The group got up to leave. As they did, Wilkes said, “Remember, no phones. Syed and Williams have access to excellent crypto specialists. If you need to communicate, we’ll either be set up here at Charles’s aircraft or near the VIP tent on the main side of the airport. Good luck.”
Chapter 25
When Max and Renee got back to the safe house, they could see that something had changed in Jennifer Upton. She appeared more nervous, and Max began to put pressure on, telling her that they already knew Senator Becker and Ian Williams were connected.
Max brought up the very real threat of her and Senator Becker’s assassinations. He told her how critical she was to saving the senator’s life. And he promised her that he would help her. That anything she told them would be held in the strictest of confidence. He wasn’t a cop, after all. He just wanted to avoid any further violence. Whatever she had seen or done, none of it mattered to him.
“I promise to help you, Jennifer. But you need to come clean and tell me everything.”
It started off as a trickle. But as she got going, the vault cracked open, and gold coins began pouring out of her mouth.
“Williams was the match that started Herb Becker’s political bonfire. Ron and I were both on Herb’s staff at the time. Back when he was just in the House. Herb’s political career was nothing special. He barely won his seat. Then September 11 happened, and the next thing we knew, Herb was making a name for himself in the international arena. We were all flying overseas on fact-finding missions and diplomatic trips to Afghanistan. It was like the Wild West. The war in Afghanistan was still young. Nobody knew what they were doing back then. Our congressional delegation was sent there to come up with a way to stabilize the Afghan economy. To try and bring peace to the region.”
“How many trips?”
She placed her water glass on a coaster. “Three? Four, maybe? I went on three, he and Ron went on four, I think.”
“And that’s where Becker met Williams?”
“Yes. But Ron and I quickly decided to make sure Herb stayed clear of Ian Williams. We saw that Williams’s connections to international business could present us with a huge opportunity. But with it came great risk. Ian Williams was in tight with a group of investors that desperately wanted to gain influence within the US government. But we suspected Williams might not have had the cleanest record. For that reason, Ron took point on all communication with Williams and the investor group.”
“What was Williams doing that make you think he was dirty?”
“There were rumors about him accepting bribes from some of the Afghan poppy growers. The British diplomats there hated him, too. Thought he was a creep, if I recall. One of the Brits gave us a warning to stay away from Williams. Said he was getting some under-the-table payments or something.”
“If you thought he was dirty, why’d you let Ron keep talking to him?”
She shot Max a sly look. “You aren’t in politics, are you? Honey, there’s all types. We didn’t see Williams do anything illegal. It’s good to have well-financed friends. Williams was offering us that. If you turn away every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a speck of dirt in their past, you’d have to turn away everyone. At the time, Williams just struck me as a wheeler and dealer.”
“Tell me about this investment group that he offered access to. Were they connected to Pakistan? Pakistani intelligence, maybe?”
She touched her neck and pursed her lips. “I don’t think so. Not that I’m aware.”
That question flustered her, Max thought.
“But it was foreign money?”
Upton folded her arms and didn’t answer. Okay, she didn’t want to directly incriminate herself or her friends. Fine.
“What was motivating Williams to make these introductions between Ron and the foreign investors?”
“At that time, I think Ian knew he was on the way out of the British government. He was the subject of an internal investigation — we didn’t find that out until later. My guess? The money came from people making tens of billions on heroin and other drugs. Ian Williams dealt with these people in the war on terror. He was MI6, after all. I imagine with the people he had to deal with, everything turned to shades of gray.”
Max knew that Upton was close to home with that assessment. When he’d been under nonofficial cover in Europe with the DIA, he’d oftentimes met with men working for criminal organizations.
“So you think Williams was recruited by organized crime? The ones moving product from Afghanistan to the sellers’ markets in Europe and Asia?”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “I just know that Ian was sharp. He knew how to play the game. He knew how to influence people. He was a power broker. He spoke several languages, and he didn’t strike me as the type to worry about ethical considerations.”
She looked uncomfortable. “You promised me that anything I say here won’t get me in trouble, right?”
Max said, “I told you, I’m not a cop.”
She frowned. “Fine, then. In the end, I knew Ian Williams was dirty because of the promises he made to Ron Dicks.”
Max raised his eyebrow. “What promises?”
“Now, I only know what Ron told me in confidence. I don’t have any firsthand evidence. But I believe Williams wanted Becker to help push certain policy stances within the US government. Becker represented some US agricultural interests, for instance. He could help make sure the US government didn’t give subsidies that would turn Afghanistan into a farming competitor.”
“Why would that matter?”
“Let me ask you something. You see a big black market for corn? Ian Williams was working with people who wanted to ramp up Afghanistan opium production. While the international community would never outright go along with that, there were ways that Becker could help. Like leaving Afghanistan no other option. Ian Williams worked through Ron Dicks to make Becker sway US policy.”
“And Senator Becker was okay with this?”
“He didn’t know everything. Our policy was to keep Becker in the dark. It would protect him. These agreements with Ian Williams were all on Ron Dicks back then. Becker trusted Ron to give him good advice. But Becker didn’t know the details, and he didn’t want to know, if you catch my meaning.”
“But he must have been told enough to know it was going to be beneficial for him. What did Becker get?”
“Ron said that Williams had contacts in the business world that would start contributing to Becker’s campaign.”
So far Jennifer Upton’s story was matching up very well with Caleb Wilkes’s theory. “Quid pro quo?”
Upton said, “I’d rather not be so explicit in what I say, regardless of the fact that you aren’t a cop.”
“How long have these investors been investing, do you think?”
“Quite a while.”
Renee said, “But this was foreign money, right? Wasn’t this against the law? How could this happen without people finding out about it?”
Upton shrugged. “Campaign finance is a gray area. Super PACs and certain types of nonprofits can take money from foreign entities, but there are restrictions. The beauty of it is, though, that none of these restrictions are investigated or enforced. And some of the nonprofit types, under US law, can take unlimited money from any source, without having to disclose anything about that source.”
“Dark money,” Max said.
“That’s the buzz word, yes. But I will tell you that politicians don’t get anywhere nowadays without heavy financial backing. Each one of those TV commercials cost money. We used to think that the digital revolution would be great for politics. Lower spending and make things more efficient. Then the advertising cost per click rose as the market got flooded. Everything costs more now. It’s insane. The research, the advertising. It’s a political arms race. My company uses social networks and online analytics to microtarget our voters. Thanks to the tech companies, we can identify everything about a person and actually calculate down to the cent how much a voter is going to cost. So each election is just a simple matter of math. Does your candidate have the money or not? Ron got Ian Williams to help Becker with money.”