Thirty-Eight

A second knock. Hollis grabbed the gun Peter had given them. Finn took one of the Walthers from the case, Eduardo took the other. Peter took out his Sig Sauer and added a silencer. Declan rolled his eyes at that move, but he took out a gun of his own.

Teresa took off one of her stilettos.

“Could that hurt someone?” Finn whispered.

“They kill my feet whenever I wear shoes like this,” Hollis said, pointing to the spiked heel. “They can probably do some damage to a head.”

A third knock.

Finn walked to the door. “Who is it?”

Through the door a friendly voice said, “Matias, Señor McCabe. I have a package for Señora.”

Finn looked at Hollis. She nodded. Everyone tucked their guns behind their backs. Peter stood in front of Bryan. Finn opened the door halfway, and true to his word Matias was standing in the hall with a garment bag.

“The room is working out?” he asked.

“We’re very happy,” Finn said.

“I’m so glad. This arrived for you. A leather jacket, I think.” He peeked into the room and saw some of the other faces. “Is everything good? Do you need something? A drink, perhaps.”

“I could use a cup of tea,” Declan said.

Peter’s turn to roll his eyes. “I could use a whiskey.”

Declan laughed. “You’re very competitive.”

“Tea would be good for me,” Hollis said, looking around. “And some coffee, I guess. A bottle of whiskey. And those little chocolate cookies with the dulce de leche …”

“Alfajors,” Matias said. “I’ll have room service bring it to you.” He looked passed Finn’s shoulder to where Peter was standing. Eduardo moved closer. “Okay. If that’s everything?”

“Yes, everything,” Finn moved one step at a time until the door was closed. One eyebrow raised, he handed the jacket to Hollis. “Your souvenir.”

“I’ll put it next to your map.”

He smiled. “Yeah, all right. Now that we’re done with shopping and drink orders, we need to keep at least seven of us alive.”

“You’ve a cruel streak in you, Finn,” Declan said. “Unless, aside from Bryan, you meant Peter as the other one we could do without.”

“I didn’t.”

“Look, I understand I’ve gotten you in some trouble, but in fairness to me, I’m not the bad guy here. You remember the Argentine economic crisis from 2002?”

“Yeah, the peso was devalued so much that the country went into a recession for years. They had overborrowed …” Hollis said.

Declan shook his head. “Carlos, with the help of some other members of TCT. They’ve made a lot of money destabilizing Argentina on and off for twenty years, and it’s just the beginning. But in order to move forward, they need to protect the information in that book.”

“What’s in the book?” Peter asked. “It’s all in code, and our guys can’t figure it out.”

“Just being honest here, neither can I,” Declan said. “Not entirely. But I know enough to create a near copy. Just enough right to be convincing, just enough wrong to keep it from doing any real damage.”

“You came here to sell that address book,” Peter said, “and now you want me to hand it over to you? No.”

“That was plan B. I thought I was down here to sell some art work, a newly discovered Van Gogh. Some paintings that were lost after World War II made their way to Argentina. Would have been an easy thing to convince a buyer who had more money than sense.”

“Fake paintings,” Peter said.

Declan shrugged. “Real ones are out of my league.”

“Whatever the reason you came here,” Finn said, “if Peter can get the book down here, what stops you from selling it yourself?”

“If you haven’t noticed, Argentina is going through another round of instability, which, for what it’s worth, is not okay with me. People get hurt, real people trying to feed their kids.”

“As opposed to the people who buy fake Van Goghs?” Finn pointed out.

“Those are just posers with too much money. They don’t pay taxes, they don’t help feed the poor,” Declan said. “If my cheating them helps redistribute the wealth …”

Finn put up his hand. “We know the speech, Robin Hood.”

“It’s not a speech. TCT was supposed to be an organization that helped move money from the exploiters to the exploited by forgeries, internet hacking, an occasional monetary manipulation. All for good.”

“With lots of profit for you on the side,” Finn pointed out.

“He did give our school most of the money he’d gotten in Ireland …” Hollis reminded him.

“Money he stole,” Finn reminded her.

“But still. He gave it away,” she said. “He’s trying to help Teresa and Eduardo. What could be in that for him? He’s betraying Carlos, ‘the man who doesn’t exist.’”

“Carlos isn’t the man who doesn’t exist,” Declan said. “He’s more of a middle man. A dangerous middle man, to be sure. He brokers items, he arranges for people to disappear …”

“He’s Jorge Videla?” Hollis asked.

Declan nodded. “It’s a name he’s used before, and it fits him. I wanted you to know who you were dealing with. He’s frightening, but he’s looking to make money, that’s all. The man who doesn’t exist, on the other hand, is after power. A man can be satisfied with a certain amount of money, but those who are hungry for power will always want more. And this man would kill half the world to make just a few people richer.”

“And who is he?” Peter asked.

“I’m sorry I have no name for him. No one does, that I’ve been able to find. All I know is he’s been operating for about fifteen years, getting higher and higher until he’s essentially the head of TCT. He directs a lot of operations. He calls for a recession somewhere, and trust me, there’s a recession exactly where he wanted it. His name is in that book—coded, but it’s in there. That’s how valuable the book is. If we create a fake copy that’s good enough to fool Carlos, and it makes it high enough up the ranks, we might be able to find him.”

“We’ve photocopied the book,” Peter said. “I can have an encrypted email …”

“Has to be the real thing, mate. I need to know the paper, the cover, the ink … I don’t know who has seen it, what they’ll be expecting.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Eduardo said. “To stop mass murder.”

All eyes went to Peter. “I don’t trust the guy.” He nodded toward Declan. “He’s a conman. Even if he’s telling the truth, whatever value that book has, if I hand it over and he takes it …”

“I won’t,” Declan said.

“If he takes it,” Peter continued, “that’s my job, maybe my life. And who knows who else will be in danger. I say we arrest Carlos tomorrow. There are guys in Blue that specialize in extracting information. We’ll get the name of his contact.”

“And by the time you do, his contact will be long gone,” Declan said. “And there goes your chance to finish off a criminal organization.”

“I know it’s an unpopular opinion,” Hollis said, “but I trust him. He’s saved my life, he’s saved Teresa’s, Eduardo’s. Call it a feeling, but I think Declan is the one person who can keep us all alive and maybe bring down TCT.”

Peter clenched his jaw. “How about you, Finn? You buying this?”

Hollis looked over at Finn. His eye twitched. “I don’t want to, but Hollis is right. And I trust her feelings any day of the week. I think we go with this.”

“I do too,” Levi said. They all looked over at him.

Peter laughed. “I guess I’m outvoted. But if this turns out badly, just remember it wasn’t my idea.”

“The good news on that,” Declan said, “is that if it ends badly, none of us will be alive to remember who had the idea in the first place.”