After he had examined the fourth machine shop Stafford sat in the car with his head down. He picked up his cell phone from the car seat and called his Commanding Officer.
“It’s worse than we thought.”
“So what are they making?”
“They’re smart. No two parts for the same weapon are made in the same shop. So far I’ve seen parts for not only automatic small arms, but anti-personnel mines, anti-aircraft guns, shoulder-fired anti-tank rockets, RPGs and artillery pieces. This is a major operation, and it was going on right under our noses.”
“So in Benghazi?” his CO asked.
“They have to be assembling the weapons from the machined parts in Libya and from there…”
“To all of the terrorists in the middle east,” his CO said. “How could American citizens be knowingly supporting terrorists like that?”
“They probably don’t know. They get a blueprint, they make a part, and they probably have no idea what the part does. For the guys in the machine shop, it’s work, it’s just a job. It pays the rent and puts food on the table. Nobody asks. Besides, the only place the parts are identified as auto parts are on the shipping manifest. The machine shops are working from blueprints that identify the parts by only a number, that’s it.”
The following morning Major Stafford obtained permission to share intel from the night’s investigation with Honi and Jake. He called her at the NSA and explained what he had found.
“Do you have a secure phone?” Honi asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“We have an extensive network of phone numbers, some of which have military connections. Would you be able to look into those for us?”
“After opening up this investigation like you did, I sure can. Send me the list.”
CHAPTER 4
“How do you feel about working with Agent Badger?” Dr. Rosen asked.
“I’m okay with it,” Jake replied. “It’s not like having a partner.”
“Why not?”
“Well, she works for a different agency, for one thing, and it’s not like we’re that close.”
“Does the lack of closeness make you feel better, or worse?”
That was a difficult question to answer; not because he felt involved with her or embarrassed about his feelings, but because he was uncertain about what he felt. It was all so mixed up.
“I don’t know. Does it matter?”
“Does it matter to you?”
“Not especially. Once this investigation is over, she’ll go back to the NSA and I’ll go on to another case. It’s pretty straight-forward.”
“Do you have any romantic feelings toward Agent Badger?”
“No,” he said immediately. After being laid out on the floor, like she did to him, romantic feelings were the furthest thing from his mind.
“Do you respect her as an agent?”
“Certainly.” She earned my respect in a way I had never seen before, he thought. “She’s very capable.”
“Do you respect her as a person?”
“Yes. She’s intelligent and confident. I’m good with that.”
“Do you trust her?”
Did he trust her? “Mostly,” Jake said cautiously. If she was going to get me, I wouldn’t have to turn my back on her. All I’d have to do is blink.
“Mostly?” Dr. Rosen asked.
“For me, trust is something that is earned over a period of time. You can’t give or demand trust. It’s built on consistency, day after day, month after month.” He studied her face to see if she was buying what he had said.
Dr. Rosen put her notebook away. “You seem to be handling the situation well. Same time next week?”
“Yeah. Depending on what’s happening in the investigation.”
“Of course.”
Honi walked into Jake’s FBI office just as the phone rang.
“Hunter.” He glanced at Honi. “Right now? Thanks, boss.”
He put his phone away. “We’ve got to go. Two new business people with gold bearer bonds just passed through customs at La Guardia, this time they’re Japanese. Customs slipped a tracker into the lining of the briefcase and let them pass on through. Briggs authorized use of the bureau jet to get to New York in a hurry.”
On the short flight up, Honi accessed the recorded files from the phone on the International Funds Transfer Desk in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. By the time they landed at La Guardia she was caught up and listening in real time.
“They’re there,” Honi said. “The deal’s going down, Two billion dollars are being transferred to the Central Bank of Japan.” She put the live feed on hold and called Tracy at the NSA. “Trace the transfer, taking place now — FRBNY to CBJ, two billion. I want to know where every dime goes.” She switched back to the live feed as they climbed into the back seat of a bureau car. “This is incredible. Laundering two billion dollars at one time!”
“Federal Reserve Bank of New York,” Jake told the driver. “And hurry!”
Jake used his phone to access the location of the tracker that had been placed in the briefcase. “They’re still there. Customs has an agent following them, just in case.”
Six blocks from the bank, the driver of the bureau car turned the flashing red and blue lights off. Jake called the Customs Office at La Guardia.
“I just want to verify that the two Japanese nationals we’re following passed through customs with regular passports, not diplomatic ones.” He waited. “Thank you.”
He turned to Honi. “Regular passports. I want to grab these guys and sweat them to see what we can get before we get hit with the diplomatic immunity ploy.” He called the Customs agent who was following the two Japanese businessmen. “Where are you? Okay, got it.”
He turned to the driver. “You can drop us in the next block, but stay close. Our suspects left the building and are walking northeast on the other side of Liberty Street.” The driver pulled to the right and stopped. Jake and Honi got out and hurried toward the corner. “There they are, crossing Liberty. We can intercept on this side.”
The two Japanese businessmen walked into a gray brick-paved park with trees on the northwest side of One Chase Manhattan Plaza. They were headed toward the southeast corner of the park. Jake and the customs agent nodded at each other as they joined up. The two Japanese businessmen rounded the corner thirty feet in front of them. Jake, Honi and the customs agent broke into a sprint to catch up.
Turning the corner, they came face-to-face with a dozen large men, who quickly tried to box them in next to the building. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Jake saw guns being raised in the hands of three of the men. His first instinct was to draw his weapon, but he realized that was going to take too much time. Jake grabbed the wrist of the man in front of him with his left hand, preventing the gun from coming up to a firing position. He stepped forward and slammed his elbow into the man’s throat. He carried the momentum of his right arm across to his left and spiked his elbow back into the right temple of his opponent, who started to drop to the ground.
The man to Jake’s right was close to firing his gun when Jake rotated to his left and stepped into the man’s forward movement. Jake hooked his right arm between the man’s right arm and body, using the force of his turn to aim the gun back at the attacker. When Jake had the man to his back, he jerked his head backwards, into the man’s nose and face. He heard and felt the gun discharge behind him. Jake withdrew his right arm, continued his spin and jabbed his left elbow into the man’s left temple. As his second attacker loosened and began to fall, Jake drew his weapon and placed the end of the barrel in the center of the next man’s chest, and pulled the trigger.