Sphere Of Influence by Kyle Mills Page A

infrastructure. And if he succeeded, al-Qaeda would have billions of dollars to fund its religious war.
    Would it be possible to play on Yasin's obsession with funding? Volkov had a great deal of credibility in the narcotics trade. If he were to supply al-Qaeda with the necessary intelligence and weaponry to step up their campaign to take over the heroin production and distribution lines in the Middle East, Yasin would have to concentrate his forces in one area, and would create a brief but inevitable disruption in narcotics exports from that region during the worst of the fighting.
    Of course, Drake wasn't naive enough to think that he could actually bring about a long-term reduction in the availability of narcotics in the U . S .; in fact, he was counting on not being able to. If a sufficient disruption in the flow of Middle Eastern heroin could be created, the market would react to fill the void: With the help of the CIA,Volkov's contacts in Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos--the Golden Triangle--could move in and replace the Middle East as America's heroin dealer of choice.
    The potential of the plan had been almost limitless. The Asian crime lords would cut off al-Qaeda's primary source of funding, but more importantly they would cut off one of the Middle East's most important exports. It wouldn't take long for the region's smugglers, warlords, and governments to turn on the men Yasin had sent to the Middle East and, with the help of the CIA, destroy them.
    Of course, as limitless as the benefits of the plan were, the risks were just as limitless. And now the worst had happened.
    Drake looked up at the map still glowing from the screen on the wall. It was all over now. He had been so close, but this operation died the moment al-Qaeda had managed to smuggle a rocket launcher across the border. All that mattered now was that none of this be traced back to the CIA. All that was important was that he and Holsten were not implicated.

    Chapter 10
    THE house itself was almost identical to the one in Cuba: large windows overlooking a rugged tropical landscape that finally gave way to the endlessness of the sea. Except for the slightly different shade of the water and the smooth gray of granite replacing red limestone, it was as if he hadn't moved at all.
    "Is it on?" Pascal said in French as he strode into the office. Volkov just pointed to a television bolted to the wall. "With everything that is happening, Charles Russell is making the announcements himself?" Pascal remarked. "Interesting."
    Russell had just come on-screen and was shuffling papers across a broad lectern. The American news agencies' round-the-clock coverage of the rocket launcher issue had relegated this particular news conference to C-SPAN, and it probably wouldn't have rated even that had Russell not made a personal appearance. America's ridiculous narcotics certification program had become one of his pet programs and he obviously felt obligated to support it no matter how trivial it now seemed.
    Russell cleared his throat and Volkov used a remote to increase the volume.
    "Before I talk about this year's decision, I'd like to give everyone a bit of background on the process. Under U . S . law, the President certifies the antinarcotics efforts of the major drug-producing and drug-transporting countries. If a government is not certified, it is ineligible for most forms of U . S . assistance. The law also provides for waivers fo r those countries which, because of their strategic importance to the U . S ., should be exempted from sanctions. While some governments resent this process and some members of Congress would like to see it repealed, I believe it is an extremely effective way to keep this important issue at the forefront and to create cooperation between the U . S . and countries with heavy narcotics-producing capability. In the past few months we've seen significant initiatives in the target countries and no less than five extraditions of major drug