Geneva Connection, The (23 page)

Merriman already knew the evidence pointed to a professional execution. He recognized the signs, but said nothing.

“Does this mean anything to you?” The officer was pointing across the room over Merriman’s shoulder.

Merriman turned around and had to prop himself against the side unit when he saw the words painted in blood on the wall. “FOR RAUL” At that moment, he knew exactly who was behind the execution of his parents.

Oh, Jesus no.

He raced out of the house to get some air. Jo jumped out of the car and ran over to her brother.

“Mark, are you all right? It must have been awful in there.”

“I’m okay.”

“You don’t look okay.”

“They were both shot in the head. Our parents were executed. Killed in cold blood.”

“Oh my God!”

“I’m to blame, Jo.” He fought to hold back the tears. “I’ve been so stupid. It’s all my fault.”

“How could you be? You’re not making any sense, Mark.”

“This has to do with my work. Please forgive me.” Merriman covered his face with both hands. Jo hugged him and he finally let the tears flow. “I’m so sorry.”

Chapter 33

I
T
W
AS
A W
ARM
, S
UNNY
S
UNDAY
M
ORNING
, and Kent was having breakfast with Sarah in their conservatory. He’d often sit and enjoy the view across the Welland valley from that room and, because of its good light level, he’d use it for reading the weekend newspapers.

“Why the long face?” asked Sarah.

“I’m fine.”

“It’s just you seem very quiet.”

“I’m okay.”

“Something’s troubling you. You’ve been like this for a while.”

Kent knew she was right, but he couldn’t tell her the ugly truth. Your husband’s been unfaithful, he’s being blackmailed, probably being followed by dangerous criminals, and our lives may well be in danger.

“Things are difficult at work at the moment.”

“I thought the business was going well. You’re always going on about the deals you’ve been doing with Tritona.”

“A couple of deals are going wrong and they could impact on our fund’s performance. That’s all it is.”

I hate lying to Sarah, but what choice do I have?
he thought.
When I’ve figured a way out of this mess, I’ll tell her
.

“It’s the nature of what you do, John. Not even you can succeed in every deal.”

“I know. You’re right.” He pushed his half-finished breakfast away and stood. “Do you fancy going out for a walk? It seems a shame sitting indoors on such a wonderful day.”

“Great idea. Where shall we go to walk off some of that stress? How about Rutland Water.”

The next morning, Kent was in his office when his phone rang. “I have Mr. Baumgart for you,” said Tara.

“Hello, Dieter. What can I do for you?”

Kent still hadn’t worked out whether Baumgart was an innocent in all of this. It was very unlikely, but until he was certain, he’d decided to play things straight and to act as normally as possible; whatever normal was in these circumstances.

“Some good news. We have another transaction we’d like you to handle for us,” said Baumgart. “It’s a big one.”

Kent had no choice but to go along with Tritona’s wishes, even if each additional transaction was getting him more deeply involved. Each deal would count further against him if it was subsequently discovered by the authorities that Tritona was backed by criminals, and he hadn’t reported his suspicions. It would look as though he’d been complicit in the whole thing. But Tritona, or the people behind them, had him over a barrel.

“Great. What is it?” He tried hard to sound enthusiastic.

“We’ve heard the UK government is planning to sell off the high-speed electric train line between London and the Channel Tunnel. It’s called ‘High Speed 1,’ I believe.”

“That’s right. In order to reduce the level of government debt, there are plans to sell off a number of nationally owned assets. To be honest, we haven’t considered bidding for them as the returns from such deals are far lower than our normal target range. The other thing is that there are a large number of infrastructure funds chasing these assets and they just bid up the price. We prefer deals that aren’t auctioned this way, so we can negotiate better terms.” When Kent sensed he was trying too hard to dissuade Baumgart from making this investment, he stopped talking.

“I understand all that. However, our investors have just given us a lot more capital to deploy. The returns on cash are poor at the moment, so we’re prepared to accept lower returns if we can put the capital into high-quality assets such as this.”

Kent did not know what else to say. Now he was being asked to be the front for Tritona in the purchase of an asset from the UK government.
How bad can this get?
He made one more attempt to dissuade Baumgart by pointing out the poor returns, but the man seemed prepared to accept them.

What the hell.
“We’d be delighted to handle the negotiations for you, Dieter. We’ll flag your interest in the asset with the advisers handling the auction for the government and take it from there.”

“Many thanks. Keep us informed of your progress. Remember, we have no objection to paying a full price for this asset.”

“I’ll let you know how we get on. ’Bye for now.”

Resting his head in his hands, Kent exhaled loudly. How could he represent Tritona as a reputable buyer with the UK government? He knew they were anything but reputable and, if this all came out, the authorities were bound to say CBC was doing it for the money. If that happened, Kent and his partners would be facing a long prison sentence.

He asked Kirkland to handle the day-to-day aspects of the deal. While he had no appetite for the transaction, he needed to be seen to take all of the right steps. He did his best to sound keen on the deal when he briefed her, always conscious of the microphones listening to them. They spent an hour in his office discussing the deal and how to approach the auction.

“Are they crazy?” asked Kirkland, shaking her head. “Tritona does understand the poor returns they’re likely to receive from this?” She was raising precisely the right investment issue, as usual.
Sometimes, she’s too damn bright.

“They do. I’ve explained all that to Dieter, but he’s prepared to accept lower returns in exchange for the certainty of the yield from this high-quality asset.”

“Is the deal going into the fund or will it be held by Tritona?”

“It’ll be held by Tritona.”

“Thank God for that. At least it won’t dilute our overall fund returns.”

“Dead right. It wouldn’t be a suitable investment for our fund in any event. This is not a distressed deal.”

“I’ll need to make it clear to the government’s advisers we’re not the principal in this and that we act for Tritona.”

“I agree,” said Kent.

He knew the process involved in bidding for government assets only too well. It would mean CBC vouching for the identity and good standing of Tritona. And the government’s advisers would simply accept the word of CBC as a regulated and reputable firm. Each step down this path would take Kent and his firm nearer to the cliff edge.

Chapter 34

T
HE
F
UNERAL
S
ERVICE
for Merriman’s parents was more difficult than he’d expected. Knowing he was responsible for their deaths had deprived him of sleep, and the guilt was eating up his insides. While he was exhausted, he was comforted by the large turnout of friends and family. There were many DEA staff members at the service. Merriman’s own team was represented, and there were many former colleagues of his father from his years in the service. It soothed Merriman a little to be reminded of the affection and respect these people held for his parents.
They were good people who’d made a difference with their lives
, he thought
. That should be celebrated
.

As he stood above his parents’ grave, Merriman vowed he’d never rest until Felix Safuentes was brought down, and every penny of his seized.
I’ll make it my life’s work to capture that animal and put him down. Whatever it takes. I owe it to you, Mom and Dad, and to the agents who lost their lives through my stupidity and impatience
.

He was back at his desk a week later. On his third morning back, he was summoned to Robert Butler’s office. Although Butler was the most senior member of the DEA’s leadership team, like Merriman, he’d come up the hard way, rising through the ranks on merit and years spent in the field. He was a career DEA man in his late fifties, with a reputation for taking no prisoners and not suffering fools lightly. He’d told Merriman many times how much he respected his work and the progress he was making in the war against the cartels.

“Come on in, Mark,” said Butler when Merriman tapped on his open office door.

“You wanted to see me?”

“Yeah. Grab a seat. Can’t tell you how sorry I was to hear about your parents. It must’ve been tough for you. Your father was a good man.”

“Thanks.”

“How are you coping?”

Merriman bit on his upper lip. “What makes it so hard to accept is that I was the one who authorized the attempted capture of Safuentes. If only I’d…”

Butler shook his head. “You can’t blame yourself. The work we do is fraught with risk and, sometimes, we make mistakes. It goes with the territory. Come on, you know that.”

“I guess so.” Merriman had spent the last three weeks beating himself up. It helped to know Butler, at least, understood what he’d been trying to do. “I’m trying to channel my energy into our work on the Caruana assets. I plan to hit those bastards hard.”

“We can do more than that.” Butler got up from his desk and closed his office door.

Merriman frowned. “What do you have in mind?”

“We take attacks on our people on US soil as nothing short of an act of war. These idiots have no idea what they’ve unleashed.”

“What do you mean, Bob?”

“The murder of your parents is a provocative act. They invaded our country and attacked our citizens. If they think they can do this and get away with it, there’ll be no stopping them. We’ve gotta send the cartel a clear message they’ve crossed the line.”

Merriman sat forward in his chair. “You have something in mind?”

“This is in strict confidence, Mark, okay?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“You need to keep this to your senior team members only.”

“Understood.”

Butler leaned forward and lowered his voice. “The Secretary of State has cleared this at the highest level of government. She’s authorized a black ops team to attack the Caruana headquarters in Mexico.”

“You mean Isla Tiburon?”

“You bet I do. The operation is not official and will remain secret. You know as well as I do what this means.” Butler leaned further forward, leaning his elbows onto his desk. “It represents an armed incursion on a sovereign state.”

“This is unprecedented.”

“It is, but this is war. The US must defend itself. The Secretary of State cannot allow the cartel’s actions to go unpunished, but she knows we’d never get the Mexican government to sanction an assault on their soil. Besides, we’re not entirely sure who we can trust over there.”

“I hear you on that, Bob. Obviously, I’ll do everything I can to help.”

“That’s why I asked you to come and see me. Your team has most of the current intel on the Caruana headquarters. I need you to share what you know with the people heading up the black ops team. I’ll get them to contact you.”

“We’ll give them everything we have. If we pull this off, Felix Safuentes will be no more than a footnote in history.”

Chapter 35