[...]

"If we want real peace in Africa, Victor is the one person who could make it happen," said Richard Chichakli, one of Bout's far-flung associates in Richardson, Texas. "Victor is a genius we're talking an IQ of 170. He knows the African people. He knows the languages French, Portuguese, Xhosa, Zulu."

Chichakli, an accountant for Bout and a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, works in a glassy bank building in the strip-mall suburbs of Dallas.

"If Victor's such a monster, why don't they haul him in?" Chichakli demanded.

[...]

"Look, here is the biggest arms dealer in the world," Chichakli said, half mocking me and half mocking Bout. Bout opened his blazer. "I don't see any guns," he said with a shrug. Then Sergei raised his arms. "None here either." (Both spoke excellent English.) "Maybe I should start an arms-trafficking university and teach a course on U.N. sanctions busting," Victor Bout said. The brothers looked at each other and laughed.

No one in the lounge seemed to be paying attention to Bout. Behind us sat four Israeli men who may or may not have been listening. Chichakli, who says he speaks Hebrew, said they were waiting for a phone call to confirm a deal for diamonds.

Bout leaned forward. "I woke up after Sept. 11 and found I was second only to Osama." He put his hand on the papers. The truth, he said, was much bigger than his personal story. "My clients, the governments," he began. Then, "I keep my mouth shut."

[...]

(Chichakli says he is a nephew of the former president of Syria and the son of a former Syrian under secretary of defense; he also did a stint in the U.S. Army and "trained in aviation and intelligence," he told me. He agreed that he seemed overqualified for his work as a Dallas C.P.A.)

Later he said, "If I told you everything I'd get the red hole right here." He pointed to the middle of his forehead.