among the innocent, look just like them, behave just like them, except for that few seconds when they become soldiers for the Devil.
To hunt these men and women, there are things we can do and things that we can’t do … legally. On the other hand, private industry doesn t suffer from some of the restrictions that government employees must deal with on a daily basis. As you mentioned to the president, moving money is one of the things terrorists must do. The holy warriors must pay their bills, buy food and transportation and shelter and weapons and bomb materials and everything else they need. Someone must provide that money.”
“Two of my friends are bankers,” Winchester said.
Grafton nodded and kept talking. “Currently the terrorists are washing money by buying and shipping commodities, such as food or medicine … any unrestricted commodity. For example, vegetable oil is used in cooking worldwide. A terrorist might buy a quantity in one place and ship it to another, where the consignee sells it and gives part or all of the money to local terrorists or a terror organization. Drug smugglers have been using this technique for years to wash money, and now the terrorists are using it. We need access to shipping records to find the transactions that look suspicious. To identify the people involved, we have to trace the money at both ends of the transaction, which brings us back to banks.”
“Wolfgang Zetsche is the chairman and chief executive officer of one of the largest shipping firms in Europe and the Middle East,” Winchester said. “He has offered to help.”
“Is he trustworthy?” Grafton asked innocently. He had already gotten that name from the president and done some research on Herr Zetsche, but wanted Winchester’s opinion.
“If I had a daughter I wouldn’t let her in the same building with Wolfgang, but I’d trust him with every dime I own.”
“Better tell me all of their names and what banks or companies they are with.”
Winchester did so. One of the names he threw out was Jerry Hay Smith. When he had finished, Grafton said, “Why Smith? He’s a journalist — writes syndicated columns for newspapers.”
“Jerry Hay is an old friend. We went to school together. He called me immediately after the news of Owen’s death was in the newspapers. I talked to him, asked him how I could personally get involved in the fight against terrorism. He suggested I talk to the president, and he knows I did.”
“Hmm,” Grafton said. “Since he doesn’t have access to anything we need, can’t we leave him off the invitation list?”
“We could, I guess, but he’ll be mighty curious.”
Jake Grafton flexed his hands, then glanced at Winchester’s face. “Security is always a problem. Through my agency, I can put people in the banks and shipping companies, and they’ll look and act like all other employees, yet they are our people and working for us. We’ll have cover stories, such as they are working with auditors or bank examiners or gathering data for some government entity. The fewer people who know their real identity and what they are doing, the better — and those people must keep the secret.”
“Security in business is always a problem, too,” Winchester said. “We trust people until they get greedy and betray us. Then we fire them or turn them over to the prosecutors, or both. What else can I say?”
Grafton turned around, leaned back against the railing and casually scanned the crowd.
“What are you going to do when you find terrorists?” Winchester asked.
A smile crept across Jake Grafton’s face. “Why, we’re going to prosecute them, of course, if all the governments involved decide to cooper-ate.”
Winchester made a rude sound. “Why don’t we hunt them down and kill them?”
“Assassination squads are hard to justify, get approved and manage through a bureaucracy. Then there are the lawyers. And congressional oversight. And people talk … to writers like your friend Jerry Hay Smith. Journalists need scoops, and that would be a big one.”
“Sure as hell,” Winchester agreed. “But could it be done?”
“Perhaps.”
“As I told our mutual friend, my friends and I have the money to finance a private army.”
Grafton smiled again, and this time his eyes had warmth. “I think we might be able to do some business. You envision me recruiting the people and pointing out the targets, and your group will fund the adventure. All that’s well and good. But we need to have an understanding here and now: I will be running the show and you will be taking orders from me. You will do precisely what I say, when I say to do it, precisely the way I say to do it. If you follow orders diligently, thoroughly, without question — and maintain ironclad security — we might just be able to pop off some of these bastards and get away with it.”
“I see.”
There’s one more thing. I don’t want you telling a single living soul that I work for the CIA. If the others suspect it, you must tell them you don’t know. I’ll tell them myself. Can you do that?”
“I can keep a secret.”
“I hope so.”
“How about these soldiers? Who will you get?”
“I’ll be able to find some good people. That is the least of my problems.”
“Pay them anything you want.”
Grafton looked at Winchester, capturing his eyes. “You’re entering a world where money doesn’t mean much, Mr. Winchester. The men I want will work for the pay they would have gotten in the military. Everyone has bills to pay, but money isn’t what motivates them. That said, you and your pals are going to get stuck with the expenses, and there will be a lot of those. Weapons, equipment, transportation, bribes— you’re going to be amazed at how fast the money disappears.”
“How about you? How much do you want?”
“The government pays me. The extracurricular activities I’d do for free.”
“Why?”
Grafton’s brows knitted, as if he were thinking about this question for the first time. He started to say something, obviously thought better of it and simply said, “This is what I do.”
“That’s a popular, trite phrase that explains nothing.”
“Perhaps,” said Grafton, eyeing the billionaire. “Let’s put it this way: This is what I know how to do.”
Winchester sighed. “Well, it’s new ground for me.”
“Even with the leads from the various companies, finding the bad guys will take a lot of doing. It’d be nice if they wore distinctive uniforms, but they don’t. Still, I kinda think this might be worth a try. We might get some bad actors that deserve to be sent on their way.”
Winchester’s face brightened. “I hope so,” he whispered.
Grafton turned back around and again put his forearms on the rail. “Personal revenge is hard to come by in this day and age. It takes a team to sail a ship or catch terrorists. Every member of that team is responsible for its success or failure.” Grafton rubbed his chin, then said, “I might as well tell you the rest of it. Sooner or later the bad guys are going to figure out what is going down. That’s if some government entity hasn’t gotten wind of it first and tried to prosecute you for violating bank secrecy and privacy laws, money laundering, conspiracy to commit murder and a dozen or two other crimes. Your stock prices will go to hell and you’ll be up to your ass in lawyers, trying to stay out of prison. You will also be in line to make some real enemies.”
“Terrorists,” Winchester whispered.
“They’ll put your name on the bullet.”
“I can live with that.”
“The question is, Can your friends live with it? Why don’t you invite them to your house, perhaps a week from today, and let me talk to them, too?”
“I don’t know anything about you,” Winchester said. “I’m in the dark here, and I don’t like the feeling.”
“Better get used to it. It’ll get dark as a coal mine at midnight if I agree to get involved with you people.”
“Tell me about yourself.”
“I’m a retired naval officer, retired as a two-star. If you want to check me out, do it discreetly. If I hear you’re asking questions, or anyone is, you failed the test.”
Winchester was silent for a while, apparently lost in thought. Finally he said, “Next week.”
“See you there,” Jake Grafton said. With a wave of his hand, he walked away.
