Page 110 of The Atlas Maneuver
He shook his head and, sensing she was not going to budge, turned to walk away down the narrow alley, but she grabbed him by the shirt. “Leave now and you will have two people hunting you.”
She saw he got her message.
“Like I said inside, we’ve been watching that location.” And he told her where it was, talking fast. “There’s a CIA team here in the city. All American or European people. They’ve been working out of that location for the past week. Coming and going with a lot of heavy supplies.”
“Did you learn what they were doing?”
He shook his head. “But they have explosives.”
That grabbed her attention.
“They have a van. It’s stored inside, but I was not on the team watching that place. The others handled that, but they’re dead. That’s all I know. I want my money.”
“Take me to that location and you will get it.”
“I’m not going anywhere near that place. I tell you what, keep the money. I’m out of here.”
And he ran off.
COTTON DARTED FOR THE KITCHEN. NO EMPLOYEES WERE IN SIGHT. They all must have fled. He left too out the rear door. Outside was an alley. Aiko stood a few feet away and rushed over. He saw her man running away.
“He’s scared,” she said.
“Aren’t we all.”
And he hustled after the guy, who turned a corner fifty yards ahead and vanished from sight. He kept running, rounding the same corner where the alley drained into a busy street. His target was preparing to cross to the other side where a short wall and iron fence separated the sidewalk from a treed park. A car’s engine roared to life and leaped away from the curb, speeding right at the fleeing man, who tried to vault out of the way, but his foot slipped and the bumper caught him at the knees. The grimy front of the car smacked into the body, bowling it backward, the skull slamming the pavement with killing force. Two wheels ran over him then the car rushed on, skidding at high speed around a corner.
Aiko came up behind him. “We need to get out of here.”
He agreed. “Where to?”
“The only place we have to go.”
She turned and headed in the opposite direction.
Okay.
He followed.
KELLY SAT AT A CLOTH-DRAPED TABLE ADORNED WITH CRYSTAL GLASSESand beautiful porcelain plates bearing the image of St. George on a horse. It sat in a prominent place just before the podium and she listened as Katie addressed the gathering. The audience was a mixture of male and female, all dressed casually, enjoying a glorious evening in southern Morocco. Katie seemed right in her element, exuding her trademark poise and confidence, in total command of the room. The video they’d just watched had been slickly put together, making its points with facts that no reasonable person could counter, playing off already established fears, cleverly utilizing images that drove the minds of viewers to obvious conclusions. She’d heard people at the bank say it a million times. When it came to impressing a prospective client,Be prepared, listen, focus on the need, know the customer’s business, acknowledge the problems, tell a story, use the right jargon, keep it simple, and always be persistent.
Katie left the podium and came to the table, sitting beside her, then leaning close. “I want you to enjoy your dinner. During the next few hours we need a truce. For both our sakes.”
“I mean it, Katie,” she whispered. “I can end all of this.”
“And I believe you.”
She agreed, though. This was neither the time nor place. But she wasn’t bluffing. That was the thing about creating something. You knew every detail. All the minutiae, including the weaknesses. The Atlas Maneuver sprang as a natural extension from what she’d conceived with blockchain and bitcoin. It was clever, and smart, but not invincible.
She surveyed the room once again.
Ten tables were spread out beneath the huge tent, each holding eight guests. This event had to be costing hundreds of thousands of euros. And all to impress. But it was just a con. What was it she once read?The greatest friend of a con artist is lack of knowledge.
Ain’t that the truth.
This was just another modern-day Ponzi scheme.
The pitch back then, in the early 20th century? Charles Ponzi claimed he could turn the average workingman into a multimillionaire overnight. But the scheme only worked to turn Ponzi into a multimillionaire.
