Luquin knew that in the States it was going to be all eyes-and money and commitment-on international terrorism for the foreseeable future. We've seen this in the FBI's reassignments, pulling huge numbers of agents from narcotics operations, others from violent crime units, others from white-collar crime, to work in counterterrorism.”
The sun had fallen behind the towering fresno and eucalipto trees outside and was sinking toward the Sierra de Morenos in the west. They sat in an eerie twilight that Titus was beginning to associate with Burden himself.
“Several things stand out as interesting to us, ”she continued. “One: the size of the ransom, of course. That's probably a reflection of his confidence in his plan. Two: the way he wants it paid. Smart. It'll work. After you've made your investments, the money will evaporate like a morning mist. It just won't exist anymore, lost in the vast electronic void. And third: the fact that Luquin himself has crossed the border for this.”
“I think this last one's the one that'll give us our opening,” Burden said from a dark pocket of the room. He was continuing to roam the parameters of the gloomy space. “Mattie thinks the unusual financial arrangements are our best bet. In any event, there are some basic preparations. Your computer's ready to go. I talked to Herrin about an hour ago, and he says they're finding phone taps and bugs all over your house. ”He stopped and looked across at Titus through the dim light. “And you need to get your wife back here, ”he said.
Before Titus could open his mouth to respond, the Mayan woman appeared in the opened doorway where the balconies led to the buildings next door.
“Garcia, ”she said, “we've got Luquin coming in on Mr. Cain's laptop.”
Within moments they were all standing around one of the desks, staring at the screen of Titus's computer, reading the incredible message.
Following is a list of enterprises in which you will want to invest and/or contribute. I suggest you begin immediately with 15% of the $64 million you wanted to utilize.
Please complete that transaction within 48 hours of this message.
Follow that with an additional 32% investment of the total within 72 hours.
Marcello Cavatino Inversiones, S.A., in Buenos Aires will be happy to provide you with the professional services necessary to execute these transactions.
The list of businesses and charities followed. One in Mexico, two in Brazil, one in Lebanon, one in St. Kitts, two in Monaco. Titus stared over the Mayan girl's shoulder and gaped at the computer screen.
“Bonnie, see if you can find them, ”Burden said to the Asian woman, who was now wearing jeans and a Oaxacan embroidered huipil. She went to work on another computer.
Titus stared at the screen and sat in one of the chairs without saying a word. He was shaken. How many times could he be surprised like this? He didn't know what he'd thought Luquin's first message would be, but he hadn't expected this.
“What's the matter? ”Burden asked. “Liquidity?”
Titus was oblivious. The money. Jesus. He should have written it down on a piece of paper and looked at it. The whole thing had been so unreal that he hadn't yet focused on what it would mean to divest himself of $64 million-a quarter of CaiText's net worth. Seeing the beginnings of the process on the computer screen was unnerving.
“That's nearly ten million dollars in two days, ”Burden said, “and then nearly twenty-one million three days after that.”
“Yes, I can get the ten. I'll have to work on the twentyone.”
“Okay. Well, we have to move fast now, ”Burden said, glancing at his watch. “It's three-thirty, for all practical purposes.”
Mattie turned to Titus.
“Luquin's job here is a lot easier than laundering money,” she said. “With laundering you're trying to cover up where the money came from. In this case that's not a problem. Luquin wants to hide where it's going. So when Cavatino disperses your investments among these seven enterprises, that'll probably be the last time we'll really know anything for sure about it. From those places it'll be buried under an avalanche of trade.”
“Garcia, ”Bonnie said from her computer, “the companies are coming up. All of them. No, wait, one of the charities, the one in Monaco, isn't showing yet. All the companies are less than a year old. Marcello Cavatino Inversiones, S.A., has been around three years.”
“Good. Do some work on them.”
But Burden was waiting, still staring at the computer screen with Mattie and the Mayan girl, as if they were
