Splicer by Theo Cage, Russ Smith Page B

XTech's tiny office in Toronto. Rosenblatt confirmed that he was doing everything possible to sway Ludd. A solution was close at hand, but he needed a commitment from XTech. One million dollars transferred to his personal bank account. A sign that they still had a deal. Grey suspected what the funds would be used for and arranged for the transfer. But not by bank account. Federal Express arrived at Rosenblatt's home one Sunday morning with a very large parcel containing ten thousand crisp one hundred dollar bills.
    Within the week, the news of Ludd's death was in all the papers. The tabloids had a grisly color picture taken at the crime scene of Ludd's blurry head slumped over the wheel, awash in blood. Grey thought about all the red ink that was used that week to poorly inform the public.
    This morning, the sun bright on the carefully manicured front lawn of the CIA head offices, Grey would worm his way into the bureaucracy that shored up his country’s internal interests and pull out a 1.5 Billion dollar plum. The money would then be transferred to XTech via a contorted and tortuous path of holding companies and trust accounts, that would then close the transaction with GeneFab 's sole remaining majority stockholder.
    Meanwhile, the other side had become aware of the situation. Yesterday, intelligence reports informed him that several individuals with Pentagon connections had arrived in Toronto. And they weren't observers. They were Defense Intelligence (DIA) operatives on assignment. Gray hardly cared though. He had the company. There was nothing that the DIA could do now to stop his plans . At least that’s what he thought.

CHAPTER 21
     
    Kozak tapped away at the keys of his battered computer, distracted by the buzz of noise in the outside offices. He wanted to close his door but it wasn't going to do any good. Two days before he had smashed out the glass. One good slam after twenty years. A little jumpy are we Koz? Shit! It was the first time he felt that good since he made detective and danced on the long shiny antique oak bar at Finn's Grill. What the hell was wrong? Part of him really didn't give a damn. How long had he wanted to smash that rattling yellowed pane? He rubbed his chest, felt his heart tighten, stared at the screen, the green letters jumping. He had gone over this before a dozen times.
    The Globe and Mail reported that morning that Rosenblatt was offering GeneFab to a Canadian firm called XTech. So Rosenblatt was about to make a pile of money. A move he couldn’t have made when Ludd was around.
    Something else came up. X-Tech Canada was basically only a holding company, because it didn't appear to have an office bigger than a shoebox. The real papa bear was X-Tech in New York City. And the New York firm was known to have several connections in other countries, specifically the third world. Kozak recalled Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka mentioned at different points in his conversations with various brokers. This case was spreading out of control like a brush fire on the prairies. He picked up the phone and called the office of an old friend, Judge England.
    He told England he needed an injunction against the sale of GeneFab . England laughed. He said Rosenblatt couldn't run a train set, but that was no reason to hold up the sale of a privately held company. Koz persisted. England finally agreed unhappily to plant a bug in the ear of someone with the Securities Commission, a friend. An investigation on their part could at best hold things up for a few months, but he warned the political fallout could be messy.
    Then England hinted at something that Kozak, in his eagerness to close all the loopholes in this case, had missed. He wanted to know why everyone in the Prosecutor's department had dropped everything in order to railroad the Ludd case through as quickly as politically expedient. What's the big hurry? he asked. And who’s behind pushing the Redfield murder case to the front of the line.