“Obviously, not enough,” Kurt said.
“We’re not sure what is, these days,” Hale replied.
“Which leads us to your main suspect,” Col. Lee said. “Mr. Than Rang,
head of the DaeShan Group, and a man with many sinister connections to generals in North Korea.”
Kurt sat dumbfounded. “Are you trying to tell me Than Rang is a North Korean sleeper agent?”
“No,” Lee said, “the other way around. Than Rang is interested in the inevitable day when North and South finally embrace in reunification. His corporation has spent years buying up ancient deeds to land in the North. The deeds are worthless of course, but if unification ever comes about, he will have some amount of standing to claim nearly one-third of the land in North Korea. To bolster his claims, he’s spent years currying favor with the generals and others who float just below the level of the Glorious Leader, Kim Jong-un. If change ever comes, these friends of his will be the first to benefit, just as the ardent defenders of communism in the old Soviet Union awarded themselves the vast majority of state-run industries as soon as the country turned to capitalism.”
“What does he give them?” Joe asked.
“Cold hard cash, high-tech machinery, and advanced software,” Lee said.
“And possibly well-known programmers and hackers,” Hale added.
“In exchange for nearly worthless land?” Kurt asked.
“Much of it lies above proven reserves of minerals,” Col. Lee said. “And Than Rang has already shown a knack for taking played-out mines and increasing their production, in many cases to record levels. He would no doubt be very successful if his scheme ever came to pass.”
Joe held his phone up, bringing it close to his mouth like a pocket recorder. “Note to self: Invest retirement nest egg in DaeShan Group.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Hale said. “We don’t see anything happening for a long, long time.”
Joe brought the phone back up. “Cancel note to self.”
Kurt laughed. “I get it. You want us to do some dirty work. The question is, can you get me into North Korea?”
“No,” Hale said. “You wouldn’t last five minutes there if we could.”
“Then what?”
“Than Rang is having an elegant reception for his business partners,” Col. Lee explained. “There will be wine, women, and song, as you Americans like to say. Most important, there will be a guest arriving and delivering a very important package. I believe you know the man. Fortunately, he doesn’t know you. At least not by sight.”
“Acosta,” Kurt said with disgust.
“He’s bringing the other hackers,” Joe guessed.
“Exactly,” Hale said. “He will exchange them for a large sum of diamonds and a painting by one of the masters.”
Kurt’s mind was running now. “For such an exchange to happen, both items would need to be verified.”
Hale said, “Acosta isn’t interested in getting a fake, and Than Rang isn’t interested in delivering a couple of dupes to his friends in the North. They’ll both need experts to make sure the goods are bona fide. Than Rang will use several techs from his company to give the prospective hackers a final exam of sorts. Most likely, they’ll be given a complex code and asked to break it, and then perhaps a secondary task of inserting a program through a sophisticated firewall. In the meantime, Acosta will be examining the painting and that’s where we get our chance. You see, Acosta holds himself out as a big-time collector, but he knows less about art than he pretends. Far less. To make sure he’s not swindled, he’s arranged for a legitimate expert named Solano to go with him. For a healthy fee, Solano will verify what is no doubt a stolen work of art to begin with. It’s all a very sordid business.”
“What do you want us to do?” Kurt asked.
“Mr. Zavala here will pose as our friend Solano, who hails from Madrid. They’re the same build, almost the same height. With a little makeup and subtle lifts in his shoes, Joe will be the spitting image of the wayward art expert.”
“What if Acosta figures it out?”
“He won’t,” Hale insisted. “He’s never met Solano. Only talked to him on the phone. And they’re arriving separately. Solano comes in tomorrow, Acosta will be here the day after.”
Fortunate timing, Kurt thought. But there were problems. “What about his voice? If they’ve talked, Joe will have to sound like Solano.”
“According to his file, Joe speaks fluent Spanish.”
Joe nodded.