Chapter 55
Steve had given Mattie the name of the mole, now all he had to do was cast suspicion on Sam Alexander's role in the missing cash. Danny's brother had got very adept at hiding missing money when it had all started going wrong for him when he lost his client's money in high-risk investments back in Jersey. He had done a good job at concealing the money that he had skimmed off a number of Reye's drug deals, but it could eventually be noticed if someone ever did a full audit of the less well used bank accounts. He decided that for someone of his financial acumen, it would not be unexpected for him to 'notice it' and bring the shortfall to his boss' attention. He checked the dates he had actually taken the money and altered a couple so they all corresponded to dates when Agent Alexander had also been visiting the cartel boss.
Matt then turned his attention to the supplies that Steve had left for him. There was a thin strap-on vest that looked a little bit like a tac vest but had individual pouches filled with fake blood instead of armor-plating. He would be the first to admit that he was terrified of the prospect of being 'shot', the instructions said it would be with blanks but what if they mixed up the bullets, "Get a grip, Mattie-boy," he told himself, "they're highly-trained friggin' ninjas – they don't just mix up their ammo." Oh well, at least he wouldn't have to fake his fear during the op, there would be no 'acting' required as the man was deeply scared. He had always known it, but declared to himself that his brother was properly badass if he could look down the barrel of a gun without breaking a sweat.
That evening the younger Williams brother made his way to the Reyes' family home. He had called ahead and asked to speak to the man on a matter of some urgency. Steve and Joe had briefed the extraction team and passed over the link for the camera surveillance. They stood down at that point and would not play any further part in the take-down – Reyes would certainly know about Matthew Williams' family and it was not too much of a stretch to suppose that he knew everyone on the Task Force by sight. Besides, the CIA team were one of their best and Steve had full confidence in their abilities. He had worked with guys like this on his joint SEAL-SAD missions and found that they had undergone similar training and approached their assignments with the same mind set as himself.
Mattie nervously followed the drug lord into his study, the man just looked at him and impatiently waited for him to speak. Matt cleared his throat, "Ahem . . . um, I've been trialling a new system for tracking all our financial transactions. It provides real-time inventory and will save us days when have to do a full audit of our accounts." Marco fixed him with an annoyed glare,
"Really, Williams? You wanted an urgent meeting when I'm relaxing at home with my family to tell me that?" The other man was quick to defend himself,
"Oh no, sorry . . . I was trying to explain how I found what I did . . . um, this software has detected accounting anomalies in several of the lesser used accounts . . . I, er, I can't account for just over $13 million−"
Marco's voice was like ice as he interrupted him, "You can't what now?" Matt repeated himself,
"Over $13 million is missing and I don't know where it is . . . but it looks like it occurred over a period of time and only on the dates on this list," he handed over the piece of paper to Reyes. The man's eyes narrowed as he scanned the list. One or two of the dates immediately stood out, they corresponded with some of his biggest shipments and he had always had his CIA handler on standby to deal with any unexpected problems with the authorities. It looked like part of the cash from each of these drug deals had not made it into his bank accounts as expected. Matt continued, "We would have noticed eventually, I'm guessing that the person who took it was planning to be long gone before that point." The cartel boss looked up at him with pure hate flashing in his eyes,
"Oh, I think I know who took it. Fortunately for me, they are currently enjoying my hospitality in my guest house so we don't have far to go. Williams, come with me – you can explain the finances to Agent Alexander and let's see what he has to say."
Sam let the two men into the guest house, surprised to see them. He could sense that something was not right and let Reyes speak first. When he did, his tone was chilling and the agent was starting to get a bad feeling. The fear bubbling up inside of him made him shift nervously and he started to sweat, unknowingly just making Reyes even more suspicious. Marco addressed him directly, "Williams is going to explain something that he has uncovered and while he does that, perhaps you can take a look at these dates and tell me what they all have in common." Alexander scanned the paper and immediately came to the same conclusion as the other man,
"I was here to supervise shipments on all of these dates . . ." he trailed off as he listened to Matt's explanation of the missing money and the penny dropped. He started to bluster, "What? You can't think it was me! I had nothing to do with it!" Marco had been pacing around the room like a prowling tiger and scowled as his foot caught on the wrinkled rug. He impatiently kicked it down and the loose floorboards shifted under his foot. He waved his hand towards the floor and addressed Williams,
"Check it out, why are those boards loose?"
The CIA Extraction Team had been following the conversation via the hidden camera and had stealthily made their way to the front door, ready to breach. Matt pushed back the rug and noticed that three of the boards were not fastened down. The pulled up easily and he put his hand into the space below,
"There's something here, just a minute . . ." he pulled out the bags one by one until he was sure that they were all out. He already knew what was in them, recognising the holdalls as the ones he had swiped from Marco's warehouse and then buried on Oahu. He glanced at his boss for permission and then unzipped the bag nearest to him. The money spilled out and Matt feigned surprise, "Jesus Christ, there's got to be a couple of million in this one bag at least!" He pointed to the currency straps holding each bundle together, "These are the same bands that are used for all the cash payments to us."
Reyes didn't need to hear anything else, he pulled out the gun that he had stuffed into the waistband of his pants and pointed it at Sam. He never got chance to do anything with it, as the grab team took that as their cue to swarm into the room and shouted at him to drop the weapon. He immediately complied and addressed them, "Does the CIA know that you gentleman are invading my home uninvited?" The Team leader made a show of removing the hidden camera from where Steve had placed it and held it up,
"We are the CIA, dickhead. We've been monitoring our light-fingered agent here for weeks, he's been suspected of taking bribes for some time now. As much as I would like to let you just blow his head off, I'm afraid that I no can do. The Director would like a little word with him when we get him comfortably settled in one of our Black Sites. It's very handy we're not on American soil, no need to worry about a little thing like due process." He nodded to his team and gestured towards Alexander, "Right let's take this dirtbag into custody," glancing over at Reyes he continued, "looks like you've got your money back, we've got our prisoner - everyone goes home happy-" He was interrupted by Matt making a grab for the gun on the floor,
"Shit, they're gonna take me too. I can't go to prison!" Marco looked on in horror, he was getting seriously worried - the stupid idiot was going to get himself shot. He tried to talk him down,
"Williams, for God's sake put the gun down! They're not going to take you anywhere." Mattie backed towards the door and then everything happened very quickly,
"I can't let them take me in, Marco!" he raised the gun and before he could pull the trigger, 2 shots in quick succession echoed loudly in the confines of the small cottage. Matt let the gun clatter to the floor and staggered back while clutching his chest, which was bleeding profusely from the two bullets. He collapsed to the ground and the nearest man to him quickly checked for a pulse,
"He's dead, Sir."
The Team leader swore violently and then started barking orders, "Reyes, get back to the house. This never happened. We'll take our prisoner and remove the body and you'll never see us again, okay? You've got your money back, we'll hide it in the same place under the floor until you can get it moved. Now find yourself another accountant because this one's no use to you anymore. You'll be assigned another CIA handler, one that doesn't take bribes." The drug lord nodded, picking up the gun that Mattie had dropped and stopping briefly to look at the dead man, he had become quite fond of the affable financier. With a sad shake of his head, he made his way back to the main house.
The extraction team made quick work of rolling the body into a sheet they took off the bed and two of them carried Williams to their non-descript van, which was parked just outside the gates. Another member of the team took Agent Alexander into custody and bundled him into another waiting car, which took off down the road the second the door was closed. The remaining special operator pulled cleaning supplies out of his backpack and had the evidence of the shooting cleaned in a few minutes. The bags of money were returned to their hiding place and the floorboards and rug replaced to their original positions. Another agent had already retrieved the agent's belongings and the guest house was left as if nothing had ever happened.
Less than 1 hour later, the CIA vehicle pulled up at a small airstrip and deposited the very much alive Matthew Williams onto the plane. Steve and Joe were already seated and waved their thanks to the CIA grab team. The battered crop dusting plane was rumbling down the short runway and in the air before they had even had chance to properly congratulate Mattie on a job well done. The man in question was only one step down from hyperventilating, the whole op had been unbelievably stressful and he didn't know how the other two men did it without having a nervous breakdown on a daily basis.