by Rick Acker
“I know. I thought they might be more reasonable because she came forward voluntarily and she’s a hero for what she did out here.”
Max scratched his jowls. “That earned her a get-out-of-jail-free card with our office, but we were only looking at stuff like perjury and obstruction of justice charges. Not murder or manslaughter.”
Connor nodded. “Yeah, I see the difference. So does she. But a felony guilty plea, a year in jail, and a lifetime as an ex-con? There’s got to be another way.” He clicked his tongue and shook his head. “A year is a long time though.”
70
BEST BURGERS IN THE US OF A,” ED DECLARED AS HE PUT HIS TRAY DOWN next to Mitch’s.
Cho gave the bacon-guacamole Ed had recommended a doubtful look. “I have eaten McDonald’s before. Is Carl’s Jr. so much better?”
“Take a bite and find out.”
When Cho continued to hesitate, Mitch chimed in. “You can trust Ed on two things: burgers and coffee. Not much else—and never let him set you up on a blind date.”
Ed chuffed. “That was five years ago!”
“I still have nightmares. Anyway, he knows his burgers.”
With that reassurance, Cho took a bite. A dollop of green goop came out of the other side of the bun, landing on his tray with a plop. His eyes lit up and he nodded. “Mmmm.”
“Told you!” Ed crowed.
Cho swallowed and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. “This is very good. Thank you.”
Ed inclined his head. “Don’t mention it. You saved our lives. The least we can do is buy you dinner.”
“I am sad I am eating here for first time at the end of my trip. There is no Carl’s Jr. in South Korea.” He took another bite.
“Or in North Korea, I’ll bet.”
Cho shook his head. “I think not,” he said around a mouthful of burger.
Ed grinned and winked. “Oh, I’m guessing that you know not.”
Cho stopped chewing and stared at him.
Ed turned and picked up a shopping bag. “That reminds me.” He put the bag on the table. “Here’s a little gift from Mitch and me.”
Cho looked in the bag and lifted out a used video game console and a package of old games. He looked at them quizzically. “Thank you.”
“Our pleasure,” said Ed. “We thought you might want to practice your Nintendo skills. See, I was on a lot of jobs in South Korea in the eighties and nineties, when you were growing up. All the kids had Nintendos back then. You’d see ’em playing Gameboys on the bus, and when I went over to a coworker’s house, you’d always—and I mean always—see a console by the TV if they had kids.”
Cho nodded. “I remember.”
Ed’s eyebrows went up. “Really? You didn’t act like it on the ship. Remember when we were playing Super Mario Bros. together? You acted like you’d never played a Nintendo before.”
“I was acting North Korean.”
“It was a good act. Really good. So good that people might think you really were North Korean. ’Cause, you know, that would explain a lot.”
“I am happy my acting convinced you.”
Ed nodded at the console. “My apartment is just a block away. What do you say we plug that thing in and you can show me how good you really are? I’ll play Luigi, and you can have Mario.”
Cho looked down at the console. “I must prepare for the flight to Korea. I have much to do. I am sorry.”
Ed reached across the table and clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t be, comrade. Your secret is safe with us. You stopped a nuclear war and saved our lives. What do we care if you infiltrated the South Korean Navy while you were doing that? You think we’d turn you in?”
Cho stared at him for a second, then tossed back his head and laughed. “You are a funny man, Ed Granger!”
Kim Tae-woo sat in his hotel room near the Oakland Airport, staring at the Nintendo console Granger and Daniels had given him. What if one of the South Koreans had been paying attention when Granger had been teaching him to play Super Mario Bros.? What if Granger and Daniels had talked to the CIA rather than him?
He shook his head. Future agents would need to be better trained. In the meantime, he needed to fill this hole in his knowledge.
He plugged the console into the hotel room TV set, inserted the Super Mario Bros. cartridge, and set out to rescue Princess Peach.
71
ALLIE AND CONNOR DANCED THROUGH A SPARKLING SEA OF BLACK AND white. They whirled, dipped, and swayed in perfect rhythm with each other and the music played by the excellent salsa band a few yards away. Connor expertly navigated them in and out among the couples on the crowded outdoor dance floor and kept Allie’s feet safe from the governor, who was stomping away nearby.
She had never been to San Francisco’s Black and White Ball, which took place in the Civic Center plaza every May. She hadn’t planned to go this year either, but Connor surprised her with a ticket after a particularly rough negotiating session with the Salina, Kansas, DA’s office.
Everyone at the ball wore black and white, so she had needed to do some shopping. She fell in love with a slinky white Vera Wang dress perfect for both dancing and sitting down afterward for dinner with members of Northern California’s aristocracy. The dress was really too expensive, even for a night like this. Fortunately, Sandy Allen and Blue Sea paid for it with the first installment of the settlement Connor and Max beat out of them. The second installment might cover the diamond and sapphire earrings and necklace she wore.
Connor wore a tuxedo, of course. In a nod to the slightly eccentric spirit of the ball, he had picked one with a vintage Jazz Age cut. He looked like he had stepped straight out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, except that he was a lot more sober and less depressed than any Fitzgerald hero she remembered.
The music slowed. Connor took her left hand with his right and slid his left around to her back. Her dress had no back, and his hand was warm against her skin in the cool of the night.
Allie looked up into his brown eyes. “I’m having a wonderful time. Thanks for inviting me.”
He gave a sparkling, effervescent smile. “Thanks for saying yes. If you hadn’t I’d have had to come here alone and spend the night dancing with my mom’s friends.”
“Liar.”
“It’s pronounced ‘lawyer.’ So, what happened to Trudi? Weren’t she and her husband supposed to meet us here?”
“Their kids are sick, and she didn’t want to leave them with a sitter.”
He clicked his tongue. “Too bad. She’s referred us half a dozen good cases, and I’d like to meet her in person.”
After Allie’s exploits splashed all over the news, she had told Trudi about Devil to Pay and her secret life as a whistleblower. She’d never be an invisible accounting temp again, so her qui tam career was effectively over anyway. Trudi had been hurt for about five minutes. After that, she spent two solid hours telling Allie about all the stories her other temps had told her about fraud they had seen at government contractors. A lot of those had been exaggerations or misunderstandings, but not all. Connor had more false claims cases going now than he ever had when she was his only source. And he insisted that all of them be brought through Devil to Pay so that Allie would get a percentage of the proceeds.
“She’s a lot of fun. You’ll love her, and Dave is great too.” She paused. “Thanks for keeping me out of jail.”
He shrugged modestly. “That was easy enough once I finally realized that Kansas has a brand new False Claims Act and an Attorney General’s office with zero experience in false claims law. It wasn’t too hard to persuade the AG’s office that they’d rather have some free expert consulting than another inmate at the women’s prison. Once the AG explained that to the local DA, the negotiations weren’t too tough. I’m just sorry that you’re going to have to spend the summer auditing contracts in a hot, sticky little cow town. I’m sure you’d much rather be on the beach at Tahoe.”
“You know, I’m looking foward to it. I reall
y am. Not the hot and sticky part, but going in there and helping these people. If I can find a couple of good cases for them and shake loose enough money to build a new school or something, it’ll be a good summer.” She thought about the prospects for a moment. “You’ll probably laugh at me for this, but I’d actually choose this over Tahoe.”
His smile returned, quieter and warmer. “My grandfather had a saying, ‘You are what you are when the Devil whistles.’ You show your true colors then, when you’re under pressure and temptation. And ever since the Bahamas, you’ve shown pure gold, Allie.”
A warm glow filled her from head to toe and she could feel the tears in her eyes. “I’d do it all again ten times over just to hear you say that. Thank God you were there for me, even when I screwed up.” She let go of his hand and hugged him tight.
His arms came up and he held her gently. “He was there for you too, you know.”
She didn’t know how to respond, so she put her head on his shoulder and they swayed to the music. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the moment, wishing the band would play this song all night long.
But they didn’t. The song ended and they stopped dancing, but Connor didn’t release her. He continued to hold her close and she looked up into those warm, intelligent brown eyes that had caught her attention when they first met. There was something there she hadn’t seen before—something that made her heart race. “Allie, I think this is the end of a beautiful friendship.”
He kissed her. Somewhere, the music started again, but neither of them noticed.
Discussion Questions
1. A central theme in the book is how the characters react when they face hard choices. How did Allie respond? How did Connor?
2. Have you ever been in a situation where you were tempted to say that you didn’t have a choice when the truth was that you didn’t want to pay the price for making the right choice?
3. Late in the book, Connor reflects that “by the time we reach a critical decision, we’ve already made it. Maybe all the little decisions in life are like bricks, and those bricks pile together into walls over time. And when some crisis comes, those walls force us along whatever path we’ve already chosen.” Do you agree or disagree? If you agree, will that affect how you make “little” choices in the future?
4. How does Allie change over the course of the book? What changes her?
5. How does Connor change? What changes him?
6. Was Allie’s father right to tell her to blame the crash on him? If you think he was wrong, do you blame him for doing it?
7. As described in the following Author’s Notes, the federal and state False Claims Acts allow whistleblowers to sue on behalf of the government and keep part of anything the government recovers. Had you heard of these laws before? If not, did their existence surprise you?
8. Advocates say that the False Claims Acts are important tools for fighting fraud. Opponents say they encourage frivolous lawsuits by disgruntled former employees. Who do you think is right?
9. Did you think Max Volusca was a good public servant? Why or why not?
10. Did Cho’s true allegiance surprise you? Before reading the Author’s Notes, were you aware of how much spying goes on between North and South Korea?
11. Early in the book, Connor says, “If you commit a crime, you should pay the price. Every. Single. Time. No excuses, no compromises.” Do you agree with that statement? Is it fair? Is it merciful?
12. Does Connor’s Christian faith affect his actions? Are there places where it should have affected them more?
13. Connor, like a lot of Northern California Christians, drinks alcohol. Did that bother you? Why or why not?
Author’s Notes
I try to put as little fiction as possible into my novels. That’s partly because I owe it to readers like you to get my facts right. But it’s also because one of the things I enjoy most about being an author is talking to fighter pilots and scientists, poking around ROVs, visiting museums and labs, researching Russian submarines, and so on. I can’t put all the fascinating things I find into my books, of course, but I do post a lot of them on my website: www.rickacker.com. I also have sample chapters from my other books, interviews, and other good stuff there, so be sure to stop by. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.
Here’s the truth behind some of the key story elements in this book:
Allie’s whistleblower lawsuits: Real false claims lawsuits usually involve less international intrigue than Allie’s cases, but there’s nothing fictional about the law involved or how lucrative these cases can be. Every year, qui tam whistleblowers like Allie uncover billions of dollars of fraud—and receive anywhere from 15 percent to 50 percent of the recovered money. Whistleblower awards are generally in the millions of dollars, and I’ve been involved in cases where the whistleblower received over $100 million. You can learn more about false claims litigation by visiting the website of Taxpayers Against Fraud (www.taf.org) or the U.S. Department of Justice (http:// www.justice.gov/usao/pae/Documents/fcaprocess2.pdf).
The sunken Soviet submarine: The wreck of the Typhoon-class submarine is based on two real naval disasters. The first was the loss of the Russian submarine Kursk on August 12, 2000, which killed all 118 sailors on board. While the cause of the Kursk disaster has never been definitively proven, the most likely culprit was a chain reaction explosion caused by unstable VA-111 Shkvall torpedoes on the doomed sub. The same type of torpedo is used on Typhoon submarines. The second incident occurred on January 8, 2005, when the USS San Francisco smashed into an undersea mountain, killing one man and badly damaging the submarine. The accident was caused by a combination of bad charts, crew mistakes, and the fact that the submarine was not using its sonar, which is typical when a naval submarine is traveling submerged and does not want to be detected. The fictional Typhoon in this book sank when, like the San Francisco, it hit a seamount. The impact caused its VA-111 torpedoes to explode, ripping the sub’s bow open like the Kursk’s.
Cho’s spying: Despite the fact that the Korean War ended nearly sixty years ago, relations between North and South Korea remain extremely tense, and both countries routinely spy on each other. North Korea’s Reconnaissance Bureau is particularly active and has sent numerous agents into South Korea with missions ranging from assassination to sabotage to infiltrating the South Korean military and government. The Reconnaissance Bureau’s actions reportedly reach the level of outright terrorism, including an attack on a South Korean diplomatic delegation to Burma in 1983, the bombing of Korean Air Lines flight 858 in 1987, and the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan in 2010.
Wente, Slanted Door, and Gary Danko: These are all real Bay Area restaurants, and all are excellent. However, if you go to Gary Danko, don’t expect the view Allie described to Connor. She got that detail wrong because, of course, she wasn’t actually there.
Interview with Rick Acker
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I write legal thrillers on the train to and from my job as a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice, where I prosecute corporate fraud cases like the ones described in When the Devil Whistles. I’m the father of four great kids and the husband of a loving and tolerant woman who puts up with being a single mother when deadlines loom or Notre Dame is playing. I’m also a decent breakfast cook, particularly if you’re not picky about calories and fat.
What is your favorite Bible verse and why?
“I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13 NKJV). Paul understood that no matter what circumstances he faced—freedom, prison, wealth, poverty, abundance, hunger—all that mattered was that he had the strength of Christ. He knew how to take both the good and the bad that the world threw at him because he had built his foundation on the Rock and couldn’t be shaken.
; What inspired the concept for writing When the Devil Whistles?
The cases I deal with every day. They’re fascinating studies in corporate fraud, pride, and conspiracy. And the whistleblowers who bring them are no less interesting. I meet idealistic crusaders, amoral opportunists, angry layoff victims, and crazy conspiracy theorists. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong, but they’re never, ever dull.