ing some bread or something. The guy’s a genius but he is a freak- ing madman as well.”

Klaussen told Le Roux that he was on his way to Panama that evening to finalize the details with the Colombians, and empha- sized that Le Roux needed to meet the Colombian cartel head in person, “boss to boss,” to put him at ease. Le Roux agreed and told him to make arrangements.

It seemed almost too perfect: Le Roux was signing off on the whole plan—and on tape. As they talked, Klaussen held his arm at what he hoped was a natural angle, but one that could capture Le Roux on the watch camera. He’d trained with his handlers, and knew that he needed only a brief glimpse of Le Roux’s face to es- tablish his identity. For the rest, audio would suffice. Suddenly, he noticed Le Roux’s eyes focusing downward. Following his gaze, he realized that they were aimed at Klaussen’s wrist. The screw on his watch camera concealed a tiny port, and was attached to the watch by a chain. Somehow Klaussen had shaken the screw loose, and now it was left dangling from his arm, like a spider suspended on a thread. Le Roux was staring at it.

“Shitty dive watch,” Klaussen said, shaking his head. He grabbed the screw between his fingers and twisted it back in. Le Roux carried on talking.

And then, as abruptly as it had started, the meeting was over and Klaussen was out the door. There was a quick debriefing with the GISE agents. Then Klaussen left for the airport. He’d already given the prosecutors enough to indict Le Roux for planning to traffic methamphetamine to the United States. Now they just needed to spring the trap.

Years later Klaussen would still puzzle over why Le Roux had fallen for it all. They had created an alluring ruse, but Le Roux at the top of his game was equal parts paranoid and calculating. “Maybe I was his kryptonite,” Klaussen said. “For some reason he had that unconditional trust in me. Trust is a relative thing when it comes to people like Le Roux.” How he had landed in Le Roux’s blind spot, he could only speculate. “I’m not even close to his brain