The Hunters (Presidential Agent 3)

“And if something went wrong, no connection with these guys to the KSB,” Miller said. “Clever.”

“And they were probably very useful when the oil-for-food scam was running,” Delchamps said. “Both in moving money around and removing witnesses to any connection with Putin and Company.”

“And no paper trail,” Miller said. “Whatever money they were spending was oil-for-food money.”

“That, too,” Delchamps agreed. “Okay, Ace, then what?”

“I got lucky,” Castillo said. “Otto Görner heard that some West Germans were moving oil-for-food money to Argentina and Uruguay and told me about it. He also warned me that people who had been curious about this had died and to butt out.”

“Which of course you were congenitally unable to do,” Miller said, “and you went to Eric Kocian. He pointed you toward South America and then you got lucky with Confucius. He had a file on…what’s the alter ego?”

“Bertrand,” Castillo furnished, as he glanced at Yung. “Dave, you haven’t said a word. Does that mean you think we’re just pissing into the wind and you’re too polite to say so?”

“Just before he changed sides, Kennedy was working on something with a Houston connection,” Yung said. “I’ve been trying to remember what It was.”

“Wouldn’t there be a record of some sort? An interim report of some kind?” Delchamps asked.

“Kennedy took everything he had with him,” Doherty said, bitterly. “I’m sure your friend Pevsner read it before it was destroyed. Why don’t you ask him?”

“What were you looking for, Dave?” Castillo pursued. “Was there an oil-for-food scam connection?”

“Not as such,” Yung said. “We were looking for unusual transfers—wire transfers—of large amounts of money. Money laundering, in other words. There’s two facets of that—more than two, actually. One is income tax evasion. When we came across something suspicious—something, for example, that looked like someone was concealing income or assets—we turned it over to the IRS and let them deal with it. When the source of the money was suspicious—as if it might be drug money, for example, or in the case of politicians, purchasing agents, etcetera that looked like it might be bribes—we worked on that ourselves. The way we were working, I looked for anomalies, and when I found something suspicious Howard looked into it.”

“And you remember something about Houston?” Castillo asked.

“Only just that,” Yung said. “I’ve been trying hard to remember the specifics.”

“Keep trying, Dave,” Castillo said and turned to the others. “Where were we?”

“At the point where you decided to repatriate Lorimer,” Miller said.

“Right,” Delchamps said. “Meanwhile, the bad guys found out where Lorimer slash Bertrand was. How?”

“Well, at first they didn’t know where he was,” Castillo said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t have taken the risk of kidnaping Mr. Masterson to find out. That was an act of desperation.”

“So somebody had to tell them,” Delchamps said. “Who knew?”

“Castillo’s pal, the Russian mafioso, Pevsner,” Doherty said.

“I don’t think so,” Castillo said.

“Why do you keep defending that slimeball, Castillo?” Doherty snapped.

“If he knew where Lorimer was and had told the Ninjas,” Castillo said, “he wouldn’t have let me use his helicopter. He didn’t want me whacked.”

“Because he likes you, right?” Doherty asked.

“Because that would kill the deal he has about keeping the FBI and the CIA off his case.”

“Another possibility is that it was just a coincidence that everybody descended on Never-Never Land at the same time,” Delchamps said. “How the Ninjas found out where he was doesn’t really matter. They did and staged that operation to take him out.”

“That’s one hell of a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?” Doherty challenged.

“However it happened,” Delchamps said, “the Ninjas went to the hacienda and were more than a little surprised to find Ace and Company already there.”

“Why do you think they were surprised?” Doherty asked.

“Otherwise, the score of that ball game would not have been six to one,” Delchamps said. “They probably thought they’d come on a bunch of local bandits knocking off a hacienda. Not in their league. Not a problem. Just whack everybody, leave the bodies where they fell, and take off. Surprise, surprise, it’s the U.S. Cavalry.”