“How do you know?”
“Alex and I have gone over it a half dozen times. Look, I can go over it for you sometime, but there’s just too much that we’ve been able to do. If Olivia and Crane were real enemies, there’s no way she’d know so much about his trading. And the odds that our hack would still be working after all this time? Really slim, Manny. Alex is good. They made it very hard. But it should have been impossible.”
Manny looked down and shook his head. At that moment, the criminal in Manny Guzman told him it made sense. He’d been played for a sucker. He’d fallen for the con.
“I can’t fucking believe it.”
“I know.”
“Motherfucker.”
Beck didn’t respond.
“So what was I for?”
“You, me—we’re supposed to take the fall for stealing Markov’s money.”
“Fuck.” Manny smirked. “All those years. All those years she stayed close to me.”
“I can’t believe she played you all that time. I can’t say when it turned. When she came up with it.”
“Then why fucking stay close to me during all those years? I didn’t want it. It just made the whole thing worse. It was another thing they could take away from me.”
“Lot of people want to be close to a bad guy, Manny. Hell, a lot of people would want someone like you in their corner.”
Manny pursed his lips. Mulling it over. Shook his head. He looked like he was about to tell himself something, but stopped. Pulled himself back from whatever rage or regret or combination of both that was plaguing him.
“I don’t know. I still can’t believe it.”
“That’s where the worst part comes in.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the only way you’re going to believe it, the only way to eliminate any doubt, you’re going to have to have your heart ripped out.” Beck paused. “Before this day is out, Manny, you’re going to have to pay a hell of a price.”
Beck watched Manny stare at him. He knew that Manny Guzman was one of the most implacable men he’d ever known. He knew that the impatience and edginess he’d displayed over the past days stemmed from a deep sense of guilt at having put Beck and the others in such danger. Knowing that, Beck was able to lean forward across the table once more and explain to his friend how his doubt would be expelled, and the debt of guilt would have to be paid.
Manny Guzman simply nodded, more to himself than to Beck. Beck touched the side of his friend’s face, and left Manny alone in his small kitchen.
77
The first time Olivia Sanchez sat next to Alex Liebowitz as he worked his computer keyboard and mouse, clicking, typing, opening and closing charts and Web sites and pages on his monitors, he had been too inhibited to look at her.
But as the hours ticked by, he had loosened up. They had concentrated on the task at hand, but there had been plenty of time to talk while they stared at the data in front of them. Alex shared his knowledge of security systems and firewalls. Olivia explained the complexity of Crane’s trading methods, how he had developed the algorithms to program his conditional orders. Oftentimes, she would lean closer to the screen to point something out, closing the physical distance between them. Occasionally, their shoulders had touched. A couple of times, she had actually reached out to rub his back vigorously. Just a few quick strokes to revive or congratulate him.
Alex wasn’t na?ve enough to think that she actually might be attracted to him. Clearly she was playing him. So what? It still felt good.
He enjoyed the attentions of this incredibly beautiful woman.
Right up until the street fights, the blood, guns, firemen, and police. All of it suddenly blossoming like a virulent disease threatening to overrun them.
Olivia hadn’t seen the men shot, maimed, burned, arrested. But Alex had. And he knew that if Olivia Sanchez had helped cause that, even if indirectly, he wanted nothing to do with her. They were back together now, working in their island of cyberspace on the second floor of Beck’s loft. Even knowing what he did, on some level Alex enjoyed having Olivia Sanchez next to him again.
Now as the endgame unfolded, Alex took one more sidelong glance at her, and wondered how this was all going to end.
Suddenly, the bulk of James Beck filled the space on Alex’s right side.
“Where are we?” he said.
Alex and Olivia began to speak at the same time. Olivia indicated that Alex should answer.
“He’s got about five million left to close out. I’d say it’s time we pulled the trigger.”
Beck answered immediately. “No. Not yet. Let him finish.”
“But…”
Beck interrupted by holding up his hand. He stared at the screen.
“You sure?” asked Alex. “You really want to risk losing”—he squinted at the total in the Cayman account—“a hundred and eleven million to get the last five?”
“Trust me.”
Alex raised a hand and tipped his head in agreement. “I’m too tired to argue.”
As Alex spoke, the last tranche of holdings were sold. Alex immediately minimized the screen that displayed Crane’s trading platform, and expanded the screen that showed the balance in the depository account connected to the Cayman-based brokerage account.
All three of them focused on that screen.
Without taking his eyes off the screen, Alex said, “Normally, in a U.S. brokerage the trades would clear through in a maximum of two seconds. Offshore like this, it will take a few more seconds for the confirmations to appear.”