Solar Weapon by David Capps

Author:David Capps [Capps, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Clearwater Valley Press, LLC
Published: 2015-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

When Jake and Honi returned to the NSA building later that afternoon, Ken Bartholomew was waiting for them in the lobby.

“So why am I here?” Ken asked.

“We’ve got some money issues for you to help us explain,” Honi said.

Once down in B6, area 4, Jake and Honi showed Ken the display for the new project. Brett explained the color code and the correlations they had made so far. Ken studied the display for a few minutes.

“How do I get more information from the display?” Ken asked.

“It’s interactive,” Brett said. “Touch any node on the screen.”

Ken walked over to the display and touched one of the dark green spots. A rectangle popped up identifying the Central European Bank, its location, and eight menu options, including ledger sheet, account balances, transfers and reserves. Ken touched the upper right corner of the rectangle and the information disappeared.

“And all of this is some kind of a criminal enterprise?” Ken asked.

“Yes,” Honi replied.

“This is huge.”

“Yes, it is,” Honi replied. “It runs through every country in the world.”

“I didn’t mean that kind of huge, but yeah, that, too. Just being able to correlate all of this information is amazing. But you’re missing something important.”

“Like what?” Brett asked.

“There’s an underground economy that dwarfs what you have here. People deal with gold, silver and cash all of the time. They just don’t use banks.”

“Like General Teague and his shipping container,” Jake said.

“Exactly. You don’t have any of that on your display.”

“That’s because the information’s not available,” Honi said.

“Actually, a good portion of it is,” Ken said. “The Secret Service has been building its own database to assist with counterfeiting investigations. We also track gold and silver transactions. I bet you don’t have the Bank of International Settlements in Geneva on your system, do you?”

Brett typed and looked at the display. “No, we don’t.”

“There’s a whole system of bullion banks that deal only with gold, platinum and silver. No paper money, no credit, no electronic transfers–just the physical precious metals in bullion and coins,” Ken said. “I can get you that database.”

“Please do,” Honi said. “The sooner, the better.”

“If you’ll escort me out, I can have that for you in an hour.”

“I’ll go with him,” Jake said.

* * *

When Jake and Ken returned an hour later, Grigori Andropov was waiting in the lobby of the NSA building. Jake approached him and glanced at his ID card clipped to his shirt pocket, unsure of what name he was using.

“Russell, good to see you again. This is Ken Bartholomew from the Secret Service.”

The two men shook hands as Honi came walking over.

“Everybody ready to go to work? Then, let’s go.” She led them down to B6, area 4 and introduced the new member to Brett and Tracy.

“Here’s where we need your help,” Jake said. “If I understand correctly, you were here.” Jake pointed to the university from which Andropov graduated. “Thirty-two percent of the money went into theoretical quantum physics.”

“All of these other universities were also working on this project?” Andropov asked.

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