McNamara grinned. ‘Well, depending on how soon we can get to the bottom of who’s supplying these missiles, we may – may – be able to find time for you to finish your leave, but given what’s happened in the Strait of Hormuz, that’s not going to be any time soon. Murray will be here shortly, but she’s already told me she thinks there’s another shipment of missiles, probably already in Manaus at EVRAN Timbers. I’m not holding out much hope that the Brazilian authorities will search the warehouses. Crowley seems to have the customs boys and girls on his payroll, so you’ll need to come up with a Plan B.’
‘Why do I get the feeling I’m about to be thrown another hospital pass here?’
‘That’s because —’ McNamara was interrupted by a quiet knock on the door.
‘Ms Murray’s here.’
‘Thanks, Chanelle, show her in. Barbara – O’Connor you know . . . have a seat.’ Murray flashed O’Connor a willing smile.
‘It won’t surprise either of you that this attack on the supertankers is burning my ass,’ said McNamara. ‘The launch trucks were picked up by one of our drone crews out of Creech. We haven’t been able to confirm the missile type because the Iranians got to them before we could get a SEAL team in or do a satellite pass on to the area. It’s a small oasis east of Bondãrãn on the Iranian southern coast, directly opposite the narrowest point of the Strait. Publicly, the Iranians are blaming al Qaeda, which, given what we know, may turn out to be correct,’ McNamara said, a thoughtful look on his face, ‘but judging by the conversations up on the seventh floor – and the less said about the mood at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the better – you’d think that a threat to our oil supplies was the only one we’re facing. Leaving aside the panic at the gas pumps and on Wall Street, let’s review what we’ve got.’
O’Connor stifled a grin. In McNamara’s nearly 40 years of service, he’d worked for no fewer than eight presidents. McNamara had seen it all, and the sinking of two supertankers, no matter how grave for the world economy, was not about to rattle him unduly.
‘You’re not alone there,’ said Murray. ‘It’s pretty well the only topic of conversation at Fort Meade as well, but the information you sent me from your investigation of the Kashta Palace may be linked to the attack in the Strait of Hormuz,’ she continued, turning to O’Connor.
McNamara smiled. ‘He’s a man of many skills,’ he said, picking up on Murray’s nuanced admiration.
‘We can come to the agenda of this group in Alexandria shortly,’ said Murray. ‘Clearly Crowley is part of it, and he, Du Bois and the media mogul Louis Walden have major roles in Pharos’s overall plan; but of more immediate concern is the intelligence we’ve gained from their communications. We’ve thrown everything we have at EVRAN, but we still haven’t broken their codes and ciphers. Whoever is running Crowley’s systems is good. That said, I’ve had a quiet look at the metadata on the guys we suspect he’s dealing with and I’ve got a fix on every desktop computer, laptop and mobile phone that Khan uses, as well as the Jewish art dealer Rubinstein, and this Doctor Aboud in the Cairo Museum. He’s interesting, to say the least, and I’ll come to a text from Khan in a moment, but the meta data led me to a stamp collector website – stampgeekcol.com, and that has me intrigued. Khan has logged on to it, as has someone using a computer located in Dallas. That may be one of Crowley’s, because he’s logging on through a sophisticated encryption system.
‘Any conclusions? We’ve had a look at it as well,’ said McNamara. ‘It’s aptly named – filled with postings by stamp geeks that are as boring as batshit. Unless Crowley or Khan are avid stamp collectors, it doesn’t make a lot of sense . . .’
‘Exactly. Unless it’s being used as a communication portal,’ said Murray.
‘Question is, by whom?’ O’Connor pondered.
‘I haven’t discussed this with anyone at Fort Meade yet, because frankly, I’d rather we handle it here. Easier if the top floor’s not involved,’ she added, rolling her eyes. ‘After our last conversation about Crowley, I’ve concluded you’re right. Big donors like him seem to be a protected species. As to Du Bois, his systems are encrypted as well, but not as well as EVRAN’s, and we’re now deep inside Crédit Group’s operations.’
‘Lawful?’ McNamara asked.
‘We’ve had some discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission, although very discreetly – I wouldn’t put it past the Crowleys of this world to have a well-placed mole. Their view is that the sheer volume of recent trade is highly unusual, and may warrant investigation, but there’s no cast-iron evidence. The law covers insider trading and Section 9 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 specifically refers to stock manipulation, but that’s in regard to individual stocks. Back in 1934, I don’t think the legislators could foresee the whole market being manipulated by acts of terrorism.’
‘But today, they don’t get any bigger than Crowley or Du Bois’s Crédit Group, backed by the likes of the media’s Louis Walden,’ said O’Connor. ‘The synergy of the Pharos Group is frightening, and all the more so because their operations are almost impenetrable. No one but we three seem to know anything about them. I wonder if Pharos could be engaged in exactly that type of manipulation?’
‘Well what is interesting,’ Murray continued, ‘are the comments on the website by a member called Ledifni.’
‘Ledifni?’ McNamara asked.
‘They’re getting cocky,’ said Murray. ‘Infidel spelt backwards. The post itself was pretty innocuous . . . acquisition of a US two-cent Columbian Commemorative stamp, but I traced it to a satellite phone broadcasting from a place called Mirjaveh, at the Pakistan border with Iran.’
‘So you think this could be some sort of code to warn Khan and Crowley of an attack?’ McNamara looked thoughtful, as did O’Connor.
‘It’s not ironclad,’ Murray admitted, ‘but we shouldn’t rule it out.’
McNamara shook his head. ‘I’d thought I’d seen it all, but if you’re correct, manipulation of the markets on this scale is almost unthinkable. The information we’ve gleaned from the Kashta Palace raises more questions than it answers.’ He opened the leather folder O’Connor had retrieved from the palace. ‘We’ve got a safe full of agenda notes for a meeting of something called the Pharos Group – fifteen men and one woman – who’ve met every year in secret since 1992. But for what purpose?’
Murray raised an eyebrow. ‘Why am I not surprised at that ratio.’
McNamara and O’Connor grinned at one another. ‘Leaving aside your bruised ego,’ O’Connor said, ‘the “P” in that earlier Khan text intercept likely stands for the Pharos Group, but the question remains, is there an actual person called Pharos? Each folder was labelled with a participant’s name, and apart from very prominent diplomats and generals, the rest of them are in Oxfam’s top eighty-five who own half the world’s wealth, but the notes refer to a “chairman”. Who that might be remains a mystery.’
‘Well we can probably rule out the woman,’ Murray suggested, ‘and the likes of Sam Talbot, the former head of the World Bank, Guthrie, the former US secretary of state, and General Bradshaw, the former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs. Those guys are very well connected in Washington, which is undoubtedly why they’re there, but they’re not particularly wealthy.’
‘I agree,’ said McNamara. ‘ . . . European royalty?’
‘The background notes indicate the group is keeping close tabs on the world economy, and on the key political systems. Royalty have always manipulated the power levers, but I’m leaning toward the likes of Du Bois, Walden or Crowley,’ said O’Connor.
‘With Crowley at short odds,’ said McNamara, ‘although Du Bois is a grade A asshole. Just ask that Filipina maid.’
Murray nodded. ‘In the process of digging out their communications, one of the most interesting was Du Bois,’ she said. ‘Apart from the fact that the prosecution would dearly love to get hold of the intercepts I’ve got on the Filipina maid case – Du Bois has paid off more than one woman th
reatening to sue him for rape – the taps confirm he’s not only the most powerful banker in the world today, he’s also the most corrupt. It will not surprise many people that Wall Street and the world banking system is corrupt, but they would be surprised to know that the Federal Reserve is not really controlled by the US Government . . . it’s backed by the big banks and the mega-wealthy.’
McNamara nodded. ‘Goes back to 1907,’ he said. ‘The New York Stock exchange crashed 50 per cent, partly because of a failed scheme to manipulate the price of United Copper. When the share price of United Copper dropped from US $60 to US $10, that triggered a loss of confidence and a run on the banks that had leant money for the scheme, including the Knickerbocker Trust Company which went into liquidation along with hundreds of small businesses and banks. Knickerbocker was New York’s third largest trust, and considered too big to fail . . . the more things change, the more they remain the same,’ McNamara observed, a wry smile on his face. Ever since then, the Reserve’s been underpinned by the big banking houses and the mega-wealthy: the Rothschilds, the Lehman Brothers, the Rockefellers, but today, Du Bois dwarfs them all – past or present.’
‘So there could be a link between Du Bois, Crowley, Khan and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,’ O’Connor suggested.
‘I think so,’ said Murray. ‘Shortly after the Ledifni comment was sent, Khan texted our mystery iPhone with a message “Columbus has landed”. If these are stamp alerts, and if that phone does belong to Crowley, he would have been none too pleased with Khan. The packing note left in the missile case might be their first mistake, Khan’s text might be their second, because if I’m right, the original Ledifni comment would have been made by one of the terrorists responsible for the attack on the shipping lane.’
‘But that’s the only evidence we have?’ McNamara asked, anticipating the White House chief of staff would want a lot more than a text before he went to the president with a ‘Clear and Present Danger’ brief on Crowley.
‘Not entirely. We may not have been able to break EVRAN’s encryption, but our monitoring of Khan, Aboud and Rubinstein is interesting. Doctor Aboud’s not what he seems. For starters, he bought his doctorate online from a shonky website in China.’
O’Connor made a mental note to warn Aleta.
‘Secondly, Khan and Aboud are both in contact with Rubinstein. Finally, I’ve discovered Crowley collects very expensive masters, and that he has a passion for Egyptology, as does Khan. A day after the break-in at the Egyptian Museum, Rubinstein sent a text to Khan which simply read “FP merchandise received”. The only other icon to be stolen with the mask of Tutankhamun was the priceless falcon pendant, which prompts the question as to whether Khan’s the buyer – although it may be some time before he can pick it up, because we’ve also learned he’s been diagnosed with cancer, and the treatment may take several months.’
McNamara stroked his chin. ‘FP . . . falcon pendant. We may have to have a look inside Signor Rubinstein’s gallery,’ he said with a grin, looking at O’Connor.
O’Connor resignedly raised his eyes to the ceiling. ‘But leaving aside the possibility of Khan, and even Crowley being involved in stolen art,’ he said, ‘it’s the Pharos Group that has the most to gain from a closure of the Strait of Hormuz – a spooked market, a massive spike in oil prices, and a crash in shares that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression. It prompts the question as to whether there’s more to this than just manipulating the stock market . . . something even deeper,’ said O’Connor.
McNamara looked thoughtful. ‘Meaning?’
‘I know these guys are all driven by money and power, probably more than they are by sex or anything else, but I keep coming back to the purpose of this group in Alexandria,’ O’Connor responded. ‘Those folders in the vault are presumably not allowed off the premises, and the briefs in them not only focus on the world’s major economies, but the political situation in our country and the other key players: China, Russia, Germany, India and Brazil. Maybe there’s more to Crowley’s backing of Davis than we think?’
‘We’ll still need a damn sight more concrete evidence before we can go to the president and tell him Crowley’s somehow linked to what happened in the Strait of Hormuz,’ said McNamara. ‘And apart from the fact we’re not meant to be investigating American citizens, let alone one as powerful as Crowley, there’s no law that says you can’t back a candidate for the White House.’
‘But there are limits,’ said O’Connor.
‘Agreed, but even if we could get the president to approve an all-out assault on Crowley’s activities, as a Democrat, he’d be put in a tough position. The Republicans are already in bed with that asshole Louis Walden and Omega Centauri . . . Centauri News would go ballistic, and to ordinary Americans it would look like a politically motivated move. Neither the president nor Hailey Campbell would thank us for that. As to the missiles, assuming Crowley is involved, we’re not even sure if he’s using his own ship to transport this stuff.’
‘No,’ Murray agreed, ‘although the EVRAN I did berth in Karachi two weeks before the timber was tracked across the border into Afghanistan.’
‘Where’s the ship now?’ asked O’Connor.
‘Headed for Manaus, which is about a thousand miles up the Amazon River.’
‘Has it called into any US ports?’ McNamara probed.
‘No. The intercepts point to there being another shipment of missiles, which is why I think they’re probably in Manaus already, but I’d still be inclined to audit EVRAN’s books,’ Murray ventured.
McNamara shook his head. ‘I’d love to know what’s in them too, but even if we could get hold of them, I’d never get that through the White House, and we’d take a lot of skin off in the attempt.’
O’Connor nodded. His boss, he knew, was never one for taking a step back, but he drew the line at suicide missions.
‘That said, if there’s another shipment of missiles already in Manaus, I think it’s time we investigated EVRAN’s operations in Brazil. Rubinstein’s art gallery can wait a little longer,’ McNamara said, again looking at O’Connor. ‘If we can confirm a link between EVRAN and the missiles in the Korengal Valley, and perhaps those used in the Strait of Hormuz, it doesn’t give us Crowley, but it may be enough for us to request an audit of EVRAN’s books, especially if it turns out terrorists used Taipans in their attack on the Leila and the Atlantic Giant.’
‘And apropos your observations on Crowley’s links to Davis,’ Murray said, turning to O’Connor, ‘Crowley and his executive assistant, Rachel Bannister, are leaving no stone unturned. The intercepts indicate Davis’s White House campaign has the highest priority in EVRAN, and they’re putting a lot of energy into the evangelical vote . . . the same votes that Karl Rove tapped into to get George W. Bush elected. I know I’m not supposed to be tapping into American citizens’ phones and emails, but something’s not right here, and I’m backing my instincts . . . not that the cell phones of evangelical pastors are anything other than child’s play.’
‘I think your instincts are right, and I’ll cover you. I don’t care how we get it – Crowley’s iPhones, Du Bois’s computers, a posting on stampgeekcol.com or Pastor What’s-his-face’s laptop, but we need a break on this, and fast.’
‘Any closet homosexuals?’ O’Connor asked, grinning broadly.
‘You’d be surprised,’ said Murray, a conspiratorial look on her face. ‘Pastor Shipley may rail against homosexuals, but he may not be all he seems.’
McNamara looked at both of them over the top of his glasses.
‘Crowley will make sure he’s nowhere to be seen,’ Murray continued more seriously, ‘but they’re about to announce the Davis candidacy at the church Crowley attends . . . Pastor Matthias B. Shipley’s Hermit Road mega-church.’
‘Crowley attends church?’ McNamara looked genuinely surprised.
‘Not if he can avoid it, but his wife Lillian’s a staunch Christian, and as a result, Crowley’s a big donor – US $3
0 million toward the church building fund alone. Pastor Shipley wouldn’t expect his emails to be tapped, so he’s been fairly open, and even though Davis is coming in to the race late, they’re not worried. The rest of the Republican field is pretty lacklustre and they’re banking on the evangelical vote in the Iowa caucuses giving them a head start.’
McNamara nodded. ‘Well, there’s no doubt Iowa’s important, both as the first indication of a candidate’s potential, and in the presidential election. The Democrats won there in 2008 and went on to the White House, although you’d have to say they’re a mix of red, blue and undecided in the Hawkeye state.’ The nickname for Iowa went back to the 1832 war between Americans and the Sauks, Meskwakis and Kickapoo tribes, led by the native leader Black Hawk.
‘And the evangelicals are far from monolithic,’ Murray said. ‘Davis can’t hope to win them all, but they made up sixty per cent of the vote in 2008, which probably explains why Shipley’s invited a whole bunch of pastors to the announcement. When voting’s not compulsory, if they can get several thousand pastors to thump the pulpit on the Sunday before the first Tuesday in November, and urge their congregations to get out and vote for their man, Davis and EVRAN might just pull this off.’
‘Jesus Christ,’ McNamara muttered.
33 Hermit Road Mega-church, Dallas
Governor Davis wiped the sweat from his brow. The hubbub from the cavernous church was clearly audible in Matthias B. Shipley’s palatial office. Shipley had delivered on his promise, and the front pews of the 10 000-capacity auditorium had been filled by over 1000 pastors. Courtesy of EVRAN, they’d been flown in from across the country. Behind them the comfortable church seats were crammed to capacity with ordinary worshippers, excited by the prospect of being able to question ‘the next Christian president of the United States’. Two hours of coaching from Rachel had Governor Davis wishing for a Montana pure malt whiskey, but he forced himself to focus.
‘Finally, what are you going to say if someone asks you how you’re going to convince the Lord to allow you to get into heaven?’ Rachel probed.
The Alexandria Connection Page 27