The Assassin Read Free Page B

that could be read by turnstiles, door locks, and scanners hidden in ceilings.
    “Jacob L. Grafton,” Winchester said, reading the name on the card. He handed the card back and sucked at his coffee, which was getting cold. “You aren’t what I was expecting.”
    “You thought your friend would send you a snake-eater?”
    “Something like that.”
    “As I understand it, Mr. Winchester, your company does business in every oil patch in the world.”
    “That’s correct.”
    “Our problem, Mr. Winchester, is not finding men and women to fight terrorists, it’s finding the terrorists. That is the most pressing problem facing the Western world today. We are looking for violent criminals who hide among the innocent, look just like them, behave just like them, except for that few seconds when they become soldiers for the Devil.
    To hunt these men and women, there are things we can do and things that we can’t do … legally. On the other hand, private industry doesn t suffer from some of the restrictions that government employees must deal with on a daily basis. As you mentioned to the president, moving money is one of the things terrorists must do. The holy warriors must pay their bills, buy food and transportation and shelter and weapons and bomb materials and everything else they need. Someone must provide that money.”
    “Two of my friends are bankers,” Winchester said.
    Grafton nodded and kept talking. “Currently the terrorists are washing money by buying and shipping commodities, such as food or medicine … any unrestricted commodity. For example, vegetable oil is used in cooking worldwide. A terrorist might buy a quantity in one place and ship it to another, where the consignee sells it and gives part or all of the money to local terrorists or a terror organization. Drug smugglers have been using this technique for years to wash money, and now the terrorists are using it. We need access to shipping records to find the transactions that look suspicious. To identify the people involved, we have to trace the money at both ends of the transaction, which brings us back to banks.”
    “Wolfgang Zetsche is the chairman and chief executive officer of one of the largest shipping firms in Europe and the Middle East,” Winchester said. “He has offered to help.”
    “Is he trustworthy?” Grafton asked innocently. He had already gotten that name from the president and done some research on Herr Zetsche, but wanted Winchester’s opinion.
    “If I had a daughter I wouldn’t let her in the same building with Wolfgang, but I’d trust him with every dime I own.”
    “Better tell me all of their names and what banks or companies they are with.”
    Winchester did so. One of the names he threw out was Jerry Hay Smith. When he had finished, Grafton said, “Why Smith? He’s a journalist—writes syndicated columns for newspapers.”
    “Jerry Hay is an old friend. We went to school together. He called me immediately after the news of Owen’s death was in the newspapers. I talked to him, asked him how I could personally get involved in the fight against terrorism. He suggested I talk to the president, and he knows I did.”
    “Hmm,” Grafton said. “Since he doesn’t have access to anything we need, can’t we leave him off the invitation list?”
    “We could, I guess, but he’ll be mighty curious.”
    Jake Grafton flexed his hands, then glanced at Winchester’s face. “Security is always a problem. Through my agency, I can put people in the banks and shipping companies, and they’ll look and act like all other employees, yet they are our people and working for us. We’ll have cover stories, such as they are working with auditors or bank examiners or gathering data for some government entity. The fewer people who know their real identity and what they are doing, the better—and those people must keep the secret.”
    “Security in business is always a problem, too,” Winchester said. “We trust people until