Supreme Power, page 7
When Amber was done reading, she sat up in the bed and said, “I’ve never heard of that company.”
Nobody had, Kadri thought. It was a shell company owned by the Gomez organization, incorporated in Belize.
“Don’t worry about the details,” Kadri said, moving back across to her bed. “Password?”
“Tommy, 8765309, Tutone.” She gave Kadri a smile.
“Seriously?”
“You know the song?”
“Everybody knows the song.”
“Right. But not many know the singer.”
She had a point. Kadri typed in the password and the drive opened with a single folder, which she tapped on now to reveal the contents. Here were a number of files, from simply text files to spreadsheets. Then there were a few videos. Before reading anything, she transferred the folder to her phone. Then she quickly encrypted the folder and attached it to an email to their headquarters in Porto, Portugal. She knew that Sancho and his crew would be able to better understand everything inside. Once the file was sent, Kadri went back to the folder on her phone and opened the first video file.
As the video opened, Kadri turned up the volume and the voice of a man came on. “Amber, if you have this folder, then I’m probably dead.”
Amber rushed over and took a seat at the end of the bed next to Kadri.
Professor Hans Becker explained how he had sold the majority interest in their project to a very powerful and influential company in Europe. He didn’t name the company, but he did explain how he had been approached by others for his work, based on an abstract he had sent to the journal expected to publish their findings as soon as he could arrange non-disclosure agreements. The professor babbled on for a while, becoming rather emotional, and explaining how he loved Amber like a daughter.
This was too much for the young professor. She broke down and cried, finally settling her head against Kadri’s shoulder.
Kadri let the woman cry. Just as she pulled the thumb drive from her phone, she got a text. Based on the sound, she knew it was from Karl.
Without letting on what Karl had said, Kadri shook her head and held Amber tighter. How would she react if she knew that her mother had been kidnapped. Kadri agreed with herself not to tell Amber. At least not yet.
While still holding the sobbing young lady, Kadri texted back to Karl with her right hand. She said she wouldn’t tell Amber. Not until they could be sure she was safe. Then she texted, ‘Got it.’
Karl sent a thumbs up. Then he wrote he was close to Amsterdam and would go after Amber’s mother.
Smiling, Kadri wished she was there to help. But for now she had her hands full with the professor.
11
Amsterdam, Netherlands
After a longer than expected delay in Iceland, Karl and the crew finally landed at Schiphol Airport. Karl told the crew they needed to get some rest, but to stand by for further instructions. There was no way Karl knew how long they would be here.
Karl bypassed security on the private side of the airport and stepped out to the early morning sun trying to poke through swirling clouds overhead.
Leaning against the front of the black Volvo SUV, Derrick Konrad lowered his sunglasses and smiled at Karl. They hadn’t worked together since a mission with Karl’s father over a year ago.
The two of them embraced but said nothing until Karl placed his bag in the back of the SUV and they both climbed into the vehicle.
Before touching the On button, Derrick turned to Karl and said, “I’m sorry.”
“About.”
“Letting the professor’s mother get taken.”
Karl shook his head. “You took out one of the players and kept yourself alive. Sounds like a better outcome than one can expect.”
“Still.” Derrick started the Volvo and pulled out of the front pick-up area, quickly heading toward a ring road that circled the city.
“What do we have?” Karl asked.
“Our people traced the van to a shell company from the Channel Islands,” Derrick said.
“And? Who set up the shell company?”
“Sancho said he had traced it to a consortium of at least two other companies,” Derrick said. “But he’s still digging deeper.”
“Which companies?”
Before answering, Derrick picked up speed and entered the freeway heading toward the southern edge of the city.
Derrick said, “One company is owned by Mehdi Tabrizi, an Iranian businessman living in Abu Dhabi. The other is run by Duran Sadik, a Billionaire who was born in Germany to Turkish immigrants.”
“Crap sandwich,” Karl said.
“You know them?”
“I know of them,” Karl said. “Their names were associated with the Midnight Group.”
“I’m not aware of them,” Derrick said.
Karl still couldn’t tell Derrick about his association with the Russian SVR, and how he had infiltrated that organization for years while undercover for the CIA. It wasn’t that Karl didn’t trust Derrick, but the more people that knew of his past, the more likely that this information could get into the wrong hands. Especially since the Russians and the CIA both thought he was dead.
“They’re a loose organization of billionaires, high level government operatives, and those from the military industrial complex,” Karl said, understating their importance.
“They were never on the radar of INTERPOL,” Derrick said. “At least while I worked there.”
“They’re more like shadow people pulling the puppet strings without getting their hands dirty,” Karl explained.
“You think they’re behind the pizza pub bombing?”
“Guys like Mehdi Tabrizi and Duran Sadik would definitely want this technology,” Karl said. “Where are we going?”
“The Red Light District,” Derrick said with a smirk.
“Isn’t it a little early to get some?”
“We have a breakfast meeting with a man a few blocks from the pizza pub that got blown up.”
Soon they got off the ring road and headed north toward the central business district. Finally, Derrick pulled into a parking spot at the end of the Red Light District.
Derrick shut down the vehicle and said, “We walk from here.”
Before getting out, Karl felt the gun on his right hip and adjusted his jacket to conceal it properly.
The two of them headed toward a narrow street ahead. To their right was a main canal that formed a virtual lake in front of the Central Train Station.
“Who are we meeting?”
“Inspector Heller,” Derrick said. “I think you know him.”
“We’ve met,” Karl said. “He’s supposed to be feeding us information on the case, but I haven’t heard squat from him.”
“If a man is corruptible, then he’s open to the highest bidder,” Derrick explained.
“You think he’s working for both sides?” Karl asked.
“That’s what we’re here to find out.”
Karl stopped Derrick for moment, while he took out his phone and called Sancho in Portugal.
“Yeah, boss,” Sancho said.
“Before we go into a meeting with this local cop, I need an update on what you’ve found so far.”
“On Mehdi Tabrizi and Duran Sadik?” Sancho asked.
“No,” Karl said. “The Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.”
“Projecting much,” Sancho said.
Then another voice came on the phone. This was from Josie Ertz, the young woman Karl’s dad had recruited.
“I’ve got this, Karl,” Josie said. “Duran Sadik is our man. It wasn’t easy, but I found an estate that Sadik owns to the west of Amsterdam on the North Sea coast. A place called Zandvoort. Actually, on the outskirts of that town. It’s by the Formula One track. Which makes sense, since Sadik owns a team of drivers.”
“Have you linked him in some way to the pizza pub bombing?” Karl asked.
“Not exactly,” Josie said. “But we linked the man Derrick killed last night, along with the other man who took Amber’s mother, to Sadik’s organization.”
“Nice work,” Karl said. “Anything else we should know?”
Josie cleared her throat and then said, “Kadri checked in early this morning. Have you heard from her?”
Karl glanced at Derrick and then said, “No. What did she say?”
“She said that Amber was a mess.”
“Don’t bury the lead,” Sancho said in the background.
“Right,” Josie said. “Kadri was able to get Amber to turn over the research. She sent it to us and we’ve been going over the results for the past couple of hours.”
Karl hesitated. “And?”
“It appears to be all there,” she concluded.
“Good. Get it to the Gomez researchers in Barcelona.”
“Already done.”
Karl looked at Derrick again and said, “I guess our work is done here, then.”
Sancho broke in again and said, “That’s like a company in bankruptcy reorganization saying the company was done. Mister Gomez wants you to make sure that Amber Voss is safe and secure. And that means finding her mother and getting her released from the kidnappers.”
“Amber Voss I understand,” Karl said. “Gomez will need her to move forward.” He didn’t say the obvious, since he knew that the young woman would probably not work for them if her mother was harmed in any way.
“Are you still there?” Sancho asked.
“Yeah,” Karl said. “I understand. Tell me that Kadri hasn’t mentioned to Amber that her mom was taken.”
Derrick waved his hand at Karl, wanting to break in. “That’s why we’re here.”
In a rush it all came to Karl. “Sadik. That bastard. He plans to make the kidnapping public to draw out Amber from her hiding place.”
“Exactly,” Derrick said. “We’re here to convince Inspector Heller to keep Amber’s mom’s identity private.”
“That’s going to be pretty hard to do when Derrick left a man dead out in front of her building,” Karl said.
Derrick shuffled his feet nervously.
“All right,” Karl said. “Keep digging on Sadik. I want a layout of his property and as much surveillance as you can get on the guy.”
“You got it,” Sancho said.
Karl tapped off the call and stared at Derrick for a moment. “You could have explained this on the drive from the airport.”
“I was getting around to it,” Derrick said. “Besides, I knew nothing about this Sadik fellow.” He started walking again and Karl came up beside him. “How do you want to handle this inspector?”
“I had a strange feeling about the guy from the beginning,” Karl admitted. “He kept checking out Kadri.”
“Well, Kadri is a beautiful woman.”
Karl couldn’t deny that. “Alright. We feel the guy out. See what he knows while we tell him nothing that we know.”
“That seems like a Jake Adams plan?” Derrick said with a slight laugh.
“I learned from the best.”
12
Karl and Derrick found Inspector Heller sitting at a table along one wall in the small restaurant along the beginning of a pedestrian zone. Although the man was sitting alone, Karl immediately identified two plane-clothed officers scattered about the room.
A waiter hit them up as soon as they took their seats. For now, Karl and Derrick both ordered coffee with cream, while they looked over a one-page menu for breakfast.
Not looking at the inspector, Karl said, “How is your investigation going?”
“You heard we found the body of Professor Becker?” Heller asked.
“I did,” Karl said, setting the menu down when the waiter returned with their coffee. He waited until the waiter left before he continued. “Any suspects on Becker’s death?”
Heller sipped on his own coffee. He shook his head and said, “We have nothing.”
Karl couldn’t mention the fact that those who took Professor Becker had probably taken Amber’s mother, Nivi Ivalu. Perhaps the inspector had heard about the man shot in nearby Utrecht last night, but he had not made the connection to Amber Voss.
Glancing at Derrick, Heller said, “You called this meeting. I understand you used to work for INTERPOL.”
Derrick delayed by sipping his coffee. Then he gently set his cup down and said, “Ancient history. Now I’m a private contractor.”
“A mercenary,” the inspector said with derision.
“Not exactly,” Derrick said. “Unlike some people, I don’t sell my services to the highest bidder.”
This caught the inspector off guard. “What are you implying?”
“Simple,” Derrick said. “A man who will take money from one organization will likely take it from the highest bidder.”
There was silence for a long moment, while the waiter came and took their orders. Karl ordered a Danish, and Derrick ordered a bagel. The inspector stuck with coffee only.
Once the waiter took off, Karl said, “You need to tell me right now if you’ve sold us out.”
“This is appalling,” Heller said, his voice raised. “Why don’t you tell me which one of you killed a man in Utrecht last evening.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Karl said.
Derrick simply shrugged and sipped more coffee.
“Strangely enough,” Heller said, “eyewitnesses described a tall man with blond short hair leaving the scene with a gun. You fit that description.” The inspector’s eyes bore a hole through Derrick.
Karl took this. “This is Holland. Half the population of men are tall and blond.”
“I’m sure we will find video of this crime soon enough,” Heller surmised. “Then we will see.”
“There are crimes,” Karl said, “and then there is self defense. Are you even sure what happened to this man? Or the circumstances that lead to his early demise?”
Heller shrugged and then finished the last of his coffee. “There is no loss with this man. He had a long list of crimes associated with him, including a short jail sentence that ended recently.”
“Sounds like someone did the country a public service,” Karl said.
They all waited as the waiter dropped off the Danish and bagel. Heller lifted his cup for a second round of coffee, and the waiter nodded and went away.
“A dead street thug is not my concern,” Heller said. “But perhaps more went on at that location last night.”
This caught Derrick’s attention. “Such as?”
Heller shrugged nearly imperceptibly. “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss this.”
Karl glanced at the closest undercover police officer, then moved his body across the table toward the inspector and whispered sharply, “We pay you to discuss this.”
The inspector considered his words carefully. Finally, he said, “Our retirement system barely keeps up with inflation in our country.”
He wanted more money, but Karl knew they no longer needed this man’s information. They just needed him to keep his mouth shut.
“It’s not important,” Karl said, and then took a bite out of his pastry. He washed that down with more coffee.
“Then why did you set up this meeting?” Heller asked.
Finally, coming through the comm, Sancho said, “We have confirmed his bank account has received not only our payment, but that from others.”
“Such as?” Karl asked softly.
Heller looked confused. “Such as what?”
Sancho said, “From one of the shell companies owned by the Turkish billionaire, Duran Sadik.”
“Tell us about your association with Duran Sadik,” Karl said.
His face turned ashen as the inspector’s disposition changed quickly. “Who?”
Not convincing, Karl thought. “I wonder if your boss would be interested in those payments from Duran Sadik into your Chanel Islands bank account. What do you think, Derrick?”
“It’s possible,” Derrick said through a mouthful of bagel.
Without further prompting, the inspector gulped and said, “What do you want?”
“Simple,” Karl said. “Tell us everything you know about Duran Sadik. Including the man who was killed in Utrecht last night.”
Heller shook his head slightly. “You take one tip for services rendered, and they hold it over you forever.”
Karl wasn’t sure if he was talking about them or the Turk. “Just tell us what you know.”
While the inspector explained the extent of his knowledge, which wasn’t much more than they already knew, Karl finished his pastry and washed it down with the last of his coffee.
“So,” Karl said. “Who is this woman, Nivi Ivalu?”
Reluctantly, Heller said, “You know Professor Amber Voss. Nivi Ivalu is her mother.”
“How did you discover this?” Derrick asked.
“Despite what you think of me, I am still a good investigator,” the inspector said.
“Do your friends know you’re dirty?” Karl asked. “The woman at the counter and the man sitting alone behind me by the front door?”
Heller shook his head. “They still think I’m the best inspector in Amsterdam.”
Karl ignored this and said, “Why do you suppose Duran Sadik’s men would take Amber’s mother?”
“When you want to catch a fish, you must bait the hook,” Heller said.
Pointing at the man’s chest, Karl said, “If anything happens to either Amber or her mother, I’ll make sure you retire early.”
“Is that a threat?” Heller asked.
“I don’t make threats,” Karl assured the man. “I make promises.” He got up to leave but then leaned onto the table toward the inspector. “If you find Amber Voss, you sure as hell better give me a call.”
Heller clenched his jaw and nodded his head.
Derrick got up and said, “Thanks for the coffee and bagel.”
Then Karl and Derrick left the restaurant and headed back toward their Volvo SUV.
Once they both sat in the front seat and buckled their seat belts, Derrick said, “You can be as scary as your father. You know that?”
