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Episode 133 |
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“Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their
vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods,
animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man; it is as
though there exists among them an ever-present conspiracy toward domination,
a sort of alliance like that subsisting among the priests of every country.” Denis Diderot Jin stared down at the vast array of hand-written notes
in front of him. He stood at the head
of the table, aware of everyone’s eyes watching him as he leaned on the table
for support. He took his time, not
moving or reacting. His head down,
some of the Responders began to worry if he had fallen asleep. “As Assif said and Sarah preempted, we’re on the
clock,” he began. “I won’t bore you
with the details of my investigation; I’ll just get right to the point.” “Thank you,” Til whispered from the back. Assif turned in his chair to glance up at
him, then went back to Jin. “I’ve been tracking the funding of the four x-factors
in this whole scenario: the Clan of Caine, Yun Tai, MacLean the book-dealer,
and the various UN representatives and governments that were present at the Security
Council meeting Assif attended with Dr Howitz about Atlantis,” said Jin, the
last subject making his eyes go wide, insinuating the difficulty. “In each case, there has been a money trail
leading back to a wide, wide variety of companies and corporations. Some of these have been small, independent
businesses. Others have been
international conglomerates. The one
factor that each of these business have in common is they all belong to a
money trail that goes back at least a hundred years.” “A hundred years?” Irene said with disbelief. “At least a hundred,” Jin went on. “It’s still unclear who is pulling the
strings with all of this, but we know a couple of things just off this
much. We know that they have been
around for a very long time, we know they have potent economic and political
strengths that they can utilize, and they are very patient.” “Patient?” Jason asked. “I’ve done some additional digging into what little is
known about Alan Ivers,” Jin explained.
“What little I have been able to find would suggest, and I have to be
clear that there isn’t a definite connection, that Ivers may have actually
been hired by these guys to write the books.” “So whoever did this is just trying to get back their
property?” Lisa asked. “I’m suggesting that if that connection is real,” Jin
said, ‘that Ivers may have decided that these men should not have the books,
which is why he both hid them and guarded them so powerfully.” “Jin,” Alex said, “when we spoke at the movie theater…”
He paused, bracing himself. “You
mentioned the Brotherhood of the Sun.” “Oh no,” Eliot said, rolling his eyes, similar expressions
passing around the room. “Is it possible these guys part of the Brotherhood?”
Alex persisted. “No,” Jin said certainly. “In fact, it would seem more likely that
these guys might be the opposite of the Brotherhood.” “What do you mean?” Sarah asked. “The money trail coming out of these companies has been
a lot better hidden, prior to the silence of the Brotherhood several years
ago,” Jin explained. “Ever since the
Brotherhood disappeared, for whatever reason, it seems like these guys have
taken the opportunity to make this happen.
The money trail is more pronounced and more ambitious.” “While the cat’s away,” Assif postulated from the end
of the table. “Do you have any names
yet?” “All I know so far,” Jin said, “is that these guys are
out there and I’m getting an idea of their MO. Give me a couple of days and I think I
should be able to find something substantial.
Now that we’re back here and I have access to my computer and my
hacking software, I should be able to get more answers very soon.” “Very well,” Assif said. He rose from his seat, but did not approach
the front. “Our assignment is clear:
Find this group, whoever they may be, and stop them.” He looked at the various members of the
team in the room. “I want you all
working in teams, researching. I want
every resource utilized and exhausted.
I want status updates every couple of hours.” He looked at his watch. “We will reconvene at six o’clock to
reassess the investigation.” “Jin,” he went on, “I want you to divide up the work of
investigation to the teams. You handle
the hacking, but they can handle the legwork in the library.” He turned to Jason at the end of the table. “I want you down in the vault, examining
the Ivers book. I want to know what,
if anything, it may have to say that might shed some light on the situation.” “No problem,” he said. “We don’t have long, people,” Assif insisted. “Let’s get to it.” “So where do we begin?” Alex asked Jin, as the two sat
with Eliot at the computers. “We’ve got to start with these companies and the money
trail,” Jin explained, glancing over his shoulder at the long list on his
computer screen. “The money that came
out of these companies, that paid or bribed or whatever, for all of this to
happen, always goes back to another company.
The thing is, there’s never any authorization for how the money got
transferred.” “Wouldn’t that mean it was stolen?” Eliot asked, leaning
back, his hands on his head. “No,” Alex said.
“When you want to launder money, how it works is you take the money
you’ve gotten through illegitimate means and you find a way to make it look
like you got it through legitimate means.
This is why a lot of crooks usually own restaurants or laundromats or
video rental places. Places that deal
with a lot of cash, so there isn’t much of a record as to who actually paid
for what or what they paid for. If a
video rental place is just showing thousands and thousands of dollars in
business, but it’s all in cash with only receipts of the transactions,
there’s no real way to accuse them of not doing the business.” “In this case,” Jin explained, “you’ve got a legitimate
company giving money to an organization or whatever, and it’s on the
up-and-up. But if it comes to court,
the documents and records don’t show who authorized the money to be moved or
how it was moved.” “Doesn’t that count as a dead-end?” Eliot supposed. “Yes and no,” Alex said. “The money trail, as it is, is ended. But we then know that somebody in that
company ordered the money transfer off the books.” “And we then start looking at the financial statements
of anybody that might have the authority to do something like that,” Jin
said. “Order a money transfer and keep
their names completely off the act. In
most companies, that’s a very small number of people. Even in big, big corporations, the number
of executives that can do that is usually only a handful.” “Which means rich, powerful men,” Eliot connected. “Right,” Alex said.
“We track their monetary records and find out if anything suspicious
has happened. If nothing suspicious
has happened, then we’ve got a lead.
If we do find something suspicious, like a sudden jump in their bank
account, we track whoever gave them money and continue the process.” “What if they weren’t given money,” Eliot asked. “What if they were given a promotion or
they were given their daughter back rather than just getting her pinky toe?” “Any of those events will be in the records,” Jin
said. “Promotions, kidnappings, things
like that. They’ll all have some kind
of documentation. And if they’re not,
then, again, we have a lead to work with.” “That seems pretty sketchy.” “That’s the nature of this kind of investigation,
Eliot,” Alex said, sipping his coffee.
“You know that.” “Yeah, when it’s one person or one company,” he
defended. “You’re talking about
tracking dozens of people at dozens of companies.” “Exactly,” Jin said with an exhausted smile. “Why the hell do you think I wanted to get
back to my computer? I’ve been doing
all of this with public on-line records at the local library and newspaper
microfilms. I would have been able to
do all of this in a couple of hours if I’d been here.” Eliot looked at Alex.
“This man’s obscene.” “That’s why we hired him,” he said with a grin. He looked at Jin and sighed, readying
himself. “Let’s get to work.” |
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