The Financial Terrorist

by John Gubert

  “Feel a bit under the weather. Nothing else is wrong. I’ve a touch of flu. I should be all right after the weekend,” he said quickly, casting a guilty look in Charles’ direction. In front of his office, Charles outlined the report he had been given by McGarth.

  “He was as optimistic as you are. He told the regulators about our US performance. It’s booming on all fronts. We really have a great team. I only wish we could find something in Europe. I spend all my time looking at possible acquisitions. Feel a bit guilty as you and the others just make us more and more money. And the share price is responding well.”

  James‘ secretary looked at him and then at her boss. She was old school and adored him. She looked at Charles condescendingly. You could see her think that the Honourable James ran things while he played around. That was what she would tell people afterwards and that would help exonerate Charles further from any culpability.

  Charles smiled and headed back to his office. The rest of the morning he checked out their accounts, both personal and official. He reinforced his apparent innocence by asking for the management accounts and checking that the trading desks were not reflecting their losses. He wrote notes on the accounts and put notes at one or two of the points. There would soon be a board meeting and his notes were for questions to raise then. The reason was not to ask questions, but to have a reason to get his secretary to file the accounts. The paper was just another part of part of his cover-up. He couldn’t believe the news could be suppressed for another week. The board meeting would surely not take place. But the secretary would think he spent an hour on the accounts in preparation for the board meeting. He would have acted just as he normally did.

  The morning passed and Jacqui and he lunched in the office. She then headed home while he worked on. He found it easy to clear all the papers and soon his desk was empty. He had pushed decisions out to other areas. He had made others. It all looked as if he had spent another normal day at work. He even had another take-over candidate passed to him and promised to look over it at the weekend. The office would note that he had spent time looking to the future. And it would appear that he did that while his associates lied to him and put the bank into bankruptcy.

  He headed home to meet Maddy, but not before calling the office again and asking for her. She was not there, of course, but he was the only one who knew why. He pretended to be annoyed. He questioned if she often skipped off. He insisted he needed to talk to her a soon as possible. He even told her assistant that the reason was his concern at feedback that he was getting on the size of some shipments. They had not known him angry before. In reality he was enjoying his role, he knew he was fooling them into believing he was sincere.

  Once home, he headed to the operations centre. Maria was organising things there. She now knew the truth about Maddy. She looked up as he entered, “Maddy will be here in about ten minutes. And she said that Delaney would also come along. She has realised she’s a marked woman now. The reality of it all has hit her. It’s as if she were playing a game that wasn’t real until now. She wants out quick with a new identity. You really think that’ll help her? She’ll be target number one and that’s on the Mafia hit list.”

  Charles shrugged his shoulders. They would see what was to be done. Meanwhile, he checked timings and details of their coming operations. This was the time for work and not speculation about Maddy. In any event, she had finished her job. She was not part of the future.

  Maddy and Delaney entered. Charles greeted them and carried on looking through the papers. Ten minutes later he had finished. He looked at each of them. He then looked at his watch. It was 6.30 in the UK and five hours earlier in the eastern part of the United States.

  Maddy was looking pale. It was as if the reality of her situation had just hit home. She would be a fugitive for life. Delaney would have told her that announcing she was a double agent would just make her a target for another reason, so there was no value in that. It made it harder for others he might want to place. Charles looked at her. The sheen had gone from her hair. The colour had left her cheeks. Maddy had burnt out.

  Maria was her normal dark, sleek self; efficient and ready. Her job had been defined. Her price had been agreed. The mercenary was at work. Tell her what you want her to be. A whore, a lover, a seducer; she could be all three. A murderer, a bomber or a thief; again she would have no problem. Her morals were set aside when she joined them. Her scruples were eradicated at birth. It didn’t matter if a few more were to die. She would cope with a bit more treachery. Di Maglio was dead. The Empire was dying. Charles would soon back out of her life. Her view was simple. Get to the end. Get there in one piece. And collect the few hundred million or so before finding a personal nirvana.

  Delaney was edgy. For the first time, he was riled. He needed to know what was happening. This was a master who was being treated like a pawn. His eyes were dark with fury. His florid neck sat astride the white collar and regimental tie. He perspired as he looked impatiently at the screens in the centre of the table.

  Then, finally, the message came through. It was 7.30 in the UK and 2.30 in the US. It read, “DM1 and DM2 in position. The cargo is fine. ETA as agreed. Location as agreed. Destination is clear with good visibility. Forecast no change. We are awaiting final co-ordinates.”

  Charles pressed the button and the scrambled message with the final co-ordinates was released. Seconds later, the response came, “Message received and co-ordinates accepted.”

  Charles turned to Delaney and passed him a piece of paper. “These are the co-ordinates. The airfield is fifty miles from Toronto. You have three and a half hours. The planes are en route. Their estimated time of arrival is now 6pm US time, when it will be dusk and fairly poor visibility. There are two planes. The reception committee is not in place. Allow the Russians to take the airport. Allow the Italians to counter attack. Then swoop in. The cover is that there was a leak from the Italian Mafia, that’s why the forces are there. Shoot to kill. They will.”

  He turned to Maddy, “Pull yourself together. Give out these co-ordinates to the Russians and then in an hour’s time to the Italians.”

  Delaney picked up the phone and called through to his office. His office must have patched him in and scrambled the line down to their phone. When Charles played the recording later, he got high pitched sounds and nothing else. Delaney waited a minute or so and then gave the instructions.

  Maddy told the Russians. Her voice was strained but credible. An hour later she repeated the task with the Italians. They waited in silence until Maddy finally spoke, her voice still anxious, “What do we do now?”

  Maria laughed contemptuously, “We wait, unless you want to go out to the cinema or something.”

  Charles looked again at Maddy. She was finished. He realised Maria had written her off as too weak.

  “Maddy, we need to agree your cover. Is it my problem or Delaney’s?”

  Delaney glared over at him. “It’s mine,” he said gruffly.

  “OK. What about the seventy five million. Is it for her, me or the government purse?”

  “What seventy five million?” he queried.

  “I mean the bribes that they gave Maddy. I thought you knew about them.”

  Delaney looked at Maddy. He was shocked. He didn’t know. Miss Brown, as Charles had suspected, had taken all the money for herself and not for the government.

  Charles stepped in, “Maddy can have them. I’m indifferent. I’ll set off the fee I told her I’d pay her against it. That puts her twenty five million up.”

  Delaney again looked horrified. Maddy was close to tears. She had stepped over the line. He would withdraw his protection. She had gone native. She’d gone freelance. She’d believed Charles would keep silent and now he had blown it. He was her only hope. She looked pleadingly at him. He needed her for today, he knew he had to re-assure her.

  “I thought he knew; you should have told him what you were doing. Or you should have told me that
you had gone solo. That was stupid. But we’ll sort things out. If he thinks you went too far, you can work just for me. But don’t forget it. If that’s the case, you’ve left his service.”

  Maria glanced over at him. Her face was motionless. Her eyes flickered. He flashed back a look at her. Maddy would need to be disposed of. She was dangerous. It would be easy to kill her. She needed a bullet in the head before she talked. You can disappear from the authorities, but not from the Mafia. And she would talk and incriminate them all. Her reactions now made that almost a certainty. She didn’t know it, but she would soon be history. They needed to survive more than her life was worth.

  Delaney didn’t notice the exchange. He was examining the table. Charles had annoyed him more than he would admit, but Maddy had betrayed him. And that was worse. Maddy was beyond realising anything. Charles wanted to keep her under scrutiny or he would have told her to go. She was not going to be any use to them as the evening wore on.

  Maria stood up and got herself a coffee. Charles switched on the camera. The airfield came onto the giant screen. They could see the peripheral road and the two runways from the hidden cameras. There were no signs of life. It was just an empty airfield. There was one small building. Inside there were people; these would be the locals who managed the strip.

  He turned to Maddy, if only to give her something to think about, “Anyone coming in will leave lookouts. Where would you place them?” Before she answered he turned to Maria. “And where did you place the remote cameras and other electronic tracking equipment?”

  Maddy looked blank. She didn’t know. Maria chipped in, “We have camera and electronic equipment about a mile from the site and then on the site itself; as for them, it’s unlikely they’ll leave lookouts away from the periphery of the airfield. It’ll be safe for us to bring our forces in to a two mile radius.”

  Delaney nodded, “OK. I’ll bring them in to about ten miles till we’ve identified the attackers are there. Then I’ll move to two or three miles. We’ll be using infantry. I can cover two miles in around three or four minutes depending on the terrain. We’ll hit from all sides so we operate a pincer. They’ll be pretty busy killing each other by then.”

  Charles turned to Maddy, “You said the other day that the Russians would come overland. The Italians would come by helicopter from near New York. Are you sure?”

  She looked blank still but nodded.

  He asked Delaney if satellite would track any helicopter and if they could have a feed from that as well. Delaney nodded. There was another series of instructions over the phone. They sat there and waited. The door opened and Jacqui appeared. She sat next to Charles and watched the airfield.

  “I need to see this,” she said. “This is my way of purifying our name. The last connection of the Di Maglio name with organised crime.”

  “You’re an optimist,” muttered Delaney. “I am glad you trust Charles. I sometimes think he’d deal with the devil if it made him money.”

  “Let’s not get personal,” Charles snapped. “We may yet need to work together. And this could go wrong. In that case, there’ll be some hides to save.”

  He looked at his watch; it was 9.30. That was 4.30 in the US. They had an hour and half to go. The Russians should be approaching.

  Suddenly, Maria called out, “One of the sensors has picked up movement.”

  They glanced at the location map and then at the video. There they saw the convoy of eight vans and two huge articulated trucks. Charles looked at the map. He turned to Delaney.

  “Where are your men now? Make sure they keep clear of this area.”

  Charles studied the map again. “They’ll go down this road and then take this turning to the airport. That lets them park the articulated trucks here in that siding. That’s close to the hangers. It would be useful for loading.”

  Maria looked at the map area, “There won’t be enough of them to make a two pronged attack. They‘ll cut a gap in the fence and advance under cover of the buildings.”

  Delaney barked some instructions down the phone. They switched to the camera near the hangars. They watched carefully. Then the vans came in view. The articulated trucks were nowhere to be seen. The cameras did not pick up the area where they would have parked. They watched the vans. They pulled up. Maria counted the men getting out the one nearest to the camera. There were eight of them. There were six vans, that made forty plus men. Delaney passed the information on to his people.

  They watched as the men crept up to the perimeter fence. They saw one of them cut a gap in the wire. They then crept in and moved to the far side of the hangars. They were out of view. Maria broke the silence.

  “They must be attacking the ground staff.”

  “I counted forty two of them in all. They will have some more in the trucks. Could be fifty plus in all.”

  Delaney had been on the phone. “We’ll approach from the other side. I am also throwing a cordon round the whole area from the moment the attack begins. We have two hundred men approaching by road. And we have a further group in ten helicopters. They’ll cut off any who try to escape. The helicopters have all the equipment. They can even pick out the people escaping through the trees. I have four planes that will disable their helicopters. We’ll get them on the ground before they can be used for an escape.”

  Charles looked at him, “It’d be better to shoot them out of the sky. That way you eliminate survivors.”

  “We’re not murderers,” he snapped back as Charles knew he would. “We’re the law. Not one of your run of the mill hoodlums.”

  “Charles,” called Jacqui with a frown. “Stop winding up Mr Delaney. Act your age. Don’t let the tension get to you.”

  Charles grinned back. “Sorry, but I was only half joking.”

  Maddy looked at him, “How can you joke at a time like this?” she cried. “It’s awful.”

  Charles had no ideas why. But he played along. “If we don’t take it like this, we’d go mad. You’ll find it easier next time.”

  Poor Maddy looked even sicker than before at the idea of a next time. But she said nothing. They reverted to the screen. It was 5pm in the US. One hour to go. Maria checked the screen. “The planes are on schedule. No sign of the helicopters anywhere on radar.” She turned to Delaney. “That still could mean that they are close by. Be careful how you bring in your men. Be careful they are not visible to the people on the ground or the air until we have action.”

  Then she called out, “There’s a group of helicopters forty miles north, north west of the field.”

  Delaney watched the radar. There were seven dots. That meant seven helicopters. They came closer to the ground. Delaney read the co-ordinates and again called them down the phone.

  Charles traced them on the map and minutes later called, “They’ll be heading here. It’s a clearing in the trees. There’s about half a square mile of open ground. Well away from the roads. It’s totally hidden from view. It’s the best landing spot for them.”

  “I’ll get my people closer,” said Delaney. “Everybody is there and I can’t see them placing look-outs. The helicopters didn’t even look around. They suspect nothing. So we’ll come in from the east and north. That way we avoid the Russians on the ground. Our own helicopters can always mop up anyone who escapes.”

  It was 5.15 US time. Three quarters of an hour to go. They monitored the radar and could see helicopters on the ground. They monitored cameras near the hangars and could see no movement. Maria and Charles exchanged glances as the moments ticked by. Delaney checked his phone as his men approached.

  “Split the screen into three. Half screen on the hangar and the others east and north to pick up Delaney’s people,” Charles called to Maria.

  The screen split. It was void of movement. The radar was also motionless. They sat and watched. The room was silent. Maria seemed to breather faster than before. Delaney looked more and more impatient. Only Maddy seemed indifferent to it all and unto
uched by the tension. Then, suddenly, she turned to Charles.

  “Are you going to have me killed?” she asked in a whisper.

  He looked at her coldly, “No. But I’m going to find it hard to offer you protection. You don’t obey orders. You think you know better.”

  “Please help me. I ‘m sorry.”

  “I said before; if Delaney can’t help you, I can. I’m not annoyed by what you did other than moving money from the Empire through to your secret accounts. He, on the other hand, thinks you betrayed the country.”

  Maddy gasped. “How do you know about the other twenty million?”

  Charles snarled back at her, knowing that there could be no way she would only take such a sum. “It wasn’t twenty. Even I can identify more.”

  She buried her head in her hands and seemed to sob, “You knew. You are a bastard. You knew before America.”

  He looked over at her, “I didn’t know until you told me. I then played poker to get you to tell me what you’d done. Maddy, we’re professionals. More professional than you’ll ever be. You have to remember that.”

  She looked at him, “I took two hundred and fifty. And then I got the seventy-five. “

  He hardly gave her a look. “Put two hundred back to my account. And send fifty to Maria as a special bonus. Keep the rest. Use the computer over there and do it now.”

  Delaney glared at Maddy. He realised Charles wanted her to be occupied whilst he focused on the action at the field. “Do as he says. I’ll still help you though,” he grunted.

  The colour came back to her face. She breathed more easily, “I’ll do all you say.”

  Maria monitored the radar and Jacqui was watching the screens. They saw movement. “It’s more helicopters,” called Maria. “Two are coming in. Who the hell are they? The Italians are in the field. The Russians are by the hanger. No other movement.”

  “Is it your people?” Charles asked Delaney. He was already on the phone and checking out.

  “Negative,” he called. “We’ve picked them up. There are two people movers. We believe they are Chinooks or something. They’re big helicopters. We don’t read them.”