A Deceit to Die For (80 page)

Zeki stopped. He was finished. Gilbert could feel the darkness of despair settling down over the room. He could not let that happen. He made his decision.

“I don’t have an account that would be beyond their reach. In fact, my bank in America would almost certainly reject any such transaction on suspicion of money-laundering. Can you help us?”

“I have a bank account in Switzerland that I have used for years, but you should route it through another account of mine in Bermuda first. That will make it difficult to track and even harder for them to retrieve. If you are able to send it to Bermuda, I’ll immediately take it out and move it to Switzerland and then to London. I can have it physically removed from that account within the hour.

“All of this depends, of course, on whether the login you captured belongs to an officer in the company with the authority to make such a transfer. If it works, let me know right away. You can be sure they will be on to you very quickly. Even if you are using an anonymizer to hide your IP address, I’d say the police will be there in half an hour. Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“Well, you’ve made it clear that we’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain,” replied Gilbert.

“I’ll send you the Bermuda account details in a text right now,” replied Zeki.

“And, I’ll let you know if the password works.”

“One more thing, do you remember the name of the officer on your father’s case?”

“Yeah, McIntosh. John McIntosh. Why?”

“It may come in handy. That’s all.”

Gilbert hung up the phone, and now Matt was pacing the room.

“Gil,” he said, “Are you sure you want to steal sixty-two million dollars from these guys? You are about to really piss them off.”

Gilbert didn’t even answer. He focused his attention on the account information in front of him. His mind was spinning. He had to be sure he was covering everything. He had used the anonymizer to connect, so the bank shouldn’t be able to retrieve his location. Still, he knew that nothing was one hundred percent safe.
How long will it be before they miss it?
He was certain they would be notified of the transaction electronically. That would be practically instantaneous. The only question was whether or not someone would be in front of their computer to read the email.

The phone buzzed. Zeki’s text message had arrived. Gilbert began searching the screen for the wire transfer tab. He found it, and Gary began reading off the information in the text from Zeki for Gilbert to enter on the screen—account number, beneficiary name, and SWIFT code. Then, he typed 62,000,480.00 into the field for the transfer amount, leaving exactly 190 dollars in the account. There was another field for a description of the transfer. He thought for a second and then typed:

First installment on life insurance payment for the late Prof. Ian O’Brien.

He moved the mouse over the ‘Continue’ button and Matt repeated his question, looking at Gwyn.

“Are you sure about this? An old document is one thing. Sixty million dollars is another. You could be signing Ginger’s death certificate.”

“I don’t think so,” replied Gilbert coldly. “I’ve given this a lot of thought. This piece of paper is not just any old document. I spent several hours last night researching what has been done with the G.O.B. in the last century. They’ve bamboozled millions of people with it. I don’t think they want to risk having their deceit uncovered. You’ve seen what they’re capable of!”

“Which is exactly why you need to let this go!”

“No, it’s exactly why we can’t. The best chance we have at tilting the odds in our favor is to play according to their values and not ours. Ginger is not nearly as valuable to them as the document . . . and our silence.”

The finality in the word ‘silence’ was sobering. Matt didn’t give up though.

“You’re going to ruin whatever small chance there is left for your family to live a normal life. You aren’t the only one affected by this decision. I’ve got friends. I can help you.”

Again, he glanced at Gwyn, who had her head in her hands.

“I’m not so sure about that, Matt. The world has changed. I’m starting to see that now,” he continued, looking straight into Matt’s eyes. “In fact, I think it’s time for
you
to go home. Right now, they don’t know you’re involved. If they find out you’re with us, we’ll be sharing the same bleak future.”

Matt looked at Gilbert like he had lost his mind.

“I’m
not
leaving my friends in need. You asked me to come, Gilbert!”

“We don’t need you anymore, Matt. It was great to have you here helping wade through it all. Besides, without you, I wouldn’t have known about the FBI search warrant or who was behind it. The canister may still come in handy, but there is no reason for you to risk your life any further. It’s too dangerous.”

Matt wasn’t even looking at him anymore. He was staring at Gwyn. Finally, he tore his eyes away and looked back at Gilbert.

“You’re right, of course, but I’d rather throw my lot in with you guys right here, right now, no matter what the consequences are.”

“I have no doubt you would do that for us, Matt. But, I’m going to ask you to do something else. Right now, my father is lying in a British morgue waiting to be escorted to his final resting place beside our mother. None of us are going to be able to go back. I wonder if you would honor us by taking care of these final arrangements. Dad liked you a lot, and it would mean the world to us.”

Gilbert looked at his brother and sister. Gary’s face was impossible to read. Gwyn was already fighting back the tears as she walked up to Matt and took both of his hands in hers.

“Gil is right, you know. This
is
the best thing to do. You’re a fighter, so it’s not what you would normally do, but I’m going to ask you to do it for me. Will you?”

Matt looked stunned. He looked away to avoid her eyes. His face was hard, but he slowly nodded his head.

“Yes. Yes, I will, and gladly if that is what you want.”

“It is,” she replied.

Gilbert didn’t like the emotionally charged atmosphere. The room was heavy with it and he wanted to move on.

“It’s all settled then. Get a power of attorney from Uncle Henry. I’d give you one, but that would only tie you directly to me. Now, let’s see if we have the winning lottery ticket.”

He looked back down at the computer screen, clicked ‘continue’ and waited for the system to ask for the second password. He felt sure it was used to confirm transactions in the system. He was right. A new screen asked him to confirm the transaction. He typed it in slowly, double-checking each character and then hit ‘ENTER’. Time stopped. Everyone held their breath though unconscious of the act. The seconds seemed like minutes. The same thought going through all of their minds.
Did the account have the authorization necessary for a transfer of this size?

CHAPTER
61

Ginger woke with a start. Someone was unlocking the door to the container. She was surprised that she was not awake before they brought breakfast. The door at the other end of the container opened and she realized it was just now growing light outside. It was the guard with the hungry look in his eye, the one that made her feel so nervous. He was carrying something in his hands. She stood up.

“Good morning,” he said with a heavy accent.

“Good morning.”

“You want bath?” he asked in very broken and stumbling English.

Ginger could see that he was carrying towels and a bar of soap.

“I bring water. You clean.”

Her oldest son Garret stirred. She took the towel he handed her.

“For you and other lady.”

He turned and walked out of the container. A few minutes later he returned carrying a large bucket of water and a large metal bowl to use as a washbasin.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Children sleep. It is good. Now, you and lady clean.”

He leaned against the wall of the container and stared at them. Ginger looked at him suspiciously.

“Okay, you can go now,” she motioned with her hand for him to leave.

He only smiled and made a circular motion with his index finger extended as if to say, ‘Hurry up’. That was when Ginger understood what was going on.

“Oh my God,” whispered Shelly in terror. “Is he thinking what I think he is thinking?”

Ginger whispered back.

“I think so.”

“Well, I’m not taking my clothes off and bathing in front of him.”

Ginger acted like she hadn’t heard. She took the bucket of water and poured some of the warm water into the metal bowl. She walked over to her sleeping children, dipped the towel in the water and began unbuttoning Garth’s shirt. This brought the man charging towards her.

“Not for children. For you!” he said, pointing first to Shelly and then to her. “You smell bad.”

“So do the children,” replied Ginger. “They must bathe first. Then we will bathe.”

“No!” he said angrily. “You bathe now.”

Looking straight in the man’s eyes, she addressed Shelly. “You took French, right?”

The man thought he was talking to her and he was trying to understand what she had said.

“What?” he asked.

Ginger repeated the question, hoping that Shelly was getting her message. The man screwed up his face and said, “Why you ask me that?”

“I did,” said Shelly in response to Ginger’s question.

Ginger continued looking at the man and to create more confusion she said in a soft voice, “
La porte est ouverte. Exécuter ou d’être violée
.”

Shelly looked at Ginger in disbelief.

“Now,” whispered Ginger. The man was still staring at them with a confused look on his face. Ginger gripped the washbasin tightly, waiting for Shelly to make her move.

The man started to say something. From the corner of her eye, Ginger saw Shelly start to run, and she threw the washbasin full of water straight at his head. He exploded in anger and started towards her, but then realized Shelly was already at the door and turned in hot pursuit, yelling something in his own language. Gabriella woke up screaming. Garth jumped up and ran to his mother.

“What’s going on? Are you okay? Where’s Shelly?”

Ginger ran over to the water bucket and dumped it on the ground. Then, she grabbed the towels and soap and raced towards the five-gallon buckets they used for toilets at the other end of the container.

“Comfort your sister, Garth. Keep her quiet.”

She kicked the board off with her foot. A horrid stench engulfed her, and a cloud of flies flew up in her face. She held her breath as she stuffed the towel and soap into the bucket and replaced the lid.
If they want me clean, they are going to have to provide more towels.
Then, she walked to the open door and looked out. The sun had only just come up. It was the first time she had seen the sky in days. She surveyed her surroundings. They were surrounded by containers and she noticed a crane unloading a ship about five hundred yards to her right. Then, she saw the man with the broken English round a corner, dragging Shelly back towards the container. She turned to her left and saw two more men with radios sprinting towards the container.
 

This was not going to be good. She took the kids back inside the container and marched them over to the makeshift toilet.