Page 58 of Savage Redemption

“Yes, but potentially high reward, too. Let’s see what he’s been financing.”

A trawl through the company records reveals an eclectic mix of irrigation, agricultural, and environmental development schemes. One or two have flopped, but the majority have thrived, providing Lightning Seeds with a healthy return. “He seems to have a knack for spotting potential winners,” I observe.

“He does, but see this?. He’s only been in the business for just over a year.”

I check the dates, and Eva is right. “I wonder what he did before that.”

I key in the name and some earlier target dates.

Nothing.

“Odd,” I mutter. I try a few more searches, more generalised this time, searching for any clues as to how di Santo made his money originally. I come up with big fat zero.

“There’s no record anywhere of him prior to… thirteen months ago. It’s as if he didn’t exist.”

“Are there any other records you can scan? Education? Health? Criminal records?”

“Professor Byrne, you do surprise me.” Nevertheless, I run scans in all those areas and come up with no records at all.

“He may be Spanish,” I tell Eva. “I’ll try the Spanish-speaking nations.” I do, with the same negative results.

“This is really odd. I’ll try his other companies, see if they have longer records.”

A few minutes later, I lean back in my chair. None of di Santo’s business interests seem to extend further back than thirteen months. They all seem to have come into existence around the same time, and all are thriving enterprises. On the face of it, Carlos di Santo is a very wealthy entrepreneur with an income in excess of a million dollars a month. I check his personal bank account to find him the proud possessor of around one and a half million euros. A tidy sum, but nowhere near what seems to have been generated by his considerable business acumen.

“What has he done with his money?” Eva asks. “Property? Investments?”

“Well, let’s have a look…” I return to my Dosh Digger program and set it to track payments out of his company accounts. “Most of his outgoing cash is sent to himself, but he doesn’t seem to keep it.” I return to his personal account and run the program there. “Where does he send the money to?”

I find a series of payments, most around a hundred thousand euros or so, to an account in the Cayman Islands.

“Who’s that?” Eva whispers?

“Not sure, yet.” Accounts in the Cayman Islands areprotected by strictbank secrecylaws, which provide an excellent level of privacy and security. It’s a favoured hideaway for shady cash because the insane level of confidentiality can help protect assets, making it nearly impossible for creditors or other parties to identify and seize them. But they haven’t reckoned on my quantum processor.

I send the data to my new machine, type in fresh instructions, and we wait.

“Shit,” I breathe. “Is that who I think it is?”

Eva leans over me. “Kris Kaminski. He’s making payments to Kristian Kaminski…”

“Looks like it. Why would he do that?”

“Maybe he works for him,” she suggests.

“Could be, but Kris is supposed to be an ally of Ethan’s. If Di Santo is working for him, what’s he doing creeping about on Caraksay?”

“I don’t understand.” Eva frowns, baffled. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but di Santo has paid him in excess of five million euros in just the last year. That’s some job.”

“Or a debt,” Eva says. “Maybe di Santo owed him money.”

I’m still intrigued by the apparent non-existence of our target prior to thirteen months ago. I decide to try another tack.

“What are you doing now?” Eva demands. “Shouldn’t we be concentrating on the connection to Kaminski?”

“We can come back to that.” I grab my phone and dial Megan. “Hey, can you do me a favour? I need you to take a photo of Carlos di Santo and send it to me.”

---