The Patriot Threat Read Online Free PDF

pocket.
    The man came to the last step.
    She pointed the phone, centered the image, and snapped a picture, quickly lowering the unit. The man found the terrazzo and turned for the mall’s rear exit. No question. He was after Terra. She caught sight of a security guard sitting at a table drinking from a coffee cup.
    Something hard nudged her ribs.
    “Not a sound, or your employee there might not make it to work tonight.”
    She froze.
    Terra left through the mall exit.
    The man ahead of her stopped and turned back. A smile filled his face. The phone was still in her grasp, down at her side. The first man stepped toward her in a slow stride and reached for the unit.
    “I don’t think you’ll be needing that.”

 
    FOUR
    V ENICE, I TALY
    Malone sprang from the grass, his lungs raw from panting the dry night air. Luckily he had avoided the stone markers that stood at attention all around him when he fell. The helicopter debris continued to burn, not much left but charred bits and pieces. A fading glow from the blaze illuminated the way through the graves to the church. There should be a boat dock near there, perhaps even a night watchman somewhere on the island. But where was he or she? That crash should have attracted some immediate attention. Surely it had been noticed across the lagoon in Venice. Police would soon be on their way, if they weren’t already. Waiting for them didn’t seem like a good idea. He needed to leave. His task had been to simply observe and report. But wow—had that gone wrong.
    Once a year, on the birthday of their Dear Leader, North Korean insurance managers sent a gift of $20 million in cash, all generated by fraud. Things like transportation accidents, factory fires, floods, and other catastrophes within North Korea, most of which either never happened or were manufactured. Every insurance policy within North Korea was issued by the state-owned KNIC. To spread its liability KNIC sought out reinsurers around the world willing to accept a portion of its risk in exchange for hefty premiums, and those companies were found in Europe, India, and Egypt. Of course, each of those entities assumed that KNIC would have evaluated its risk and written its policies accordingly, wanting to minimize exposure. After all, that was the whole idea of the insurance business—to pay out as few claims as possible. But that was not the case here. Instead, KNIC made sure there were expensive claims the reinsurers would have to honor. In fact, the more disasters the better. To avoid drawing undue attention, claims were systematically generated against differing reinsurers. One year the focus was on Lloyd’s, the next Munich Re, then Swiss Re. Every claim was carefully documented, then sped through puppet courts in Pyongyang where the outcome was never in doubt. It helped that North Korean law made it impossible for reinsurers to send their own investigators to check anything.
    All in all, it was the perfect scam, one that generated annual revenues topping $50 million, some of which was used by KNIC to keep the scheme going, the rest paid into Dear Leader’s pockets.
    Twenty million dollars, annually, for the past four years.
    Bags of cash had arrived in Pyongyang from Singapore, Switzerland, France, Austria, and, this year, Italy. Sent to an entity called Bureau 39 of the Korean Workers’ Party Central Committee, created to collect hard currency and provide Dear Leader with funds independent of a virtually nonexistent national economy. Intelligence reports indicated that the money financed things like luxury goods for the country’s elite, missile components, even the production of nuclear weapons. Everything an enterprising young dictator might need.
    Stephanie wanted this year’s money transfer witnessed, as that had never been possible before. American intelligence had learned its location—Venice—so she told him to leave the cruise ship and head inland.
    He’d wondered about the coincidence.
    How did