Palmer said, “Sir, you can’t be buying this—”
President Hannister simply held up his hand, and that turned the meeting from a blame game to what it should have been: exploring options.
Wolffe said, “The identification was through biometrics from the body. He had a Qatari passport, but neither we nor Israel got anything more from it than what’s printed on the pages. The team found an early model flip-phone, but the sim card has never touched a cell network. In addition, he had a wallet with credit cards, but, like the phone, none of the cards have ever been used, so that was another dead end, except that both of those facts indicate he was attempting to hide something.”
Kerry said, “What bank are the cards associated with?”
“That’s where it gets strange again. It’s a legitimate Argentinian bank, but the number on the account goes from there to an offshore exchange that utilizes Tether. From there, the originator could be anywhere.”
President Hannister said, “What’s Tether?”
Kerry said, “It’s crypto. Basically, it allows the transfer of monetary assets worldwide without any banking tail associated.”
“Crypto? Like Bitcoin?”
“Yes, and no. Yes, it’s basically digital currency utilizing blockchain technology, but no, it’s not like a Bitcoin that swings wildly in price. It’s called a stablecoin because it’s tied one-for-one with select fiat currency around the world, like the US dollar. It only fluctuates when the dollar fluctuates, so it’s like transferring real money, only without any banking ties associated with the US dollar. For a simple example, you can’t transfer more than ten-thousand dollars in the US banking system without an alert, but you could transfer whatever you wanted with Tether, then convert it to dollars on the other end.”
President Hannister rubbed his forehead and said, “So it’s basically a money launderer’s dream.”
Kerry said, “Or a terrorist financing one. I agree with Wolffe. Even without the Israeli identification, this is looking like an intelligence operation.”
Ever the asshole, Palmer said, “Or maybe just a criminal enterprise.”
Wolffe said, “Sir, there’s a way to find out. We did recover a maté drinking kit with a receipt.”
“Maté? What’s that?”
“It’s a traditional herbal tea that’s served in Argentina. It’s a social thing they do involving special drinking gourds, mixing up the recipe, and passing around the drink with a straw. It has a whole production behind it, not unlike what fancy espresso snobs do here in the US. They sell tourists kits to take home, and the target bought one. It was in his hotel room.”
Secretary of State Amanda Croft said, “What’s that matter? He bought a souvenir so he’s definitely an Iranian assassin?”
“No. He bought it with a credit card. The receipt only shows the last four of the number, and that last four doesn’t match any from his wallet. We think he was sent here to conduct advanced force operations with a specific credit card, not mingling them with the other ones he had. We think his mission was done, and he was going to use the other cards and clean cell phone to get home, breaking any connection with his previous digital and monetary assets.”
Kerry said, “But you don’t know the full card number?”
“No, but we know where the maté kit was purchased. It’s a store in Buenos Aires. What I want to do is let Pike go explore that. If he can find the actual number, we can then use that to conduct tracking or further target exploitation.”
Palmer said, “Can’t you do that remotely? Just hack the store. You guys do that all the time.”
Wolffe smiled and said, “Yes, that would be easiest, but he didn’t buy it at a Walmart or Target. He purchased it through a mom-and-pop store, and we’ve had no luck finding a way to penetrate their credit system. We’ve already tried. They do have a website, but it doesn’t allow transactions. It’s pretty basic.”
President Hannister said, “So you want to go analog here to get the credit card information?”
“Yes, sir, but not just to locate the Ghost. I want Alpha authority to expand the mission beyond him. Both the Israelis and my team feel that the Iranians are behind this. It’s bigger than the Ghost.”
At that, I held my breath, along with the rest of the team.
President Hannister said, “Amanda, you’re leaving for Buenos Aires in a couple of days for that event with the Israeli prime minister, right?”
She said “Yes, sir, I am.”
“What do you think?”
And at that, I knew we’d won. He was going to let her say the words, and she did.
“Sir, I’d say exploring the credit card information is low risk and with what Kerry’s said, it’s worth checking out. It’s looking like this is bigger than just a rendition of the Ghost, and I think they should continue. Give them Alpha for the new mission set.”
“I agree. Anybody else have a comment?”
