The King of Fear: A Garrett Reilly Thriller Page 39
Garrett shrugged.
“What you did saved this bank. Saved my job. Saved my reputation, and my fortune. Probably saved the American economy, at least for a while. That’s a pretty amazing thing—”
“I’m not going to be a bond trader at Vandy, so don’t bother asking.”
“Don’t want you to. I want to set you up to do exactly what you did for the government, but in the private sector. Look for threats against this bank. Against me. Against the American economy. Look for patterns, look for enemies, then take them down. Destroy them.”
Garrett turned from the window and stared at Wells. Was he joking? “You have an entire IT department set up to do just that.”
“They’re worthless. I want you. You get the job done,” Wells said. “You can work out of your home, or I’ll give you an office here. Hell, I’ll give you an entire floor. Staff, pretty girls, whatever floats your boat. Work part-time, full-time, I don’t care. Just do the thing you do.”
“No.”
“I’ll pay you five million dollars a year.”
Garrett blinked in surprise. Five million dollars? Jesus Christ. He shook the number out of his brain. “Fuck you.”
“Six million.”
“You don’t understand. I hate your fucking guts.”
“No, I get that. And I don’t care. Ten million a year, two-million-dollar signing bonus, and I’ll rent you a penthouse apartment in that building right there.” Wells pointed to a shining spindle of a tower three blocks away. “That’s the limit of what I can afford.”
Garrett’s breath caught in his throat. The numbers were extraordinary. He hated himself for even considering them, but how could he not? His thoughts went immediately to Chaudry’s explanation of Ilya Markov’s financial motivations. She’d called Markov an amoral thug for hire. Did that make Garrett one as well? Or did it just make him a whore?
“Think about it. Take as long as you’d like. But know this—I want you on the inside. Here.” Wells swept his arms across his body, motioning to the vast office. “Next to me.”
Garrett thought for a second that he might cry at those words. Why? Were they that meaningful to him? He said nothing, fleeing the office before his emotions got the better of him. He jogged out of the lobby and into the hot July morning. He loosened the tie on his shirt collar, walked west, into a warm wind, and then north, zigzagging along the city streets without thinking where he was going. He ended up at the southeast corner of Central Park and decided to walk into the park, going north again and ending up at the zoo. On a lark, he bought a ticket, then stood by the seal enclosure at the entrance. Seals swam in circles in the wide pool, breaking the water every few seconds to swallow fish being tossed to them by a zookeeper.
Garrett watched them intently, counting the number of seconds they spent underwater, and calculating how fast they made one revolution of the pool, and what the average speed was for each individual seal and then for the entire family of seals. Garrett looked across the way and saw, sitting on a bench, an old man who looked a little like Avery Bernstein, with rounded shoulders and a sweater vest. Garrett remembered his kind voice. Immediately, Garrett wished that he’d had a chance to say good-bye to his mentor in person, but he knew that moment was gone, long gone. He waved briefly to the old man, but the man was busy reading his newspaper and didn’t see the gesture. Garrett figured that would suffice as a good-bye for the time being.
Then Garrett backed away from the seals and the old man, sat on a bench, and slowly, patiently, tried to find a pattern he could use for his own future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following people were invaluable to me as I researched this book. My thanks to: Richard Campbell, for his expertise on technology and banking security; Suresh Kotha of the University of Washington, for his ideas on how to bring the world of finance to its knees; Ian Toner, for his primer on debt, derivatives, and bank runs; the great Robert M. Solow, for his insight into the weakness of the global economy; Kenneth Willman, for his introductions into the banking community; Daniel Goodwin, as always, for his views from inside the finance machine; Peter Loop, for his detailed explanations of cryptocurrencies and black markets; Yevgeniya Elkus, for her careful translation of English into Russian. And finally, to my sources at the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. You asked not to be named, for obvious reasons, but your insights were crucial.
My deepest gratitude to: Ragna Nervik, Dan Brecher, and Markus Hoffmann, for all the advice and support; the peerless Marysue Rucci, for shaping a mass of words and ideas into a book—you are the best; and my trusted inner circle of friends who lent a hand along the way—you know who you are. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Finally, to Lisa, Augusta, and Nora: thank you for putting up with the obsessions, the long hours, and the weeks away from home. You are the reason I write anything at all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph by Lisa Loop
Drew Chapman has written studio movies, directed an independent feature film, and created and written network and cable TV shows. Most recently, he wrote and co–executive produced a season of the spy thriller Legends for TNT. Married with two children, Chapman divides his time between Los Angeles and Seattle. The King of Fear is his second book.
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ALSO BY DREW CHAPMAN
The Ascendant
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chapman, Drew, author.
The king of fear : a Garrett Reilly thriller / Drew Chapman.—First Simon & Schuster trade paperback edition
pages cm
Sequel to: The Ascendant.
ISBN 978-1-4767-2591-8 (paperback)—ISBN 978-1-5011-3105-9 (ebook part 1)—ISBN 978-1-5011-3106-6 (ebook part 2)—ISBN 978-1-5011-3107-3 (ebook Part 3)
1. Savants (Savant syndrome)—Fiction. 2. Brokers—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.H3635K56 2016
813’.6—dc
23
2015032690
ISBN 978-1-4767-2591-8
ISBN 978-1-4767-2593-2 (ebook)
Contents
* * *
Part 1
The White House, April 17, 9:52 P.M.
Lower Manhattan, June 14, 2:17 A.M.
New York City, June 14, 8:17 A.M.
Jenkins & Altshuler, New York City, June 14, 8:52 A.M.
Washington, DC, June 14, 10:05 A.M.
Valletta, Malta, June 14, 4:43 P.M. (GMT +1)
Queens, New York, June 14, 1:52 P.M.
Lower Manhattan, June 15, 2:15 A.M.
Alexandria, Virginia, June 15, 7:45 A.M.
Falls Church City, Virginia, June 15, 9:52 A.M.
Thirty-Two Thousand Feet over the Atlantic, June 15, 4:42 P.M.
Alexandria, Virginia, June 15, 8:15 P.M.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 16, 9:30 A.M.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, June 16, 9:45 A.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 16, 4:58 P.M.
Part 2
Minsk, Belarus, June 17, 10:51 A.M. (GMT +3)
Oakland, California, June 17, 8:15 A.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 17, 12:09 P.M.
Orlando, Florida, June 17, 1:09 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 17, 9:55 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 18, 6:00 A.M.
Atlanta, Georgia, June 18, 11:01 A.M.
Midtown Manhattan, June 18, 4:31 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 18, 6:42 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 19, 5:12 A.M.
Charlotte, North Carolina, June 19, 9:42 A.M.
Hunts Point, Bronx, June 19, 11:15 A.M.
Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, June 19, 12:15 P.M.
Lower Manhattan, June 19, 1:58 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 19, 4:42 P.M.
Southeast, Washington, DC, June 20, 12:42 P.M.
Midtown Manhattan, June 20, 2:52 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 20, 3:01 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 20, 3:15 P.M.
Washington, DC, June 20, 8:30 P.M.
Silver Spring, Maryland, June 21, 9:15 A.M.
Grant Park, Atlanta, June 21, 1:11 P.M.
Irvington, New Jersey, June 21, 7:19 P.M.
Lyady, Belarus, June 23, 8:17 A.M. (GMT +3)
Beach Haven Park, New Jersey, June 23, 12:22 P.M.
Irvington, New Jersey, June 23, 7:01 P.M.
Midtown Manhattan, June 23, 7:41 P.M.
Newark, New Jersey, June 23, 10:15 P.M.
Part 3
Downtown Manhattan, June 24, 7:53 A.M.
Lower Manhattan, June 24, 8:30 A.M.
Washington, DC, June 24, 9:08 A.M.
City Hall, New York City, June 24, 12:06 P.M.
FBI Field Office, Lower Manhattan, June 24, 12:15 P.M.
Beach Haven Park, New Jersey, June 24, 1:28 P.M.
Washington, DC, June 24, 3:05 P.M.
FBI Field Office, Lower Manhattan, June 24, 4:15 P.M.
Manhattan, June 24, 5:07 P.M.
FBI Field Office, Lower Manhattan, June 24, 7:43 P.M.
Midtown Manhattan, June 24, 9:07 P.M.
Cherry Street, Lower Manhattan, June 25, 1:01 A.M.
East River, June 25, 4:47 A.M.
Brooklyn Heights, June 25, 6:01 A.M.
Midtown Manhattan, June 25, 8:58 A.M.
Vanderbilt Frink, June 25, 9:25 A.M.
Midtown Manhattan, June 25, 9:49 A.M.
Vanderbilt Frink, June 25, 10:42 A.M.
Midtown Manhattan, June 25, 11:32 A.M.
Oakwood Beach, Staten Island, June 25, 8:15 P.M.
Oakwood Beach, Staten Island, June 25, 8:32 P.M.
Oakwood Beach, Staten Island, June 25, 8:47 P.M.
Oakwood Beach, Staten Island, June 25, 8:52 P.M.
Minsk, Belarus, June 26, 9:02 A.M. (GMT +3)
Lower Manhattan, July 8, 3:31 P.M.
Washington, DC, July 11, 11:25 A.M.
Lower Manhattan, July 17, 10:56 A.M.
Acknowledgments
About the Author