that had fallen over her cheek when she turned so abruptly to him.
Something disturbed him; he was not sure what it was. Something was missing, a quantum jump had been made, a step omitted. "I know it's not fair to ask you to talk about it, but I'm confused. These drug runs.
how are they mounted? You say a courier is chosen, a woman assigned to travel with him, both to meet a contact at some given location?" "Yes. A specific article of clothing is worn by the woman and the contact approaches her first. He pays for an hour of her time and they go off together, the courier following. If anything happens, anything like police interception, the courier claims he is the girl's mezzano...
pimp." "So the contact and the courier rendezvous through the woman. Is the narcotics delivery made then?" "I don't think so. Remember, I never actually made a run, but I believe the contact only sets up the distribution schedules. Where the drugs are to be taken and who is to receive them. After that, he sends the courier to a source, again using the whore as his protection." "So if there are any arrests, the... whore... takes the fall?" "Yes. Drug authorities do not pay much attention to such women; they're let out quickly." "But the source is now known, the schedules in hand and the courier protected...." What was it? Bray stared at the wall, trying to sort out the facts, trying to spot the omission that bothered him so. Was it in the pattern?
"Most of the risks are reduced to the minimum," said Antonia. "Even the delivery runs are made in such a way that the merchandise can be abandoned at a moment's notice. At least, that's what I gathered from the other girls.,, "'Most of the risks..."' repeated Scofield. "'Reduced to a minimum?"' "Not all, of course, but a great many. It is very well organized. Each step has a means to escape built in." "Organized? Escape?..." Organized! That was It. Minimum risks, maximum returnsl It was the pattern, the entire pattern. It went back to the beginning... to the concept itself. "Antonia, tell me, where did the contacts come from? How did they reach the Brigades in the first place?" "The Brigades make a great deal of money from narcotics. The drug market is its main source of income." "But how did it start? When?" "A few years ago, when the Brigades began to expand." "It didn't just happen. How did it happen?" "I can only tell you what I heard. A man came to the leaders-several were in jail. He told them to find him when they got out on the streets again.
He could lead them to large sources of money that could be made without the. heavy risks involved in robbery and kidnapping." "In other words," said Scofield, thinking rapidly as he spoke, "he offered to finance them in a major way with minor effort. Teams of two people going out for three or four weeks-and returning with something like nine million lire. Seventy thousand dollars for a month's work. Minimum risk, maximum return. Very few personnel involved." "Yes. In the beginning, the contacts came from him, that man. They in turn led to others. As you say, it does not take many people and they bring in large amounts of money.' "So the Brigades can concentrate on their true calling," completed Bray sardonically. "The disruption of the social order. In a single word, terrorism." He got up from the bed. "T'liat man who came to see the leaders in jail. Did he stay in touch with them?" She frowned. "Again, I can only tell you what I heard. He w;is never seen after the second meeting." "I'll bet he wasn't. Every negotiation always five times removed from the course.... A geometric progression, no single line to retrace. That's how they do it." "Who?" "Me Matarese." Antonia stared at him. 'TVhy do you say thatT' "Because it's the only explanation. Serious dealers in narcotics wouldn't touch maniacs like the Brigades. It's a controlled situation, a charade mounted to finance terrorism, so the Matarese can continue to finance the guns and the killing. In Italy it's the Red Brigades; in Germany, Baader-Mcinhof; in Lebanon, the PLO; in my country, the Minutemen and the Weathermen, the Ku Klux Klan and the JDL and all the godamn fools who blew up banks and laboratories and embassies. Each financed differently, secretly. All pawns for