“Captain, under the circumstances, you have to see our point. We—“
“I do see your point, Les and I’ve noted it … but I say, we go down there, without anyone knowing and we bring Agent Garcia home, alive or dead.”
“But Captain—“
Ricci put his hand up, “Les, I’m the one … that makes that call.”
The conference room became quiet. Finally, Santappia thought out loud.
“Oh hell, this is all an exercise in futility anyway, if we don’t hear back from Cris. I can’t think of another way for us to get in and out of there undetected.”
* * * * *
De Niro ended his video feed, picked up his satellite phone and dialed the number to the satellite phone on Santana. The ship’s Captain answered the call on the second ring.
“Captain, its Cris De Niro.”
“Yes, Mr. De Niro, good to hear from you, sir.”
“Where are you right now?”
“We’re docked at the Loews Mistral Restaurant in San Diego Bay. We were just getting ready to get underway again. Mr. Nicholls wants to moor off Catalina Island tonight.”
“Yeah, well that’s why I’m calling. There’s been a change in plans. Captain, I need you to refuel Santana and the 135 then plot a course for the western Mexican coast. Off the top of your head, what’s your best estimate for arriving off the coast of Acapulco if you left as soon as you could?”
“I’d have to check the weather, but I’d say we could make waters near Acapulco by late Tuesday or Wednesday … if we left as soon as possible from here.”
“There are a few friends of mine that you’ll be taking on board. At least one of them is an experienced chopper pilot, so it’s okay for them to use the chopper down there. Captain, I would appreciate it if you would ask no questions and obey their orders. That goes for the crew, whatever my friends want or need, please accommodate them.”
“Understood sir ...”
“You should be welcoming them aboard in about … two hours, latest. Then get underway as soon as you can. I want you to contact me when you do.”
“Very good, sir ...”
“Okay, now the hard part. Would you please call Mr. Nicholls to the phone? I have to break the news to him that his vacation on Santana is coming to end prematurely.”
“Here he is, sir…”
“Thank you Captain … David?”
“Cristiano, I wanted to thank you again for the use of Santana. She’s a beauty! You know you never have to make such a fuss for me.”
“Who are you fooling David. You’re worse than a princess when it comes to fusses.”
Both men laughed. Nicholls continued.
“Speaking of princesses, old boy, I just had the most pleasant lunch with two princesses of Southern California. Now I hope you’re calling me to say that you’re flying in tonight. I made plans to take them to Catalina tomorrow. Of course, spending the night watching the sunset from Santana should put them—“
“David, that’s why I’m calling ...”
“You mean you ARE flying in? Cris, it’s about time, that’s all I can say!”
“No, you knucklehead, I’m calling to tell you that … I have to cut your vacation short, at least on Santana. Something came up, I have to loan her to a few … friends of mine, right away.”
“Friends of yours …? … And what am I chopped liver? I have an idea, why don’t they just come with me and the two princesses to Catalina? I’m sure there are a few more princesses we can scrounge up—“
“David, seriously, they have to get down to Acapulco with Santana and they have to leave with her tonight. I’ll make it up to you. Let me call a friend of mine and I’ll charter you another—“
“You’ll do no such thing, dear boy! I can make my own way, thank you very much … but Cris, I wouldn’t mind taking a cruise to Acapulco, that is, if your friends don’t mind. In fact, tell them I insist!”
De Niro thought about it for a moment. He never takes a hint, but I love him like a brother. Now that I think of it though, David would probably make ARCHANGEL’s cover of “filthy rich businessmen on holiday” more believable, in case anyone checks on them.
“Cris …?”
I’m sure he’ll show black ops just how to act, and if any bad guys did spy on them, it’d be impossible for them to confuse my British playboy friend with a covert agent.
“Cristiano, are you there?”
I’d never want to subject him to any danger but if he remains on Santana, the danger would be 150 miles away. Besides, I know him well enough that if I say he can’t go, it’ll make him twice as curious and nosey … and that could lead to more problems than just letting him go in the first place. I’ll set down rules and if he agrees to abide by them, well then, so be it.
“Well what’s the verdict, dear boy? May I take the trip or are you going to have your mysterious mates cast me overboard? In which case, I will cling to the hull like a mollusk—“
“David, their trip down there is for business … very important business.”
“So, I take the cruise with them and they go their way, once their down there and take care of their …very important business while I—“
“Here are the rules! First, you would NOT be able to take your princesses with you ... and you would NOT be allowed to leave Santana under any circumstances. David, I’m not kidding about that last point. The crew will be given orders to throw you into the brig if you even try to leave her!”
“Dear boy, I’ve been from top to bottom on this vessel and you certainly do NOT have a brig.”
“Then they’ll lock you in your cabin!”
Nicholls thought a moment, “I’ll agree to those terms providing the bar remains free, the chef remains the same and the galley is stocked!”
De Niro had to laugh.
“Okay, David, but one other thing. My friends are military types and their business down there is quite “hush-hush,” to put it in your tongue. So, behave! You’re not to question them about their business or anything else you see them do, are we clear?”
“Crystal, dear boy, crystal … now if you will excuse me, I have to go break the hearts of two princesses!”
The line went dead before De Niro could even say goodbye.
Chapter 22
The Coyote's Den
Estancia De Niro
Henderson, NV
1:30p.m., Sunday, July 17, 2011
De Niro received a message from Michelle Wang that she and Johnny-F needed to speak with him ASAP. So he decided to take his favorite horse, “Dollor” out for a ride to the Coyote’s Den. De Niro and his dad were both huge fans of John Wayne, so he was ecstatic when, a few years ago, his head gaucho Martin Fierro surprised him by finding a horse that was the splitting image of one of the Duke’s favorite steeds. They were almost identical, both dark chestnut sorrels with very wide blazes, which flared out over their lips, and with white stockings to the knee on the right front and both hind legs. De Niro immediately bought the horse and decided to name him after the Duke’s horse…Dollor. Some of his friends joked that the name was apropos for a multi-billionaire, but the name was actually taken from the Spanish word "Dolor", meaning "pain" or "sorrow". De Niro thought that the Spanish meaning was more appropriate, since riding him made him think of Lisa. They used to love to take Sunday morning rides whenever they could and wherever they were. He still owned her mare, JoJo, a beautiful strawberry roan that she picked up at an auction in Argentina, with Martin. Martin never let anyone ride JoJo after 9/11.
De Niro tied Dollor then walked into one of the small conference rooms. No one was in the Den. Riggy, De May and Pescalitis were already onboard Santana heading for the shore near Acapulco. He took a seat then contacted The Watchman. A moment later he could see Michelle and Johnny-F on the big screen in front of him.
“Hi Michelle … what’s up John … what got you both working on a Sunday?”
Michelle spoke first.
“Cris, my agen
t in Qatar, Majed al Saud, finally turned something up. Apparently, the Sharia-compliant private equity firm that wire-transferred that $25 million is actually owned by an Iranian businessman named Aref Sami Zamani.”
“Zamani … I never heard of him.”
“I checked him out. There’s not much on him. He was the son of one of the Iranian banking ministers, back when the Shah of Iran was in charge. He attended Oxford then fell out of sight for years before coming back on the radar when he created this private equity firm. His limited partners were a dozen Middle Eastern princes and businessmen, all loaded with oil money. There was some concern that while he was off radar, he was keeping company with some of the most militant mullahs in Iran. So the Israelis kept tabs on the firm, just in case any of their money ended up financing terrorist groups, but according to them, they found no evidence that any did.”
“It sounds like the guy is legit then?”
“Well, what al Saud found out from a contact he made at the Qatari investment bank is that apparently a year ago, Zamani got rid of the other limited partners. All the money in the firm is his now.”
“That’s not unusual, Michelle. Some of us start our firms that way. We need to use other people’s money for a time, until we make enough of our own. I did it … Eddie Lampert did it, it’s not unusual.”
“That’s not the unusual part Cris. What is … is the fact that according to my agent’s contact, the reason why the limited partners parted company with Zamani’s firm had to do with a radical change he made in their investment focus. Up until last year, the firm mainly invested in real estate. So this Mexican investment in a logistics warehousing operation is unprecedented.”
That piqued De Niro’s interest.
“I’ve seen lots of irrational behavior in investing—“
“Cris, I just emailed you a file. Take a look at it. It contains the performance evaluation for Zamani’s PE firm going back ten years, up to last year.”
De Niro opened the attachment and scoured it for a few minutes.
“Okay, I take it back. I’ve seen lots of irrational behavior in investing, especially since the world melted down a few years ago, but according to this analysis, this guy’s firm was making a mint. It looks like someone in their firm knew enough to divest themselves of the majority of their real estate holdings at least a year before the global real estate meltdown.”
“Exactly, and according to my agent’s contact, they were all set to redirect those funds into Middle Eastern gas and water deals when Zamani pulled the rug from under them. First, he somehow got them all to agree, not only to leave all of the cash they made from divesting themselves out of the real estate – a total of about $900 million – in the firm’s investment account, but he also got them to agree to a two-year lock, which prohibited them from pulling their money out. As soon as they signed on the dotted line, Zamani told them that he wasn’t going to invest in water and gas in the Middle East, after all. The rest of the details are foggy but it appears that Zamani came out with about 10% of that $900 million in exchange for allowing all the limited partners out of the partnership.”
“So he came away with $90 million to invest in whatever he wanted ... and his first investment all on his lonesome was into a shady Mexican warehousing operation?” De Niro replied with sarcasm.
Michelle smiled from the comment.
“I thought I better get your thoughts on it, Cris. No one understands this investment stuff more than you do. I see a giant red flag flapping in the wind with this. Am I wrong?”
“I don’t think your wrong, Michelle. In my experience when all things are equal, professional investors stick to what they know and they stay far away from what they don’t know. In this guy Zamani’s case, he didn’t do either. He moved away from real estate. He didn’t just stay liquid and wait for a recovery in the real estate market. Then he decided to invest in an industry in which he apparently has no knowledge or track record. Not to mention the fact that the investment is located in a country with a train-wrecked economy … and the company has the shadow of cartel-control looming over it. There’s no way that his diligence missed that.”
“So are you saying, he definitely knew about the cartel connection to the warehouse operation?”
“He had to, Michelle. I mean he didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes with his diligence to discover that. He could have googled the warehouse’s name and he would have found references to the Pacifico cartel from news reports. That much alone should have scared him off, especially since the firm is supposed to be Sharia-compliant.”
Wang jotted down a few notes then she looked up from her pad.
“Okay Cris, you convinced me that my first hunch was right. There’s something wrong in Dodge with this whole Iranian-Mexican connection. Now we have to figure out … if this man Zamani wasn’t investing $25 million in this company, what was the $25 million for?”
“The other scary thing is that he has $65 million more to invest in whatever it is,” De Niro added.
“Cris, there was one thing more. Majed knew Garcia a long time. They were as close to friends as two spies could be. When I told him what happened to Jesus, he didn’t buy it. He said, quote unquote, ‘there’s no way Jesus could have been that wrong about blowing his cover.’ Cris, Majed is convinced that Garcia was set up.”
“Set up … but how … by whom?”
“I don’t know. I asked Johnny-F here if someone from the outside could have compromised Big Brother--“
“…and the answer is NO!” Francis interjected. “… but Cris, I did find something … something weird … at least to me, it’s weird. I mean, I’m not exactly James Bond, but then again—“
“John, what are you talking about? What did you find?”
“Well, it made me angry that Michelle or anyone else could even entertain the possibility that my double-B could be hacked …but I did consider the fact that what that guy Majed said, could be correct. So if Garcia was set up and it wasn’t from someone hacking Big Brother from outside, the only other way would be if someone—“
“Hacked the system from within the firm?”
“NO silly! The security measures are in place inside or outside the firm. I was going to say that someone with access might have … sold him out.”
De Niro sat back in his chair while a knot formed in his stomach. A Judas … inside the Watchman…?
“Michelle, who was given access to Garcia’s operation …?”
“Well, in order of rank, Captain Ricci was … I was … Les was and of course, Garcia.”
“Les, why Les …?”
“That’s just standard procedure, Cris. I had to hire Majed and Jesus, sort of on the spot. So, neither of them had gone through our HR department. Mugsy’s improved SOP’s allowed me, under the circumstances, to hire them, and then inform HR. Les was given access to their personnel files, which were included in the ops files, just to bring them both on board.”
“Okay—“
“No, not okay, Cris …!” Francis jumped in again. “You see … not only is my dynamic system able to see who accesses ops files, it’s also able to track them throughout Big Brother. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I traced all three of their activities in the system.”
“You did what? John, tell me you got this approved by Mugsy. Wait a minute, is that why you’re telling me this … on a Sunday …without Mugsy part of this teleconference?!”
“As a matter of fact, he didn’t. Hi Cris … Michelle… John.”
Ricci appeared standing behind Johnny-F, who jumped up as soon as he became aware he was there.
“Sit down John, I’m not angry. In fact I think you did the right thing, under the circumstances, at least for what I heard you both explain while I eavesdropped. It seems that the three of us couldn’t stay away from the office today. I saw your cars parked outside, used the security system you installed in my office to find you both sitting in here, then just turned up the microphone and listened.”
“Mugs, I didn’t know what to do—“
“John, like I said, I’m not angry but we’re gonna have to fix a few things in your ‘dynamic system’ though. For one, I want to be informed by Big Brother the moment anyone tracks me in the system or else I want it to be impossible to track me in the system – and for another – we need to have security tiers placed within operational access. Michelle should have been able to only give access to the personnel files with giving him access to all of the ops info.”
“Yeah … I see that now. I’ll take care of it personally.”
“Mugs, glad you could join us,” De Niro interjected. Now John, what did you find?”
“Well, with Michelle and … Mugsy, just the usual porn and ESPN.com”
Ricci squeezed Francis’s shoulder until pain appeared on Johnny-F’s face.
“I was kidding … just kidding!”
Ricci loosened his grip on the über geek’s shoulder then patted him on it.
“Alright, when I tracked Les, I should have only found him accessing both agents’ personnel files, right? Then why did I find traces of him accessing Agent Garcia’s transponder frequency?”
De Niro, Michelle and Mugsy all had the same look of shock on their faces, to Francis’s delight.
“… and it gets worse. It appears that he accessed Agent Garcia’s transponder frequency while he was outside of The Watchman offices. He used his own personal broadband account, so I can’t tell you from exactly where, but it wasn’t from our network here.”
Tears started forming in Michelle’s eyes.
“That bastard … and I gave him the access! I knew Jesus for years. I knew his wife and his kids too!”
“I told you before Michelle, this isn’t about blame,” Ricci reminded his VP. “It’s about success and failure.”
“It’s about more than that, Mugs,” De Niro jumped in. “It’s about honor and trust too.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment then De Niro spoke up again.
“What now, Mugs …?”
“Now, I think it’s time that Michelle and I have a little talk with Mr. Pastak. I’ll send him a message telling him to meet us here ASAP.”
The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) Page 15