Numbered Account

There it was. The lie Nick had been expecting. He was just surprised that it took so long to come. The anger inside him crested. "Your word doesn't mean spit to me. You've got no say over who the Swiss jail or who they release. You almost had me there for a second. Sound the bugle and the loyal marine comes running. I know you guys. Out there playing God, thinking you're doing some good. You're just getting your rocks off, seeing how much power you can exercise over your little slice of the world. Well, forget it. You'll have to count me out. That's not my game."

"You got it all wrong, brother," Thorne shouted. "You can't use me as an excuse to pretend Mevlevi doesn't exist or that you, as his banker, as the man who day in, day out, helps him hide the fruits of his illegal labors, are not responsible. You two are on the same goddamned team. In my world, Nick, there's us and there's them. If you're not one of us, you're one of them. So where do you stand?"

Nick took a while to answer the question. "I guess I'm one of them."

Oddly, Thorne seemed pleased by the answer. "That's too bad. I told you to take advantage of my kindly disposition. Now you've gone and pissed me off. I know about your old friend Jack Keely. What went wrong down there in the P.I. must have been something powerful bad for you to fly off the handle like that. You're lucky you didn't kill that man. So you think long and hard about helping me out, or others will know about your escapade, too. I don't think Kaiser would be too happy to learn that you left the Corps with a dishonorable discharge. I don't think he'd be too keen to learn that you're a convicted felon- maybe in a private military court, but convicted just the same. Hell, maybe I should be afraid of you, too. But, I'm not. I'm too busy worrying about Mevlevi. And about Jester. You may want to piss on guys like me, but I crush guys like you. That's not my job- it's my reason for living. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Nick said. "Do what you have to do. Just stay the hell away from me. I don't have anything to say to you. Not now. Not ever."

CHAPTER 27

Rattling into the Paradeplatz early Thursday morning, Nick was greeted everywhere by headlines trumpeting the improprieties of a major bank. The central kiosk was festooned with flyers from every major daily. Blick, Zurich's low-rent scandal sheet, proclaimed, "Schmiergeld bei Gotthardo Bank," Bribe Money at Gotthardo Bank. The NZZ, the oldest and most conservative of the city's three daily papers, was equally accusatory: "Shame on Gotthardo." The Tages Anzeiger took a more global view: "Swiss Banks in League with Drug Mafia."

Nick hurried from the tram to purchase a newspaper. What had started as a rotten day showed no sign of changing course. His alarm clock had failed to go off at the proper time; the hot water in his building had been turned off, so he'd been forced to endure a full two minutes- not the usual fifteen seconds- under an ice-cold shower; and the 7:01 tram had left at 6:59. Without him! Not that yesterday had been much better, cursed Nick, as he jogged paper in hand down the Bahnhofstrasse.

Klaus Konig had completed his purchase of over 1.7 million shares of USB stock at eleven A.M. and had followed it with a second order to gobble up an additional two hundred thousand shares at market price. By day's end, the price of USB shares had skyrocketed fifteen percent and Konig held a twenty-one percent stake in the bank, all too near the thirty-three percent threshold that would grant him his coveted seats on the board.

The precipitous rise in share price combined with the Adler Bank's growing stake left the United Swiss Bank more vulnerable than ever. And no one knew that better, or had responded more vigorously, than Wolfgang Kaiser. At noon, the Chairman had descended to the floor of the Borse and personally ordered Sepp Zwicki to buy, buy, buy USB shares at whatever the cost. Kaiser had drawn his line in the sand. In three hours, the bank had picked up a couple hundred thousand shares, and war had been openly declared between the United Swiss Bank and the Adler Bank. Arbitrageurs in New York and in Tokyo, in Sydney and in Singapore, were licking their chops, buying up shares of USB in hopes of a continuing escalation in price.

Nick took a last look at the newspaper in his hand before entering the Emperor's Lair. Scanning the inflammatory headlines, he thought, "Holy shit. Now this."