understood that Duane Insolers could be a very dangerous man. 'Are you a player in this game, Frederickson?' he snapped. 'If you are, I want to know right now, while there's still time to affect the outcome of all this. You have to read between the lines, know that you can trust me. Consider the possibility that you and I share an identical agenda.'
Suddenly I was afraid-not of Insolers, but of being caught totally off guard in a situation that thrummed with danger, but which I didn't begin to understand; I was being casually fed information that had to be classified top secret, being asked questions that had no meaning to me, all because some CIA operative who smelled like a medicine cabinet seemed to think I might have a hidden agenda concerning a monstrous human being who had no pity. I didn't.want to die by accident, and I vividly recalled Veil's warning about finding myself trapped in a deadly hall of mirrors. 'I don't know what you mean,' I said tightly.
'I'm asking if you have a. . relationship. . with John Sinclair.' He paused, then continued in a softer tone, emphasizing each word. 'Frederickson, I guarantee you no harm will come to anyone as a result of you telling me the truth. I need to know.'
I pulled myself up very straight, as if that would lend weight and credibility to my words. It was suddenly very important that I make this man believe me. 'I don't know what you're talking about or trying to get at, Insolers. I don't think I want to know. I told you why I came here.'
'That's bullshit,' Insolers said casually as he went to the bar to fix himself another drink. 'I can appreciate why you might be reticent to confide in a man you've just met, but you don't have to insult my intelligence. I mean, this city is filling up with intelligence operatives and assassins, and I'd be very surprised if there was even one of those people who hadn't heard of Dr. Robert Frederickson. They're all aware of the kinds of cases you've been involved with over the years, and they are definitely going to assume there's a link between you and John Sinclair. They're probably not yet aware that you're in town, but when they do find out, they're going to be all over you. Nobody is going to believe the story that the world's premier private investigator flew all the way to Europe just to ask the law enforcement officials how they thought they were doing. I doubt Interpol believes it. It's a very weak cover; you must have been in a big hurry to get here, or you'd have come up with something better. The fact that Neuberger has been kidnapped may mean your cover is already blown.'
'Insolers-'
'Don't assume we have different goals, Frederickson. You really can trust me.'
'Insolers, what I told you just happens to be true. Do you understand? It's
He looked at me long and hard, shadows moving in his pale brown eyes. 'R. Edgar Blake,' he said at last, raising his eyebrows slightly. 'I was there. I know. The countess will vouch for me.'
Insolers was a man who wouldn't take I-don't-know for an answer; incredibly, he still seemed to be trying to cue me to say something he very much wanted to hear. Thoroughly baffled, I raised my hands in a gesture of helplessness and shrugged. 'Insolers, I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.'
The hard look of skepticism on his face and in his eyes slowly gave way to one of incredulity, and I knew he finally believed me. 'You jumped into the middle of this thing just to ask Interpol for a report card? That's insane.'
'I'm not the one paying the bills. Just what is it I've jumped into the middle of?'
Duane Insolers shook his head in apparent disbelief. His manner now seemed brusque, hurried, as he set his untouched second drink back down on the bar. 'Here's a little something you can add to your report,' he said in a clipped tone. 'It's an item I'm certain Interpol neglected to mention. Sinclair may have pulled off a neat bit of financial and electronic wizardry to raid Cornucopia's coffers, but he wasn't the first to do it. That bucket already had a hole in it. Money's been secretly draining out of Cornucopia for a long time-probably for fifty or more years, since the day it was founded. I doubt anybody would have found out about it if Sinclair hadn't come along, and I'll bet the ranch he didn't figure out this scam on his own. He stumbled across this little secret, how money was illegally skimmed from this tax-exempt foundation, and he simply repeated the trick.'
'A back door,' I said distantly. 'Right.'
'Whoever designed and programmed the original computer security codes left open a back door for their own use in the electronic network. All of the codes could be bypassed.'
'Precisely. Everybody talks about how complicated the security codes are, and they're right. But Sinclair never broke the codes; all he did was find the electronic back door to the vault somebody else had been using, and he went in the same way.'
'Jesus, Insolers, it wouldn't make sense for Neuberger to steal from his own foundation. Would it? I mean, he's got billions of his own. What would be the point?'
Insolers shrugged as he glanced at his watch. 'What can I tell you? If Neuberger is a crook, so were his daddy and granddaddy. This computer back door has almost certainly been there from the beginning, and it's remained open through a whole hell of a lot of advances in computer science and encryption theory. Somebody-and it's probably more than one person-tends to it, maintains it. It could be that it has nothing to do with Neuberger. The answer is probably somewhere in the past, with the grandfather's associates. Incidentally, this information was uncovered by Bo Wahlstrom, the Interpol inspector who was killed. He passed on the general information to his superiors, but all of the financial records-the proof-he had are missing. Sinclair probably has them.'
'Why are you telling me this, Insolers?'
'Because there is no harm in you knowing, and because I want you to owe me,' the CIA operative replied evenly. He strode quickly to the door, opened it, then turned back. 'You've convinced me you're not a player in this game, Frederickson. You're not involved in any way, but you do have a reputation for finding out things.'
'I don't plan on trying to find out anything I don't already know, Insolers. In fact, I have this sinking feeling that I already know too much.'
'Your track record shows that events and situations tend to gel around you, Frederickson. You and your brother always seem to end up in the center of the action, whether you mean to or not. Information may come your way. There's the whole question of Neuberger's kidnapping, what the motive may have been. You may not trust me, but I've given you no reason not to. I've given you a lot of very sensitive information, and I've made myself vulnerable by doing so. All I'm asking in return is that if information does come your way, you keep me plugged in; you can always reach me through Interpol. In the meantime, forget the money, and forget your investigation, or whatever it is you think you're doing here. This matter isn't about money at all. There's something very heavy coming down here, and it's my job to find out what it is. There's nothing more for you to find out here, but a lot of nasty people are likely to figure the way I did-that you're a player. These people won't ask you questions in a friendly manner. If you're smart, you'll go home.'
Chapter Five
How smart I was seemed most arguable at the moment, but under the circumstances, going home seemed like an eminently sensible idea. I called the airport to see what flights were available and learned I just had time to catch one to Newark, if I hurried. I hurried. First I called down to the desk to say that I was checking out, and noted that the clerk sounded curt, tense. I packed my bags, then tried Harper's number one more time. She still wasn't home. I picked up my bags, went to the door, and was startled to find Inspector Pierre Moliere and a Zurich policeman standing out in the hallway. Moliere, who had been about to knock, lowered his hand. The faces of both men looked grim, and I assumed it had to have been Moliere in the helicopter that had flown past the window. I had left him only a few hours before, and I wondered what could have happened in the interim to cause him to fly to Zurich to see me, as opposed to just picking up the telephone.
'I would like to speak with you, Dr. Frederickson,' the gaunt Interpol inspector said in a tone that was decidedly less friendly than the one he had been using with me earlier.
'Of course, Inspector,' I said, glancing at my watch. 'But I had planned to go home, and I have a flight to catch. Would it be presumptuous to ask for a ride out to the airport, and we could talk on the way?'
'It is better that we talk here, Dr. Frederickson,' Moliere said coldly.
So much for the flight into Newark. 'Come in,' I said, setting my bags to one side and stepping out of the way. 'What's the problem?'
