Amelia whistled softly when she read that. “My God! Four million? I had no idea it was even going on, but four million women a year! Amazing.”
In a way, though, we both agreed: The sobering statistics also provided us with some hope. If Janet and Grace had been kidnapped for profit, it explained why we had not heard from them. They were a valuable commodity. It meant that they could still be out there somewhere, alive.
Just as I could not tell Amelia about the satellite photos, there was a second letter I had in my possession that I could not allow her to read. Some of the information in it was from a consular research paper, but it also contained classified data that I could not share.
It was from a U.S. State Department intelligence guru named Hal Harrington. I’d met Harrington the year before when I’d helped get his daughter out of some trouble. Turned out that Hal and I had more in common than I was comfortable admitting. That meeting had resurrected aspects of my past that I’d thought were long behind me. Trouble is, the memories, the aftershocks, of a violent, clandestine life are impossible to forget, so they never really go away.
Harrington belonged to a highly trained covert operations team that was known, to a very few, as the Negotiating and System Analysis Group-the Negotiators, for short. Because the success of the team relied on members blending easily into nearly any society, each man was provided with a legitimate and mobile profession.
Harrington was trained as a computer software programmer and made a personal fortune by sheer intelligence and foresight. Other members of that elite team included CPAs, a couple of attorneys, one journalist, and at least three physicians. There was also a marine biologist among them, a man who traveled the world doing research.
Harrington is now one of the most powerful and influential staff members at the State Department, and he specializes in Latin-American affairs. Because I had his private numbers, and because we share a mutual interest in the well-being of his daughter, Lindsey, it was not difficult for me to get in touch with the man.
The night before Amelia and I left for Miami, Harrington’s letter arrived via special courier. The first two pages were background, and it was good for me to refamiliarize myself with the complicated politics of the country we were about to visit. It was also good to be reminded that it is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Colombia illustrates the stark contrast between the rich and poor, and the widespread neglect of human rights. This problem is compounded by extraordinary violence. Colombia has the highest murder rate in the world. Armed conflict has led to the mass displacement of innocent citizens by political violence-many thousands of Amazon Indians and farmers have been forced off their land as a result of conflict between the national, guerrilla, and paramilitary groups. The main source of the conflict, of course, is strife created by the drug trade. In recent years, however, Colombia has also become a center of two other very profitable international businesses: the sale of illegal weaponry and the transporting of illegal immigrants and kidnap victims for sale.
I hadn’t heard that before. Harrington had included the information for a reason.
The paper went on to say: Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Colombia’s illegal drug trade grew steadily, as the drug cartels amassed huge amounts of money, weapons, and influence. The 1970s also saw the formation of such leftist guerrilla groups as the May Nineteenth Movement (M-19) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The violence continued, and many journalists and government officials were killed.
After going into specific detail about FARC, and the politicians believed to be associated with the movement, Harrington’s paper continued: The notorious Medellin drug cartel was broken in 1993, and the Cali cartel was later undermined by arrests of key leaders. Drug traffickers continue to have significant wealth and power, however, and many leftist guerrilla groups remain active, perpetuating a condition of instability. In November 1998, the country’s president ceded a state-sized region of land in South Central Colombia to FARC’s control as a goodwill gesture, but the rebels negotiated with the government only fitfully and continued to mount attacks. That region is now one of the most lawless and dangerous on earth. It has become the safe harbor for Islamic extremists and other terrorists. It has also become the center of a power struggle between the different factions of guerrilla groups, the paramilitary forces (vigilante groups formed usually by wealthy landowners protecting their own interests), and the state itself. Also sometimes involved in the fighting there are U.S. drug interdiction forces, the CIA and the DEA. The conflict has become the dirtiest of wars, in which each side resorts to whatever tactics are necessary to gain an advantage. Summary executions, disappearances, extortion, intimidation, and torture are all part of daily reality.
Flying southward over the Caribbean in first class was not a good time to let Amelia read such a letter. But, once in Cartagena, if she insisted on accompanying me into the mountains, I would put the letter into her hands and insist that she read it.
The rain-forest mountains of Colombia. There was a pretty good chance that’s exactly where I might be headed.
Harrington’s personal, and classified, letter made that clear.
Harrington’s letter read: Hello, Commander Ford. This will be brief because I don’t have a lot of time, and I suspect you are similarly engaged. I checked with our intelligence assets in Colombia and the U.S. Here is the result of that inquiry. Earl Stallings. In the U.S., there are thirty-seven men of color over the age of twenty-one named Earl Stallings. In the last five years, three have included Florida as a part of their address. One of those three, Earl E. E. Stallings, has been arrested several times on charges that range from selling Internet pornography to assault with a deadly weapon to drug trafficking. On a charge of felonious drug trafficking, he spent twenty-seven months in prison, Raiford, Florida. Hassan Atwa Kazan. Worldwide, there are 103 men over the age of twenty-one named Hassan Kazan. In the last five years, four have included countries in the Western hemisphere as a part of their address or in electronic communication outside the Middle East. One has included Colombia. Here is more information on that man: Kazan is in our South American files as a suspected low-echelon smuggler of cocaine, weapons, people. He’s known to associate with FARC sympathizers and known criminals. The bar at the Hotel de Ascension, Cartagena, is a favorite meeting place. I have yet to confirm if he is or is not an albino, as you described. To be thorough, I also cross-referenced Kazan’s name and additional specifics with our Middle Eastern files. I now provide you with this new information. A man named Hassan Atwa Kazan is suspected of participating as a freelance middleman involved in the financing of the terrorist cells of Jihad and Al-Qaeda, as well as the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. The PKK, as you know, is one of the earth’s most indiscriminately violent terrorist organizations. It is possible that Kazan can be linked to one or all of these organizations through a well-organized network of smuggling operations, most probably for his own personal profit. I can’t be certain it is the same man. However, there is sufficient evidence for me to take the following action: In light of your experience in these matters, and since you have a special interest in this suspect, I am authorizing you to investigate this individual as a sanctioned agent of our nation. I have upgraded your service status from Inactive Reserve to Active Special Duty Line Officer. I have also changed your pay grade from O-4 to O-5, which advances your agency rank from lieutenant commander to commander. Congratulations, and welcome back into the service of your country. Furthermore, since the Executive Order of 18 February 1976 has now been revoked, and by the power vested in this body through the National Security Act of 1947 and the War Powers Act, I also authorize you to use whatever means necessary to assemble evidence against the aforementioned individual (and associates) and I fully and legally license you to exercise Executive Action within the limitations and restraints with which you are already familiar.