Page 61 of Philly
“Shall we call Sabina and Leo?” she asked, reentering the room. He nodded and moved to the bed, taking a seat with enough room for her to sit beside him.
“First things first,” Sabina said once they greeted each other. “Thanks for putting us in touch with your contact in Canada,Callie. We’ve initiated information sharing and she’s working on getting a formal case opened. We’re also working with our contacts on the separatist group—we think we can get someone on the inside. We’ll know more in a couple of days.”
“The chatter is more than chatter?” Callie asked.
“It’s far enough along that the Canadian government is not happy they didn’t pick up on it themselves,” Leo answered.
“Well, if nothing else, maybe we’ll have a hand in stopping a terrorist attack,” Callie muttered.
“That’s no small feat, especially to the families of those who would be caught in it—may they never know how close they came,” Sabina said.
“Hear hear,” Philly said. He’d seen enough violence in his life, if he could help stop it, he’d call that a win in his books.
“And Brazil?” Callie asked.
“We’re working on that still,” Leo answered. “The sheer number of high-end brothels that cater to Aiden’s apparent taste makes it hard to pinpoint his activities, but we’ll get there.”
“What about Thailand?” Sabina asked.
Philly filled them in on the conversation, and when he finished, all four were silent for a few seconds before Callie spoke.
“The thing I keep coming back to is what would make Aiden pull out of a deal? And not just any deal, but one as prestigious as supplying a country’s military. Can you see if they already supplied other countries at the time the Thai deal went south?”
“Or if they were using it as an entry into the region and were willing to take a loss on it?” Sabina asked.
“Exactly.”
“Why would that matter?” Philly asked.
Callie shrugged. “One reason to pull out of a deal is if it doesn’t make financial sense. But if they are trying to get atoehold into the region, maybe finances weren’t the primary consideration.”
“So if the Thai businesswasthe first in the region, they’d be more willing to take a loss, which would make itlesslikely that finances were the reason they pulled out of the deal. Which then means Aiden had another reason,” he clarified. Callie nodded. “Okay,” he said, seeing her point but also glad it was her mind that worked that way and not his. “What else?”
Callie wrinkled her nose. “This is a bit of a stretch, but if we accept that Aiden isn’t above paying a bribe, then the request for a bribe wouldn’t stop him from doing business, as Joe told us.” She paused, and he nodded in encouragement. She didn’t need his support, but he wanted her to know she had it. “Corruption in Thailand isn’t uncommon. Lately, they’ve been making moves to combat it, but six years ago, I doubt they were doing much. Or doing anything meaningful. In light of that, this theory could sound crazy.”
“I love crazy theories,” Sabina said.
“She really does,” Leo agreed.
Callie smiled, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. “Well, hear me out then. What if therewasa bribe, but it was part of a sting operation or something like that? Whether the Thai government would want to catch him and make an example of him or whether they wanted to catch him and use it against him, maybe as blackmail, I don’t know. But if Aiden sensed the bribe was a trap rather than genuine corruption…”
“He’d back out because he’d never win in that scenario,” Philly finished.
“Exactly,” Callie agreed. “But like I said, Thailand doesn’t have the strongest enforcement agencies, and I don’t know if, six years ago, they would have had the interest or sophistication to set something like that up.”
“But worth looking into,” Leo said.
“I agree,” Sabina chimed in. “If we find that to be true, it would explain the anomaly we sensed.”
“And support the profile we’re working on for him,” Leo added.
“You’re doing a profile?” Callie asked, drawing back in surprise.
“An informal one,” Sabina replied. “We have a psychologist we work with. She used to be with the FBI, too, before going into private practice. Her profiles often help give us direction or understand nuances that then lead to certain lines of investigation. So yes, we’re pulling one together, but not like the ones the FBI does.”
As Callie considered this, Philly asked, “Are we settled on Aiden being the primary target? What about the iPad and Liza’s informant?”
“We’re settled on Aiden,” Sabina said.
