“I’ll explain later.”

Manny nodded, accepting that Beck didn’t have time to tell him the whole plan.

“And you got the head guy in Markov’s crew?”

“Right. Stepanovich. Although it might come back at us.”

“How bad?”

“Not bad enough to nail any of us. Maybe bad enough to cause trouble. If we’re lucky and the Medical Examiner doesn’t look too close, they might believe he cut his neck open on the fence.”

Reciting it all seemed to satisfy Manny Guzman in some inexplicable way. For the moment at least. Beck knew Manny would be sorting it out for a long time.

“You have to be patient for a bit longer, Manny.”

“Okay.”

And now it was time for the final nail. Beck leaned forward and placed his arms on the table. “So. Manny. Here’s the hard part.”

Manny looked at him with his baleful eyes. “You gonna tell me we can’t get Markov?”

“No. I’m gonna tell you forget about Markov for now. That will play out.”

“When?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning, it’s got to play out so that we’re not fighting off these motherfuckers for the rest of our lives.” Beck paused. “And so that something else is resolved. Resolved in a way that eliminates any doubts.”

“What doubts are you talking about?”

Beck paused, and then laid it out.

“Olivia has been setting us up from the very beginning.” Beck watched Manny carefully, meeting him eye to eye, not flinching from the truth, making sure Manny heard him.

Beck thought he saw a slight narrowing of Manny’s eyes, but nothing more. Beck wondered if maybe he had suspected something all along. Or maybe he was screaming with rage inside his head. Or maybe he was just too stunned to react.

Beck went on. “I can give you all the proof I’ve got. But you still might have doubts. You might spin it another way because you love her.”

Manny cleared his throat. Swallowed. Finally, Manny said, “I can’t believe it.”

“I understand.”

Manny shook his head, struggling. “I can’t, I can’t…”

“Let me explain. She was planning on stealing Markov’s money from the very beginning. Markov was right. He was right to pull everything away from Milstein’s outfit. Crane and Olivia were after his money all along.”

“Crane?”

“Yes.”

“What about her busted fingers? What about all that shit that he fucked her up at the job and all?”

“It wasn’t like she said.”

“How do you know?”

“The medical records.”

“You got her medical records?”

“With Brandon’s help. They didn’t support the way she said it happened. When I pressed her on it, she admitted she lied. She blamed Crane for it, but she was lying all along.”

For a moment, Manny was trapped between believing Beck and believing Olivia. But he could never believe Beck would lie to him about something like this.

“She was working with Crane?”

“Still is.”

“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 naïve 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.