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Jason hadn't told Himalayan John or anyone about his offshore assets, but he thought to himself, "If John says I could live decently on ten grand a year, then the interest alone on my money would keep me going forever.

"There's nothing left for me in the states. If when I get out of jail I'd still have a multimillion dollar debt to the IRS. How could 1 ever hope to pay them off? There's no point in sticking around."

Jason calculated that the five million debt with ten percent a month interest for seven years would come to around S45 million in seven years. After his release from prison, the debt would still keep growing at the rate of five million a month. And bankruptcy couldn't clear an IRS debt. Where's the light at the end of the tunnel? There was no end anywhere in sight.

"If I just do my time, they won't ever let me have a normal life and family. Never! My status as an ex-con would close most doors of opportunity in the above ground, legal world. That would leave dope dealing, espionage or some kind of underworld activity as my only way to survive."

In a sudden revelation, it became clear to Jason why so many ex-cons don't go straight after they are released. The system doesn't let them!

"It took me too long to realize that there's not going to be any justice for me. Even going through the trial was a big mistake. I could have left right away and could have taken the family with me."

But cudda-shudda-wudda... that's all over!

"Still, I won't let them put me into a permanent purgatory either." Jason thought to himself. I will find a way out.

"If I go to Brazil, the Caymans or someplace, long before I run out of dough, maybe I can get into real estate again, learn the local lingo, and maybe have a kid in Brazil. Then I'd never have to worry

about being extradited."

Brazil, as Jason learned from the old original PT Book and the Passport Report, doesn't extradite daddies with a Brazilian born child - especially if they are supporting their kid. Even today, Brazil is a great hideout for fugitives if they can once obtain their permanent residency certificate. There were other similar countries, too... many ways to start fresh and get a new identity. "Maybe my situation isn 't hopeless. " It would help if I had more money but, what the heck, I probably have more than enough dough to get away and start a new life.

Jason made the decision. "Bye Bye Big Brother." He would run for it. Being a fugitive, probably in Brazil, there was a future. Staying in the States as an ex-con with an unmanageable debt would be a life as bad as death.

The decision made, Jason felt exhilarated and free. He had his life back. Destiny was in his own hands again. He smiled for the first time in two years.

Jason went to a public telephone. "Himalayan Jay? This is Raggedly Andrew - can I take you to lunch at Foxy's"?

"When?" Asked John "Now!"

A few minutes later, Jason was at the restaurant, thanking John for his help and wondering aloud, if he should be on the next flight to Brazil. "Is there anything else I should think about?"

What John said came as a big surprise:

"No Jason, it's much better if you can leave here clean, without that monkey on your back. 1 have a contact, Mr.P, at the Federal Building. I talked to him. Now listen! I have a plan for you."

John's idea was to schedule a private talk with Mr.P, a government guy who works with snitches, and for Jason to feel the Feds out by offering his (Jason's) services as an undercover government agent.

John didn't say so directly, but it seemed clear that John had a similar deal with the government. That arrangement may have allowed him to be a drug dealer openly, to own property and to not even pay parking tickets.

Jason asked John to explain the "Six Flag Theory." Is that what keeps you out of jail?

"No," said John. "PT is sort of a religion, well to be exact, it's more of a philosophy of life that says you shouldn’t 't trust government to look after you or even be fair with you. You should have a passport from at least one foreign country besides the place where you were born. You should have enough assets abroad in another 'banking secrecy country' to support yourself for a few years. You also need a place to go and enjoy yourself. That is your 'playground.' With a legal resident's visa and maybe an apartment or house at the playground, you have a place to live openly and enjoy your money.

"Finally you should have an 'offshore' business or some way to make money abroad so that if you run into trouble, you can always support yourself. That should be in still another country. To do it right, you should, ideally, set up your six flags before you leave home permanently.

Jason asked, "Do you have all this stuff- these six flags?" "Of course I do! I am a PT."

"But excuse me for saying it, but you are a professional criminal of sorts, and isn't this six flag stuff just for crooks?"

"First, Jason, let me correct you. There is more to me than meets the eye. I am not going to tell you all my secrets, or any of them, for that matter. While you know me as a party animal who can supply you with first class weed [meaning marijuana] and party toot [cocaine]... I also have many

business and other interests. While I may be a smuggler, I deal in products a lot less unhealthy than cigarettes and whiskey. Whatever smuggling I do, may just be a cover for very important activities involving..." whispered John, with a strange emphasis, "national security. "

Jason interrupted, "Okay, okay, I have heard the rumor that you are into drugs on behalf of the CIA. I suppose, I guess, they are protecting you. And if they are, I wonder why you need this PT, Six Flags stuff?"

Himalayan John: "I'm not admitting or denying anything, but just suppose I am what the company calls a 'Strategic Asset'. Let's say I could provide intelligence and local contacts in Cali, Colombia, or Nuevo Vedado, Cuba... maybe even Afghanistan, Burma and such. Let's say that the 'businessmen' I know can get things done effectively in those areas. Like moving money, material and manpower where it is needed. Getting airports we can use. Do you get it yet? I am not a two bit dope dealer. I'm an important guy who can speak seven languages and make contacts and deals our people need.

"Assume I'm like agent 007, James Bond. But unlike Bond in the 007 movies, you can also be sure that the government I choose to work for would burn me or disown me without any hesitation. So it is up to me, it is up to all of us, to have a few back doors and a few options for our personal security. I need them much more than you do. And now I am willing to help you."

"So why are you bothering with me, John? Is there something in it for you?"

"Jason, my stock in trade is contacts - people who owe me favours. I deal in very valuable information and products with high mark-ups. If I turn you into a PT and open the doors to a better life than you had before, you are going to be a big man.

Then you will owe me one. Right?"

"Yes John. Yes, I will owe you big time. Are you going to ask me to kill someone?"

"Probably not, but if I save your ass, you have to be ready to return the favour - if and when I ask," said John.

"OK" said Jason, I'll do what you want as long as it isn't violent or too illegal!"

John said "Tsk Tsk, 'Too illegal' hah! you are still talking like a Boy Scout. The Taw' ensnares rodents and small insects. When you are a PT you'll soar like an Eagle. Nothing will be illegal or immoral for you anymore!"

Jason thought that Himalayan John and his kind of talk was proof of delusions of grandeur or of a Walter Mitty character. Was John smoking or sniffing too much of his own products? Still, John was rich and free and Jason figured that maybe, just maybe, John knew what he was talking about. He listened skeptically, but carefully.

"Jason, I am going to give you the full education and tell you all about the PT secret, Private Things. I will show you how to make more money than you ever dreamed of. If you're interested, I will show you how to have the sex life of an Oriental Potentate. I will show you how to be an International Man. I will help you get your own five or six flags, starting with a passport and new identity. But you will not use these things until you leave this country as a free man.

"I want you to plan your future carefully with me, to be patient and not leave the United States as a fugitive. That wouldn't be good for me or for you. I will use my personal contacts to get you a deal. Some day, when you are living the good life, I will come round for a personal favour. And you will be bound to honor me."

Jason replied, "Sounds like the obligation I'll be under to you is like something from the script of The Godfather, but John... whatever you want, I promise, you get me out of this downward spiral and whatever you may ask for, I'll deliver - if I can."

book

- but to cut to the chase, in the short term, our hero Jason, regrettably but as expected, lost his appeal. But the day before the decision came down, a high-level agent from the government's Department of Justice made him this offer: If Jason would help the Feds as directed, Jason would be sent to a comfortable military base instead of a prison. It would be a prison, of sorts, but with no walls. He would have a motel-type private room and bath and could choose an easy clerical type job. Depending upon his usefulness, he would get weekends off and a drastically reduced sentence. "You won't have to rat on any of your close friends," they promised. "But your ass belongs to us for two years, maybe less. After that, you can forget about the five million bucks in IRS debts—if you are a good boy and deliver what we want."

Jason, having grown up as a person of high moral character, had mixed feelings about this pact with the devil. He promised himself he would never get any of his former personal friends into any trouble - even though they had treated him like dirt since his conviction.

But if the feds needed help putting away some strangers, who were possibly real crooks, or bad apples, why not?

It doesn't take much to morally justify to oneself co-operation with the enemy when you're getting an extra half dozen years of freedom and a pass on the 45 million bucks Jason figured he would owe the Feds in seven years.

And so it came to pass that as Jason's last appeal was exhausted. Instead of being chained up again and hauled from his mother's home into a forbidding prison surrounded by barbed wire, Jason was told to report using his own chosen means of transportation to the nearby Eglin Air Force Base. There he was assigned a nice room, in what had been formerly unmarried air force officers' quarters. It was a relatively small building with about 60 other inmates who at first kept to themselves.