The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) (24 page)

“
John, what are you talking about? What did you find?”

“
Well, it made me angry that Michelle or anyone else could even entertain the possibility that my double-B could be hacked …but I did consider the fact that what that guy Majed said, could be correct. So if Garcia was set up and it wasn’t from someone hacking Big Brother from outside, the only other way would be if someone—“

“
Hacked the system from within the firm?”

“
NO silly! The security measures are in place inside or outside the firm. I was going to say that someone with access might have … sold him out.”

De Niro sat back in his chair while a knot formed in his stomach.
A Judas … inside the Watchman…?

“
Michelle, who was given access to Garcia’s operation …?”

“
Well, in order of rank, Captain Ricci was … I was … Les was and of course, Garcia.”

“
Les, why Les …?”

“
That’s just standard procedure, Cris. I had to hire Majed and Jesus, sort of on the spot. So, neither of them had gone through our HR department. Mugsy’s improved SOP’s allowed me, under the circumstances, to hire them, and then inform HR. Les was given access to their personnel files, which were included in the ops files, just to bring them both on board.”

“
Okay—“

“
No, not okay, Cris …!” Francis jumped in again. “You see … not only is my dynamic system able to see who accesses ops files, it’s also able to track them throughout Big Brother. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I traced all three of their activities in the system.”

“
You did what? John, tell me you got this approved by Mugsy. Wait a minute, is that why you’re telling me this … on a Sunday …without Mugsy part of this teleconference?!”

“
As a matter of fact, he didn’t. Hi Cris … Michelle… John.”

Ricci appeared standing behind Johnny-F, who jumped up as soon as he became aware he was there.

“
Sit down John, I’m not angry. In fact I think you did the right thing, under the circumstances, at least for what I heard you both explain while I eavesdropped. It seems that the three of us couldn’t stay away from the office today. I saw your cars parked outside, used the security system you installed in my office to find you both sitting in here, then just turned up the microphone and listened.”

“
Mugs, I didn’t know what to do—“

“
John, like I said, I’m not angry but we’re gonna have to fix a few things in your ‘dynamic system’ though. For one, I want to be informed by Big Brother the moment anyone tracks me in the system or else I want it to be impossible to track me in the system – and for another – we need to have security tiers placed within operational access. Michelle should have been able to only give access to the personnel files with giving him access to all of the ops info.”

“
Yeah … I see that now. I’ll take care of it personally.”

“
Mugs, glad you could join us,” De Niro interjected. Now John, what did you find?”

“
Well, with Michelle and … Mugsy, just the usual porn and ESPN.com”

Ricci squeezed Francis’s shoulder until pain appeared on Johnny-F’s face.

“
I was kidding … just kidding!”

Ricci loosened his grip on the über geek’s shoulder then patted him on it.

“
Alright, when I tracked Les, I should have only found him accessing both agents’ personnel files, right? Then why did I find traces of him accessing Agent Garcia’s transponder frequency?”

De Niro, Michelle and Mugsy all had the same look of shock on their faces, to Francis’s delight.

“…
and it gets worse. It appears that he accessed Agent Garcia’s transponder frequency while he was outside of The Watchman offices. He used his own personal broadband account, so I can’t tell you from exactly where, but it wasn’t from our network here.”

Tears started forming in Michelle’s eyes.

“
That bastard … and I gave him the access! I knew Jesus for years. I knew his wife and his kids too!”

“
I told you before Michelle, this isn’t about blame,” Ricci reminded his VP. “It’s about success and failure.”

“
It’s about more than that, Mugs,” De Niro jumped in. “It’s about honor and trust too.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment then De Niro spoke up again.

“
What now, Mugs …?”

“
Now, I think it’s time that Michelle and I have a little talk with Mr. Pastak. I’ll send him a message telling him to meet us here ASAP.”

“
I agree we have to interrogate him,” Wang replied, “but Captain, I suggest that we just let him come in tomorrow, then ask him to step into the conference room. We don’t want to give him a heads-up that we’re onto him.”

“
Good idea. We’ll confiscate his laptop as soon as we get him in here, then John, you can deny his access into Big Brother as soon as we do.”

“
The question is, if he did sell out Garcia, who did he sell him out to?” De Niro asked.

“
The Pacifico cartel …?” Wang offered. “After all, he was looking into their operation down there.”

“
Yes, but how did they know that?” Ricci replied. “If we work from the premise that Les was paid to tell the cartel that Garcia was investigating them—“

“
Then it couldn’t be the cartel,” De Niro finished his thought. “It would mean they had no idea they were being investigated. That means there’s someone else … another player.”

“
Zamani …?” Wang offered again. “But how would he know about our investigation? How would he even know about The Watchman … and what would be his tie-in to Les?”

“
One thing’s for sure, nothing in Les’s background check tied him in with anyone like Zamani or I would have known about it.” Wang replied.

Everyone became quiet again. De Niro broke the silence.

“
We have a lot of unanswered questions, but at least it looks like we know the questions to ask and whom to ask them to. Let me know how it goes tomorrow with Les.”

De Niro disconnected the call. He sat for a few moments trying to get his mind around all of it then he heard Dollor neigh.

“
Okay boy, let’s get you back to the stable.”

Chapter 23

The Foster Lafayette Hotel

Bahman Fard’s Suite

Washington, D.C.

1:30p.m., Sunday, July 17, 2011

Bahman Fard opened the door to his suite to let Les Pastak in then he closed it behind him.

“
Hello Les. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you for awhile. Take a seat, may I get you—“

“
Mr. Fard, let me get to the point. Five days ago, Agent Garcia went missing. His transponder stopped transmitting and there was no trace of him except for his abandoned car. Then Friday his transponder started transmitting again and do you know from where … from a Pacifico Cartel drug farm about 600 kilometers south from where he last reported in! Now The Watchman is sending a team down there to investigate!! Mr. Fard, what did you do with the transponder code I gave you? Who did you give it to?!”

Fard smiled softly.

“
Les please calm down and sit down.”

“
I don’t want to sit down, Mr. Fard I want you to answer my questions!”

Fard walked over to a stand with a pot of tea sitting on it and took his time pouring himself a cup.

“
I would offer you some, but I remembered that you don’t care for tea.”

“
Mr. Fard, do you also remember what you said to me? You were only supposed to photograph Agent Garcia! The people back at The Watchman think he’s dead … and so do I! I want to know what you did to Agent Garcia and I WANT TO KNOW NOW!”

As soon as Pastak raised his voice, Fard sprang at him. He splashed the boiling tea onto his face, then breaking the cup against the side of the cocktail table he put a pointy shard to his throat. Pastak was temporarily blinded and howling in pain.

“
Les, let’s get a few things straight, shall we? First, you will never raise your voice in my presence again, is that understood?”

“
Aghhh my face … you scalded my face, you bastard!”

Fard pressed the shard into Pastak’s neck until blood appeared around it.

“
Les, I will not repeat myself.”

Pastak was riveted in pain from the burns to his face and eyes, and from the sharp object drawing blood from his throat.

“
Okay … okay. Yes, I understand!”

“
Now Les, I’m going to remove my jagged tea cup from your throat, please don’t make me use it to pluck out your eyes.”

Fard slowly pulled the ceramic shard from Pastak’s neck and put it down on the cocktail table. It had blood on it. Pastak used one hand to wipe the tea remnants from his eyes and put his other hand over the wound to his neck, trying to hold back the bleeding.

Fard walked over to the teapot and poured himself another cup of tea, then sat down next to Pastak.

“
I’ve told you before, Les, I don’t have to answer any of your questions, but you have to answer mine. Now concentrate Les. I want you to tell me the truth and I don’t want to repeat my questions, do you understand?”

Pastak nodded his understanding. He was shaking from shock.

“
First, you said that The Watchman is sending a team down to this drug farm. You need to tell me everything about that and Les, this time leave nothing out or I’ll have your limbs removed from your body as you watch!”

Pastak could hardly think straight from the pain.

“
One team … four men … they’re traveling down there on De Niro’s yacht,
Santana
.”

“
They can get to this farm by boat?”

“
No … they’re gonna use a chopper from the boat to put them down near the farm.”

“
Just four men …? Who are these men … are they soldiers?”

Pastak blinked his eyes numerous times trying to look around the room.

“
I think you damaged my eyes! I can’t see … everything’s blurry!”

“
Les, Les, Les … perhaps you didn’t take me seriously when I told you I will remove your eyes with a fragment from this tea cup if you make me repeat myself and don’t answer my questions! Who are the men?”

“
I don’t know them … I mean, I know one … his name is Santappia, he was a Marine. The others, I have no idea who they are. I’d guess ex-military.”

Fard scratched his chin as he collected his thoughts for a moment then continued.

“
Let’s move on. Les, you only told us about Agent Garcia. Was there another agent attached to that …what did you call it … that I-G investigation?”

Pastak hesitated another moment until he saw the blurry figure of Fard motioning towards him.

“
Wait … there was another agent, but he wasn’t sent to Mexico. You asked me to only tell you about activities out west! The other agent was sent—“

“
To Qatar, yes I know. Unfortunately for you, I didn’t learn that from you, Les, but from one of our plants in an investment bank there. Just an hour ago, he informed us that someone was asking questions that we’d rather not have anyone ask.”

Some of Pastak’s pain subsided just enough for him to start thinking clearly again.

“
I don’t understand, Mr. Fard. What does that have to do with our interest in obtaining the Mexican government as a client?”

“
Les, your making me have to decide which of your eyes I will remove first … you’re asking me questions again.”