something even more sinister afoot? Was it mere happenstance that the property being let go belonged to the army, or were they and the security services with which they worked somehow to remain involved as silent partners? Anything was possible. Billy had called the man whoâd brought him into the deal in the first place. âI canât get a straight answer from any of them,â heâd protested. âThe same goon is never in the same place two days running. Hell, Iâm used to playing on foreign fields, but not with a tribe as foreign as this one. They go way beyond anything Iâve seen. How can we be ready to do what they want us to do in the spring, which will be here before you know it, if we donât make a definite plan now? We canât. Thereâs no way. Weâre late as it is. I shouldnât have to step in. My job is to deal with principals, not line men. And I donât know a genuine oligarch from a fake, or their military from their mob. What I do know is that there is all the difference in the world between extensive resources, which, thankfully, we have, and infinite ones, which we most assuredly do not. So, as alluring as this project once seemed and the whole Russian market may be, I canât let us become subject to the kinds of delays weâve been experiencing and that now look to be downright inevitable. I canât sacrifice cranes and ships and men that are committed elsewhereâChina, for exampleâto it, not when the boys in charge are going about things in their half-assed way, everyone shifting responsibility onto the next son of a bitch, but with his hand out.â
âLet me try to sort it out for you,â his friend had suggested, calm certitude in his voice.
âToo late for that,â Billy had replied.
âAs I recall, your contract commits youââ
âThrough the end of this year,â Billy had interrupted. âThe first day of January, weâre done.â
âHave it your way,â his friend had told him, âbut until then donât do anything rash.â
âI never do anything rash,â Billy had said, wondering if the advice heâd been given was a friendly admonition or a threat.
Youâre judged by the company you keep
âhow often had his father drummed that lesson into him? Often and forcefully enough that until heâd allowed himself to be seduced into the Russian deal, he had never made a serious mistake, at least in his business relationships.
Oh, well, let it go
,
he thought as he caressed the steering wheel. He had cut his company loose from the operation at the first instant he could, the end of Stage One as defined in their agreement. It would only be days now before he would see the backs of these characters, wish them luck to be on the safe side, and preserve his self-serving friendship with the ordinarily useful fellow who had brokered the arrangement. Then he would smile, but he wouldnât give a ratâs ass what hand fate dealt the others or their improbable, grandiose project. By his age, Billy thought, life had left him with a pretty good danger detector. When it went off, it was only prudent to step back.
He had just turned off State Line Road and was nearly home when something ominous appeared in his mirror and altered his mood: the flashing blue lights of a Kansas Highway Patrol car.
âShit!â He should have expected it. The state police liked to take up positions near the Missouri line. He slowed down and, as soon as he was able to, pulled onto the shoulder of the leafy suburban road. When by reflex he reached toward the glove compartment for his registration, he suddenly tasted a crystal of salt on his lips and recollected the margaritas he and Wendy had savored before lunch, less than two hours ago. Immediately he tried to do the calculus, but he could not recall the rate at which alcohol departed the bloodstream. Hadnât he known it by heart at