“Did your people have to attack that school in Missouri?” he asked. “Was that really necessary?”
“Absolutely. In fact, I believe that school attack has had more of an impact on the United States population than all eleven mall attacks combined. People are terrified now.”
“And furious,” Gadanz snapped.
Kaashif scoffed. “They would have been furious anyway. By attacking malls we took away their beloved shopping. But they would have gotten over that, especially in today’s world.” He laughed loudly. “By attacking that school we took away something much more precious. We took away their freedom. Now they are afraid to go anywhere. They are even afraid while they are in their homes. And if they are not now, they soon will be.” His eyes gleamed. “I love it, Jacob.”
“I know you do, Kaashif.”
“There will be more blood soon. There are so many small towns with so many soft targets to choose from.” Kaashif closed his eyes and smiled like he was having a good dream or he was inhaling a wonderful aroma of food that was wafting to his nostrils from a gourmet kitchen. “Homes, movie theatres, gas stations, grocery stores, more schools, churches, and they are all protected by pathetic local police who have no chance against our superior weapons, training, and planning. We will change the way this country lives. The public will begin to order everything ‘in,’ and then we will start attacking the delivery people so they are scared to supply the population. It will be chaos.” His smile grew. “It already is, to some extent. It is beautiful.”
“He’s using you. You know that, don’t you?”
“And we are using him. It is symmetric, which is how any important partnership should be constructed.” Kaashif gestured impatiently at the anteroom to this office where he’d waited for Gadanz. “I brought two suitcases, Jacob. Inside them is a total of one hundred thousand dollars, which is the two-week burn for what are now ten teams of four men each, thanks to that unfortunate occurrence in Minneapolis.” His eyes flashed angrily at the admission of losing one team already. “You will wash the cash through Gadanz and Company as agreed and as you have before. Then the teams will access the money through the corporate accounts with their cards.”
“This can’t go on.”
Kaashif winced as he changed positions in the chair. He’d been bothered by an upset stomach for the last few days, but it wouldn’t slow him down. Nothing would. There was too much momentum to let anything slow them down. “What do you mean by that?”
“First of all, I have to pay taxes on all that money.”
“Why?”
“I put that cash in my registers at my stores so you don’t have to deposit it in a bank and risk that deposit being reported to federal authorities.”
All cash deposits over ten thousand dollars were required to be reported to the Treasury Department by the receiving bank. The government couldn’t realistically investigate every cash deposit over that amount, because there were so many on a daily basis. However, computer programs enabled agents to quickly hone in on deposits that were more likely to generate criminal leads than others. Large cash deposits made by stores that normally received large amounts of cash on a daily basis were not typically investigated. Gadanz & Company was the perfect washing machine for the cash the death squads needed.
“So it looks like I received it from customers who are buying items from my stores,” Gadanz continued. “And then it goes into my bank as though I earned it. But then my accountant must declare all of that cash as revenue at the end of the year. So I must pay taxes on it.”
“So what? I still do not understand.”
Gadanz clenched his jaw. Kaashif was incredibly arrogant, but he was smart, too. These questions were being asked simply to annoy. But Gadanz would finish this out. He wanted his objection heard and noted.
“So if your teams use all one hundred thousand dollars I’ve deposited for you in my company accounts, I’m being shorted. With state and local income taxes, my total rate is nearly forty percent. That means I have to pay another forty thousand dollars on each hundred thousand you have me launder.”
Kaashif waved. “Deal with it.” He chuckled. “Consider it your contribution to the greater good.”
Gadanz clenched his jaw again, harder. “And I hate them withdrawing amounts all over the country from random ATMs.” That was what could really get him in trouble. That was what could land him in jail forever, maybe even get him strapped to a gurney waiting for a lethal injection to cascade into his arm.
“I’m not sending cash through the mail, Jacob. The Feds are getting too good at spotting that and following it. People don’t know it, but even Federal Express and UPS must notify the Feds of large cash mailings when the machines identify them.”
“But I—”
“If anyone asks,” Kaashif interrupted, “tell them you are paying suppliers. Tell them you buy things for your stores from many different locations.”
“Yes, I’m sure that will convince everyone and there will be no blowback. Come on. You know that won’t work.”
“Think of something else, then. I do not have time to deal with your issues. I have many of my own.”
“What you mean by that is, if this thing is uncovered then I get screwed while your people have time to scatter with the wind.”
Kaashif rubbed his stomach again. He really needed to get something at the store for the pain. It was getting bad. “I may need you to get even more involved, Jacob.”
“What are you talking about? This is all I agreed to do.”
“My team here in northern Virginia may need another place to hole up. They have been in the same apartment complex for a while, and they are getting nervous. I want them to stay around here because I want a team causing chaos at least somewhat in proximity to Washington, DC. It will get much play in the press.” Kaashif nodded to Gadanz. “Yes, I definitely want you more involved. I want you to rent them a new place through the company. Do it today.”
This was getting out of control, Gadanz realized. The problem was he was already in so deep. That rule about only blood mattering wasn’t working out as it was supposed to. It was what he had held on to as the saving grace of everything when this had all been initially proposed to him, and what he had hoped would see him and his family through all of this. But it was now obvious that his hope had been hollow at best.
“Imelda has been taken, along with her child,” Kaashif spoke up.
Gadanz’s eyes raced to Kaashif’s. “What?” he whispered.
“She’s gone.”
Gadanz felt his chest tighten and his breathing go fast. “Maybe she ran.”
Kaashif shook his head. “No chance. She would never have done that. She was completely committed to the cause.”
“Well, I—”
“You will take her place in everything,” Kaashif ordered, “and there will be no further discussion about it. Do you understand me?”
The little bastard. He would kill him right now with his bare hands — but that would be suicide. Worse, it would mean the end for his daughters. There would be no mercy.
CHAPTER 21
“Who shot Nathan Kohler in that basement?” Travers asked directly as he scooped up a forkful of scrambled eggs. “Who was the other person down there?”
Troy shook his head even though a possibility had actually just occurred to him. “I don’t know.” He wasn’t trying to dodge Travers. It was just such a wild guess it wasn’t worth saying anything. At this point he needed to build credibility with Travers, not blow it.
“It had to have been someone on our side. Otherwise, they would have shot us.”
Once more Troy thought about suggesting who it might have been. But again he held off.