The Spy Devils by Joe Goldberg (top rated books of all time .TXT) 📕

with the Chinese landed on his desk, he couldn’t believe his luck.

It was almost too easy.

“We have been approached by a company for the purchase of a nationwide KirkComm2400 secure industrial communication system. Top-end stuff,” Jessup, the Chief Legal Officer, started with all the excitement of someone reading the instructions on the side of a shampoo bottle. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. “It would be the largest single contract in Kirkwood history. We need you to look it over and bring it home.”

“Really? Who? Where?” MacLean asked.

Tom MacBride, Chief Strategy Officer, spoke up. “LeonidOre, a mining and steel operation in Ukraine. It is owned by Viktor Bondar. They are a new client. It gives us an opening into the growing Eastern European market.”

“I have dealt in that area a few times over the years,” MacLean said. “Russians. The stans. Ukraine.”

“Good. That will help,” Jessup said.

“We need you to make the deal. I reiterate this is a large, actually the largest contract of our new product line and is coming at a critical time. Perhaps more accurately, it is just in time,” Jessup said with a tone of candor. “George. We need this deal. You know that better than any of us.”

He did. To ensure success, MacLean personally led the negotiations. In a move rare for deals of this size, he agreed to vendor-finance the entire one-billion-dollar contract to secure it. Expecting the usual negotiation give and take, he was surprised and delighted when Bondar accepted his terms. MacLean completed the deal in a lightning-fast two weeks. It was a stunning victory.

MacLean was hailed as a winner.

As he had agreed since Chen's recruitment, he provided the Chinese every piece of information. That included the technical specifications and trade secret information of the proprietary KirkComm2400 secure communication system. He received a nice two hundred fifty thousand dollars bonus from Chen.

What made MacLean proud was not only the completion of the deal. Or the adulation. Or personal satisfaction. Or even the big one-time bonus. No. He was smiling because a sentence written deep into the contract, added after Walter signed-off, declared that Ukraine Standard Bank would transfer a monthly “finders and facilitation fee” of one hundred fifty thousand dollars to Quadrangle Investment Group of Delaware.

MacLean was certain no one would discover that Quadrangle Investment Group, LLC, was a shell company he formed over a year ago. Sam A. Rothstein was identified as Chair and CEO. Someone might investigate that name and discover, quite curiously, that Sam A. Rothstein was the name of Robert DeNiro’s character from the 1995 gambling crime drama Casino. If they asked him, they would learn that Casino was his favorite movie. An original poster, signed by the three stars of the film—DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone—hung on his office wall.

The dark money would be transferred to Quadrangle and passed through to his personal bank account. Hidden money into a fake hidden company into his real pockets. It was a sweet deal.

MacLean made one rare miscalculation. He did not foresee the Bondar deal immediately going sideways when LeonidOre failed to pay on Kirkwood Credit Corporation's loan. As bad as that was for Kirkwood’s financials, to MacLean, it was a disaster. It meant no monthly payment to Quadrangle Investment Group.

His escape plan money lifeboat was sunk before it sailed.

Then one night, Chen showed up on his doorstep. MacLean was busy resting in his lounge chair finishing off his second extra-large Big Mac meal.

“I have a most important mission for you,” Chen said.

MacLean wanted to barf up his dinner, but instead, he took a suck through the straw of his empty McDonald’s drink and asked, “What is it?”

“Have you heard of a project code named Hillcrest? In your KRT division.”

“No.” The large beverage was empty, but he kept shaking the ice as if that would free up some liquid.

“We know very little, also. That is why we would like you to obtain the technology and bring it to us.”

“Are you kidding? I just can’t walk in and say, ‘can I borrow that top-secret technology. I promise to bring it back.’” He sucked air through the straw again, sending a scratching plastic noise into the room.

“Yes, you can,” Chen reminded him.

MacLean knew Chen was right. He had the keys to the store. But Chen kept asking him to unlock more of Kirkwood’s secrets with every demand. It wasn’t the turning over of the secrets that bothered him. He just didn’t want to be ordered around anymore by the smiling little man who controlled his very existence.

By virtue of his position, MacLean was placed on the small list of executives with access to information about Kirkwood Research Technologies. The man leading KRT, Gilbert Street, seemed amiable enough when he requested updates on contracts.

“I suppose I can, but—”

“Plans are in motion for you to access and deliver Hillcrest.”

“What plans?”

Chen explained MacLean’s role in getting and delivering Hillcrest. With each minute, the greasy hamburgers in his stomach rose, as did his resolve.

“Those are the plans,” Chen said when he was done. “Any questions?”

“No,” he said, jumping up and tossing the empty drink on the floor by his chair, “but this is my last job for you. I am done. Get it? Last one!”

“As you wish.” Chen smiled, turned, and left MacLean standing alone in his house.

29

The Hint of Coriander

Off the coast of Cyprus

“Wake-up.”

Oleksandr Bondar did not stir when the words were whispered into his ear. He couldn’t see, then he felt cloth against his face. He couldn’t move his hands, then he felt the tape pinning them uncomfortably behind him.

“Get up!” The words sounded louder this time. They felt like they were inside his head. They were accompanied by a sharp kick in the ass.

Oleksandr jerked, then felt a gentle rumble on the side of his face when it bounced on the floor. The rumble wasn’t the spinning, disorienting sensation that he regarded as normal after a night of partying. His head was still heavy with constant reggae and salsa beats. Even with his head