“I can think of two reasons,” she said. “In the first place, it’s dangerous. The risk is great. Besides that, Dave wants to be independent. What you’re talking about is his becoming a satrap of yours. He can’t think of himself that way.”
“You must have great influence over him. I mean … seeing how you … on the tape. You can persuade him.”
Janelle smiled and shook her head. “Mr. Chen, how much influence would you give a woman who did that for you? You would appreciate it. You might even love her for it. But would you take her advice? Because of that?”
“You are not just any woman. You are exceptionally intelligent as well as exceptionally beautiful and erotic. I do think you can influence him.”
“I don’t know,” she said skeptically.
“I will establish a special account for you in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. Your husband should not know about it. But the money will make you independent, of him and everyone else.”
“If—”
“If he does what you influence him to do.”
III
FEBRUARY, 1996
Janelle sat with Dave over dinner at the Four Seasons. She was wearing one of the little microdresses that she favored, with stockings, not panty hose, and attracting attention. Dave was proud of her.
“Your Chinese friend had an idea,” she said.
“Yes?”
“They’ve been in touch with me. Chen Peng was in New York and talked to me when you were in Zurich. You remember the night on the boat when I told you I suspected they were taping us? Well, they were. He showed me a copy of the tape. It was one hell of a performance, if I do say so myself. But … He is suggesting that they can make me a multimillionaire woman. They are not entirely clear about how, but the idea is that I would betray you.”
“Betray me how?”
“He wasn’t entirely specific.”
“‘The Heathen Chinee is peculiar.’”
“All right. But let me tell you something. You can’t fight him. He’s got too much money. He’s too powerful. We’ve got to make peace with him.”
“I thought we were at peace with him.”
“I never thought so. I never trusted Chen. I know what he wants, and whatever it is, we’ve got to negotiate. We can’t fight him.”
Dave nodded. “Axel Schnyder said something of the same thing. He doesn’t trust the Hong Kong billionaires.”
“Our relationship with them has opened up a whole new world. The opportunities are endless. The risks are, too.”
IV
Emily let Jenna examine her nipple rings again. Again the girl asked permission to have her own nipples pierced and rings installed.
“She’s big enough,” Emily told Cole.
“Christ, she’s not yet sixteen. She couldn’t have tits big enough.”
“Even so, she’s got ’em. She has matured very early.”
He shook his head. “I can’t believe—”
“Jenna! Come in here, please.”
The girl came in from the kitchen, where she was loading the dishwasher.
“Show your daddy your titties,” Emily said quietly, suggesting, not demanding.
“You don’t have to do that, honey,” Cole said quickly.
“I don’t mind,” Jenna said.
She lifted her sweatshirt. It was true. She had fully developed breasts.
“She wants rings,” said Emily. “It’s a little hard to say no, since I’ve got them.”
“At your age?” he asked.
Jenna, all but unconsciously, lifted her breasts and squeezed her nipples, which immediately became erect. Cole could see that they were big enough for rings.
“I think they’ll be pretty,” said Jenna.
“You’ll be the only girl in your school with rings.”
Jenna grinned. “Probably,” she said.
V
MARCH, 1996
It was bonus time at Harcourt Barnham. Dave went into the office of the CEO to receive his check. It was four million dollars. He hadn’t done badly, for the bank or for himself.
The CEO, Charles Emmit, was a suit, about sixty years old, a bulky man with a flushed complexion, whose hair had not begun to turn gray. His reputation was for being smart, competent, and maybe a little too solemn.
“I am sorry to have to talk to you, Dave, in the terms I am about to; but we have a problem.”
“Mr. Emmit …” Dave said. He disliked hierarchy, but he still called Emmit “mister.”
“Dave—” Emmit paused to light a cigarette, something he did when he was nervous. “You have done well here, and I think we have done well by you. But to be brutally frank, the board of directors has decided to terminate you. That bonus check is also severance pay.”
“Am I allowed to ask why?”
“We don’t have firm evidence of all of this, but we are satisfied that you are trading on your own. We think you have at least one overseas account. We think you went to Hong Kong, not for a vacation, but to establish a relationship with Hong Kong money interests. You go to Zurich often. All of that might not be … fatal to our relationship. But we detect that you are involved in conflicts of interest. Worse than that, we very much doubt that you report your outside income to the Internal Revenue Service. Harcourt Barnham thrives on its reputation for being squeaky clean. If you got in trouble with the IRS or the SEC, it would damage our reputation. That is a risk we cannot take.”
“I’ve been here nine years.”
“Which means that your name and ours are linked. That is why we will keep absolutely silent about what we think you have been doing. We haven’t been asked any questions about you, and if we are we will say nothing about what we suspect.”
“I suppose I should thank you.”
“I’m sorry about this, Dave. Personally, I like you.”
VI
APRIL, 1996
Alexandra sat across a table from Emily for their monthly visit. It was a contact visit. She had been strip-searched before she came into the visitors room, and she would be strip-searched when she went back inside. She was wearing the drab gray cotton dress that was her uniform now. Emily wore a black pantsuit. She tried not to be over-dressed when she visited Alexandra, thinking it would be painful for the prisoner.
“I would have been here last week, but—”
“I know. I couldn’t have a visitor then. I was in disciplinary lock up for three days.”
“Why? If I may ask.”
“I took some pencils from the office, back to my cell, for drawing. That’s theft. Small-time office pilferage. You know. I guess we’ve all done it, outside. But not here. I got three days in the barred slammer for it. The worst part is, it goes on my record, and when I come up for my first parole hearing they’re going to turn me down.” She shook her head. “I just don’t make a good prisoner. It’s a world I can’t handle. I try, but—”
“Did you lose your job?”
“No. All is forgiven, I guess. It’s like being a child. You take your punishment, and then everything’s okay. Anyhow, how are things outside?”
“Well, I do have some news for you. Dave lost his job at Harcourt Barnham. He’s really upset.”
Alexandra shrugged. “He has other things going.”
“He got four million dollars as severance pay. You’ll get your share of that. But he needs a settled job, to justify his style of living for the IRS.”
“Is he looking?”
“He’s going to Zurich again. Cole wishes he wouldn’t do that so much. It was those too-frequent trips to Zurich that raised suspicions with Harcourt Barnham.”
“He’d better be careful,” said Alexandra. “I don’t think he could live with what I’ve got to live with. I’m not doing it too well, myself.” She shook her head. “It’s been so long … seems forever … Sometimes I wish I were dead.”
“No you don’t.”
Alexandra nodded bitterly. “Easy for you to say … try it. See if you don’t.”
> VII
Dave met with Axel Schnyder in Zurich.
“I understand. You need an affiliation. I imagine we can probably arrange it with Banque Suisse. You understand, they will expect you to make money for them.”
“I made money for Harcourt Barnham.”
“Banque Suisse is a little more liberal-minded. So long as you make money for the bank—”
“I will make money for the bank. I’ve made it for you, too, haven’t I?”
Schnyder nodded. “But you take risks.”
Dave shrugged. “How can you make money without taking risks?”
He sat later at dinner with Hanna Hess. She smoked a cigarillo and drank Courvoisier.
“You vill vip me?” she asked.
“He says you want it.”
“Yes … I vas terrified dat first time. I sink fear was worse than pain. Trudi will not be viz us tonight. You vip me. Maybe not quite so hard.”
Dave grinned. “Not quite so hard,” he agreed. “Hanna, you’re an interesting woman.”
“German voman,” she said.
“I doubt they all want to be whipped.”
“Maybe. Not many know …”
They took Schatzi for a walk in the park, then shut him up in the second bedroom. Hanna took off her clothes and put herself up to the X-frame. He strapped her tightly.
She was a more interesting woman than he remembered. She was mannish with her close-cropped blond hair and her body was muscled and toned. But she did have breasts. He fondled them. He ran his hand over her crotch, where the hair had been trimmed until it was all but gone.
She grunted. “Oh, do dat, Dave. I like.”
“You want the gag?”
“I sink maybe better. I scream, somebody hear.”
He pushed the rubber ball between her teeth and strapped it behind her neck.
“Ja,” she murmured. “‘Ip. ’Ip gut. ’Ot ’oo ‘ard, ’ease.”
He stepped back from her and slammed the whip against her bottom.
“Uhh … ohh!”
Then he lashed her back, between her shoulders, three quick strokes.
“Ohh! Uh! Oohh!”
It was more fun to whip her bottom. He liked to see her flesh jump. He gave her five strokes there.
Hanna hung her head and began to sob.
“You want me to stop?”
She nodded. “One or ‘oo more on’y. ’En s’op.”
He flogged her bottom two more strokes. She wept, and he unstrapped the gag and let her spit it out.
Dave could see the juices begin to flow from her.
“Oh, God, Dave. Some other time maybe again. But not more now. Ohh! Sore!”
“Well … We’ll leave you on the frame awhile. Like some brandy?”
“Yes, please.”
He poured brandy and held the snifter to her lips. She took it in gratefully.
He ran his hand over her cropped hair. “There aren’t many like you in this world,” he said.
“More zan you sink, maybe.”
He put his hand in her crotch and shoved a finger in. She writhed and moaned. He began to knead her breasts. Suddenly, to his surprise, he found his hand wet. She was lactating!
“My God, Hanna!”
“Suck some of it and swallow it. Is good for you.”
He sucked her left nipple. The warm milk flowed into his mouth, and he swallowed it. He didn’t like warm milk, but he swallowed this. Then he cleaned his mouth with the brandy.
“I didn’t know you were pregnant,” he said.
She shook her head. “Never vas. Voman can make milk if she is sucked on and shtimulated. Ask doctor. Pregnant not necessary.”
TWENTY-FOUR
I
SUMMER, 1996
Dave and Janelle moved into a new apartment, a luxury suite overlooking the East River. From there they had a view of the United Nations Plaza and all that fronted the river. It was the apartment that had once been leased by Truman Capote. Janelle was very conscious of that. Dave had never read Capote. He never read anything that did not relate to business.
“Goddamnit, you should at least read In Cold Blood.”
“Okay, I’ll read it. Okay?”
He had trained himself to be a speed reader and finished the book in one evening.
“So?” he asked.
“The man who once lived here wrote that.”
“Okay. He was a flaming fag. An alcoholic. Big deal. But the book is great!”
“Okay.”
“Doesn’t anything move you? Anything but money and sex?”
“Well … You could do worse.”
She grinned. “I could, couldn’t I?”
“Name the man who ever ate pussy like I do.”
Janelle sighed. “Dave … there is more to life than that.”
II
OCTOBER, 1996
Sixteen-year-old Jenna had her nipple rings installed. She was exorbitantly proud of them. Her father had paid for platinum, and they gleamed. They were a little smaller than quarters, and they dangled from her nipples. She let her close friends see them.
The word got around the high school that she had them. One day she was summoned to the principal’s office.
“Miss Jennings, we have heard that you are wearing rings in your … breasts. Tell me it’s not true.”
“It is true.”
“Do you think that’s appropriate conduct?”
“My mother wears rings.”
“Your mother is a mature woman. You are sixteen years old.”
“So?”
“Well … we can’t allow you to go to gym classes with rings where you have them. The other girls would see them in the shower. So … you can be excused from gym classes or you can take the rings out.”
“I am not taking them out, sir.”
“All right. Regard yourself as being on a sort of probation. Your father is a prominent lawyer and I suppose knows about this. He could make an issue of it.”
“There is no issue,” Jenny said. “My father paid a lot of money for them. They are platinum. I bet there are other girls in the school who have them. You just happened to find out about me.”
“Very well, Miss Jennings. I guess I can’t order you to have them taken out. But I can order you not to attend gym classes anymore.”
She shrugged. “I like going to gym. But I don’t have to. Ask the gym teacher. Am I the only girl in this school who has rings in her nipples?”
The principal sighed. “I don’t want to know,” he said weakly.
That afternoon, after school, she went down in the woods with three boys, showed her rings, and peed on the autumn leaves on the ground. She remained a virgin.
III
Dave’s role with Enterprise Bank grew less mysterious. Chen Peng’s motive was to gain control of American corporations. He expected Dave to identify possible takeovers and then facilitate the use of Hong Kong money to make loans and gain control. It was not complicated, though it had to continue to be entirely secret.
Chen Peng identified Arizona Oil as a company ripe for takeover.
“This corporation,” he said, “has huge assets in potential lands. Maybe there is no oil there. But my sources say there is.”
“It is widely held,” Dave told him. “It will not be a matter of a few stockholders.”
Chen Peng grinned. “Greedy stockholders. When they see an offer for their stock—”
“Who is going to make this offer? It can’t be Enterprise Bank.”
“That is correct. We must first acquire a company that can do it. Name me that company.”
“Well … Petroleum of New Jersey has problems. They are short of capital. They are into too many loans.”
“That is good. We buy their paper.”
“Who does?”
“Messieurs Brüning and Burger.”
“Which lands the whole damned thing on me.”
“You will be well taken care of. Need I say that?”
Janelle w
as skeptical. “We can get burned. I don’t need to tell you that Chen could care less. Hey, man. He’s using us.”
“The Heathen Chinee are not the only smart guys in the world.”
“Well …”
IV
CHRISTMAS, 1996
In Bedford Hills, Alexandra had found a new solace. It was prohibited but was tolerated to keep peace.
The girl was nineteen and entered the prison under a life sentence. She was beautiful. She was assigned initially to mopping floors as Alexandra had been; but in time she was assigned to secretarial duties and came in contact with Alexandra. Before long, the forty-four-year-old Alexandra and the nineteen-year-old Lucy were in love with each other.
It was not easy to find opportunities to make love, but they took chances and made opportunities. Lucy wound up in the same cell range with Alexandra, and they did find chances.
It was solace at first, but in time Alexandra had to realize that eventually she was going to be released and Lucy was not. That made her solace a new agony.
V
JANUARY, 1997
Brüning and Burger gradually bought up the debt of Petroleum of New Jersey. Then a newly formed corporation, called United Gas & Oil, offered a premium price for Arizona Oil stock. The stockholders leaped at the chance. United Gas & Oil took control of Arizona Oil.
“I ain’t as dumb as Chen thinks I am,” Dave said to Janelle. “I own United Gas & Oil. He doesn’t.”
“Be careful. Maybe he owns you. It’s his money, after all.”
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