"Not for a while, I'm afraid. This is our last trip until the big day. Cate can't fly much longer and I don't want to be away when the moment arrives."

"A boy or a girl?"

Gavallan looked at Cate. Her cheeks wore a slight flush, but at seven months pregnant, she'd never looked more beautiful. "It will be a surprise," he said. "But Mr. Byrnes will be happy to travel to Moscow- say in a week? He has some business with another company we're helping to sell."

"Mercury, yes?" asked the president.

"Yes," said Gavallan. "Mercury's being purchased by Bluephone, an Anglo-French telecom company."

"What is the price?"

"One billion."

"Rubles or dollars?"

Gavallan smiled. They both knew the answer to that one.

Cate wrapped an arm through his and gave him a squeeze. Actually, if you added the 50 percent stake in Novastar Cate had inherited from her father and her 85 percent ownership of Mercury, they would be nigh on billionaires. But they had decided not to keep the money, feeling that it didn't really belong to them. The shares in Novastar and her proceeds from the Mercury sale were to be placed in a philanthropic foundation Cate would chair.

With a final handshake, the president left with his entourage. Graf Byrnes headed down the stairs a moment later, with Bruce Jay Tustin and Meg Kratzer in tow. Gavallan stood at the podium, looking over the paper-strewn floor, the blinking monitors, the bold American flags. Ten minutes after the end of trading, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was quiet, though not deserted. Traders had returned to their posts to tally their books. Brokers were on the phone with their head offices. Over a billion shares had exchanged hands. The cogs of capitalism never stopped turning, Gavallan mused.

Slipping his hand into his wife's, their fingers intertwining, he walked with her down the stairs and across the floor. "See you at seven," he said. "You thinking dinner out?"

"How 'bout room service?"

"You got it."

They walked outside the building. A fierce summer sun cut through the latticework of skyscrapers, warming their cheeks. Ahead, Graf Byrnes was climbing into the rear of a limousine that would take them to Black Jet's midtown offices. "You coming?" he shouted.

"Be right there."

Gavallan kissed his wife on the cheek. "Seven o'clock," he said. "It's a date." Then he brought her close and whispered, "Hey, we did it."

Cate didn't answer. He saw a memory dance in her eyes, a tear well up, then die.

I acknowledge with gratitude the help of Andrea O'Connell, Wyc Grousbeck, Richard Pops, Henrique M. L. Gregorio, and Barron Emile Eyraud, who gave willingly of their time and made the calls that set the ball rolling. In San Francisco, Mitch Whiteford, Michael Graham, David Golden, and Cristina Morgan showed me the inside of the tech banking world. In New York, I owe a debt of thanks to Jeffrey Zorek, Richard Cunningham, Paul Meeks, David Ballard, Kevin Keys, Christine Walton, and Derek Reisfield. Murray Teitelbaum shepherded me around the New York Stock Exchange and had an answer to every question. In Moscow, Alexander Poudov was a guide par excellence. Andrew Jack of the Financial Times gave me a cup of hot tea and steered me through the treacherous alleys of the Russian oligarchy. As always, I can't thank my wife, Sue, enough for her patience and interest in my work. Bill Massey, my brilliant editor at Bantam Dell, hounded me tirelessly and the book is the better for it. Thank you, Bill. My thanks also to Martin Fletcher at Headline in London for his support and unwavering good taste. Irwyn Applebaum and Nita Taublib oversaw every aspect of the work from beginning to end. It is a privilege to work with such talented and energetic professionals. I am lucky to have one of the finest literary agents in the business and his colleagues working on my behalf. My heartfelt appreciation goes out to Richard Pine, Sarah Piel, and Lori Andiman at Arthur Pine Associates.

Lastly, I would like to thank my brother, Bill, who is always there with a kind word, solid advice, and a ready ear. You're one in a billion.

Q: You've written two thrillers that break open a fairly covert world- in NUMBERED ACCOUNT it is the world of private Swiss banking and in THE FIRST BILLION it is the high-stakes business of bringing a company public. How do you assess what information to present to the reading public in order to tease their interest, and what to "embellish" for the sake of page-turning plotting?

A: Any business where on a daily basis men and women stand to gain or lose millions of dollars- sometimes in just minutes- is by definition interesting. Nowhere is the tension higher than in the IPO game. IPO stands for initial public offering. Bringing a company public is a long process and involves many different parts of an investment bank. You could write a whole book about the process itself, but I don't know if it would be a thriller. The exciting part comes at the beginning- winning the business- and at the end- taking the deal to market. In between is the hard part, the grunt work that fills most I-bankers' days: due diligence, number crunching, road shows, etc. In THE FIRST BILLION I keep to the exciting parts.

Q: Tell us about THE FIRST BILLION: Was this novel inspired by a true event? A trend? Or something you see in the future?

A: In fact, THE FIRST BILLION was inspired not by any goings-on in the stock market but by a paper I read about the disastrous state of the Russian KGB, the equivalent to our CIA. During the 1990s, the once-vaunted spy agency suffered from devastating budget cuts and fell on very hard times. Simply put, they had no money. No longer could they fly agents around the world on commercial aircraft. Federal Express canceled their account for nonpayment. At their headquarters outside Moscow they had no photo paper to develop microfilm. The list goes on. All I could think was "My God, these guys must be angry. They must desperately want to get back on the playing field."

That, along with my interest in the wild and woolly world of the Russian oligarchs, the group of ten to fifteen businessmen who have taken control of more than half the Russian economy, set the story in motion. The more I read about these guys, the more I knew there was a great thriller to be written.

Q: What is the impact of technology on the global market? What is the impact on a writer such as yourself? Has the process changed since you first put pen to paper on your debut novel, NUMBERED ACCOUNT?

A: Quite simply, technology has made the world move faster, mostly through the increased speed of communications or information transfer. It has also created a whole class of information spectators. There are people who live their lives on the Internet, viewing others' actions as a proxy for their own, a kind of vicarious cyberexistence. The world has become a much smaller place. Too small, by my reckoning. But there is no going back. I still wonder, though, whether we're getting that much more done, or if knowing so much makes us happier. Still, I wouldn't trade my PC for a paper and quill for anything!

Q: You've said in the past that your writing heroes are authors as diverse as Crichton, DeMille, Franklin W. Dixon, and especially John le Carré. Why these? And are you ready to reveal any new names you admire? What are you reading right now?

A: There are so many wonderful authors; it's not a question of finding them but of finding the time to read them all. Recently I've been drawn to Irwin Shaw, author of The Young Lions and Rich Man, Poor Man. Great stories, great insight into the human condition, vivid prose. Le Carré is and always will be my favorite author. Simply put, a genius and one with a giving heart. Anton Myrer is an author of those big, juicy epics that I love. Once an Eagle is a masterpiece. But who is better at that than James Clavell? Tai-Pan, Shôgun, Noble House. Page-turners at their finest! The list of contemporary authors whom I rush out to buy is shorter: Martin Cruz Smith, Nelson DeMille, Thomas Harris, Scott Turow. Right now I'm reading The Big Breach by Richard Tomlinson, the memoirs of a former MI6 agent, who spent a year in jail for trying to get the book published. It's a great read- very informative about the kind of training a spy gets these days. Next up, though, is something fun: The Emperor of Ocean Park.