Numbered Account

Sprecher drained the glass in front of him and ordered two Cardinals. When the beers arrived, Nick took a decent swig, then set his glass on the bar. "Ready."

"The Adler Bank," said Sprecher. "They're starting a private banking department. Need warm bodies. Somehow they found me. They're offering a thirty percent boost in salary, a guaranteed fifteen percent bonus, and in two years, stock options."

Nick could not conceal his surprise. "After twelve years at USB, you're going to work for the Adler Bank? They're the enemy. Last week you were calling Klaus Konig a gambler and a bastard, to boot. Peter, you're due for a promotion to first vice president later this year. The Adler Bank? You're not serious?"

"Oh, but I am. The decision has been made. And by the way, I called Konig a canny gambler. 'Canny' as in successful. 'Canny' as in wealthy, and 'wealthy' as in extremely fucking rich. If you'd like, I'll put in a word for you. Why break up a good team?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass."

Nick found it difficult to think of his colleague's action as anything but a betrayal. Then he wondered: Of what? Of whom? Of the bank? Of himself? And knowing full well he had hit upon the answer, chastised himself for his selfish thoughts. In their short time together, Sprecher had slipped into the role of irreverent big brother, dispensing advice on personal and professional matters. His easy banter and cynical worldview were welcome antidotes to the rigid bureaucracy of their workplace. They'd continued their relationship after hours, Sprecher leading the way to one bar or another, Pacifico, Babaloo, Kaufleuten. Soon he'd be leaving the bank and giving up his role as a supporting player in Nick's life.

"So you're going to leave the Pasha to me?" Nick asked. Business seemed a sturdy refuge for his disappointment. He remembered Sylvia Schon's admonitions about client confidentiality and realized too late that he'd acted as cavalierly as she had expected. Just another American.

"The Pasha!" Sprecher swallowed hard and slammed his beer onto the counter. "Now there's a rum bastard, if ever was one. Money's so hot he can't leave it in one spot for more than one hour for fear it'd burn through his mum's ironing board."

"Don't be so sure of his wrongdoing," Nick countered reflexively. "Regular deposits of customer receivables, quick payment of suppliers. It could be one of a thousand businesses. All of them legal."

"Suppliers in every goddamned country around the globe?" Sprecher waved his hands, dismissing the suggestion. "Black, white, gray, let's not argue legality. In this world everything is legal until you get caught. Don't misunderstand me, young Nick, I'm not passing judgment on our friend. But as a businessman, I'm interested in his game. Is he looting the coffers of the U.N.- a bent administrator lining his pockets with gold? Is he some tin-pot dictator siphoning off his weekly due from the widows and orphans fund? Maybe he's pushing coke to the Russians? Few months back we sent a bundle to Kazakhstan, I recall. Alma bloody Ata, Nick. Not your everyday commercial destination. There are a thousand ways to skin a cat and I'll wager he's a master at one of them, our Pasha is."

"I'll grant you his transactions are interesting, but that doesn't make them illegal."

"Spoken like a true Swiss banker. 'The Pasha,' " Sprecher announced, as if reading a newspaper headline, "an 'interesting' client makes 'interesting' transfers of 'interesting' sums of money. You'll go far in this life, Mr. Neumann."

"Didn't you tell me that it's really none of our concern what he does? That we shouldn't poke our noses into our clients' business. We're bankers, not policemen. You said that, right?"

"I did indeed. You'd have thought I'd have learned by now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sprecher lit a cigarette before answering. "Put it this way, it's not just more money that's got me leaving the bank. Your friend, Peter, has a dash of self-preservation in him. Cerruti out with a nervous breakdown- might never come back. Marty Becker just plain dead- definitely can't count on him. Survival instinct, you boys in the marines might call it."

It hadn't taken Nick long to question the odds of two portfolio managers from the same department being knocked out of their jobs by sickness or, in Becker's case, murder. After all, his own father's murder was unrelated to his work at the bank. At least officially. Still, he had dismissed Cerruti's illness as a case of personal burnout, and he had never questioned the fact that Becker's murder was a mugging gone awry.

"What happened to them had nothing to do with their work." He hesitated a second. "Did it?"

"Of course it didn't," Sprecher said earnestly. "Cerruti's been a nervous wreck forever. And Becker just had the worst kind of luck. I'm just spooked. Or maybe I've just had one too many a beer." He nudged Nick with an elbow. "In any event, some advice?"

Nick leaned closer. "Yeah, what?"