The Short Forever

                        Stone laughed. “Don’t worry, I haven’t worn a wire in years, not since I was a cop.”

                        Lance got up, walked behind Stone and, on the pretense of pointing at something on the river, ran his hands expertly over Stone’s body, down to the crotch.

                        “Don’t have too much fun there,” Stone said.

                        “What’s this?” Lance asked, patting Stone’s jacket pocket.

                        Stone removed the pen and handed it to him.

                        Lance inspected it closely and unscrewed the cap.

                        Don’t try to unscrew the other end, Stone thought.

                        Lance didn’t; he returned the pen, and Stone put it back into his pocket.

                        “Now,” Lance said.

                        Stone leaned forward, as if to listen closely, putting his left hand on the table.

                        “I’m going to tell you everything I think you need to know.”

                        “If it’s everything I think I need to know, we’ll be fine.”

                        “There is a company west and south of here, in Wiltshire, a very secret company that makes very, very high-tech parts for the British military. We’re talking very specialized metallurgy, machine tools, incredibly tight tolerances, and computerized design. For the past year, a man who works there, making these parts, has managed to make a duplicate of one extremely important component.”

                        Stone interrupted. “Surely parts of that kind are stringently catalogued and accounted for.”

                        “This man has been working in this facility for nearly thirty years, and he has accumulated a reservoir of trust, which leads his employers and colleagues to give him wide latitude. He’s brilliant, and he’s crotchety, and nobody likes to piss him off, so they leave him pretty much to himself.”

                        “I see.”

                        “This gentleman is nearing retirement, and he feels that his pension plan and what he has managed to save are insufficient to keep him in the style to which he would like to become accustomed. You see, he has a little horse-betting habit, which, over the years, has taken its toll on his nest egg.”

                        “Do you mean to tell me that an important employee of a high-security facility could be betting the ponies and losing and not be noticed?”

                        “Apparently, he has been very discreet, and he has not been noticed,” Lance replied. “In any case, he has made it known to someone who knows someone I know that he has built this very special device, and that it is for sale. I have bid on it, and he has accepted my offer. All that remains to be done is to meet with him, retrieve the device, pay him half a million dollars in cash, and pass the device on to someone else.”

                        “It sounds too simple,” Stone said.

                        “Believe me when I tell you, there has been nothing simple about it. I have known about this for seven months, and it has taken nearly every day of that time to set this up—retrieval of the device, payment, shipping, and finally, collecting payment.”

                        “And with all that time to prepare, why do you suddenly need my money?”

                        “Because the investor who was to have provided it last week met with a fatal accident, and his funds are no longer forthcoming. You happened to arrive at a moment when you could be useful.”

                        “Why me?”

                        “Because you’re here,” Lance said emphatically. “The people to whom I’m to deliver the device are not the kind who take disappointment lightly; they get ugly quickly. I have given them a schedule, and they expect me to keep it.”

                        “Why don’t they deal directly with your man? Why do they need you?”

                        “Because they don’t know who he is or how he came by the device. Only I know that, just yours truly, and no one else. By the way, you are not going to know that, either. You will know only what I tell you, and if that’s not enough for you, then—”

                        “Then you’ll have to disappoint your buyers, won’t you?” Stone asked coldly.

                        That stopped Lance in his tracks. “I have another source for the funds, but it is a less attractive one, which will cost me too much in interest. If you don’t want into this, say so, and lunch is on me and we won’t meet again.”

                        Stone stared at him for a long moment. “What is the device? What does it do?”

                        “Please believe me, Stone, you do not want that information. In the unlikely event that this should go awry, you will be grateful for not knowing.”

                        Stone thought he had shown a sufficient amount of reluctance to be convincing. “When does the transaction take place?”

                        “Within the next forty-eight hours,” Lance replied, “after your funds are safely in a Swiss account.”

                        “Whose account?”

                        “Yours; I’ve brought the paperwork with me; you can instruct the bank not to proceed at any time you choose. But if you’re in, then the transfer has to be received in Zurich by the close of business tomorrow, which is noon in New York.”

                        Stone looked at his watch. “I can transfer the funds today. But first, when do I get paid, and how much?”

                        “We’re paying half a million dollars for the device, and I have negotiated a final sales price of two million, two. Your cut of that is one million dollars. I get more, because I set it up.”

                        “How and when will I be paid?”

                        “The device will be transported to a secure location, a bank in southern Europe, where the exchange will take place. The buyers’ funds will be transferred to your Zurich account and mine, in the appropriate amounts, before the device is handed over. It’s as foolproof as a transaction of this sort can be. I’ve done a number of them, I know. I much prefer doing business in the conference room of a bank, instead of in a back alley.”

                        “What about the arrangement you mentioned that will keep this transaction away from prying eyes, such as the Internal Revenue Service?”

                        “I also have the documentation for an account in the Cayman Islands. You sign both sets of documents—Swiss and Cayman—and I’ll fax them to the respective banks, along with a code word. You can then transfer from the Swiss Bank to the Cayman one with one phone call. Once it’s in the Cayman bank, you can draw on the account anywhere in the world—cash can be transferred to you, you can write checks, and you can have a credit card which is paid directly from the Cayman account. Thus, no transaction ever goes through an American bank, and you come to the attention of no one.”

                        “I like it,” Stone said. “Give me the documents.”

                        Lance produced a thick envelope from an inside pocket and showed Stone where to sign. “Write your code word—any combination of letters and numbers, up to twelve characters.”

                        “I don’t like the idea of your having the account numbers and the password,” Stone said.

                        “It’s the only way I can transfer your share of the funds to your account. Once I’ve done that, you can change the account number and the password.” Lance tore off a copy of each account application and handed them to Stone.

                        Stone put the papers into his pocket. “Where do I transfer my funds?”

                        “To your account in Zurich, which will be open in an hour; I’ll let you know where and when to send them from there.”

                        Stone stuck out his hand. “I’ll speak with my broker as soon as I get back to my hotel; I’ll have to fax him, too. The funds will be in Zurich before the day is over.” He glanced at his watch; he had three hours to get it done.

                        He and Lance parted at the restaurant door.

                        “I’ll call you on your cellphone tomorrow morning, with further instructions,” Lance said. “Make sure it’s turned on; from here on in, everything has to be done in a precise manner.”

                        “Good,” Stone said. Driving back to London, he wondered if he would have gone for this deal if he’d been on his own. Certainly not, he decided. Too risky.