He knew the importance of appearing calm and controlled, even as his heart began to pound.
“The nesting dolls. There were two shipments, we now learn. One with the chlorocodide and the other without.”
“I see. And?”
“The one with the drugs left Mirabel last night. As soon as that huge shipment of fentanyl got across the border.”
“Has it crossed the border?” Gamache asked. His voice remained steady, though all depended on the answer to that question.
The room felt like it was teetering on the edge of a cliff.
“We don’t think so. We think it’s in the holding area.”
“You think?” asked Beauvoir, trying, with less success than the Chief Superintendent, to sound calm.
“Yes,” said Toussaint, an edge now to her voice. “Think.” She turned back to Gamache. “As far as our informant knows, it’s still in Québec. We have some indications that he’s right.”
“Really, now this is the same informant who told us earlier today that the shit, the krokodil, was still in the warehouse?” said Beauvoir.
“It is. He made a mistake.” Superintendent Toussaint’s voice was icy now. “You’ve heard of those. But he went back to confirm, at great personal risk. Then he contacted me.”
Toussaint and Beauvoir stared at each other.
“We have no way to be sure?” asked Gamache.
“Not without exposure, no,” said Toussaint.
“So we don’t really know where the drugs are,” said Beauvoir. “Except that they’re not in the warehouse.”
“Correct.”
“You said you have other indications, though,” said Gamache. “What’re those?”
“The head of the syndicate for the East Coast is in Vermont. Burlington.”
The officers looked at each other, then at Gamache.
“He could be there for any number of reasons,” said Toussaint. “We don’t know for sure…”
“It’s a short drive from there to the border,” said Beauvoir, his excitement overcoming his annoyance. “One of those reasons could be to meet the shipment.”
“And not just the shipment,” said Toussaint. She turned to look at Gamache. “It could mean they fell for it. More completely than we dared hope.”
“Go on,” said Gamache. He was thinking the same thing, but Toussaint had had more time to consider, and he needed to hear her thoughts.
“I think the head of the East Coast syndicate is in Vermont for more than a tub of Ben and Jerry’s. And more than the krokodil.”
Gamache nodded, slowly. Taking this in. Trying not to let his elation override his good sense. Trying not to race ahead to a conclusion he was desperate to arrive at.
It fell to Beauvoir to say what Gamache was thinking. What they were all thinking.
“A meeting’s been set up. When the exchange is made,” his voice was low, almost a whisper. “The heads of both the Québec and the East Coast cartels will be together, in one spot.”
“Holy shit,” said several of the officers.
“But which side of the border?” asked one. “Would he come into Québec? Would he dare?”
“What’s to stop him?” another asked. “Not the S?reté, that’s for sure.”
That brought a round of laughter that verged on hysteria.
Chief Superintendent Gamache was relieved too, but he was also wary. It was at about this time that mistakes were made.
Just as he thought he was luring them into a trap, perhaps they were luring him. If they’d learned one thing about the cartel, it was that they were smart. They might be invisible, but that didn’t mean they didn’t see everything that was happening around them.
Gamache let the celebration go on. There’d been precious little to be happy about in recent months. Let them enjoy this moment. Eventually the excitement died down.
“Walk me through your thinking, Madeleine,” said Gamache.
“This’s the first shipment of chlorocodide across the border. It looks poised to become a significant drug, a huge moneymaker. Cheap to produce and an easy sell to a population always looking for the next great high.”
“It turns their skin into scales,” said one of the agents, reading the briefing bullet on krokodil.
“Right, and their brains to mush and eventually kills them young,” said Toussaint. “When has that ever stopped a junkie? These are not reasonable people making rational choices.” She turned back to Gamache. “You want my thinking? I think they’re meeting to discuss territory. Borders are for politicians, not drug runners. But I also think they’re meeting to size each other up. This is an indication of just how powerful the Québec cartel has become. What else would bring the head of the largest syndicate in the U.S. into the woods of Vermont?”
“He feels threatened?” asked Beauvoir.
“I think he might.”
“You think he’s come to kill the head of the Québec cartel?” asked another agent.
Toussaint thought. “No. I think he might be prepared to, but these are also businesspeople. It’s bad business to kill your supplier, unless there’s no choice. I think they want to come to an understanding.”
“The head of the Québec cartel is smart enough to figure all this out,” said Beauvoir.
“Oui, certainly,” said Toussaint. “And clever enough to be prepared to strike first.”
“Hell of a tête-à-tête,” said an agent.
“I think it’s time to let the DEA know,” said Toussaint. “This meeting can get out of control real fast and we’re going to need help.”
“When do you think this’s going down?” asked Gamache.
“Tonight, for sure. Probably shortly after nightfall. Before midnight, I think. They’ll want to get it done.”
“And you think they’ll meet at the crossing point?” asked Beauvoir.
“I do. It’s the safest place. We’ve proven to them that we have no idea it’s being used. The krokodil will be given to the U.S. syndicate. The money will come to the Québec cartel. And the heads of both syndicates will at least start the process of coming to a new understanding.”
Everyone, except Gamache, looked at the clock on the wall. He was perfectly aware of the time, but also of the folly of being pushed into a near-panicked decision.
“We do not tell the DEA,” he said.
There was a commotion, as everyone spoke at once. Objected at once. He let that die down too. And when there was silence, he spoke.
“If we told them that the heads of two of the largest syndicates in North America will be coming out into the open, that they’ll be meeting tonight, when a drug deal is going through, what do you think they’d do?”
He let them think, but only briefly.
“They’d mobilize,” he answered his own question. “They’d have to. We would too, if told the same thing. Even if they were willing to let us take the lead, there’d be so much activity, the syndicates couldn’t help but notice. No. There’re risks either way, but my decision stands. We do this alone. We stick to the plan that has brought us this far.”
“But what happens if the meeting is on the other side of the border, sir? Where we have no jurisdiction?”
“We might lose them both,” someone else jumped in.