21: Scheme
When Katie got back, just after one in the morning, she looked like death warmed up following twenty-six hours sitting on various aeroplanes. Alice made her a strong black coffee so she'd be semi-awake for the briefing, to which Linda and Dawn were accompanied by the mission controller, Pete, who shook both their hands with a wide grin.
"Just flew in from Britain for the grand finale," he chuckled. "I've been keeping a close eye on it and you've done a better job than anyone had expected."
Katie settled down in an armchair with her drink. "What's the situation?"
"In a nutshell, we've been through everything we've got about Zach and his financial dealings and we're almost there," Dawn said. "The problem is, we don't have as much as we need."
Pete took over. "Minor financial offences rarely carry heavy prison sentences because the criminals are unlikely to be violent and they aren't actually making contact with their victims. This means that even with a really solid case, Zach would only be looking at a year or two in prison, or less. The biggest benefit to us would be destabilising the Syndicate and hopefully destroying the networks it uses, which was the initial aim of the mission. However, since we know he's off in Burma making deals with drug suppliers, we've got an unprecedented opportunity to hit him with the charge of money laundering, which here in Australia has a maximum sentence of twenty-five years."
George cracked a grin. "Sounds like a good deal to me."
"There are two legal points we need to consider," Pete continued. "Firstly, we needed to find out the amount of money being used to fund the drug suppliers. Sometime this morning a number of associates of Zach's began the process of withdrawing about AU$2.5 million in US dollars through the travel agency in Melbourne, in bursts of AU$10,000 at a time. We're ninety percent sure this is money intended for the suppliers.
"Secondly we need to prove that Zach knows that the money is being used to purchase drugs. In court, he'll claim that the money is clean and that he didn't know it was being used illegally, which will cut down his sentence in a big way. We've got about twenty-four hours to find concrete evidence to prove him wrong before he moves the money out of Australia and distances himself from it. A key part are the photographs that you took, Katie, in Bangkok airport. The men he's meeting with are wanted for importing drugs into Japan and Korea. This, combined with other evidence we've obtained from Katie's job at the travel agency and through Alice, is probably enough to prove he knows it's being used illegally, or at least to prove he's aware that it might be."
"So we just need evidence he knows the money is dirty?" Katie asked.
"Almost. Our chances of proving that the money was originally the proceeds of crime are low, but we've got a good chance of proving that he laundered the money so it could be used for crime, which, in law, amounts to the same thing. All of the money the Syndicate has withdrawn has passed through a holding company first, which is registered in the Cayman Islands under anonymous ownership."
"What's a holding company?" George asked, and Katie replied after finishing the dregs of her coffee.
"It's a company that basically owns other companies. They're normally used for tax avoidance."
Pete nodded. "Since it's owned anonymously we can't prove that Zach knows anything about it. However, a separate investigation into an Anglo-American bank by the British security services back in March led to a list of financial transactions undertaken by the bank, along with who was making the transactions. One of these, between our holding company and the University of Melbourne, bounced, and the bank tried to resolve the issue by phoning the university. They put the bank through to someone at the holding company, and the diligent telephone operator in the States recorded in their system that the man she spoke to was one Zachary Kurjak." He finished with a flourish and Katie broke into a wide grin. George wasn't really sure why he should be so pleased, but it seemed like something important so he tried to look excited.
"The transaction was relating to a trust fund set up anonymously with the university to give a scholarship to a gifted economist. Apparently the university tried to withdraw this money just at the same time as someone moved it all into another holding company, which is what caused the trouble. The bank threatened a hefty charge, and cash was deposited into the holding company's account the next day, but we don't know where it came from. My suspicion is that Zach made a personal deposit from his bank account to avoid the charge, but the only way we can prove this is by finding the paper receipt that is in Zach's possession, assuming he hasn't destroyed it.
"If we can find this receipt, we'll link Zach to the millions being used to pay for drugs and he'll be behind bars for a very long time. If not, we'll still be able to prosecute, so the mission is successful either way."
This was easier for George to understand, and he smiled. "Excellent. So what do we need to do?"
Dawn removed a ring binder from her bag and placed it on the table. "We need to search Zach's house and we think we know how to do it. It's a last-minute operation and it's still subject to change, but what we've got so far is all in here."
"It has to go ahead tomorrow before a group of drug suppliers get an abundance of cash," Pete warned, "so you have to let us know if there's any flaw, however small. We don't have long, so I want you two to have it memorised and drilled before you go to bed."
George had slept in the afternoon and was still an hour away from needing to go to bed, but Katie looked knackered and could barely keep her eyes open.
"I'm up for it," she said, tapping the side of her coffee mug, "so long as someone gets me a refill."
"I could do with one too," Linda added.
Pete turned to George. "You're on coffee duty. I'll take mine black, three sugars."
"Two in mine," Dawn said.
George wanted to be annoyed that he was being picked on, but everyone seemed excited so he just resigned himself to it. "Katie?"
"No sugar in mine, thanks."
They didn't finish the briefing until four a.m., which meant that George had less than four hours to sleep before school the next day. Katie had to go into work too, but she'd spent so long on planes that she decided to go for a swim before going to sleep, then got up early to dye her hair blonde again. She looked totally different again when she bumped into George over breakfast, with a radically different hair colour and a different style.
"Brushed it the other way," Katie explained, using her fingers to tease it into place. "I normally like my hair lying flat, but I've back-combed it so there's no way Zach will guess anything."
"Sexy hair," Alice grinned when she stepped into the room to grab some orange juice. "You'll be fighting them off with a stick today."
Katie wasn't enthusiastic. "I wish I didn't have to; dock workers aren't exactly subtle with their pick-up lines."
"Make the most of it. In a few short years you'll be my age and nobody will want you," Alice replied, downing her orange juice in one before waving the two of them a quick goodbye.
"Are you all set for today?" Katie asked once Alice was gone.
George nodded. "Charged my phone up this morning."
"Keep in contact, even if you're in a lesson. Nervous?"
"A bit. I've been worse."
Katie smiled. "Well I'm glad you're okay. I'm practically wetting myself."
"You don't look it," George said, shovelling the last spoonful of cereal into his mouth.
"Experience," Katie replied. "Anyway, I'm going to get going. If you need to go over the briefing once more, it's under the bottom of my bed. Make sure you shred it afterwards."
"I've got it all up here," George said, tapping the side of his head. "I'll shred it anyway, though."
Katie gave him a good luck kiss on the cheek before she left with a loud smacking noise. He grabbed money for lunch from the counter and used the electric shredder in Alice's office to destroy the leftover notes from their briefing, making sure there was no trace of anything left. The last thing he did before he left the house was to double-check that his watch was accurate, but it was within a second so he told himself to stop worrying and keep his mind on the operation.
He left ten minutes earlier than usual, which gave him the opportunity to get off the train sooner than he normally did and walk through the park, heading for Melbourne General Cemetery, which was absolutely huge. Following the path and mental directions he'd memorised the previous night, he found the grave he was looking for, which was a distinctive triangular shape, but didn't stop to read the name. Instead he picked up a plastic-wrapped package from behind it and tucked it into his bag before jogging towards the exit, not wanting to spend any longer than he had to in the cemetery., which had a creepy feeling to it. He almost got lost on the way out after forgetting about a fork in the path, but he managed to work out where he went wrong and jogged the rest of the way to school, which was no distance at all compared to long hikes on CHERUB exercises.
Riley was waiting for him in the classroom when he arrived and George sat next to him, getting ready to put the operation into action.
"Feeling better?" he asked, tucking his bag under the desk and making sure it was zipped up all the way.
"Yeah. I felt crappy yesterday morning but I got better during the day," Riley shrugged. "How was school without me?"
"Equally crappy," George replied. "Anyway, last night I had a great idea of how we can get out of doing P.E. later."
"How? Bunking off?" Riley asked. "If I get busted again my mum will probably slap me silly."
"Nah, got a better idea," George said, pulling his bag nearer and unzipping the top. He wrestled with the plastic for a while before getting it open enough for Riley to see the contents.
"Holy shit!" Riley whispered, leaning closer.
"Yep. Got them from my aunt," George said, moving the bag so Riley could read the names on the boxes of fireworks. "I was thinking we could set a few of 'em off, see what happens."
"Isn't that illegal or something?" Riley asked.
George was apprehensive about it too, but he knew Riley was a thrill-seeker and he had to sell the idea. "Maybe, but we'd never get caught. Just light them and run, nobody has to see a thing. Plus, they'd cause so much chaos."
Riley laughed nervously. "Sure we wouldn't get caught?"
"Positive," George lied. "Even if we do, it's no big deal. They can't prove anything, so we'd probably just get detention."
"We would be total bad-asses," Riley grinned. "I'm up for it."
The two boys exchanged a high-five under the table to seal the deal and George allowed himself a personal moment of triumph, even though he knew Riley would sell his own grandma if he thought it would be fun.
When the teacher's back was turned, George sent a quick text to Katie letting her know Riley was on board, before deleting it from his sent folder in case Riley got hold of his phone. Then he could relax, knowing that he didn't need to worry for the next couple of hours.