The Prince of Risk

52

For a few minutes neither of them spoke. Too much had happened. Each needed time to make sense of it. Alex went to the bathroom and returned with warm towels to wrap Bobby’s wound. She told him he needed to get to a hospital, and he said he felt all right for the time being. She gave him her look, and he promised he would go immediately.

Seized by a need to do something-anything-Astor stood and sorted through the papers on his father’s desk. He was looking for something similar to what he’d found at Penelope Evans’s home. There were letters from member firms, invitations to galas, memos from his father’s office. All appeared related to Edward Astor’s day-to-day responsibilities, both public and private. If his father had been concerned about unwanted attention the investigation might bring, it made sense that he’d conducted his research at Penelope Evans’s home. She was his cover.

“Don’t take anything,” said Alex.

“I’m just looking,” said Astor. “Besides, it’s my house.”

“It’s your father’s house. You have no legal right to be here. Technically, you’re trespassing.”

Astor stopped and faced her. “So?” he said. “You want to tell me what you’re doing here?”

“I need the jet. The G4. For work. I didn’t think you’d say yes on the phone.”

“You guys have jets.”

“Officially, I’m supposed to be taking a couple days off. Getting over Malloy and the others.”

“But you can’t?”

Alex shook her head. She almost smiled. “Of course not.”

“So what gives?”

“It has to do with what went down on Windermere Street yesterday. Something bad is about to happen. I can’t go into it.”

“Like what ‘something bad’?” The question was not driven by idle curiosity. The kinds of bad things Alex dealt with might adversely affect the market, and hence his funds. The fact that she was requesting a jet did little to settle his nerves.

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

“Can you tell me where you’re going?”

“London.”

“That’s twenty grand, fuel and pilot there and back. If you hustle, you can pack and still be able to make a commercial flight out of JFK.”

“Too tight. I can’t chance missing it.” Alex brushed hair off her forehead. “Twenty grand isn’t very much to prevent an attack that might take a lot of lives.”

“Now you’re scaring me.”

“That’s the idea.”

“You still didn’t answer me.”

“I don’t have to. I’m asking a favor. Just tell me yes or no and let’s cut the horse trading.”

“You’re serious? An attack…where?”

Alex ran a finger over her teeth, tapping them, shaking her head. “Sometimes I think you’re in the wrong job. They could have used you down at Gitmo. You could talk the nuclear codes out of the president. Where’s the attack? Here. New York. Or somewhere close by. At least, that’s my guess.”

“Soon?”

Alex nodded.

“You stop to think it could have something to do with my dad? The guy-Palantir-said something about an attack, too. He talked about their being desperate, whoever they are.”

“This isn’t financial. We’re talking a real physical assault.”

“Something took control of the car my father was in and made it appear as if it were a threat to the White House. If that isn’t physical, I don’t know what is.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“I am. The same people screwed with my elevator.”

“I’m not willing to make that connection. Your elevator could have malfunctioned on its own. A woman was killed in midtown just last year when an elevator went haywire.”

“This isn’t a coincidence.”

“Bobby, the guys I’m looking for aren’t desperate. They’re well organized and well financed and well armed. I’ve seen nothing that suggests these two incidents are tied together.”

“What are we talking then, another 9/11? A nuke? I don’t know what kind of stuff you guys come up against every day.”

“I’m thinking Mumbai.”

“That’s not good.” Astor knew all about the attack. Alex had called it a shoot and scoot and had been one of the team sent to Mumbai to work with the Indian police to analyze the event, with a view to formulating plans to improve their response. Astor also knew that she had been part of a task force to train the NYPD in how to deal with such an emergency if it took place in Manhattan. “If this thing is going down in New York, why are you so keen on taking the jet to London?”

“Jesus, Bobby, stop hounding me. I have to go to London. That’s all there is to it. Tell me yes or no.”

Astor sat on the edge of the desk. “Yesterday when Sully told me about the shooting out on Long Island, there was a second there when I didn’t know who had been killed. I thought about you-about us.”

“There is no us, Bobby.”

“That was your decision, not mine.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Alex flared before catching herself. “We hadn’t been getting along for years. Don’t act like it was all my fault.”

“You stopped talking. You stopped wanting to be near me. You stopped…well, you stopped everything.”

“Yes, I did, Bobby. You know why? ’Cause you were half in the bag every time I was near you. You weren’t exactly a romantic yourself. When was the last time you tried to make an effort?”

“From my exile in the guest bedroom? Getting into the bedroom was like breaking into Alcatraz.”

“I don’t sleep with drunks,” Alex said.

The word hit Astor like a hammer. She’d never called him that before. He rose and walked to the far side of the room. “I was never a drunk.”

“Maybe not. But it got bad all the same.”

“It did,” he said. “And I’m sorry.”

Alex met his gaze. For once, she didn’t challenge him. Something in her face softened.

“Really?”

“I wonder if I’d done something differently…”

“It wasn’t just the drinking. It was your business. It never ended. The first thing you did when you got up and the last thing you did before you went to bed was check the markets. Last couple of years, you even slept with a phone under your pillow so you could look at your positions if you woke up. That’s not a job, Bobby. That’s an addiction.”

“Were you always this harsh?”

“Were you always this sentimental?”

Astor shrugged. “Something about nearly being killed, I guess. I do know that I’m ready to give it another try.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“You meet someone?”

“No.” Alex shook her head, angry at letting herself be drawn into this kind of conversation. “It’s none of your business. Leave it alone.”

Astor came closer. It was difficult not to touch her. “We had something good.”

“This is not the time or the place.”

“I’m not going to get another chance. Not if you go to London.” He saw her eyes light up as she realized that she would get the jet. “Just think about it.”

Alex cocked her head. “That’s your best shot?”

“I had more planned, but I can’t have you thinking I’m too sappy.” He took a breath, and when he looked at her, he was looking at the same headstrong, beautiful girl he’d met all those years ago. “I’m still the man you married.”

“I liked that man.”

“Later,” said Astor. “After all this.”

Alex didn’t answer. Not at once. She held his gaze longer than he had imagined, hitting him with her inquisitor’s eyes. “Maybe,” she said.

That was as good as he was likely to get, today or any other day. He had a chance. It was all he could ask for.

He looked at his ex-wife, her eyes steadfast, jaw raised, all of her battle-ready. Her dedication to her job was the quality he admired most, and the one he found most maddening. In his world of masters of the universe and big swinging dicks and London whales, not one of his competitors had balls half the size of hers. He couldn’t fathom what she’d gone through the past two days, losing three colleagues in a gun battle-one of whom was a close friend-not to mention being shot at herself at close range. Yet here she was, driving out to Oyster Bay, not resting, not quitting, but going strong, maybe even gathering steam.

“You’re sure about the jet?” she asked.

“I’ll call the FBO now and get everything set up.”

Alex smiled tentatively. She gently pulled his hand away from his arm and studied the cut. “That’s deep. Emergency room. Pronto.”

“You care,” he said sarcastically.

“I ought to cuff you and take you downtown. That’d show you how much I care. Now come on. Let’s get out of here. I don’t want some of my people showing up and finding you in here.”

“And finding you?”

“Yes, Bobby, and finding me.”

“When are you back?”

“I hope it’ll be a day trip.”

“Good thing you came to ask.”

“Guess it worked out for both of us.” Alex walked out of the office, pausing at the doorway to wait for him. “By the way, what’s up with your phone? I couldn’t reach you.”

“I thought you said you came out here because you thought I’d say no on the phone.”

“I lied.”

“It was hacked. I’m going to buy a new one when I get back to the city. I’ll call you with the number.”

“Do that. I need to be able to reach you.”

Alex ducked into the corridor.

Astor took a last look at the desk. It was then that he observed a splotch of red under a corner of the leather desk pad. Quickly he freed the piece of paper. It was a set of driving directions from MapQuest. The address was in Reston, Virginia. Something clicked. He’d recently read something about Reston. He scanned the header and saw that the directions had been printed on Saturday morning. He looked more closely, and his heart jumped a beat.

Britium Technologies.

It was the company mentioned in the article Penelope Evans had been reading prior to her death.

“Coming?”

Astor folded up the paper and stuffed it into his pants pocket. He caught up to Alex on the landing. “Let’s go.”

Alex said yes, and they walked down the stairs together. They paused to say their goodbyes on the front porch.

“From here,” she said, “you’re going to get your arm taken care of, then go to Jan McVeigh and tell her everything you’ve learned.”

“Are you going to say you found me here?”

“I’m going to say you phoned me when you realized that you were in over your head and that this was a matter for the federal authorities.”

“I’m a civilian. I just say ‘the cops.’”

“Say whatever you want. Just get your butt down there. Ask for protection. Sully’s a little past his sell-by date.”

“I trust him.”

“I trust him, too, but whoever wants you dead got past him going in and going out.” Alex ran her fingers along the lapel of his jacket. “They’ve missed you twice. Three’s a charm.”

Astor lowered his head to kiss her, but she saw it coming a mile away and ducked her head.

“I said maybe.”