Numbered Account (43 page)

Nick turned his attention to the manila folder marked “client mail” sitting loose on top of the right-hand page. The folder held a pile of unclaimed correspondence: official confirmations of every transaction completed for benefit of the Pasha’s account. As was common for numbered accounts, all mail was held at the bank until such time as the account holder wanted to review it. The stack wasn’t very thick. Marco Cerruti must have delivered a bundle during his most recent visit. Nick counted approximately thirty envelopes. One corresponding for each incoming and outgoing wire transfer plus two month-end statements, the one for February dated only yesterday.

Nick closed the manila folder and slid it onto the signature sheet. A sheaf of transaction confirmations two fingers in height was attached to the right outermost cover of the file. Perusing them, he saw that the stack contained a record of all confirmations sent to the holder of account 549.617 RR. Every incoming wire, every outgoing wire since the account was opened. At the bottom of the stack was a copy of each of the seven matrices listing the name of every bank and every account number to which the Pasha’s funds were to be wired. To Sterling Thorne, the matrices would prove more valuable than any treasure map, more inculpatory than any confession. With them, he could trace the flow of funds from USB to fifty or sixty banks around the world. Sure it was only one step in what was no doubt a circuitous route. But it was the first step, and as such, the most important.

Nick studied the incoming wire transfers for the final three months of the previous year. Rules forbade the copying of any information in the files. It was strictly “for his eyes only.” As well as he could, he memorized the amounts that arrived on each Monday and Thursday. He totaled the dollar value of the transactions for each week and set them in a column inside his head. When he got as far back as October, his mind failed him. It was as if a screen went blank, a momentary short circuit. He began again, reading in reverse chronological order the transfers made from December 31 back through September 30, totaling the figures weekly. Thirteen numbers stood out clearly in his mind. He ran his mind’s eye down the column, summing the eight-digit figures. Finished, he memorized the sum. In three months, $678 million had passed through the Pasha’s account.

Nick raised his head and found Karl staring unabashedly at him. “Who are you, really?” he seemed to be asking.

Nick returned his attention to the folder. He had come to steal the unclaimed transaction confirmations. The envelopes held hard-copy proof that the client was violating the rules against money laundering as prescribed by the DEA. They also proved that USB knowingly facilitated such contraventions. In his jacket pocket were a dozen envelopes identical to those in the file below him. He had typed the Pasha’s account number on every envelope and placed a folded sheet of blank paper inside. Keeping his eyes glued to the papers below him, he slid the phony confirmations out of his pocket and tucked them under his leg. Now he had to wait for a person to enter and divert Karl’s attention.

Nick checked the time. It was 10:35. He should be at his desk selling off shares. Feller would have noticed his absence by now. The little zealot had adopted the habit of phoning every fifteen minutes to keep a running tally of the dollar value of shares Nick had sold. Just this morning, Nick had generated sell orders for over eight million dollars and had issued buy orders for a corresponding amount of USB shares. Maeder’s plan was going off without a hitch.

Time passed slowly. DZ was deserted. Ten minutes ago, the room had been packed. Now it was empty. Where in the hell had everybody gone? He couldn’t wait here forever. Nick snuck a glance at Karl. The old coot was still staring right at him.

A few minutes later, the door creaked halfway open and then closed. False alarm. Nick blew out his breath anxiously. The last thing he needed was for Feller to start searching all over the place for him. He had to get back to the Fourth Floor. A single bead of sweat formed at the top of his spine. He could feel it roll the length of his back. He lifted his hand from the desk and saw that he had left a moist imprint. He wiped his palm on the seam of his pants.

At 11:05, a dark-haired man walked into the room. He was a clerk returning from the lavatory. Nick waited until he approached the service counter, then counted to three and extracted the transaction confirmations from the Pasha’s dossier. Sure not to raise his head, he brushed the unmailed letters into his lap. With his right hand, he removed the dozen surrogate confirmations from under his thigh and placed them into the dossier. Still keeping his head immobile above the dossier, he arranged the stolen letters into a neat stack and in one assured motion deposited them in the inside pocket of his jacket. Every letter slid in smoothly. Except one. One envelope protruded from his jacket for all the world to see. Nick flung his elbow in a wide arc and repeatedly jammed the envelope into his jacket. Three times he tried to stuff it into his jacket. On the fourth try the letter slipped in.

Nick waited for the alarm to sound. Karl must have noticed. One of the secretaries had to have seen his bungled burglary. Nothing happened. Daring a glance toward the counter, Nick saw that Karl was staring directly at him. Why hadn’t the old codger spotted his brazen theft?

Nick rearranged the Pasha’s dossier so that all was neat and orderly. As he approached the counter, he looked past Karl and saw that the young secretaries behind him were laughing. Nick returned his eyes to the keeper of
Dokumentation Zentrale
. He was leaning over the counter, his chin resting comfortably on his palm. His bifocals sat precariously at the end of his nose, and his eyes were closed.

Karl was snoring.

Nick left the office that evening at seven on the dot. He hurried up the Bahnhofstrasse to the Paradeplatz, hoping to catch the next tram. A light snow was falling, and tonight it made Zurich the prettiest city in the world. His step was light and energetic, buoyed by a sense of purpose he hadn’t known since his first day at the bank eight weeks ago. He passed the tram stop that would take him to his grim apartment in the USB
Personalhaus
and crossed the square, arriving just in time to board the number two, heading in the opposite direction.

Nick chose a seat near the doorway and settled in for the short ride. He repeated Sylvia’s address in his head as the tram bucked and jostled its way up the Universitatstrasse. He hoped she wouldn’t mind his showing up unannounced — if she was even home. He had tried to call her earlier, but her assistant had said she would be out for the day. A rush of well-being came over him, and he smiled. He didn’t know why he felt so exhilarated. Maybe part of it was because he had pulled off his petty theft; maybe part because he was keeping his word, taking concrete steps to make amends for his poor conduct. Whatever the reason, he felt alive and vital — full of piss and vinegar, his father would have said — and he needed to see Sylvia. He needed to see someone who understood the foreign world into which he had delivered himself.

Nick arrived at the top of Frohburgstrasse twenty minutes later and caught his first glimpse of Sylvia’s apartment. A light was burning in her window. He had a hard time keeping himself from running the short distance to her doorway. Two weeks ago, he’d asked himself what it was about her that he found so attractive and he hadn’t been able to fashion an answer. Yet tonight, he knew it without thinking. She was the first person he’d ever met who kept a tighter rein on her life than he kept on his. For once, he could be the one to let go, to be a little crazy, even whimsical, and relax doing it, knowing that she was in control. It was a role he’d never played before, and he liked it. Then, of course, there was the sex. He didn’t like to admit it, but at first he had enjoyed the taboo implicit in seducing his older female superior. And he thought she did, too. When he was with her, the whole world stopped turning. Everything beyond their immediate periphery ceased to exist. She made him feel complete.

Nick reached the entry to her apartment and pressed the call button. He prayed Sylvia would be at home. He felt too good to be left alone on a Friday night. He tapped his foot nervously.
Come on, answer
, he said to himself.
Open the goddamned door
. He pressed the buzzer again, and his spirits began to fade. He took a step back. A voice came from the intercom. “Who is it?”

Nick felt his heart skip a beat. He was nervous and excited at the same time. “It’s Nick. Let me in.”

“Nick? Are you all right?”

He laughed. She was probably wondering if he was as frazzled as he’d been that Friday night not so long past. “Yes, of course.”

The door buzzed and he rushed inside the apartment. He took the stairs two at a time, forgetting all about his sore knee. He just wanted to see Sylvia. She was waiting for him at the door as he came down the final few stairs. She was wearing a white terry-cloth bathrobe, toweling her hair dry. He stopped for a second to stare at her. Her skin was flushed from hot water. Her face was damp and moist. He walked slowly the last few steps, feeling like he needed her more than he’d needed anyone else before in his life. Not knowing why and not caring.

“I was just in the bath. You sur—”

Nick slid an arm inside her bathrobe and drew her toward him. He kissed her firm and hard on the lips. She resisted, trying to wedge a hand in between them. He wrapped his other arm around her back and held her tighter. She relaxed, allowing her head to fall back and opening her mouth to taste him. She moaned. He closed his eyes and drifted to a warm place.

Nick released her and they stepped into the apartment. He shut the door and pulled back to stare into her soft brown eyes. He saw a flicker somewhere inside them, and he knew she was asking herself what he was doing there, why he had kissed her like that. He expected her to speak, maybe even to tell him to get out, but instead she remained silent, standing inches away from him. He could feel the warmth of her body and her slow, heavy breathing. She raised a finger to his lips and brushed it slowly across them. He grew aroused. She turned and led him by the hand down the corridor and into her bedroom. She pushed him down onto the bed and peeled the bathrobe back from her shoulders, allowing it to drop to the floor. He looked at her nude body. He longed to run his hand along every curve, wanted to brush his lips across her stomach and then lower. He lifted his hands and cupped her breasts, running a thumb around her nipples until they hardened. Her breathing slowed and grew shallow. She reached down and touched him, rubbing her hand back and forth over the swelling in his trousers. Then she lowered herself to her knees, and ran her face back and forth across him. She pushed his jacket from his shoulders, then anxiously unbuckled his belt and pulled down his trousers. She caressed him for a moment, her tongue tasting him, then took him into her mouth.

Nick watched her, his pleasure forcing his hips off the bed. He wanted her to take more of him, all of him. He wanted to be inside her, to hold her next to him, to share the same breath.

Sylvia released him and climbed onto the bed. She straddled him, guiding him slowly into her, taking him out, then bringing him in deeper. Her eyes were closed and she moaned each time he touched her. Nick held on to the bed, balling up the sheets in the palms of his hands. He struggled to breathe slower, to feel less. Finally, she lowered herself onto him and shuddered. Nick sat up and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her ravenously. Her mouth was hot and wet with desire. His entire body stiffened, and when he could hold back no longer, he let himself go, arching his back and thrusting himself deep into her. She lowered her head to her chest and her body quaked, an uneven humming drifting from her mouth. Her tremors increased and she laid both hands on his chest, breathing heavily. Then suddenly her body relaxed. She exhaled loudly, then fell onto the bed.

Sylvia lay down beside him. After a while her breathing calmed and she laughed huskily. She raised herself on an elbow and ran a cool nail down his chest. “Better get some rest, Tiger. We have the whole weekend to get through.”

Sterling Thorne could not erase the grin from his face. He knew he must look like an idiot, smiling and laughing like a six-year-old boy, but he couldn’t help it. He was reading the text of the charges that had been filed against First Lieutenant Nicholas Neumann USMCR for the first time in its entirety. And he was enjoying it. One section was of particular interest, and this he read again and again.

“. . . whereby defendant did willfully and with malice aforethought batter the plaintiff. Said plaintiff did suffer severe bruising to the lower back and hip, two ruptured disks at the 14th and 15th vertebrae, a class-one subdural hematoma, gross swelling of the testicles and concomitant edema.”

That last one made Thorne fidget in his chair. “
Gross swelling of the testicles and concomitant edema
.” Old Jack Keely had got himself a thorough going-over; his back was half broken, his skull near fractured, and worst, his balls had been throttled so hard they were swollen the size of grapefruits. Not only that, the fucker’s
cojones
were leaking.

Thorne flipped to the next page, and then back again. Nowhere in the file did it specify the reason for the attack. Nowhere did it say what had gotten Neumann so riled at this man Keely, whom the record listed as a “civilian defense contractor.” Read “spook,” Thorne corrected.

Earlier in the day he had finally received the full copy of Neumann’s military personnel file. A buddy had FedExed it over from Headquarters Marine Corps in D.C. The same guy had faxed him a copy of Neumann’s discharge and the final ruling of the board of inquiry that he’d used to set the kid running. Frankly speaking, Thorne wished he’d gotten his eyes on the whole dossier before he’d started putting pressure on the kid. The last thing he needed was a list of injuries like those suffered by Mr. Jack Keely.

Thorne closed the file. Once more he ran the highlights through his head. Neumann had zoomed through OCS, finishing as honor graduate. During Basic School, he had maxed every physical fitness test he’d taken and gotten himself a billet to U.S. Army Ranger school. He’d finished the course, naturally, and earned his tabs. Not at the top this time, but in a class that boasted a seventy percent attrition rate, just finishing the damn thing in one piece was impressive. Next came an assignment to active duty at Camp Pendleton as executive officer of an infantry platoon. That lasted a year. Then he disappeared. No word on his actions for three years. No fitness reports, no senior officer appraisals, no requests for transfer, no nothing. Just the board of inquiry’s summary and a copy of his separation papers. Dishonorable discharge. No wonder the kid came overseas. Probably couldn’t get a job in the States with that monkey on his back.