The Janson Option Read Free

don’t care?”
    â€œI’d rather feel young than rich.”
    Adler winced, as she hoped he would. But it didn’t shut him up. “How long do you think that will last?” he shot back.
    â€œHow can you guarantee that pirates won’t attack us?”
    â€œI cut a deal with Bashir Mohamed. Bashir’s ‘king’ of Somalia’s pirates. He gave me a pass for protection. No one will attack my yacht.”
    â€œHow can he guarantee other pirates won’t attack?”
    â€œThey’re afraid of him. He’s organized them. Anyone gets independent, he turns them over to the UN’s African Union Army, or the Combined Maritime Force. They include the Chinese and Russians, who play a lot rougher than the US and EU. Or he pays somebody to kill them. Piracy is the same as any business: you make money by controlling the market, and you control the market by clearing out independents.”
    â€œWhat did you offer Bashir Mohamed in return?”
    â€œYou wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
    At last, she thought, Adler was becoming interesting. Allegra smiled a smile that warmed her pale eyes. She ran her fingers through her hair. “You must tell me,” she said. A beguiling hint of an Italian accent lent music to her fluent English. “You’ve made an interesting story.”
    â€œDo you know anything about New York?”
    â€œI was sent to school there, as a girl.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œNightingale-Bamford.”
    â€œOK. That explains a few things.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œYou act less like a countess than a New York rich kid.”
    â€œSo what did you offer Bashir Mohamed?”
    â€œI sit on the boards of private schools like Nightingale. Not theirs, but others. In exchange for Tarantula ’s safe passage, Bashir Mohamed’s firstborn son has a spot guaranteed in preschool. I swear that’s the truth. That’s all it took. He’s dreaming preschool to prep school to Harvard.”
    Allegra Helms laughed. “Well done, Mr. Adler.”
    â€œI keep telling you, call me Allen.”
    â€œWhatever you say, Allen.”
    â€œNow you tell me something. Why’d you accept my invite to come on this cruise?”
    â€œAs I told you. I just finished a job in the Seychelles. I was ready to leave.”
    â€œAppraising antiques?”
    Tiring of his attitude, Allegra Helms answered with a dismissive gesture that reduced his lavish yacht to a commodity. “Men who’ve made money recently need to be assured that a copy of a Holbein portrait was painted by the master’s protégé instead of a master forger.”
    â€œMaybe I should hire you to vet my paintings.”
    Allegra shrugged. In the tight-knit world of high art, it was known that Adler was advised by yes-women who spent baskets of his money on nothing particularly interesting. Surprise, surprise. “When you invited me, I thought my husband might join me in Mombasa for a little get-together. We’ve both been traveling, for a while.”
    Adler laughed.
    â€œWhat’s funny?”
    â€œI have never seen a ‘trial separation’ that didn’t work.”
    Stung, and annoyed with herself that she had revealed too much to Adler, Allegra Helms said, “It wasn’t exactly a separation—No, that’s not true. It is a trial separation, and it is working very well. I am very much looking forward to reuniting with my husband in Mombasa.” She could hardly believe her ears, but there, she had said it. Out loud and in front of a witness.
    â€œYou look surprised,” Adler said.
    â€œI am,” she said with a smile and a shiver of happiness she had not felt in a long time. “But I shouldn’t be surprised, should I? He is still the man I wanted ten years ago. He is handsome. He is decisive. And I like that he is self-made. It gives him a sureness that is deep because he earned