The Girl Beneath the Sea (Underwater Investigation Unit #1)(39)

“That’s insane,” I reply.

“Ever check the back of a pack of cigarettes? Who makes sure that nicotine is the only thing killing you? The same people collecting a dollar on every pack. The same government that spends more money on advertising the lottery among low-income populations with poor math skills than promoting adult education.” He pauses. “Damn, I’m sounding like Cindy.

“Anyway. I’m not pushing some grand conspiracy. It’s just that people will do what they’re incentivized to do. When K-Group was told to allow the sale of some heroin while making sure it was less deadly, that’s what they did. Sort of. Only, ensuring purity doesn’t make it less harmful. Worse, actually. Notice that heroin deaths are up five hundred percent since we invaded Afghanistan? Thank K-Group for part of that. Of course, the Taliban going into production overdrive, and later, ISIS, didn’t help. Nor did K-Group’s attempt to price them out of the market by lowering costs and supplying expert assistance. They even had Harvard economists making local-language manuals on cost pricing.” Solar shakes his head. “On one end are you and me, trying to put drug dealers and gunrunners away. On the other are these assholes making our jobs harder.”

“Like the CIA and the cocaine trade?” I ask. “I thought that was an exaggeration.”

“It was. The CIA hired dirtbags to drop guns into South America. Those same dirtbags used their planes and contacts to bring cocaine back. It’s not the same as saying the CIA controlled the drug trade, but it had the same effect.

“With K-Group, it was the government asking a bunch of contractors to make sure poppy farmers didn’t help the Taliban. It ended up with people on the government payroll helping to build a better product and trafficking network. Perverse incentives, as Cindy calls them.”

“Why the hell were they in South Florida? We’re not a major heroin hub, are we?”

“I’m getting to that. Mission creep. K-Group actually started to wind down as it looked like they were a little too effective. Of course, part of the problem is that K-Group didn’t want to shut down—certainly not the contractors and bankers they had working with them. Half of them were former government employees who left to start subcontracting businesses with K-Group. People made millions. They didn’t want to stop.”

“The American dream.”

Solar nods. “Then, in the middle of closed-door congressional sessions deciding the program’s fate, a miracle happened for K-Group. A miracle for them and a nightmare for the rest of us.

“DEA agents raided a cocaine-processing plant in Bolivia and found two things that freaked the hell out of them. One was a narco submarine better constructed than any they’d encountered before. The other thing is why K-Group received funding to keep doing what they’d done for heroin, now with the cocaine trade, all under the auspices of protecting our national security.”

“What was the other thing?” I ask, taking his bait.

“A North Korean nuclear scientist.”

“Wait? What?”

“Lee Yung-Un was actually a Chinese-trained engineer, but he also studied physics and shared his name with a North Korean involved in their weapons program. This made our intelligence community lose their shit. ‘What if the North Koreans were going to use a narco submarine to smuggle in a nuclear bomb?’ they asked. Why the hell the cartels would allow that, I have no idea. But they’re not exactly known as stalwarts of sanity. Pablo Escobar himself tried to get ahold of a nuclear bomb as a bargaining chip. Either way, I’m pretty sure Yung-Un was in Bolivia to build a sub for cocaine, not bombs, but that was pretense enough. The government decided that it had to do something. Since they’d spent decades fighting a losing war on drugs, the new plan was to let K-Group take over a sector of the trade to keep tabs on it. They surmised a nuclear bomb in New York was a greater threat than a bunch of cocaine flowing into Miami.”

“Holy crap,” I reply. “I can’t believe they allowed that.”

“Well, they didn’t, at first. Wiser heads in the intelligence community put a stop to it. So K-Group’s funding was cut off. Only they didn’t shut down. They didn’t need the government’s money. They were selling drugs. They had money. Billions. So instead they worked with a couple of cartels, listed their leaders as confidential informants, and kept things going.”

“Okay. I get the big picture. Why the hell am I pulled into all of this?”

“Bonaventure, one of K-Group’s lawyers and chief money launderers, was facing indictment by the FBI. He gave K-Group an ultimatum: shut down the federal investigation into him or he spills everything. Names, bank accounts. All of it.

“Remember back when he was under investigation and they were about to dig up his estate? K-Group got a friendly judge to grant an injunction. The FBI never found the money or his records.

“That’s what everyone’s after. That’s why people are willing to kill you to find them.”

Uncle Karl was underselling how bad this really is.

“So, what do we do?”

Solar holds his hands open wide. “I’m out of ideas at this point. That’s why I followed you. I was hoping you had a plan.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

HAILER

“So what the hell are they looking for?” I finally ask.