doing it anymore.’ It was a bit of a shock for him, but I’m not sure. I don’t think you can shock a guy like that.” When he came crawl- ing back, he thought, it merely reaffirmed for Le Roux his outlook on humanity. “See?” he imagined his boss saying to himself. “He is no different than the others.”

Le Roux agreed to hire Klaussen back. He would be working at a lower salary, $3,000 a month plus bonuses. “That’s how our system works now,” Le Roux said.

After the call, Klaussen and his handlers began laying the groundwork for the deal, sending Le Roux a list of contacts that Klaussen would need to meet with, and where. The first stop would be a rendezvous with the Colombians in person. From New York, Klaussen and the agents flew to Panama to meet a paid DEA con- fidential informant who would be playing the role of “Colombian cartel boss.” Unlike Klaussen, he had some experience with under- cover stings. He’d been busted by the DEA years before, and began cooperating as part of a plea agreement to keep him out of prison. Now he was doing it for money.

From their meeting in Panama, Klaussen called Le Roux and pressured him to get on the phone with the Colombian.

“I’m here with the guy, he wants to talk to you,” Klaussen said.

“Nah, nah, I don’t talk to these people,” Le Roux said.

“Come on, they came all the way here,” Klaussen implored. “Just talk to the freaking guy. He wants to meet you, wants to set up a meeting, set up a deal. These people don’t deal with lower- level people like me, they want to talk boss to boss.”

Then he handed the phone to the C.I. The imaginary drug boss and the real one conversed for two or three minutes. “Not too much, because of course he doesn’t want to give the impression he just talks loosely on the phone. He’s supposed to be a professional drug dealer,” Klaussen said. “Le Roux didn’t like it, but he did it anyway. So I knew he was eating out of my hand.”