The Oshkosh Connection

by Andrew Watts

  Max said, “This would be a lot easier if he would just go to a safe house for a few days.”

  “The FBI and Capitol Police have both made that painfully clear. The senator has refused to alter his schedule. He insists on seeing his daughter perform today.” Wilkes frowned, “I know this is ugly. We’re doing our best. For now, I think we should assume that the senator is a target, and that either the cartel or ISI may try to take him out while he’s at Oshkosh.”

  The thought was chilling. They were leaving a highly visible target out in the open. Max didn’t like this at all.

  Renee said, “I still don’t understand something. Rojas said that the meeting was on the twenty-eighth, right? That’s today.”

  “Correct,” said Wilkes.

  Renee shook her head. “But I guess I still don’t understand why Ian Williams and the ISI need to kill anyone before it occurs.”

  Renee’s question was answered with silence.

  Charles cleared his throat. “She’s absolutely right. The clock appears to be ticking. Yet you gentlemen don’t know what happens when the minute hand strikes twelve.”

  Wilkes hummed. “Yes, thank you for that, Charles.”

  Charles turned to his son. “What do you think, Max?”

  Max let out a deep breath, searching the faces of those around him. “Upton. Now that I know more about Becker’s connection to Williams, I’ll know where to add pressure. She’s got to know more about this meeting.”

  Renee said, “Why can’t we just go to Senator Becker and confront him with this?”

  Wilkes shook his head. “If he’s doing anything illegal himself, we don’t want to expose ourselves. We’ll want to uncover their network. And we can’t do that if they know we’re on to them.”

  Max said, “Caleb, if you’re good with it, I’ll head to the safe house now to continue my conversation with Jennifer Upton.”

  “Approved.”

  Max turned to Trent. “I think you should stay here and shadow Senator Becker. Ian Williams’s sicarios are military-trained. He might be using them to execute a hit on the senator. If they were Mexican military, some of them may have even been trained inside the US by our own Special Forces. You’re the most familiar with how they might operate.”

  Trent nodded. “Sounds good.”

  Max said to Renee, “You can come with me. Cross-reference every tidbit of information Jennifer Upton spills on us today. And let’s dig into her phone and email accounts. Maybe we can find more hints about why she really came up here, if not for a lovers’ rendezvous.”

  The group got up to leave. As they did, Wilkes said, “Remember, no phones. Syed and Williams have access to excellent crypto specialists. If you need to communicate, we’ll either be set up here at Charles’s aircraft or near the VIP tent on the main side of the airport. Good luck.”

  Chapter 25

  When Max and Renee got back to the safe house, they could see that something had changed in Jennifer Upton. She appeared more nervous, and Max began to put pressure on, telling her that they already knew Senator Becker and Ian Williams were connected.

  Max brought up the very real threat of her and Senator Becker’s assassinations. He told her how critical she was to saving the senator’s life. And he promised her that he would help her. That anything she told them would be held in the strictest of confidence. He wasn’t a cop, after all. He just wanted to avoid any further violence. Whatever she had seen or done, none of it mattered to him.

  “I promise to help you, Jennifer. But you need to come clean and tell me everything.”

  It started off as a trickle. But as she got going, the vault cracked open, and gold coins began pouring out of her mouth.

  “Williams was the match that started Herb Becker’s political bonfire. Ron and I were both on Herb’s staff at the time. Back when he was just in the House. Herb’s political career was nothing special. He barely won his seat. Then September 11 happened, and the next thing we knew, Herb was making a name for himself in the international arena. We were all flying overseas on fact-finding missions and diplomatic trips to Afghanistan. It was like the Wild West. The war in Afghanistan was still young. Nobody knew what they were doing back then. Our congressional delegation was sent there to come up with a way to stabilize the Afghan economy. To try and bring peace to the region.”

  “How many trips?”

  She placed her water glass on a coaster. “Three? Four, maybe? I went on three, he and Ron went on four, I think.”

  “And that’s where Becker met Williams?”

  “Yes. But Ron and I quickly decided to make sure Herb stayed clear of Ian Williams. We saw that Williams’s connections to international business could present us with a huge opportunity. But with it came great risk. Ian Williams was in tight with a group of investors that desperately wanted to gain influence within the US government. But we suspected Williams might not have had the cleanest record. For that reason, Ron took point on all communication with Williams and the investor group.”

  “What was Williams doing that make you think he was dirty?”

  “There were rumors about him accepting bribes from some of the Afghan poppy growers. The British diplomats there hated him, too. Thought he was a creep, if I recall. One of the Brits gave us a warning to stay away from Williams. Said he was getting some under-the-table payments or something.”

  “If you thought he was dirty, why’d you let Ron keep talking to him?”

  She shot Max a sly look. “You aren’t in politics, are you? Honey, there’s all types. We didn’t see Williams do anything illegal. It’s good to have well-financed friends. Williams was offering us that. If you turn away every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a speck of dirt in their past, you’d have to turn away everyone. At the time, Williams just struck me as a wheeler and dealer.”

  “Tell me about this investment group that he offered access to. Were they connected to Pakistan? Pakistani intelligence, maybe?”

  She touched her neck and pursed her lips. “I don’t think so. Not that I’m aware.”

  That question flustered her, Max thought.

  “But it was foreign money?”

  Upton folded her arms and didn’t answer. Okay, she didn’t want to directly incriminate herself or her friends. Fine.

  “What was motivating Williams to make these introductions between Ron and the foreign investors?”

  “At that time, I think Ian knew he was on the way out of the British government. He was the subject of an internal investigation—we didn’t find that out until later. My guess? The money came from people making tens of billions on heroin and other drugs. Ian Williams dealt with these people in the war on terror. He was MI6, after all. I imagine with the people he had to deal with, everything turned to shades of gray.”

  Max knew that Upton was close to home with that assessment. When he’d been under nonofficial cover in Europe with the DIA, he’d oftentimes met with men working for criminal organizations.

  “So you think Williams was recruited by organized crime? The ones moving product from Afghanistan to the sellers’ markets in Europe and Asia?”

  “Maybe.” She shrugged. “I just know that Ian was sharp. He knew how to play the game. He knew how to influence people. He was a power broker. He spoke several languages, and he didn’t strike me as the type to worry about ethical considerations.”

  She looked uncomfortable. “You promised me that anything I say here won’t get me in trouble, right?”

  Max said, “I told you, I’m not a cop.”

  She frowned. “Fine, then. In the end, I knew Ian Williams was dirty because of the promises he made to Ron Dicks.”

  Max raised his eyebrow. “What promises?”

  “Now, I only know what Ron told me in confidence. I don’t have any firsthand evidence. But I believe Williams wanted Becker to help push certain policy stances within the US government. Becker represented some US agricultural interests, for instance. He could help make sure the US government didn’t giv
e subsidies that would turn Afghanistan into a farming competitor.”

  “Why would that matter?”

  “Let me ask you something. You see a big black market for corn? Ian Williams was working with people who wanted to ramp up Afghanistan opium production. While the international community would never outright go along with that, there were ways that Becker could help. Like leaving Afghanistan no other option. Ian Williams worked through Ron Dicks to make Becker sway US policy.”

  “And Senator Becker was okay with this?”

  “He didn’t know everything. Our policy was to keep Becker in the dark. It would protect him. These agreements with Ian Williams were all on Ron Dicks back then. Becker trusted Ron to give him good advice. But Becker didn’t know the details, and he didn’t want to know, if you catch my meaning.”

  “But he must have been told enough to know it was going to be beneficial for him. What did Becker get?”

  “Ron said that Williams had contacts in the business world that would start contributing to Becker’s campaign.”

  So far Jennifer Upton’s story was matching up very well with Caleb Wilkes’s theory. “Quid pro quo?”

  Upton said, “I’d rather not be so explicit in what I say, regardless of the fact that you aren’t a cop.”

  “How long have these investors been investing, do you think?”

  “Quite a while.”

  Renee said, “But this was foreign money, right? Wasn’t this against the law? How could this happen without people finding out about it?”

  Upton shrugged. “Campaign finance is a gray area. Super PACs and certain types of nonprofits can take money from foreign entities, but there are restrictions. The beauty of it is, though, that none of these restrictions are investigated or enforced. And some of the nonprofit types, under US law, can take unlimited money from any source, without having to disclose anything about that source.”

  “Dark money,” Max said.

  “That’s the buzz word, yes. But I will tell you that politicians don’t get anywhere nowadays without heavy financial backing. Each one of those TV commercials cost money. We used to think that the digital revolution would be great for politics. Lower spending and make things more efficient. Then the advertising cost per click rose as the market got flooded. Everything costs more now. It’s insane. The research, the advertising. It’s a political arms race. My company uses social networks and online analytics to microtarget our voters. Thanks to the tech companies, we can identify everything about a person and actually calculate down to the cent how much a voter is going to cost. So each election is just a simple matter of math. Does your candidate have the money or not? Ron got Ian Williams to help Becker with money.”

  “And the only thing Williams got in return was help in Afghan opium farming policy? That doesn’t even sound like something Becker could pull off by himself.”

  “That type of help might have had a huge impact on the rebirth of Afghan poppy growth. Although you would never be able to prove it. And I seriously doubt that Ron was the only one Ian Williams was working with.”

  Max considered that. Who else was involved with Ian Williams? How big was his circle? VIP meeting?

  Upton continued. “Afghan policy was just how it started. Ian Williams was like the drug dealer that starts you off on pot, only to trade you up into the hard stuff later. Williams wanted Ron to taste how good it could be. Three years after the two met, Becker won his Senate seat. And that’s when Williams came calling again.”

  “What did he want then?”

  “I don’t know. I was no longer on staff.”

  “Then how’d you hear about it?”

  She looked like she was stuck. Caught saying more than she’d intended to. “Ron mentioned it last year. I saw him at the party’s convention. We had a drink and got caught up. Ron told me that someone working with Ian Williams had approached him, trying to push some new policy ideas. Perhaps that person was the lobbyist who was killed?”

  “Did Becker play ball?”

  She looked at Max with a cynical stare. “You keep asking about Becker. Again, I don’t think Herb even knew about it. You need to understand something. Senators don’t do the grunt work at that level. They have staff that brings them all of the information and big ideas. With a lot of ’em, politicians are just the monkeys behind the microphones.”

  “So if Ron was on board, the senator was too? Maybe without knowing why?”

  Upton nodded. “Yes. If Ron was sure they would get more funding, and weren’t at risk, my guess is he went along with it. You know the whole system works this way, right? Money makes the world go round.”

  Renee shook her head. “I don’t understand. What’s the problem, then? Why would Ian Williams be sending Senator Becker death threats now, if Ron was still playing ball? And why would he want to hurt you?”

  Jennifer’s eyes darted around the room as she spoke. “I wouldn’t know. This weekend was the first time I’ve seen Herb in a long time. My guess is that Herb found out Ron was still in contact with Williams somehow and told him to break it off, once and for all.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Herb Becker is truly motivated by only one thing. Ambition. Like many politicians, he wants to be president. And Herb would do anything to become president. Herb is pushing this new Opioid Epidemic Bill. It’s a political football. But it’s definitely not compatible with Ian Williams’s interests.”

  “Why not?”

  “From what Ron told me, Williams’s investors included members of Big Pharma as well. International companies that made billions in opioid sales in the US. So Maybe Ron was still playing ball with Williams behind Herb’s back? Maybe Ron told Williams or this lobbyist he was working with that everything was great. That Herb was still on board. That might have worked as long as their policy agendas were aligned. Williams thought he had a big fish in his pocket. Then Herb decides he’s going to make this new bill his big signature achievement. I have to admit, it’d look great if you were running for president. Everyone wants to help stop the opioid epidemic. Who wouldn’t want their name attached?”

  “Do you know where Ian Williams works now?”

  She shrugged.

  “Let me ask a different question. Does Senator Becker know where Ian Williams works now?”

  A dark smile formed on her lips. “Ask yourself why Herb is going so hard against the drug cartels now.”

  Max stared at her, his face impassive. So she did know. And she was implying that Becker knew too.

  “You tell me,” he said.

  “It’s because he wants to counter any problems he might have if the Williams scandal comes to light. Now let me make this clear. Herb didn’t do anything wrong. But just the mere association with someone who’s now involved in a drug cartel could be catastrophic to a presidential campaign. Ian Williams is toxic now. Look at where he is. Herb must be terrified at that development. Then all of a sudden, Ron isn’t returning Williams’s calls. He’s cut Williams off. Williams feels betrayed because Herb isn’t playing ball. Herb doesn’t need Ian Williams’s shady friends anymore. But he sure as hell will need to make sure none of those skeletons fall out of the closet if he ever wants to become president.”

  “You keep saying Herb. I thought Ron Dicks was the one who was connected to Williams?”

  She shrugged. “Excuse me. I misspoke. Ron knows the details. He knows not to bother the senator with them, I’m sure. He did back when I worked for him. Herb’s clean. But Ron, God rest his soul, may have taken a few shortcuts.”

  Max frowned. “Who knows about Becker and Williams?”

  “Almost no one. And I’ll deny it, if you ever try to make this public. Herb Becker made one mistake. He didn’t report his connection with Ian Williams in the beginning. But after that, everything he did was legal. And I’ll say something else. Everything he did, he did for the right reasons. We won the war on terror, in part because men like Herb made deals to keep Afghanistan stable. Keep their eco
nomy going.”

  Renee said, “By growing heroin?”

  “Don’t give me that judgmental look, missy.”

  Max said, “Has Senator Becker had any contact with Williams in the past few years?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “You seem pretty sure of that.”

  “I am.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I have, as you say, been seeing Herb socially again, every so often. I would know if they were still in touch.”

  “Do you know anything about a meeting Ian Williams is about to have?”

  “A meeting with who?”

  “Some important people.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know anything about any meeting. I haven’t seen Williams since the 2000s. And even then, it was only a few times.”

  “Why do you think Ian Williams would need to kill a list of people before this meeting?”

  Max thought she looked alarmed for a moment, but then she said, “I wouldn’t know. I’m sorry.”

  “Let me ask you the same question I asked you yesterday. Do you know of any reason that Ian Williams would want to hurt you?”

  She said, “Ian Williams could care less about me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The only reason he would care about me is if he was trying to get to Herb. It’s not me you should be worried about. From what I’ve seen, Ian Williams is a survivalist. If he’s at the point where he’s killing people, then he’ll definitely take a shot at the senator.” She sighed and looked at Max. “I lied to you yesterday. I was scared, and I didn’t want to put Herb in legal jeopardy or hurt his career. But I care about him. He’s a good man, and he’s tried to do the right thing. This is the reason I’ve decided to talk to you about all of this today, even if it gets Herb in hot water. Please, Max. Don’t let Herb Becker get hurt. You don’t need to worry about me. It’s Senator Becker you need to be protecting.”

  Max stood. “We’ll continue this later.” Looking at Renee he said, “I should get back.”

  She nodded. He left the house, got in the rental car and drove away, leaving Renee, Jennifer Upton, and the other CIA man at the safe house. Max needed to get back to the air show to meet with Wilkes. While he didn’t trust everything that Jennifer Upton had said, enough of it sounded right to him that he felt Senator Becker should be considered a confirmed target.