Sphere Of Influence by Kyle Mills

that organized crime existed seems to have held on in their culture: They don't seem ready to admit to the existence of people like Christian Volkov. Eventually, though, they'll come to him. That's the way we set it up. All roads eventually lead to Volkov."
    "But we counted on him being a corpse at that point." "He will be."
    "And Carlo Gasta?"
    "I'm taking care of it. Don't worry, Alan. All the FBI has is the photograph and the audio that came with it. We know everything. Within a few weeks we'll have destroyed the weapon and the people involved. Then there will be nothing for the FBI to get ahold of--nothing at all left to link us to any of this."
    Holsten turned and grabbed the doorknob but stopped before opening the door. He didn't look back when h e spoke. "You've created a very dangerous situation here, Jonathan. There's no more room for errors."
    Drake let out a long breath when he was alone again. "You've created . . ." he repeated quietly. You've created . . .
    Drake had been the head of the highly secretive Organized Crime Division since its inception five years ago. It was his job to deal with the growing number of international criminal organizations that were beginning to influence world politics and economies. Despite the fact that some had annual incomes greater than the gross national products of many second-tier nations, the State Department did not solicit or recognize these organizations. And despite the fact that they controlled the markets in such things as narcotics and illegal arms, they were ignored by U . S . law enforcement because of the impenetrable jurisdictional mazes they operated in.
    It had taken a great deal of time and effort, but Drake had finally been able to contact and form a relationship with Christian Volkov, the head of what he estimated was the most powerful criminal organization in the world. Initially the relationship had been somewhat guarded and tentative. Volkov had been suspicious and Drake hadn't been sure what his mission was exactly. Slowly, though, the potential of his small unit had become obvious. Instead of just intelligence gathering and relationship building, why not go operational? If these enormously powerful and efficient criminal organizations could be used--manipulated--there was almost no limit to what could be accomplished. Unaffected by law, politics, or morality, they could be an incredibly deadly weapon if wielded correctly.
    After the destruction of the World Trade Center and the demise of Osama bin Laden, it had become obvious to the intelligence community that by winning individual battles, America was dooming itself to losing the war on terrorism. Bin Laden had been replaced with the infinitely more dangerous Mustafa Yasin, and the victory in Afghanistan ha d left no terrorist target on which to unleash America's impressive military--only a loosely connected, highly trained group of fanatics scattered across the globe. It was this situation that had created an opportunity for Drake to use Christian Volkov to America's advantage.
    Mustafa Yasin saw the world through an odd filter of Allah and economics, making him the obvious choice to carry out Osama bin Laden's economic fatwa against the United States. What had been less obvious, though, was Yasin's obsession with funding. He'd cut al-Qaeda's ranks by at least ninety percent so that he could focus what was left of his resources on the elite ten percent remaining. But those resources turned out to be hopelessly inadequate. Just as Yasin understood that money was the key to America's power, he knew that he would have to repair alQaeda's shattered financial network in order to effectively wage his jihad.
    It had been a little over a year ago that Drake's division had begun to hear whisperings of al-Qaeda operatives methodically reclaiming and expanding their presence in the Middle Eastern heroin trade. Yasin had apparently decided to defer an immediate attack against America in favor of rebuilding his