“Look at this.” Jace unclipped the documents and spread them out on the small table in their suite. He pointed to the first item on the agenda. “One global currency.”
Kat shot him a sideways glance. They hadn’t discussed how much to show Landers, and she resented him showing the meeting documents without asking her. Five hours had passed since Landers arrived in their room, yet he still hadn’t shared any information of his own. All take and no give.
“Where did you get these?” Landers bent over to study the documents. “They can’t be real.”
“Of course they’re real.” Jace pulled the paper back like he’d been stung. “Straight from a World Institute delegate.”
“Which one?” Landers looked up. “I’ve never been able to get my hands on any of their meeting materials before.”
“That’s confidential.” Kat snatched the papers away just as Landers reached for them. It had been a mistake to invite Landers to their room. Now he knew their whereabouts, but had offered up nothing in return. She certainly wasn’t going to incriminate herself by revealing the papers she’d stolen from Nathan and Victoria’s room. She tried to catch Jace’s eye, but his head was down, engrossed with the agenda.
“Even if it’s legit, it’s hardly news.” Landers tipped another handful of chips out of the Pringles canister. “One world currency has been on the World Institute’s hit list for years.”
“Maybe as a theory, but now they’re ready to implement,” Jace said.
“You don’t know that.” Landers brushed potato chip crumbs off his palms. “All the agenda shows are topics for discussion.”
“We’ve got proof.” Jace pointed to one of the piles spread out on the table. The documents from Nathan’s room promised a treasure trove of information—if Kat could get some privacy to properly go through them. She’d barely gotten a glance as of yet. Jace, meanwhile, was just flipping through them—with Landers looking intently on. “They’ve got a pretty impressive media campaign here. They’re planning a financial meltdown. First, a debt crisis, which will devalue all major currencies. Initially Europe, then North America. Once those are underway, Asia and the rest of the world will follow.”
“Let me see that.” Landers held out his hand.
Jace looked at Kat.
She tilted her head. Not now.
Jace flipped through the documents. “Once currencies lose their value, a common global currency will be much more palatable. At the brink of disaster, The World Institute swoops in and saves everyone. No one will guess they orchestrated the whole thing themselves, or even question them. It’s a new wild west. Everyone who stakes a claim gets a piece.”
Landers turned to Kat. “This is exactly what I’ve been predicting. Now do you understand the murder motive?”
Kat shook her head, exasperated. She wasn’t a naïve sixth-grader. “That’s for the police to decide. I’m here to solve a fraud.”
“It’s all related. You think this hick town police force even has the World Institute on its radar?” Landers didn’t wait for her answer. “They don’t have the sophistication or the manpower. We have to guide them. By exposing the WI’s mandate.”
“We?” Kat said.
“He’s right, Kat.” Jace pointed at the papers. “Pinslett and his cronies are part of a creeping media takeover. His conglomerate already owns sixty percent of the major newspapers in North America and Europe. He’s got television and radio stations, too. Between him and a couple of other guys, they control most of the significant global media. They only report what they want to.”
“Only what they want us to hear. Money and information are two keys to power,” Landers added. “With it they can control politicians, governments, and society.”
Kat felt bullied. She had lost Jace to a conspiracy theory nutcase.
“First they engineered the European Union, then made a case for the Euro,” Landers said. “Their next step is to create the same thing in other world regions—North America, Asia, and South America.”
“What about Africa?” Jace asked.
“No need to do anything. At least that’s the World Institute’s view.” Landers grabbed another handful of Pringles. His eyes darted to the paper piles on the coffee table. “It’s already controlled or exploited—depending on your politics—by the rest of the world. There’s no stable, dominant currency to dismantle. Trade is mostly in greenbacks or Euros, and China’s got most of the natural resources locked up.”
Everything Landers said was confirmed by last year’s meeting minutes. But why was it up to them to save the world? Maybe cutting off Landers’s food supply would make him go away. Judging by where the conversation was headed, it was probably too late.
“Svensson’s argument last year was for a common global currency,” Jace said. “That’s why he was nominated for the Nobel. Then, just before he died, he changed his mind. A powerful murder motive. What I don’t get is—why all the secrecy? The Euro works. Why not put it to a vote?”
Kat started to speak but realized an answer only fueled the discussion for another few hours. Instead she headed back to the fridge and opened it. She rummaged through mini-bar snacks. In the end she grabbed everything and dumped it on the table in a pile.
Landers grabbed a Mars Bar and smiled at her. The CNN news anchor had switched to a story on household debt and instant gratification.
“Not everyone’s in favor, Jace,” Landers said. “Most governments aren’t, since one global currency takes away their power. Only the dominant countries want it, because it removes trade barriers and lowers transaction and foreign exchange costs. They call the shots, so rules always end up in their favor. You’re practically forced into a common currency if you want those trade barriers to come down. But prices can increase dramatically when you switch. Suddenly you’re paying wages in a stronger currency. That drives up inflation.”
“Which makes your domestic goods more expensive and less affordable.” Jace padded over to the window. The clouds outside had thickened, and the dark sky threatened to burst at any moment. “A good argument, but the pain’s just temporary. Instead of leveling the playing field, it makes it more unequal in the long run.”
“That’s why Svensson changed his mind,” Landers said. “It’s too bad about the accident—I mean, murder. His was the only moderating voice.”
“What proof do the police have that it’s murder?” Jace scribbled on his notepad.
“Toxicology report. Coroner said he couldn’t have possibly made it there with the amount of drugs in his system.”
“Maybe he took the drugs after he got there,” Jace said.
“No. Another hiker saw him on the Summit trail at two p.m.” Landers unwrapped the last chocolate bar and bit into it. “He wasn’t impaired. The coroner’s report says he ingested the drugs around three p.m. Based on when the hiker passed him, he was still a few hours’ hike away from where he died. He couldn’t possibly make it there after taking the drugs. They were too powerful.”
“Nobody else saw him?” Kat had hiked the trail many times with Jace en route to Kurt’s cabin. There was heavy snowpack this time of year, and they often walked for hours without passing another soul.
“No, although someone remembered seeing him with a woman earlier in the day,” Landers said. “Another snowshoeing hiker passed them. No one reported him missing until the next day. That’s when searchers retraced his steps and found him. A three-hundred-meter fall.”
“I know that trail,” Jace said. “What about the woman? Who is she?”
“Nobody knows. They never found her. There weren’t any cars in the parking lot, so she must have been okay,” Landers said.
“No missing person report?” Kat knew the only way to get to the trailhead was by car. It was far too impractical for anyone to be dropped off. “Don’t you need a backcountry pass?”
“You do,” Jace said. “But they don’t ask your name. There’s also no system to check who comes out. I know some of the search and rescue guys. I’ll find out what they know about it.” Kurt headed up the Hideaway Bay area search and rescue and would likely know the details.
“Why would she leave without reporting anything?” Kat was suspicious. “Unless she was involved in the murder.”
Landers pulled a pen and notebook from his back pocket. He rose and grabbed a pen from the desk when he couldn’t get his started. “Svensson’s change of mind didn’t go over well. His expert opinion was the basis for their entire argument on currency reform. A Nobel nominee in economics is a heavy hitter.”
“A dissenting one is even bigger,” Jace said. “Instead of an asset, he became a roadblock. Now there’s no debates and no dissenters. Easy.”