An Absence of Light

Kalatis was suppressing a premature euphoria. He was very near to concluding a nine-year project True, he had not planned this particular venture until just the last twenty months-when he saw how incredibly eager American businessmen were to abandon legitimacy-but it had issued from the larger picture, an exercise that he was already looking back on as his American years. The money. My God, the money these men were willing to part with in a calculated gamble to triple what they already had astonished and delighted him. But cogs and wheels were still turning elsewhere, everything was synchronized to terminate simultaneously, and while so many diverse events were still pending he did not let his mind dwell too long on the sweet potential of his rewards.

His thoughts returned to the task at hand as Ms. Donata was beginning an anecdote about Vail. And down below on the docks millions of dollars from the West Coast were about to depart from the South Coast, to points far removed and unknown… except to Kalatis.

Chapter 56

Gilbert Hormann pushed Panos Kalatis out of his mind. It was growing increasingly easy to do with every passing moment.

He had been working late at the office, a regular occurrence especially when there was a shipment to Colombia in the offing. The door was open to his adjoining private apartment where he had been to pour himself a drink half an hour before. His personal line in his apartment rang, and he walked in and picked it up expecting to hear his wife ask how much later he was going to be.

It was Kalatis. The Greek said he was rushed. He said he had just gotten the documents required for the Colombian shipment-these were counterfeited bills of lading and other forms that had to be filed with governmental agencies in order to be able to export significant quantities of sulfuric acid and acetic anhydride. Kalatis wanted Gilbert to have the documents tonight, and he was going to send over someone with them, just to drop them off. Gilbert knew there was no use arguing that he was just about to leave.

He hung up the telephone and looked at his watch. Kalatis had said the documents would be there in half an hour. Great Gilbert had been only minutes away from quitting for the night anyway, and the telephone call had broken his concentration. He turned off the light in his office and walked into his apartment There was a small kitchen there, a well-furnished bar, a sitting area with a couple of sofas and several armchairs for entertaining. There were plants scattered about, an enormous television, and a view of the entire Galleria area below and, just slightly to the right, the shimmering skyline of downtown. Around the corner was a large bedroom with a generous bath and a Jacuzzi with the same view as in the living room.

Gilbert made himself another drink, kicked off his shoes-he had taken off his tie long ago-and settled down in front of the television, flicking the remote control until he came to the Playboy channel. Forty minutes passed quickly, lubricated by several more drinks, and when the security phone rang he quickly punched in the numbers to let Kalatis’s messenger into the elevator. Deliveries from Kalatis were not rare, and his emissaries had the routine well rehearsed.

In five minutes the buzzer to the main office reception area sounded, and Gilbert got up and walked out through his office carrying his drink and without bothering to put on his shoes. When he entered the reception area he almost dropped his glass. Standing on the outside of the glass wall was Kalatis’s emissary, Jael.

Gilbert actually stopped. She was wearing a simple, deep-burgundy cocktail dress which hung off her shoulders like a sheet of water. Gilbert was stunned. She held up a manila envelope against the glass, a gesture that seemed to jar him into action. He walked to the receptionist’s desk and buzzed open the glass panel door.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, smiling and reaching out the envelope. “Panos called you about this?”

Gilbert nodded stupidly. He could see her goddamn nipples.

“I’m so sorry it is so late. You know Panos,” she said with a rueful wrinkle of her brows and a little shrug. Gilbert would have given fifty dollars to see her shrug that away again. “Everything is so… hectic… so busy there. He was leaving for a business trip… everyone was busy. No one but me to come.”

No one but her to come. Gilbert loved her choice of words… and her accent He didn’t know what the hell kind of an accent it was, and he didn’t care. He always had thought she was one of the hottest-looking women he had ever laid eyes on. Panos’s woman, some kind of Middle Eastern blood was what he guessed, but that didn’t matter either. She was just an incredible thing. Lean and young and buxom and dark, eyes like a goddamn cat’s. He may have been staring at her, he didn’t know. He already had drunk enough to make such fine distinctions indistinguishable.