Heidi was back at her place for the first time in five days. The second camp was operating beyond its capacity. She had trained six different people how to operate the machine and extract the blood. She had helped interview over one hundred people as team members. Almost all of them washed out during the first half hour. Still, they had managed to bring in two more surgeons for organ harvesting. Getting the stem cell professionals was proving a bit more difficult. Too many Germans remembered the story of Dr. Mengele and they did not wish to have history remember them in such a way. They had even started searching on the Web to bring people in from foreign countries. It looked as though one Russian doctor was going to be a good fit, but it was still too early to tell.<\/p>\n
Thankfully there were laundry facilities at the second camp. Heidi had managed to carry far fewer clothes with her than she would have liked. When she left five days ago she thought it was just going to be a forty-eight-hour stint. Then the other trucks arrived.<\/p>\n
It seemed the interrogators were giving up early on people. Perhaps they were just as overwhelmed. Nikolaus had told her the interrogation camp was beyond its capacity. Roundups were occurring in every country, it seemed, and nobody was asking too many questions about where the people went; they were only asking what information had been gained. She knew they had set up a Web site to post much of the information and issued accounts to people in the intelligence service for each participating country. Everyone was keeping quiet about how the information was obtained. Sometimes an email would go out from the interrogation camp when the technicians found an email address, phone number, or IP address in a specific country which was used repeatedly.<\/p>\n
Heidi had heard they had identified thousands of cell members and hundreds of new cells around the world. The one thing she heard was that they hadn\u2019t identified any new communications centers. That part was troubling Nikolaus a bit. She knew something of the team which was pursuing such things. A lot of hand-wringing and head-scratching was going on as to whether they should take down the ones they knew about, or let them continue, choosing to track those using them. The tracking strategy hadn\u2019t worked so well for the people of Lutton. That reality was causing the urgency of cell roundups and thus causing Heidi to put in ninety-hour weeks.<\/p>\n
One thing was certain in Heidi\u2019s mind. She was glad she had sent the letter telling her contacts to keep their ears open. By her count over 1,000 patients had passed through the second camp and more were coming every day. Quite simply they couldn\u2019t keep pushing this volume through without causing a leak. It was too soon in the operation for other countries to be sufficiently implicated in the operation. If they could just make it a year, all would be well.<\/p>\n
Nikolaus sat at his desk doing what he mostly did at his desk, wading through paper. He now had a team of people marketing the available organs and the cash flow was alarming. Nearly every organ had its own black market and there seemed to be plenty of buyers. The party had set up its own Web site in some location Nikolaus knew nothing about. One of the sites they had been using was about to be shut down, so they transferred all of their business to the new site and went into hiding. Eventually that site would pop up, hosted in another country. Hopefully it would pop up prior to the party site being compromised so they could transfer business to it before arrests came.<\/p>\n
Some of the Russian mafia groups had even come poking around looking to obtain some of the business. Given the help they had been in the past and with the current operations in the field, Nikolaus authorized the marketing of some organs through them as well. It turned out Russian mafia leaders were good customers. All of that vodka and other drug use trashed their livers like car windshields splattered bugs in the summer time. They had the cash and the surgeons.<\/p>\n
Cash was becoming a problem for Nikolaus. There was simply too much of it. This corporation wasn\u2019t set up for retail sales and didn\u2019t own any banks. The few banks the party owned or at least controlled couldn\u2019t launder the kind of cash coming in. Nikolaus needed this money to look as if it had come from legitimate corporations. He had asked the people who had dealt with the current Russian mafia families on the organs to help with laundering the cash. They were of little help. They simply didn\u2019t launder any money. Their response had been \u201cbuy and sell diamonds.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it was true that you could purchase diamonds for cash, then sell them to jewelers and receive a check, there simply wasn\u2019t enough of them and this company wasn\u2019t in that business. At least the stem-cell sales were all to institutions which cut checks. The Russian mafia clients who had purchased organs had also opted to pay with a check when asked. In desperation Nikolaus had sent an email to Hans asking for help. Hans had sent him back an email address for someone named Vladimir who was doing work for the team and had quite a few Russia mafia contacts of his own.<\/p>\n
Nikolaus had already been the Russian mafia route, but was desperate enough to email Vladimir. He received an email response asking him to call a specific cell phone number at a specific time on the following day. He was advised to also use a disposable cell phone when he made the call. Nikolaus made the call the next day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, are you Nikolaus?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho introduced us?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never met, but we were put in contact with each other by a person named Hans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood. I\u2019m sitting here with some friends that run some investment and loan operations. We won\u2019t use their names for now. How much cash are you looking to run through such an operation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now there is roughly $180 million in various currencies. We need this money to come back to us in the form of a check to our special pharmaceuticals unit or one of our other business units. We can make up some bogus inventory items and conduct the transactions in that manner, but we need the money to come in the form of checks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much are you willing to pay for this service?\u201d asked another voice on the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepends on the level of service. Will you be picking up the cash and sending us an order for the items that will never be shipped?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was some talking in the room which Nikolaus couldn\u2019t quite make out, then the response, \u201cThat would depend on where the pickup would occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a secured facility not far from Nuremberg if you have your own planes to fly the cargo out. We can even pack some legitimate medical supplies in the containers to throw off the casual inspector if that makes life easier. \u201c<\/p>\n
Again there was some more talking in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you able to ship legitimate medical supplies to stores and pharmacies in Russia?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a manufacturer of quite a few things, but not a distributor. Traditionally we set up credit accounts with wholesalers and distributors then sell and ship to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could work. Are you able to set up item numbers which are available only to certain distributors?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we do that all of the time, especially for privately developed drugs or drugs of national importance. Why do you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you set up some form of Web page which would let a customer look at your current inventory products that a customer is authorized to purchase?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already have that system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again more talking in the room. This was beginning to infuriate Nikolaus. He wasn\u2019t used to being treated like a beggar.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs the email address Vladimir has for you secure?\u201d \u201cNo email is secure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome can be, but most aren\u2019t, this is true. Is there a fax number used only by you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he responded and gave them the number.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need you to set up a list of item numbers and descriptions. We also need you to add a distributor to your system which is the only distributor authorized to look at those items. This distributor should be able to look at any of your general items as well. Vladimir will fax you all of the information and the descriptions for the items. You will fax back the list of item numbers and the description in your system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be one item number for each type of currency we can handle. You will tell us how much you have to launder by manually entering one unit for each denomination. One dollar, one ruble, one peso, etc. The price in your system will be .75 of the currency\u2019s value. You will pack the currency into medical shipping containers with these item numbers printed on the outside. You will inform by fax the method of entering an order on this system. We will check it at least once per week. We will also be ordering some legitimate supplies for sale to pharmacies in Russia. This will keep everything looking legitimate. You can send product literature and pricing information to the address we give you for the distributor. It is a small drug distributor in Russia that we own part of and has never done business with you. If there are any sales territory issues to work out you need to handle them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can take care of that,\u201d Nikolaus said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you agree to the transaction?\u201d \u201cYou want 25 percent to make it all look legitimate. You also want to become a distributor for our products. I don\u2019t have a problem with that. I do have a significant word of caution for you. Once you are added to the system, you will be called on by the marketing department here. There is nothing I can do about that and they have no knowledge of this business. I can try to get you put under someone I can trust, but I\u2019ve never really dealt much with that side of the business.\u201d \u201cAs I said, it is a legitimate distribution company. We will ensure they always speak with someone who knows what is going on and what is at risk.\u201d \u201cGood. I can have things set up in about two days once I get the paperwork from Vladimir.\u201d \u201cThis should be a profitable arrangement for both of us. In fact, I know the person who will be handling your line on our end quite well. Your marketing types will only call on him a few times because he will badger them incessantly to make knock-off versions of drugs with expiring patents. That is a business your firm doesn\u2019t openly get into.\u201d \u201cTraditionally we don\u2019t. We do own another company that does, however. I can see what it takes to get your distributor access to those products as well.\u201d \u201cThat would be most beneficial. This distributor has three locations in formerly communist countries. The people there don\u2019t have much to spend. Products from China and Africa have been of questionable quality leading to problems.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve heard. That is why we quietly bought into the business. I thought there were Russian mafia families in the business, though.\u201d \u201cThey make only high-end drugs \u2013 Viagra and some others \u2013 things they can make for a few cents per tablet and sell for over six dollars per tablet on the Internet. This distributor is looking for low-cost antibiotics, cold and flu formulas, pain killers, diabetic testers, etc. Very low-end low margin stuff the Russian families won\u2019t touch, at least not yet. If they could get you to supply them these things there will be many full tractor trailers coming to us each week. It will be much easier to hide the other packages in such shipments.\u201d \u201cAgreed. The best place to hide a tree is in the forest.\u201d \u201cI look forward to doing business with you, Nikolaus. By the way, my name is Dimitri. The others in the room are my assistants, but you don\u2019t need their names.\u201d \u201cI must confess I like the way you think things through. I have a much better feeling about this than I did when I made the call.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I came up with some of it, Vladimir came up with most critical piece of it. I had forgotten about the distributor we owned a large part of. Once that was put before me it was easy to see how to make money from this arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVladimir does come highly recommended.\u201d \u201cOne thing which would make life easier for all of us: If you could find a way to get your customers to pay you in either euros or American dollars it would be better. We have methods of burning through that. The other currencies we are going to take a loss on.\u201d \u201cUnderstood. We have been trying to enforce that.\u201d \u201cWhile I\u2019ve got you on the phone, you wouldn\u2019t have a method of selling diamonds, would you?\u201d \u201cHow many and of what quality?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnknown. Three small metal tubes full. Don\u2019t ask. We had no choice. It was a bait and switch at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the problem of dealing with African warlords,\u201d laughed Dimitri. \u201cSend them along in one of the packages. I will have some friends look at them and make an offer. We will come up with some method of paying you for them if they sell. Sometimes you get lucky and get a great stone. Usually you get Wal-Mart jewelry quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ve heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter this has been set up and we have had transactions running for a few months I would like for us to meet and share a meal. That actually might be a good time to exchange cash for the diamonds so you could send it through for laundry or simply use it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally I don\u2019t meet people who haven\u2019t been vetted, but I have a good feeling about doing business with you. We will let Vladimir set it up when the time is right. I am a bit surprised you didn\u2019t ask where the money is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as you aren\u2019t selling weapons to al-Qaeda, I don\u2019t care. I know a bit about your operation. No, Vladimir wasn\u2019t the source. In truth, I was part of the chain of people who brought Vladimir to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I certainly can\u2019t thank you enough for that!\u201d responded Nikolaus.<\/p>\n
That last little nugget of information rocked Nikolaus to the core. He hoped his voice hadn\u2019t waivered during the response. He had believed this operation to be more covert than a nuclear weapons program. This guy knew about it and Nikolaus had no idea who he was. Then again, this guy had brought them Vladimir. Until this day, he had not understood why Hans wanted Vladimir on the team so badly. There were rumors upon rumors about this guy. Some said he didn\u2019t exist, yet Hans had managed to obtain him. Had it not been for Vladimir, the entire communications center surveillance project would be toast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for your assistance in this matter, Vladimir,\u201d Nikolaus offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink nothing of it. I like helping out my team. Hans is on my team and he trusts you with his life. By extension, I am trusting you with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHans is a good soldier. You can trust him to always come through if there is any way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have noticed that about him. You will have your fax in less than two hours. I need to return to my office and write it all up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood. As soon as I get it I will start things going on this end. I will get people started on bundling up the various currencies and putting them into shipping containers. Once we have item numbers we can print up the bar codes and enter the inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nikolaus was left there at his desk pondering how the problem had moved on him. At first he had a problem of trying to get the cash into checks so he could record it in the corporate books. Now he had a slightly bigger problem. The board of directors were a rather loose-lipped bunch and the accountants were outside of Nikolaus\u2019 direct control. If he created item numbers under this corporation, they would want any item booking more than $10 million in sales for a quarter to be a line item on the quarterly report. It had basically taken a visit from government officials to get the black ops items all put under a non-descriptive heading.<\/p>\n
With the low cost of these bogus items, they could easily hide in the generic drug division though. That division was a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporation. As such it appeared as a single line item on the quarterly and annual report. Adding $50 million per quarter to its sales would spread around a little cheer to the people in that division. They had to sell millions of units to equal the profit from hundreds of units this company sold. Some of the lowest-margin products in the business came off those lines and you would find them in nearly every country under many different labels.<\/p>\n
It was surprising that the Russian mafia hadn\u2019t gotten into that business. Then he remembered Dimitri\u2019s comment, \u201cyet.\u201d Nikolaus\u2019s current corporation hadn\u2019t started out there, either. Once you start making buckets of money, every government on the planet wants you to do charity work. The generic lines was this corporation\u2019s answer to \u201ccharity work.\u201d Low-margin basic medical supplies for all.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in China there was actually a factory owned by that subsidiary which made every kind of gauze imaginable. Nikolaus had no idea where the cotton balls came from or the generic Q-Tips. There was a factory somewhere in Germany which made aspirin, cold formula and the other over-the-counter generic drugs consumers bought by the truckload. It would be interesting to see just how much of their product actually moved through this distributorship. Nikolaus made a mental note to have himself copied on the monthly, quarterly and annual sales reports for this customer.<\/p>\n
Nikolaus pondered a little longer while leafing through the pages on his desk. He came to the page which listed countries Germany didn\u2019t have active or good extradition treaties with. One name leaped out at Nikolaus: China. Nikolaus sent an email to a loyal party member in the generic drug division asking him for more information on the factory in China and asking him for a meeting tomorrow to discuss some additions to that business.<\/p>\n
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You are reading a special promotional version of \u201cInfinite Exposure\u201d containing only the first 18 chapters. This is the first book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n