you seriously. But, really, there’s just nothing they can do about proving that an accident like that was actually a murder caused by a bad guy from Brazil.
“Time passes. A friend’s wife in San Francisco drowns while swimming laps in her pool. You get an e-mail: ‘Hello, Titus. It’s me again. You should have listened to me.’
“Five months later, the teenage daughter of another friend in Boca Raton, all the way across the continent, overdoses on drugs. Shocking, because the child had absolutely no exposure to such things. You get an e-mail: ‘Hello, Titus …’”
Burden slid the fountain pen along the gutter of the page an inch or two.
“Do you see how this could happen? ”he asked. “Every time you go to the FBI. But you understand, Luquín won’t always go after your closest friends. He’ll scatter the deaths across the country and across relationships. Maybe even extended family members of your employees. Six months apart. A year apart. Can you imagine how many people would die before the FBI could ever establish a connection in a scenario like that? If they ever did?
“Can you imagine how it’s going to make you look to keep going back and saying: Please! You’ve got to believe me. That tractor accident in Iowa was really a murder. It’s this guy in Brazil who wanted to extort sixty-four million dollars… . And Luquín’s going to make sure you can’t capture his e-mails. There’ll be no proof. It could go on and on.
“Tano Luquín is no ideologue, ”Burden went on. “He knows nothing about ideals or dreams or political causes, and he cares nothing for them. He’s a common criminal. Venal. Violent. Egotistic. He’s the kind of man who can be found in every generation and in every culture. A predator. You have something he wants, and he’s going to take it.
“But the difference is that today clever men like Luquín have so many more powerful resources in the technology at their disposal. To anticipate them, you have to be willing to imagine beyond your assumptions, to be willing to make that leap into the realm of the unbelievable. I can assure you, they have. Luquín is wealthy. His methods and resources are sophisticated. His imagination and appetites are unrestrained.”
Burden’s point was well made, and chilling.
“Okay, ”Titus said, “just tell me this: Can you stop him? Can you save lives?”
Burden didn’t answer immediately, and with every second he hesitated, Titus’s hopes diminished with a grim effect on his spirit.
“I think I can stop him, ”Burden said. “I can save lives. But I can’t save all of them. I’ve told you that. That’s what I think.
“You have to remember, ”he continued, “Tano’s ego is tied directly to his stature in his own mind. He’s warned you. You go against that warning, and you’ve insulted him by not respecting his power to dictate to you. He’s going to make you pay for it. And he’s going to make sure you know you’re paying for it.”
Titus was feeling trapped.
“I could just cough up the money. Get it over with.”
“Yeah, you could do that, ”Burden agreed. “And maybe that would end it for you. But it would also guarantee that Luquín would go on doing what he does, and with even more resources. You’d guarantee that someone else would be put through the same hell that you’re going through. And your money would be financing it. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.”
Titus found it a little difficult to get his breath.
He looked toward the windows and the opened doorway. He felt alienated, estranged from his life before last night. Adrift. Outside, the light and the sounds were foreign. The language was foreign. The smells belonged to other people, and the rhythm of life belonged to another culture. It all contributed to a sense of uncertainty.
Uncertainty, however, was only part of it. His anger was still there, too, slowly evolving into a determination to fight
“Time passes. A friend’s wife in San Francisco drowns while swimming laps in her pool. You get an e-mail: ‘Hello, Titus. It’s me again. You should have listened to me.’
“Five months later, the teenage daughter of another friend in Boca Raton, all the way across the continent, overdoses on drugs. Shocking, because the child had absolutely no exposure to such things. You get an e-mail: ‘Hello, Titus …’”
Burden slid the fountain pen along the gutter of the page an inch or two.
“Do you see how this could happen? ”he asked. “Every time you go to the FBI. But you understand, Luquín won’t always go after your closest friends. He’ll scatter the deaths across the country and across relationships. Maybe even extended family members of your employees. Six months apart. A year apart. Can you imagine how many people would die before the FBI could ever establish a connection in a scenario like that? If they ever did?
“Can you imagine how it’s going to make you look to keep going back and saying: Please! You’ve got to believe me. That tractor accident in Iowa was really a murder. It’s this guy in Brazil who wanted to extort sixty-four million dollars… . And Luquín’s going to make sure you can’t capture his e-mails. There’ll be no proof. It could go on and on.
“Tano Luquín is no ideologue, ”Burden went on. “He knows nothing about ideals or dreams or political causes, and he cares nothing for them. He’s a common criminal. Venal. Violent. Egotistic. He’s the kind of man who can be found in every generation and in every culture. A predator. You have something he wants, and he’s going to take it.
“But the difference is that today clever men like Luquín have so many more powerful resources in the technology at their disposal. To anticipate them, you have to be willing to imagine beyond your assumptions, to be willing to make that leap into the realm of the unbelievable. I can assure you, they have. Luquín is wealthy. His methods and resources are sophisticated. His imagination and appetites are unrestrained.”
Burden’s point was well made, and chilling.
“Okay, ”Titus said, “just tell me this: Can you stop him? Can you save lives?”
Burden didn’t answer immediately, and with every second he hesitated, Titus’s hopes diminished with a grim effect on his spirit.
“I think I can stop him, ”Burden said. “I can save lives. But I can’t save all of them. I’ve told you that. That’s what I think.
“You have to remember, ”he continued, “Tano’s ego is tied directly to his stature in his own mind. He’s warned you. You go against that warning, and you’ve insulted him by not respecting his power to dictate to you. He’s going to make you pay for it. And he’s going to make sure you know you’re paying for it.”
Titus was feeling trapped.
“I could just cough up the money. Get it over with.”
“Yeah, you could do that, ”Burden agreed. “And maybe that would end it for you. But it would also guarantee that Luquín would go on doing what he does, and with even more resources. You’d guarantee that someone else would be put through the same hell that you’re going through. And your money would be financing it. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.”
Titus found it a little difficult to get his breath.
He looked toward the windows and the opened doorway. He felt alienated, estranged from his life before last night. Adrift. Outside, the light and the sounds were foreign. The language was foreign. The smells belonged to other people, and the rhythm of life belonged to another culture. It all contributed to a sense of uncertainty.
Uncertainty, however, was only part of it. His anger was still there, too, slowly evolving into a determination to fight
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