Honi contacted her team at the NSA.
“Brett, what have you got for me?”
“Hey. I’ve been coordinating with Tracy. Part of the money went through a dozen banks and then to an account used by the Yakuza, the Japanese mob. They, in turn, contracted with the Russian Mob to intercept you guys. Phone plot shows they’re definitely connected. Nasty bunch of people, if you ask me. So glad you’re okay.”
“There was a second hit team behind us, anything on them?” Honi asked.
“Not much, but from the video surveillance they’re probably Yakuza — fits their MO.”
“So where did the bulk of the money go?”
“Most of the money went to two of the wealthiest families in Japan. From there it was turned into cash.”
“Two billion into cash?”
“Yep. That’s two pallets of hundred dollar bills. Not the first time either, monthly thing from the looks of the records.”
“They wanted the money in US hundred dollar bills? In Japan? What are they doing with that much cash?”
“No clue, but that’s where it went.”
“Thanks, Brett.” She hung up.
Jake looked at the expression on her face. “What happened?”
“Two wealthy Japanese families turned the money into US hundred dollar bills.”
“Two billion? Then where?”
“We don’t know. Once it leaves a bank account, it falls off our system. There’s no way to trace it.”
“That may not be entirely true. Each bill has a unique serial number. We need to talk with Ken Bartholomew.” When Jake called, Ken suggested they meet at the Treasury Department.
“This is the machine I wanted you to see,” Ken said. “Each piece of currency, except the one dollar bill, has a magnetic strip embedded in the rag linen. If you hold it up to the light you can see the shadow of the strip. It says USA and the denomination. What most people don’t realize is that each denomination has a specific magnetic signature, which is very difficult to duplicate. The magnetic signature is the one critical test that allows us to separate real currency from counterfeit bills. This machine reads the magnetic signature.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “The two billion that just got turned into US hundred dollar bills in Japan. What happens with that?”
“Eventually it works its way back to us, through foreign banks, and then to this machine. In the states, we can track cash by the serial number. It leaves one account and eventually enters another account. We don’t know exactly what happens to it in between, but when it re-enters the banking system, we can find it and re-verify that it’s real.”
“What about outside of the United States?” Honi asked.
“That’s where we have our greatest problem. Most counterfeit currency enters the market through foreign banks, which don’t have the equipment to verify that what they have is real currency. We know the currency is real when it leaves the country or a major bank in the world. We can track it by serial number. The problem is that when it returns, and goes through this machine, more and more of the currency is counterfeit.”
“Why is that happening?” Honi asked.
“Counterfeiters can make a hundred dollar bill for about a buck a piece, in large quantities. The trick is exchanging it for real currency, or depositing it in a bank, without getting caught. Once they have real currency, they’re home free. Matching serial numbers helps counterfeiters do that. When the currency gets back to this machine, we often get three or four bills with the same real serial number on them, but the magnetic strip fails the test.”
“So how much currency is actually counterfeit?” Honi asked.
“Here in the states? One in ten thousand bills is counterfeit.”
“And overseas?”
“We’re seeing a dramatic swell in the volume of counterfeit bills. We used to detect two to four percent coming in from foreign banks, now it’s nearing forty percent.”
“Forty percent?” Honi exclaimed. “What the hell is going on?”
“We suspect it is a coordinated attack on our currency, but we can’t figure out why criminal cartels, like the Yakuza and the Russian Bratva, who normally fight with each other for control, would now be cooperating. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Have you contacted other countries to see if they are experiencing the same thing?” Jake asked.
“No.”
“You should. I think you’ll find this is happening to every major country around the world.”
“You suspect something. What is it?”
Jake glanced at the watch on his wrist. “My guess is that we are all in this together, and time is running out.”
CHAPTER 6
Peter Steinmetz called his son, Robert, on his secure cell phone. “Start buying the gold bars now. Use the funds in the trust account as we discussed. Make sure every bar is drilled and verified before you ship them to the family vault in Chicago. Gradually, over the next ten days, sell all of the family-owned stocks and turn the money into more gold. Buy one-ounce coins, ten and 100-ounce bars if you have to, but see that everything is converted in the next ten days.”
This was the culmination of decades of planning and preparation. Timing was critical. The world is over-populated with fools and morons, and soon, in 28 precious days, they would either find their proper place at the bottom of the power structure, or they would pay the price their ignorance had purchased and die, with no grave in sight.
He faced the framed quotation on his wall, from Paradise Lost by John Milton.
“You suggested I check with other countries about counterfeit currency,” Ken said. “You were right. Massive amounts of counterfeit currency are showing up all over the world. The other strange thing is that 400-ounce gold bars are selling out across the globe. It’s driving the price of gold up rapidly, and the gold is being purchased with cash. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Do you think those two things are connected?” Jake asked.
“I believe they are. What puzzles me is, this can’t be happening on this scale without the involvement of the major international banks. The exchanges that sell the gold bars have the machines to verify the cash is real. They would spot a fake bill immediately. My take on it is that huge amounts of counterfeit cash are being quietly swapped out by large international banks for real currency, which is then used to buy the gold bars. The transactions are virtually untraceable.”
“Why are they using their money to buy gold?”
“Gold has intrinsic value. Its worth is based primarily on its rarity. Paper money doesn’t have any real value in and of itself.”
“So where is the gold going?”
“No idea,” Ken said.
“But wouldn’t the international banks have to reveal the amount of bad currency they have, eventually?”
“Yes, they would. But eventually could run for years, or decades even, especially the way the oversight system works. By then, who knows?”
Jake looked at the countdown watch on his wrist. In 28 days, bad currency may be the least of our problems.
Honi and Jake entered the NSA building and walked over to the elevator. “I got a call from Major Stafford early this morning. He said the army had been tracking terrorists, based on GPS chips in the newer cell phones. He suggested we include phones used within three minutes at the same location, as if it were the same person or connection in our phone plot.”